New Elan chassis for ?350

[daverubberduck]

OK, so you would need a time machine and go back 35 years. While searching through old stuff I came across 2 old lists of spares from CN. They date from 1981 when I used to go visit them and look around the cars, I was living in Sale at the time. I?ll never forget the creeky floor boards and the smell of those cars. I eventually bought an Elan Sprint off them in May 81.

[Elanintheforest]

I just had a little hunt through my old invoices for the S3. New chassis in May '79 was ?157.75, plus VAT (@ 8%) of ?12.62, total ?170.37. That's about 10% of the price of the chassis today, and back then the car was worth about ?1000.

It's a long, long time ago......and VAT at 8 % !!!

Mark

[Mazzini]

Hello Mark,

Any idea when Lotus started galvanising their chassis?

By the way the new bumpers have been fitted to the Elite and I'm now waiting for the colour chips.

Cheerio,

R

[Elanintheforest]

I'm guessing it was early to mid 1980s Rob. They weren't heard of when I needed a new chassis, in fact it took 6 months to get any new chassis from Lotus in the 70s. But when I took the car to Miles Wilkins in the late 80s to get the engine done, he had just taken delivery of a load of galvanised chassis, and was throwing them all into a skip as they were so distorted!

Good news on the Elite....I vote either original Yellow or Periwinkle....the gorgeous blue colour!

Mark

[Mazzini]

I thought they started galvinising them in the mid 80's, but somebody recently told me that they were available in the mid 70's which I didn't think was right.

I was thinking of Aston Martin Caribbean Peal Blue! it's a period colour

[daverubberduck]

If Mark got his chassis for ?170 in 79 then it sounds like CN were expensive, or perhaps Mark got a very good deal. The earlier list from Nov 80 shows the +2 chassis at ?370 and the baby at ?360. The later April 81 list shows both at ?350.

Something I just noticed is that the Nov 80 list also shows chassis prices for a +2 Jago and a baby Jago as well as a +2 Spyder and baby Spyder. Interesting that Spyder were around then, when did they start? Also, what or who was Jago?

Re galvanising, I think it was probably mid 80s because in the early 80s I can remember a friend painting his new chassis in red lead.

[Geoffers71]

I'm guessing it was early to mid 1980s Rob. They weren't heard of when I needed a new chassis, in fact it took 6 months to get any new chassis from Lotus in the 70s. But when I took the car to Miles Wilkins in the late 80s to get the engine done, he had just taken delivery of a load of galvanised chassis, and was throwing them all into a skip as they were so distorted!


Mark

Interesting Mark. Miles Wilkins fitted a new galvanised chassis to my S3 in 1985. The handling was transformed..... It was awful!! Car wandered all over the road and cornering did not feel safe at all. Club Lotus had an appeals procedure back then and I wrote a letter to them copied to Miles and to Lotus complaining about the chassis on the car and that it was dimensionally incorrect. Caster angles were wrong for a start. Miles never answered, but I had a Lotus field engineer come down and put the car on a laser jig. Confirmed that the figures were not right, but tried to compensate by supplying a new offside rear suspension leg as they thought that there was excessive wear in the bolt holes They would not confirm that it was the chassis itself that was the actual problem. The car was not much better and I tried to improve the caster by packing out the upper and lower
wishbones with washers as appropriate. It was better, but not perfect. I put up with it until I sold the car 10 years later. Very interested to hear that Miles ditched a load of galvanised chassis a bit later. Nobody told me THAT

[Elanintheforest]

I wonder where that Elan is now Geoff! I'll bet the owner was put off Elans for life, and to this day tells folks down the pub what evil handling cars they are!!

Dave, I was surprised at the price difference, but then I remembered the inflation we had back then.

Just looking at 1974 - 1983, the numbers were:

1974 - 16%
1975 - 24%
1976 - 17%
1977 - 16%
1978 - 8%
1979 - 13%
1980 - 18%
1981 - 12%
1982 - 9%
1983 - 5%

Then it all settled down to around 5% for a few years after that.

They are staggering figures that would have meant that prices would have nearly doubled in 4 or 5 years, and maybe the Lotus pricelist in 1979 hadn't been updated for a couple of years.

Just to make things worse, VAT nearly doubled to 15% in autumn '79.

It also took months to get a chassis from a main Lotus dealer as they had really run stock down on the Elans by then. When Chris Neil and Matty started out, this was one of the issues they wanted to address, and of course, they had things like chassis in stock. Cost of buying in the stock and storage would have pushed the price up as well I guess, but if you needed a chassis, you'd pay a premium to not have to wait for months.

Rob, Caribbean Peal Blue looks gorgeous, and quite similar to Jaguar Opelecent light blue of the same period. I think it would really suit the Elite.

Mark

[Geoffers71]

I wonder where that Elan is now Geoff! I'll bet the owner was put off Elans for life, and to this day tells folks down the pub what evil handling cars they are.

Mark

I think it went to Australia. There was a pic of it somewhere on here a while ago.

[zuvendis]

I just noticed is that the Nov 80 list also shows chassis prices for a +2 Jago and a baby Jago as well as a +2 Spyder and baby Spyder. Interesting that Spyder were around then, when did they start? Also, what or who was Jago?.

There was a popular replica Jeep kit car in the 70's and 80's called a Jago; glass panels on a spaceframe chassis with Ford running gear? Possibly for one of them.

[AHM]

My S3 has a replacement chassis supplied by CN about 1982. It isn't galvanised. I'll dig out the receipt.

I don't know about Jaguar colours but Caribbean Pearl is the same as the RR colour that was used on two tone Bentleys.

The standard rate of VAT cannot be less than 15% by (EU) law. I cynically suggest that it is because a nations EU contribution is partly based on it's VAT revenue.

[Grizzly]

Nov 79 ?225 for a chassis. Personally i'd like the new +2 rear bumper for ?23.50

[daverubberduck]

So chassis prices went from ?225 to ?360 in the space of a year. As Mark points out, it must have been the high inflation coupled with an increase in VAT.

[Oldthumper]

Back in the day when Lotus dealers were selling them. 10% vat just in!

[rgh0]

Got the replacement chassis for my Elan in March 1978 from Bell and Colvill -- cost 135 pounds 60 pence plus 136 pounds packing and freight to Australia Prices sure went up fast over just a couple of years! No VAT though on exports to Australia

cheers
Rohan