Lotus Elan and Lotus Elan Plus 2 Forums

Apparently we've all forgotten about the Plus 2!

Wikis sound like a recipe for disaster (design by committee, perpetuate errors etc), but in reality they work extremely well. After all this is creation & review by a peer group, the same idea as used by the scientific community before an article is published.

I'll be glad to offer my somewhat limited knowledge to help improve the articles wherever I can.

Suggest some wording for the Plus 2 ?

Should the Wiki read Type 26; 1600, S1, S2 maybe. I refer to mine as an Elan 1600 (Type 26). 26/0538

Brian - I just picked up a type 36 (0035J) same colour as yours, Spyder frame and suspention, sun roof. I understand that they are rare and that there are something like 22 of them left - that may be in North America but I wonder if that would be a likely world count.

Bill

Bill wrote:. there are something like 22 of them left - that may be in North America but I wonder if that would be a likely world count.Bill

Bill,
I don't really know how rare Sprint FHC?s are (I?m sure Tim would know) but I know of three around here (one with the roof cut off) and I know of another in S.Africa but if they are really that rare (22?) then there are less then 26R?s so we are on to a good thing

Uplifted to include the Lotus Elan +2 and mention of the 5 speed:
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Lotus Elan:- The name originally given to a series of sports cars produced by Colin Chapman's company Lotus Cars between 1962 & 1974. All the Lotus cars have names beginning with letter E but they start out with just a Type number. The Type 26 was designed by Ron Hickman and launched by Lotus Cars in 1962 as the Lotus Elan. There is also a racing version Type 26R. Hand built, the Elans were available as completed cars or in kit form to be assembled by the owner to avoid purchase tax. The Elan became the benchmark for all sports car manufacturers.

The earliest Elans were later known as the Series 1 or S1 version There were to be 4 further iterations of the classic 2 seat Lotus Elan, the S2, S3, & S4, and the superb Elan Sprint version. All S1 & S2 cars were convertibles with the later S3, S4 & Sprint versions offered as coup?s (type 36) or as convertibles (type 45).

In parallel with the introduction of the Elan revisions, Ron Hickman applied himself to the creation of the type 50 series, the Elan +2, which offered two small rear seats on a slightly wider and longer chassis.

A five speed gearbox was offered on later cars to improve motorway cruising.

In 1988 Lotus Cars launched a revival of the Lotus Elan name in the form of a new convertible sports car with the factory designation of M100--------- etc etc etc someone please fill in the gaps
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and the superb Elan Sprint version

No bias with you then Mr Alaric?

Otherwise a very good introduction.

How could I forget the +2 !

At least Alaric has good taste Alan.

How could you forget the SuperSprint?

Re FHC Sprints. They were numerous and there is nothing rare about them. At the latest count there were 579 FHCs produced, against 828 DHCs. The rarest FHC type is the J Federal version, only 25 of which I am aware of having come off the production line.

Tim

Tim,
There are a whole host of "specials" that really need a line added that states something like

In addition to the factory produced models there were a host of tuning and styling houses producing variants to the standard models and indeed this process still occurs today with various results, these cars are listed under "specials"

Well done alaric!

So we see how the process works:

1. An initial posting made, quite possibly with errors
2. A community of peers edits the posting to improve it. If a malicious change is made it can be rejected by the community

so yes a wiki is written by a committee, but ends up "acceptable" to 99% of the community.

Don't go too wild adding details of all variants, folks. This bit is the introductory paragraphs.
Read the actual Wikipedia page and you see that the fine detail gets included later down the page.

In that respect I'm not sure that the mention of the 5-speed gearbox is needed in the intro, but I think we need the year of introduction of the Plus 2.

I think Alan's bit about specials deserves to be in the intro but not the "still going on" bit (that can be lower down the page).

So

In addition to the factory produced models there were a host of tuning and styling houses producing variants to the standard models and indeed this process still occurs today with various results, these cars are listed under "specials"

becomes

In addition to the factory produced models, a host of tuning and styling houses produced variants of the standard Elans; these cars are listed under "specials"

Where all elans produced by Lotus Cars?

I thought a roadster was the American word for for what us brits called a convertible and a DHC as it only has 2 doors... No?

I always thought that S1s and S2s were roadsters and all later soft-top models were convertibles (or drop-head coupes)?

After all you can't lower (or convert) the roof of a Type26 - it has to be completely removed.

The Jaguar XK120 for example was either a roadster or a FHC.

All weather protection equipment was removable on the XK120 roadster - a bit like the Type26 (excepting of course the side windows).

The Elan wasn't made by Lotus Cars, or Lotus Components, or Lotus Racing Engines....or any of the other subsidiary companies (there were over 40 at one time). Make it simple and say it was made by Lotus.

It wasn't Colin Chapman's Company, but initially owned by a group of shareholders, and then made a public company.

The first Elan had a name...the Elan 1500, which quickly changed to the Elan 1600 when the engine size changed around the time of the launch. Only after the introduction of the S2 did it become known as the S1.

Not all road-going Lotus cars started with an 'E', and if they did, it's not really too relevant a fact to introduce the car. The Six and the Seven, the Eleven and the Thirty were all road going as well.

The five speed box option was almost an irrelevance as far as the 2 seat Elan goes, as only 5 or 6 had them fitted to the last of the Sprints. Certainly relevant for the Plus 2, but again, why bring up individual options as part of an introduction? Surely the Special Equipment package is worth mentioning as that dictated a different model in marketing terms.

I really don't see the relevance of all the 'specials' in an introduction...every car, especially sports cars, had 'special' versions built at the time by the various tuning shops. Stick to factory built initially, including the 26R

Rather than re-invent the wheel, why not start out with something like the chapter 1 of the Robinshaw / Ross book? And preference for one particular model type should definitely not be included, no matter how overt or subtle!

Mark

Elan built by Lotus

The End