Which Elan?

DeanG said:

Elancoupe;

Do you have a bigger picture of Jimi with his Elan? .

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Not great, but this is the biggest one I have.

They each have their charms. S1 and S2 are the purest, lightest weight versions, S3 coupes look great, but S4 had many improvements. S4 had negative ground, a lip seal vs. rope seal for the rear main seal, allowed for wider tires, better vacuum system for headlamp buckets, dual circuit braking system with better master cylinder. Things that were worse were the radiators, which seemed to get smaller with every model, the fit/finish of the doors, which was terrible by the time the S4's came out, more emission control stuff including Strombergs and less agressive distributor curve.

Most of the stuff is fixable with modern technology in any model. I had Joe Curto rebuild my Strombergs to the UK 'SE' spec I was given by Miles Wilkins, author of The Lotus Twin Cam Engine. I also had a distributor rebuilt per the same spec, used Sprint cams, higher compression ratio, UK intake manifold, etc. The result was a really sweet-running Stromberg engine that NEVER needed any adjustment and just ran like a top. No bucking, stalling, or any of the old Stromberg woes that plagued the cars when new. Sure, it didn't have Webers, but it ran great on the street.

Bottom line? Find the model you like best or can afford, then modify it to do what you want it to do.

All of them are fine.
Tradeoffs with both early and late models.

Earlier models are more lightweight and some say clean and pure...but they dont have a dual brake system which makes me nervous. I have owned afew of them....

Later ones are very nice and the window frames dont bother me at all. I have owed 5 or 6 of the later ones. Some more than once.

The cars are really the same.....if you cut off the frames from a later one....there is really not much difference.

Except for the Webers of course. But both carbs are fine. In fact...I think the Stromberg cars are faster.

I loved my 72 Sprint....but I now have my 71 Spyder Conversion car with the 26R fenders....now this is a car....

cabc26b said:

The best combo I know is to get an early ( TYPE 26) car with a removable hard top. They look better and will give you option of dry high speed travel. On the window frames. sorry if the best thing you can say about them is that they disappear ( or in M's case to remove them) that should tell you all you need to know.

BTW, I honestly don' know why people out there insist the later cars are more reliable, it has not been my experience and one look at the s1/s2 wireing diagram vs the s3 and s4 is all it should take to let you know that the later car have the potential to be more trouble...

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The cars are really exactly the same in almost all respects. One is not more reliable than the other....just safer because of the dual master cylinder.

The asthetics of the window frames is purely to ones individual taste and does not make either car better or worse. The wiring diagrams are almost the exact same...very little difference. The later cars had a "light logic box" to allow the use of 2 filiment tail lights...and the newer cars had power windows...but really that is about all. I think you are making too much of the differences....there is really not that much. I have taken apart and rebuilt more than 10 but less than 20 Elans in my life. I know the cars inside and out and consider myself to one of the experts on them.

The light logic boxes used to be not available and the wiring loom for that style as well are not available last time I checked...but that was several years ago. The last two S4 Elans I did, I had to rewire the car and add the 3 filiment lights to the rear.

Both cars give you the option of "dry high speed travel" In fact the Elan can be driven in the rain with the top down and not get wet at anything over 30 mph. (same goes for the Miata..which along with the MGB were the inspriation for the Miata)

I personally like the look of the Series 3 cars with Weber carbs....I like the power windows and frames...so it is really subjective. I like the sound of the Webers.

I would get whatever car you see and like. I repeat that the only objection I have to the early cars are the single brake system...which I think is a very big deal. I have had early British cars..most noteably a Sunbeam Tiger...put me in harms way by losing its single system brakes. I am lucky to be alive after that one.

If you are interested in a LHD DHC 1973 Elan Sprint (red with Gold Leaf colors)....fully restored.....in the low 30's...let me know. I know of one and it will be for sale soon. I do have the inside track on it. I also know of a 1968 or 9 Series 3 RHD DHC...absoutley beautiful....yellow....fully restored. Guy has well over 30K into it and will sell it for the low to mid 20's. This will be available in the spring.

Agree with the brake comment - I now use a AP racing tandem w/proportioning valve or dual master with balance bar depending on usage.

Disagree with the wiring comment - the early cars have a vestigial electric systems, when you add electric windows and the few other items lotus added the reletaive increase in wiring plant is noticeable. BTW it is these same electric windows that can turn into a PITA later on - IMHO an unnecessary complication that added weight and I am sure one that was done by Graham Arnold for marketing purposes.

The frames with the electric windows, the changes in the door along with boot/bonnet and hood attachment were all done for the type 36/45 in effort to keep water ingress at bay. Your head may have stayed dry, but your legs , shoulders and the stuff in the trunk were getting wet.

Also, for sure the early soft tops do not stay on the cars reliably above 80 MPH with the intended fixtures - I sold a pile of cantrails to type 26 owners who had their tops come off and taking the cantrails with them only to be consumed by nearby vehicles.