Lotus Elan and Lotus Elan Plus 2 Forums

Hello

i would like to get more infos about number of JPS manufactured .
Have you somes details about that ?

thanks in advance for your help

Serge

It's been quite difficult to determine exactly how many were produced, as the Lotus sales ledger doesn't record them as 'JPS' cars, but just with colour as black, and fully optioned. For the period starting in May 73, going through to September '73, there are 109 black cars recorded, and of those, some 90 were fully optioned. There is no mention of the gold roof and sills in any of the sales entries.

It's also been said that perhaps the last 20 or so cars may have had their roofs and sills painted black, as by the end of 1973, the JPS Gold 'glitter' roof had gone out of fashion!

The fully optioned bits were the cloth (cord) seat inserts, tinted windscreen, turnolock radio and 5 speed gearbox.

So the only real way to identify that a JPS Plus 2 is the real deal is that it was manufactured between May and September 1973, that it was recorded as black and fully optioned.

Are you chasing one or do you have one?

Mark

Thanks Mark for your answer

Yes I have the pleasure to drive one JPS , made in august 1993
this car is showed page 132 on "Authentic Lotus " by P Robinshaw and C Ross ;
I bought them february 2007 at UK sports car , may be you know this garage ?
After some month driving the chassis was a big problem with the front turret .
impossible to repair . I make the choice to install a Spyder chassi . Ok its not genuine , but the car was very improved with a new chassis.
during the same time we also make some repair and check many parts around , engine , brakes, suspension .
Today the +2 JPS runing well , it s a real pleasure to drive this car .
I have a lot of pictures , i try to put one

regards

Serge

Lovely Serge!

I'm guessing you meant 1973.

Lovely....I miss my +2 (In the garage for the past day or two)

Peter

Hi Serge
The JPS looks very good, and I?m glad you?re now pleased with it. Unfortunately you are not the first buyer of a car from UK Sportscars who has had a major problem with the car shortly after purchase. Any serious chassis corrosion should have been fixed by them (by replacing the chassis) before sale, unless of course you bought it as a project. Hopefully you paid the right price for it, or received some compensation for the chassis work.

Something to check urgently is the state of the side members inside the sills. These can rust just as readily as the chassis, but the good news is that they are cheap and fairly easy to replace. Fit Spyder ones?they are much easier! Remember that your seat belt attaches to these side members, and if they are rusty, they can be dangerous in an accident.

As for fitting a Spyder chassis vs a Lotus chassis, it?s a personal choice and doesn?t seem to increase or decrease the value of the car, or the performance of the car, one way or the other. The ?collectors? tend to prefer a Lotus chassis because it?s original, whilst the ?engineers? tend to favour the Spyder chassis.

My JPS was taken off the road in 1982, as the owner had a re-paint to tidy the car up, but it was a very poor job resulting in many micro-blisters. He was so fed up that he just drove it into the garage and locked it away for 25 years! Consequently, the car is very original, never having been taken apart at all, even having the original brake pipes! Luckily, the roof wasn?t painted and it?s the original gel-coat gold (rather than painted), which hasn?t faded due to being locked away in a dark place for so long. If you need any detail photographs of any areas just ask and I will take some?but here?s an overhead flying shot!

Mark

Thanks Mark for your infos

I will check the side members and i will exchange them by a Spyder version.
Yes i'm interresting for some interior pictures if its possible ?
my car need some upgrade inside , particulary on the seats .

thanks for your help

Serge

I'll take some pictures at the weekend.
Mark

Elanintheforest wrote:
Something to check urgently is the state of the side members inside the sills. Fit Spyder ones?they are much easier!

Mark,
What makes the spyder ones easier, how are they different?

Cheers
Jon

With the Lotus items you have to remove the rear suspension to get them in. With the Spyder items you don't...they just sneak past the strut.

The Lotus items are bigger in section, being a triangular box section. the Spyder ones look like a scaffolding tube, with plates welded on to provide location for the sill fitting / seat belt fitting. It's hard to explain...I'll look for some pictures!

Mark

Here are a couple of pics of the Spyder bars in place. One image is from the back wheelarch and the other is from the front, same side (left hand). When I got the car the sill cavities were full of resin up to a tide mark which is still visible about 7cm up the inside of the sill - see picture of the chipped out remains. The rusted remains of the bars were entombed in these blocks and the seatbelt mountings were the consistency of wafers! Andy at Spyder removed this mess and still shudders at the thought of it.... The pictures of the bars were taken a couple of weeks ago, seven years and 50k miles after the bars were fitted by Andy - their condition is totally serviceable.

Always worth a look in the sill of any 'new' car.

Jeremy

thanks for the picture around side member
I think ist time to check that on my +2 .

Please find a pictures of 5 ( French ) Elan +2

BR

Serge

thanks for the picture around side member
I think ist time to check that on my +2 .

Check your seat belt mounts as well. Mine were very bad.

peterako wrote:Lovely....I miss my +2 (In the garage for the past day or two)
Peter

Peter,

What's it doing in the garage ?

We hope to be in Kirkistown for the First Official Outing Track Day of Lotus Club Ireland on Friday 21st Will you be going ?

Sean

Hi

for information my JPS +2S/5 was made in Oct 1973 and sold the following Oct in 1974

The only John Player Specials were the Europas the +2 being referred to as being in JPS Colours according to M.A Colvill from the supplying dealer. I asked them about my car in 1983

The actual invoice says Black/Gold to manufactuer 1974 specification

it cost an extra ?30 to get the special finish in Black

it was supplied by Bell and Colvill

there is a badge on the front wing which is unique to them

John

that car (or a very similar one - gold roof and all) appears to be on the market this side of the channel...

no affiliation on my part