Lotus Elan and Lotus Elan Plus 2 Forums

Fire is an issue but it's not the one i worry most about after seeing this first hand..... http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/1583369.stm

At the time i didn't know it was a Fatality but it was one of the more nasty ones we recovered.

Well at least secure the carbs so they don't leak over the distributor.

Grizzly wrote:Fire is an issue but it's not the one i worry most about after seeing this first hand..... http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/1583369.stm

At the time i didn't know it was a Fatality but it was one of the more nasty ones we recovered.

A subject that really hurts........ as I lost my young fiancee many years ago in similar circumstances.

It would be nice to know if the vehicle was forensic checked for reasons why the incident occured rather than wondering if it was the driver at error. The Lotus car damage certainly looks disproportionate so makes you wonder if the initial impact was just car to minibus or whether the car just ended up at that as its final point.

In my case we had been sold an Elan that the front strut chassis box section was rotten and been covered over with paper mache (I kid you not) and then udersealed and scammed through a DOT....MOT....

Justice back then had to be self administrating but hey I was well looked after and fed for many years

Grizzly wrote:Fire is an issue but it's not the one i worry most about after seeing this first hand..... http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/1583369.stm

At the time i didn't know it was a Fatality but it was one of the more nasty ones we recovered.

Urgh.

One of the strong reasons I've toyed with the idea for several years, of swapping the +2 for a type 75/83 Elite. Love or hate them, they were proven to be exceedingly strong.

Wickey is right though. The damage looks disproportionate and I wonder if the Lotus hit something else first, or hit the bus at a serious rate of knots.

Reminded me...

This looks clever
http://www.coolairvw.co.uk/Item/Feature ... m-CB-.html

It's a small 1kg extinguisher with melt deploy hose you run around your carbs and fuse box

Your car so do as you wish. The manufacturers of that system are so confident about it that they just refer to fire extinguishing agent. They don't even state what it is!! 1kg is generally not enough to put out a lighted fart -it might last for 12-15 seconds if you are lucky, there's no saying that where the pipe melts first is where the main fire seat is situated. If the beginning of the pipe melts first then all the extinguishent is released there and none gets to the end. IMHO a lot of money for a piece of crap - sorry. (In a previous life I was occasionally involved in specifying fixed extinguishing systems and gas flooding etc to protect processes involving highly flammable liquids and gases for multi million pound machinery, stock and buildings- if that's anything to go by).

If I recall correctly Rohan has installed fixed extinguishers in his race car (and didn't it save his car/life once?). I'm sure he'd elaborate on his set up. Save your money towards a properly engineered system.

Not me with a fixed system yet.

But after my Plus 2 fire a couple of years ago its on my list. With the Plus 2, the damage was limited to paint scorching in the engine bay and all the wiring plastic insulation and other engine bay plastic and rubber burnt / melted. i was lucky the fire crew at the track got to the car within 30 seconds to put it out with a couple of 15 KG powder extinguishers. My 1 KG extinguisher in the car did F... all.

cheers
Rohan

Wickey wrote:

Grizzly wrote:Fire is an issue but it's not the one i worry most about after seeing this first hand..... http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/1583369.stm

At the time i didn't know it was a Fatality but it was one of the more nasty ones we recovered.

A subject that really hurts........ as I lost my young fiancee many years ago in similar circumstances.

It would be nice to know if the vehicle was forensic checked for reasons why the incident occured rather than wondering if it was the driver at error. The Lotus car damage certainly looks disproportionate so makes you wonder if the initial impact was just car to minibus or whether the car just ended up at that as its final point.

In my case we had been sold an Elan that the front strut chassis box section was rotten and been covered over with paper mache (I kid you not) and then udersealed and scammed through a DOT....MOT....

Justice back then had to be self administrating but hey I was well looked after and fed for many years

I'm sorry to hear that, i used to do Police Recovery work to Subsidise my Wage back then and i found myself doing too many Fatal jobs... So i packed it in.

It was along time ago now (2000 or 2001) and from what i remember the +2 was freshly rebuilt (immaculate) i could be wrong but i was under the impression the Bus pulled out on the Elan (Elan was travailing around 60mph on a main road) the Picture is deceiving as the van had pushed the car past the junction. The one thing i remember clearly was how the Elan had disintegrated (the shell had just exploded, it might have well been made from digestive biscuit..... ). If you notice Mechanically it wasn't too bad, all four wheels were still on and we rolled it onto the truck (the shell took all the force)...... I know Soco inspected both vehicles but thats about it.

I was Every day driving my +2 at that point and it was a real eye opener....... Why i bought a Vw Passat the week after. It's like Riding a Motorbike, you can drive/Ride Safely but you will always get people doing stupid things.

The fire brigade usually cut the roof off to remove the occupant in such circumstances. Appears not to have been necessary here. It's the only thing that genuinely scares me about classic car ownership. Modern cars are pretty damned strong; it doesn't have to be a Transit Minibus. Hit a Kia Picanto in an Elan at 60 and the result would be the same. One of my friends is a Westfield nut. Since somebody recently posted on their forum a photo of a Westie sideways around a tree, I've noticed he hasn't used it much.

Thanks for that Chris.... (Grizzly)............

The picture of the crash is hard to see the detail and at first glance even enhanced it looks like the back end and diff is in the air but looking more closely it looks like the car actually had a roll cage fitted too.

As for the main topic here is one looks like it started around the radio area with overload of gadgets

I used to go to Douglas Valley quite allot until it went ridiculously expensive, if you want to see some thing truly sad walk round their yard (they specialise in miss-treated performance cars). http://www.douglasvalley.co.uk/results. ... =71&pgid=2

http://www.douglasvalley.co.uk/item.asp ... =71&pgid=2

http://www.douglasvalley.co.uk/item.asp ... =68&pgid=2

That Purple +2 picture is 10+ years old http://www.douglasvalley.co.uk/item.asp ... =71&pgid=2 (note how well the doors fit, some one had done a nice job restoring it only for it to go up in smoke, also they didn't even bother taking fresh pictures they used the Pics right off the Copart auction) like a bit of a Vulture i had some bits off it and the red +2 that was cut in half. I think they have both gone to the great Lotus showroom in the sky now.

Terrifying!

I got rid of the distributor (went wasted spark) and fitted a remotely operated battery switch (on the battery post) to reduce fire risk. Happier now but the prospect of a crash in an Elan is horrifying.

Jon

I was away. As I left a mechanic adjusting new cams on the Plus Two I had owned for 39 years.
It was in a garage, together with an AMV8, Corniche, AC Ace Bristol, an Alpine Bodied Talbot and
a few others.
After I had left, the mechanic drove it out of the garage to take it for a run as arranged,
As he was closing the garage doors, the Plus Two burst into flames.
Fire extinguishers were as much use as sprinkling powder on the fire!
And the washing on the clothes line fairly much vanished in the heat of the fire.
All we could deduce was that it was not petrol related.
I trust you get the picture!
Regards,
Bill

bill griffiths wrote:

lotusnov14.jpg

I was away. As I left a mechanic adjusting new cams on the Plus Two I had owned for 39 years.
It was in a garage, together with an AMV8, Corniche, AC Ace Bristol, an Alpine Bodied Talbot and
a few others.
After I had left, the mechanic drove it out of the garage to take it for a run as arranged,
As he was closing the garage doors, the Plus Two burst into flames.
Fire extinguishers were as much use as sprinkling powder on the fire!
And the washing on the clothes line fairly much vanished in the heat of the fire.
All we could deduce was that it was not petrol related.
I trust you get the picture!
Regards,
Bill

That is definitely one of the worst I have seen........I suppose any worse there would be nothing left

So did the Webbers just melt