Lotus Elan and Lotus Elan Plus 2 Forums

Would like to get help from members in regards to pricing a 1971 elan s4 average condition but mostly original . Your urgent ideas/examples of recent transacted upon prices would be very helpful. Thanks!

A 1971 S4 would have to be a Sprint, with big valve engine etc. For some reason these have a price premium over 2ordinary" S4's. Drop heads command a higher price than fixed heads and it depends what country you are in too.

Cheers,

Pete '72 Sprint DHC

Thanks Pete! I am in the US. It is supposed to be an ordinary S4 so I wonder why did you say it has to be a sprint if it is 1971?
C

..."average condition but mostly original".... need more details.... like how does it drive, I'm saying 11,800 to 14,200 yankee dollars... if it drives GREAT...

What Pete is saying is that any S4 made in '71, '72 or '73 are Sprint models. A Sprint (in the US) will have the big valve engine, diff strengthener, and most likely a two tone paint job. Sprint donuts used to mean something but by now, anyone and everyone who has donuts has Sprint donuts or some other solid axle arrangement.

Elans made in 1971 are not necessarily Sprints. I too have a 1971 S4 SE drophead, manufactured in March 1971. This was close to the end of the S4 run from what I have heard.

I think some of the confusion is arising due to shipping and paperwork time for cars exported. I know this is definetly true for the US. Our '71 are the British '70 models in many cases. Year of production does not necessarily translate to what's on the title. Also, Lotus really did have inconsistencies during production.

Does 'average condition' mean the car has had a replacement galvanised chassis? I think the condition of the chassis would have the biggest bearing on the value of the car as replacing the chassis generally turns out to be expensive - mainly due to the cost of replacing all the other bits while the body is off. Calculate the cost and then double it. It's generally a case of '.... while the body is off I might as well change all the suspension rubbers, brake cables, rebuild the brakes, rebuild the engine, change the waterpump... etc. etc".I would suggest keeeping away from a car with a 'repaired' chassis.

Greetings, Recently a 1969 S4 with webers sold on ebay for $10,800 US. LHD and a very strong runner.

There is really no confusion about my 1971 S4 SE DHC. It is not a Sprint, but if you insist, I will be happy to accept "Sprint" money for it. It was made in March, 1971 and I find it hard to believe that had it stayed in the UK, they would have designated it as a 1970 model.

Frank Howard
Minnesota

Hi

Values!!!

Any car (or anything else for that matter) is worth what somebody is prepared to pay!

John

The car that sold for $10,800 was a great buy IF it turned out to be what it was represented. I bought mine for $10,200, a 1967 Elan coupe 36/5785 LHD with 22,000 miles on it?? BUT it came in with trucking damage to the body. And I decided to rebuild and replace everything, didn't have to, but thought since it was all open, why not have a new car. I could not sell it for what I have into it. But it is well worth it. I'll post pictures later.
Northern CA. Sarto

Frank,
I understand that in early '71 Lotus was in one of it's periodic downswings (as was much of UK industry at the time), they had sort of announced the Sprint but still had quite a few "ordinary" S4's lying about (no disrespect here, I have had both and it is pretty hard to spot the difference).
In typical Lotus fashion they decided to re-engineer the remaining S4's into Sprints, on the surface at least; this meant adding the big-valve head and putting the original heads into the spares stock, some but not many, got the colour over white paint job and the doughnuts had already changed to the "Sprint" spec. Bonnets often had the Stromberg bulge even when the car was fitted with Webers or Dellortos.

Cheers,

Pete

Cristos: I bought a 1970 Elan DHC S4 SE in the last year, The price was $13k. Good driver, good updates, dry frame, daily driver. Lots of little things to do, but I drive it daily. My advice is to buy the best car you can afford.. Good luck. Tim M

I bought last March my Lotus Elan Sprint 1971 gold leaf color, big valve, completly original, in good condition, left drive and convertible at 20,000.00 euro in Italy.

In Italy the average price for an Elan is 16,000.00 - 23,000.00 euro.

regards,
Umberto
Modena - Italy
[email protected]