Lotus Elan and Lotus Elan Plus 2 Forums

Getting there

Another trip to Europe but not driving, nor in a Lotus.
Jim

F1 support race at Brands

You're only supposed to blow the bloody doors off...

Ah.... the cleverly designed Lotus Elan fuel tank ejector system to minimise the risk of fire in a crash. You can even drive the car back to the pits after if you have enough fuel in the carb bowls !

cheers
Rohan

rgh0 wrote:Ah.... the cleverly designed Lotus Elan fuel tank ejector system to minimise the risk of fire in a crash. You can even drive the car back to the pits after if you have enough fuel in the carb bowls !

cheers
Rohan

It's a Lotus feature as any Europa owner will tell you...it happened to me years ago.

Mazzini wrote:

rgh0 wrote:Ah.... the cleverly designed Lotus Elan fuel tank ejector system to minimise the risk of fire in a crash. You can even drive the car back to the pits after if you have enough fuel in the carb bowls !

cheers
Rohan

It's a Lotus feature as any Europa owner will tell you...it happened to me years ago.

I thought Europas and Esprits used the alternate fuel dump system where the bottom of the fuel tanks was cleverly designed to corrode but so that any impact would result in the bottom of the tank rupturing and all the fuel being safely dumped.

cheers
Rohan

Mazzini wrote:

rgh0 wrote:Ah.... the cleverly designed Lotus Elan fuel tank ejector system to minimise the risk of fire in a crash. You can even drive the car back to the pits after if you have enough fuel in the carb bowls !

cheers
Rohan

It's a Lotus feature as any Europa owner will tell you...it happened to me years ago.

I thought the Europa featured an Engine eject system.

Quart Meg Miles wrote:

Mazzini wrote:

rgh0 wrote:Ah.... the cleverly designed Lotus Elan fuel tank ejector system to minimise the risk of fire in a crash. You can even drive the car back to the pits after if you have enough fuel in the carb bowls !

cheers
Rohan

It's a Lotus feature as any Europa owner will tell you...it happened to me years ago.

I thought the Europa featured an Engine eject system.

Yes the Europa engine ejection system was indeed a very clever design. Unfortunately in hard cornering the deliberate weak spots in the chassis next to the engine mounts could fail prematurely leading to an unwanted early engine ejection. In the Esprit Lotus fixed that minor design weakness with the classic Dinasaurus bones to mount the gearbox to the reinforced chassis made of real steel tubes rather than bent tin can sheet metal. Instead they designed a clever engine mount for the S1 and S2 Esprit designed to fail and release the engine in the event of a sudden impact. They also retained the fuel dump system from the Europa for the Esprit fuel tanks as a double protection.

cheers
Rohan

I had a battered old S2 Europa in the 80's, the tanks were held in by three studs a side, but the tanks were very rusty and on one side the PO had sheared two of the studs, the third stud tore through the GRP and dumped the tank on a high street somewhere in the north of England. On a Europa the tanks are fitted from underneath and if their supports fail they just drop out...after thirty years I can laugh about it now.

elansprint71 wrote:You're only supposed to blow the bloody doors off...

Thanks Pete, that made me smile. Which is something I've not done a lot of since I stuffed no.481 into the Druids tyre barrier on Saturday.

I'm contemplating making the worlds first 'Bob Tail' Elan....

Bad luck/judgement Paul and not much to smile about. BUT does it now comply with Reliant Robin regs?

PaulFinch wrote:

elansprint71 wrote:You're only supposed to blow the bloody doors off...

Thanks Pete, that made me smile. Which is something I've not done a lot of since I stuffed no.481 into the Druids tyre barrier on Saturday.

I'm contemplating making the worlds first 'Bob Tail' Elan....

No injuries (I hope) that's the main thing.
My suggestion would be to fit a pick-up rear; very handy for going to the market or down the tip.

Dave Hughes (bigvalvehead) on this forum has a full S3 rear end, this may be of some use to you, obviously the wheel arches would need patching in.

elansprint71 wrote:

PaulFinch wrote:

elansprint71 wrote:You're only supposed to blow the bloody doors off...

Thanks Pete, that made me smile. Which is something I've not done a lot of since I stuffed no.481 into the Druids tyre barrier on Saturday.

I'm contemplating making the worlds first 'Bob Tail' Elan....

No injuries (I hope) that's the main thing.
My suggestion would be to fit a pick-up rear; very handy for going to the market or down the tip.

Dave Hughes (bigvalvehead) on this forum has a full S3 rear end, this may be of some use to you, obviously the wheel arches would need patching in.

No, other than a slightly stiff back for the last few days, absolutely fine. It didn't actually hurt at all, didnt even knock the wind out of me which was surprising when I saw how far back the Armco was pushed...

Would definitely rather be fixing the Elan than the Cortina.

Thanks for the heads up, Dave's already been in touch.

Looks like a five minute job to me, Paul!