Early + 2 , 50/00100, the 100th of the line!

[inxs]

Please find pictures of my "work in progress" it is a early +2, the number is 50/00100, the "100th" out of the factory. If any one can help me with the history that would be great. It was ordered by "London Sports Car Centre" in 1967 and I have no idea how it got to Australia. The car is in good condition with rear CV shafts and pop up electric light conversion.
It has certainly been a learning curve over the last 14 months of ownership!!!

Regards Darren

[inxs]

The rest of the pics,
regards

Darren

[Jason1]

Darren great looking early car I am very jealous

Have you tried emailing the Lotus Factory archive for your cars history?

Email Chris: [email protected]

Send him your chassis number and engine number and be will tell you any information he has on the car. Sometimes it is not a lot, but better than nothing

If it was ever registered in England you can write to the DVLA (including a ?5 cheque) over here and get a copy of all the old registation documents:

Vehicle Record Enquiries,
Vehicle Customer Services,
(Data Protection Queries),
DVLA,
Swansea
SA99 1AJ
United Kingdom

http://www.dvla.gov.uk/vehicles/dataprtc.htm

Hope this helps

Jason

[inxs]

Hi Jason,
thanks for email address at Lotus, I have contacted Mike Promfet at Lotus and he gave me the history of the car when it was sold to London Sports Car Centre with the original works order of 5280. It was sold in a "kit" form 20/10/1967. After that I do not know. The person I purchased it from had it for 16 years, his name Briam Sampsom, a racing driver in Australia of some note, winning Bathurst with Peter Brock in 1975. Brian races formula 3 and 2 so the car mechanicaly had been rebuilt, still a bit of work to get it sorted out as it was basically of the road for 16 years.

I have rebuilt the gear box and the rear end, it has too much toe in at the rear wheels so it is at a chassis engineers to sort this out. hopefully have the car fully running in a few months.

Will post some more pics when all finished.

In Australia the +2 is not a common car with very few on the road.

Cheers,

Darren "down under"

[Elanintheforest]

Hi Darren
A quick question about your front windscreen chrome...is there a 'joiner' piece in the middle at the top?
I've just bought chassis number 32...in component form, and I'm checking out the bits. My windscreen chrome consists of one long bit that completes the botton, one left hand curved bit that goes up the piller, and around the top to halfway, one right hand bit that does the same on the other side, and 2 joiners that join the pieces in the bottom corners.
Cheers...Mark

[blackandgold]

Mark,

Another car, how many do you have now?
You must have a big garage in that forest

How's Bumpy going have you had chance to change the gearing yet, I suggest you try changing the diff first maybe a 4.11 would work with the close ratio gearbox

Regards

[Elanintheforest]

Hi Mark...Bumpy is awaiting a new chassis as he's developed about 10 degrees of negative camber on the drivers side front. Still, not bad that the chassis can last 40 years without welding in this country!

I'm sure you've heard of Battersea Dogs Home, a large home for unwanted mutts in London. Well, this is the same sort of set up but for Elans and out in the countryside.

6 x Plus 2, 2xS2, 1xS3, 1xS4. They all get on very well, with no fighting about who's best

Some will find new homes I'm sure, but I have a strict policy of never putting an Elan down, no matter how old or ill it is.
Mark

[inxs]

Hi Mark,

Interesting that you have the same chrome suround, I thought that this has been retrofitted some years earlier to this car.
I thought the windscreen rubber had only the narrow chrome filler as per the rear?

To answer your question there is no filler piece it the two halfs butt up to each other, I will take some pics for you and post them.
I would be really interested if this chrome surround is correct because there are no early +2 where I can compare where I live, in fact not many +2 of any age!!

Cheers Darren

[Elanintheforest]

Hi Darren
You got me thinking, so I've looked at the early brochure...and there it is, the thick chrome surround. My '68 car has the infill chrome as you describe, and I'm pretty sure that the early Plus 2 S went back to a metal chrome fill in piece, then of course, the later cars with the bonded in screen had the plastic chrome 'cover' piece.

My car should have most of the original bits, as it was taken off the road in '79 with only 28,000 miles. But because it was taken apart then, some may have gone walkabout!

I'd be very interested in an engine bay shot or two...showing what's on the firewall and the engine bay sides. The pedal box and wiper mountings look very different to my other Plus 2 cars.

Mark

[inxs]

Hi Mark,
please find photos as requested.
Always been concerned with thewindow frame, but it is a Lotus!!

Regards, Darren

[thor]

I'm so jealous, as I've got a lovely original +2S130/5 with the RUBBISH plastic chromeish-now yellow b**tard trim ruining the look of the front of the car.
Anyone know if changing it to a new plastic crap one is a straightforward job for a windscreen fitting company?

Otherwise happy with the Elan being put into everyday driving service this week, complete with cueing and first/second gear driving with no worries except a notchy clutch and tired left leg.. waiting for an '04 3-series bmw as a new everyday car.., finally both cars rear wheel drive!

[Elanintheforest]

Great pictures Darren, much appriciated. There's a meet at Castle Coombe this weekend so I'll hunt out early Plus 2 cars and take some more pics. The windscreen chrome surrounds are identical. I seem to remember that Ford destroyed the kit that made the Classic and Capri window surrounds at the same time that the Plus 2 went into production, so Lotus had a very limited supply, probably hunted out from the local Ford dealers. That would explain why only the early cars had the metal trim, but I don't understand how the early Plus 2 S had it as well. Perhaps they found a bunch of trim!

As for the plastic trim, Thor, Matt (who is often on this Forum) replaced the ones on his car himself. He told me how he did it, and it involved lots of hot water, lots of time to bend the trim through the correct angle very slowly. The results look superb. If you start a new topic I'm sure he'll respond and give you the full spec on how to do it and what adhesive to use. The problem with getting a windscreen fitter to do it is that they will be up agaist the clock, and will bend it very quickly to fit, and make the silver 'foil' creased and crinkley.
Mark

[blackandgold]

This +2 S Trim was for sale on ebay recently

Is it the same as the early +2 ?

It looks a little different in the photo's

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI.dll ... &rd=1&rd=1

[thor]

beautiful trim, wish I saw it earlier...

Now I'll cheer someone up with my stupidity: Hmm, been wondering whether I've got some seriously worn bushes, or a duff steering rack the last 3-4 days, when my wife noticed what looked like little air in the front tyre. Turns out there was 10 in the nearside, and 20 in the offside.. Now it feels like I've got power steering..... . Why check the obvious...
doh!

[blackandgold]

Yes trim was very nice and I was tempted myself but was told that you can't fit this to the later model +2 with the bonded windscreen as windscreen opening does not allow proper fitting of the appropriate rubber and if tried will result in major leaks when its raining

Also if your car has the Lotus alloys then I found these were always prone to leak air when using tubeless tires, not sure if the new ones that are available are any better, one solution is to use tubes but this may cause problems with tyre performance