SKK 992G Royal Blue Elan+2 Spyder Zetec

[Spyder fan]

Dear all,
As I am new to the forum I thought I would introduce myself and my pride & joy. My wife calls my +2 'The other Woman' and gets a bit miffed at the attention that gets lavished on it.

Anyway car is 1969 Elan +2S 50/1705 so an earlyish 'S'. Its had a full Spyder 'factory' conversion to 2.0 zetec with 180bhp & 165 lb torque (more than enough), colour is Royal Blue and was sprayed by myself 4 years ago, I was at Castle Combe for the track day in May and got lots of nice comments. I owned the car for 4 years in standard trim and really liked it, but just wanted a bit extra on the day to day driveability.

My opinion on the Spyder conversion is that its no different to what Caterham do with their 7's, they have taken a great concept and refined certain areas whilst keeping the character of the car intact.

Hope you like the pictures.

Alan

[garyeanderson]

The cars look great, more photos of your Elite from 2001 at Donington

elan-photos-f18/donington-elites-elan-content-t18091.html

Gary

[Spyder fan]

Gary,

thanks for the pictures, 910CBL Red series 2 elite belongs to a good friend of mine (Don Hands) the picture was taken late summer last year outside his house near Ipswich. Unfortunately the Elite is up on the ramps feeling sorry for itself at the moment with suspected head gasket failure (we hope), if it's anything more serious then there will be a very big bill, think two twincam rebuilds and some more.... ouch .

Regards

Alan

[GrUmPyBoDgEr]

Hi Alan,

A nice tidy job, I guess you did it all yourself, Spyder rarely achieve that standard.
Where did you get the idea of the LOTUS lettering on tha cam cover, from looking under the bonnet of a metallic blue S4 Zetec Elan maybe?

Cheers
John

[Spyder fan]

Hi Alan,

A nice tidy job, I guess you did it all yourself, Spyder rarely achieve that standard.
Where did you get the idea of the LOTUS lettering on tha cam cover, from looking under the bonnet of a metallic blue S4 Zetec Elan maybe?

Cheers
John

Hi John,

I often have a sneaky peek at other peoples cars I own an architectural ironmongers (posh term for bloke who sells hinges and handles) and we engrave and stove enamel signs, so the cam cover was no problem, I also have a sticker that fits over the electric shock hazard part, it says 'WARNING, PROLONGED USE MAY CAUSE ADDICTION'.
My Wife is hankering after an S4 DHC, I doubt if I will get a good one for under ?20k so it looks like another of Mr Chapman's creations will become a donor for the Zetec treatment.

Spyder built the whole car for me and did a proper job imho, although the paint was by me and I have spent a good 30+ hours spannering to get it 'perfick' as we say down here in Kent.

Cheers

Alan

[steveww]

There are plenty of good S4 dhc / Sprint cars for under ?20k. As you appear to be handy with the spanners you could spend less and do the tweaking yourself.

http://www.paulmattysportscars.co.uk/sh ... px?id=1419

[Spyder fan]

There are plenty of good S4 dhc / Sprint cars for under ?20k. As you appear to be handy with the spanners you could spend less and do the tweaking yourself.

http://www.paulmattysportscars.co.uk/sh ... px?id=1419

Steve,
Only just got round to looking at this, thanks for finding me something ?250 less than ?20,000

Seriously I am either looking to spend ?30,000 on a really good car thats been freshly restored or to restore a basket case from the ground up, possibly with a Zetec or at least with throttle bodies on an original twincam (my wife and carburettors don't get on ). This car will be for my wife and frankly she has no mechanical sympathy to speak of, warning lights (including low petrol) are studiously ignored, rotoflex couplings are summarily destroyed, under dash hanbrakes are used to suspend shopping bags and of course the choke control is a handy device to hang her handbag from, preferably fully extended of course

I fear that an original car will be wasted on her (and me)

[paddy]

Does she take any notice of traffic lights?

Paddy

[bengalcharlie]

Alan,

What a great car!! Love the colour!! Great to see so many different colours on the plus two.

Cheers
Robin

[Spyder fan]

Does she take any notice of traffic lights?

Paddy

My wife and traffic lights are not generally on speaking terms

Regards

[pete_exe]

I love the colour you have here. Is it definitely royal blue? I'm restoring a 69 S4, and planning to use the original royal blue . However it looks a bit dark on the europa at http://www.lotus-europa.com/colors/L09_Royal_Blue.jpg, and I haven't seen any L09 S4 pics (like Scott at elan-archive-f16/royal-blue-elan-t5394.html). Your colour looks a little closer the very vivid, possibly jazz blue on contemporary VW/Audi/Ford Focus.

[elancoupe]

If you don't blink you can see Royal Blue here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBNmjvQn ... re=related

Also, there is a picture on page 35 of the book Lotus The Legend by David Hodges.

[Spyder fan]

I love the colour you have here. Is it definitely royal blue? I'm restoring a 69 S4, and planning to use the original royal blue . However it looks a bit dark on the europa at http://www.lotus-europa.com/colors/L09_Royal_Blue.jpg, and I haven't seen any L09 S4 pics (like Scott at elan-archive-f16/royal-blue-elan-t5394.html). Your colour looks a little closer the very vivid, possibly jazz blue on contemporary VW/Audi/Ford Focus.

Pete
Its definitely Royal Blue, but you have to consider that it's modern basecoat and clear paint and is highly glossy. In different lights it appears deeper or lighter in hue. The original cellulose and acrylic paints used by the factory in the 60"s and 70"s wouldn't have had the depth of shine, so period photos will look a different shade depending on the light conditions. Any of the keen photographers on here will tell you about the importance of lighting conditions, for instance the colour of my interior is a very tasteful light tan leather, but the photos make it look a sickly shade of mustard. I have the paint code for Royal Blue somewhere and its also printed on the spare tin of basecoat I have in reserve for any knocks or scrapes, I can look it up if you want.

Regards

[gordont]

Very nice +2, but the Elite is absolutely gorgeous.

[Spyder fan]

Gordon
The Elite is for sale.... Give Paul Matty a ring.... Make sure you are sitting comfortably before asking the price:-)