Elan again
Posted: Thu May 28, 2015 1:39 am
Hello
I've always liked small cars with sophisticated drivetrains. Abarths, Alfas, Alpines... I could go on A to Z.
My first car was an Alfa GTV. I joined the local Alfa club and met people with a similar infection. At one of our meetings, another Alfa owner mentioned one of his friends had just put his hands on a Lotus Elan. This was right down my alley...
I met the guy who had quite a lot of experience with Lotus cars; his main interest was (and still is) Europas. He explained that a Lotus needs regular maintenance and repairs; he pretty much described a fix-it, drive-it cycle which was getting tighter and tighter as the car got older. He said at some point it was a must to rebuild the car to extend the cycle.
I went for a test drive in his Elan. After 200 feet, the distributor moved, it backfired, and we were stopped on the side of the road. Short cycles indeed. But in 200 feet I was hooked.
This is how I bought my first Lotus (26 0469) in June 1980. I was 21.
The car had been raced at some point; lowered suspension, widened steel rims, fixed headlamps a la 26R, hardtop only, virtually no muffler, and redline blackened out to 7200 rpm. It would pull 7200 in 4th gear (130 mph).
I rebuilt it, it ran like a 4 wheel Japanese super bike. I eventually crashed it when I was street racing a Japanese super bike (current cars such as Vettes and RX7s were a breakfast treat). By 1983 it had moved to its next owner and I was still alive. (It is currently being restored for vintage racing).
A few years down the road I bought another S1, Fiat engined and in pretty sad shape: would be easier to list the usable bits than the missing/useless parts. It went to somebody who wanted to build a replica 26R. I kept a Seven America in my basement for a few years as a vintage racing project; eventually traded it on a basket case 59B which was still a saleable asset in the middle of the 90s recession. End of Lotus life for me.
I spent several years trying to find something with a similar feeling. The two closest finds were a Saab Sonett (less powerful, but small, nimble and apparently homebuilt but way too tight for my 6'3'') and a Dino 308GT4 (too powerful, too peaky for traffic, and too uncomfortable for long distances).
Until two weeks ago. A Kijiji ad for an unknown S4 DHC (I knew pretty much all the Elans in town). Same owner since 1988. Not driven since 2005. Was in very good original shape before storage and kept in dry, heated storage with a dry fuel tank. Price was right.
I'm a Lotus owner again.
This Elan will share a garage with my 2000 GTV and my Citroen DS.
I've always liked small cars with sophisticated drivetrains. Abarths, Alfas, Alpines... I could go on A to Z.
My first car was an Alfa GTV. I joined the local Alfa club and met people with a similar infection. At one of our meetings, another Alfa owner mentioned one of his friends had just put his hands on a Lotus Elan. This was right down my alley...
I met the guy who had quite a lot of experience with Lotus cars; his main interest was (and still is) Europas. He explained that a Lotus needs regular maintenance and repairs; he pretty much described a fix-it, drive-it cycle which was getting tighter and tighter as the car got older. He said at some point it was a must to rebuild the car to extend the cycle.
I went for a test drive in his Elan. After 200 feet, the distributor moved, it backfired, and we were stopped on the side of the road. Short cycles indeed. But in 200 feet I was hooked.
This is how I bought my first Lotus (26 0469) in June 1980. I was 21.
The car had been raced at some point; lowered suspension, widened steel rims, fixed headlamps a la 26R, hardtop only, virtually no muffler, and redline blackened out to 7200 rpm. It would pull 7200 in 4th gear (130 mph).
I rebuilt it, it ran like a 4 wheel Japanese super bike. I eventually crashed it when I was street racing a Japanese super bike (current cars such as Vettes and RX7s were a breakfast treat). By 1983 it had moved to its next owner and I was still alive. (It is currently being restored for vintage racing).
A few years down the road I bought another S1, Fiat engined and in pretty sad shape: would be easier to list the usable bits than the missing/useless parts. It went to somebody who wanted to build a replica 26R. I kept a Seven America in my basement for a few years as a vintage racing project; eventually traded it on a basket case 59B which was still a saleable asset in the middle of the 90s recession. End of Lotus life for me.
I spent several years trying to find something with a similar feeling. The two closest finds were a Saab Sonett (less powerful, but small, nimble and apparently homebuilt but way too tight for my 6'3'') and a Dino 308GT4 (too powerful, too peaky for traffic, and too uncomfortable for long distances).
Until two weeks ago. A Kijiji ad for an unknown S4 DHC (I knew pretty much all the Elans in town). Same owner since 1988. Not driven since 2005. Was in very good original shape before storage and kept in dry, heated storage with a dry fuel tank. Price was right.
I'm a Lotus owner again.
This Elan will share a garage with my 2000 GTV and my Citroen DS.