While the Grange Motors Racing Team may not spark any obvious connections, the seller is confident this track-prepped Lotus Elan Sprint did duty as one of their race cars back in the day. There certainly seems to be good supporting evidence, what with those flared fenders and chunky rubber attached to the Elan’s otherwise svelte body. Bidding is quite active for this car, while looks to walk the line nicely between preserved and modified. Find it here on eBay where bidding is currently at £17,300 with the reserve unmet.
While it may make some of you cringe to see an Elan modified like this, I personally love it. I do think the suspension could be dropped ever-so-slightly to close some of the gaps in the fenders, no exacerbated by the generously flared arches. The chrome bumpers have been painted in the iconic Lotus gold leaf colors, matching the body stripe along sides of the body. The seller notes the period Revolution alloy wheels have also been painted.
The cabin remains quite nice, despite seeing track duty on an assumed regular basis. The buckets are in excellent shape, as are the carpets. Although it wasn’t a trailer queen, the wood dash looks to be holding up nicely, and this is really right in the sweet spot of project car ownership: some modifications to make it more entertaining, but not too many that it becomes a chore to drive. The Elan shows minimal body issues as well, with only some scrapes and cosmetic blemishes that are inevitable with age and storage.
The Lotus has not been on the road since 2000, and the seller notes “…the car will need coaxing back into life and is a very worthwhile project.” While almost every project car needs a certain level of coaxing, the details matter on exactly what the seller suspects it will need. Regardless, Elans are desirable in nearly any spec and condition, and this one likely inspires lots of colorful imaginations about the level of road-going entertainment it will deliver to the next owner.
On a visit to the UK in 1991, I drove a manual transmission vehicle at night, in a rainstorm, through a roundabout in Sherwood Forest. First time for driving in the UK. Nothing short of a miracle that there were survivors. I love this car and would like to re-visit the scene of the crime in it.
It says a lot about a car when one of the worlds best manufactures of sporting machines buys one to copy for their low cost convertible. The Mazda Miata is as close a copy as they could come meeting modern safety standards. I understand that there was a quiet fight over who would own the Lotus Elan they purchased to copy off of. Never heard if it was the president of the company or the American design director.
Lotus of all stripes have just one major problem, THEIR OWNERS. I have never see a make have such foolish owners as Lotus. The push them as if they were all Phill. Hill, or Jimmy Clark and then do not maintain them properly. So when they break it always seems to be the cars fault. I have put a couple of 100 thousand miles on Lotus of various types and have had little to no trouble.
Just understand what you are driving. This is a very delicate car. Respect it and care for it and it will reward you with amazing performance. Disrespect it and not care for it and it will bite your pocket book and if you are foolish enough you will kill yourself in it.
Yes the early ones are like kit cars and you should have a few bottles of Locktight with you when every you work on one. I worked on mine with a licensed Air Frame & Power Plant mechanic I used to restore cars with and we drilled and wired all the chassis bolts so they would never come off by accident. The engines never failed, I never had one over heat, a couple had leaks in really serious midwestern storms but so have some of the Mustangs and Mercedes I have owned.
As in most things those that have never owned one, do not fit, and do not understand are the most vocal critics. The LOTS OF TROUBLE USUALLY SERIOUS comments come to mind. Maintain any car badly and that will be the end result.
Restore one and you will understand the decisions made by the maker and engineers. Lightness is an amazing thing when it comes to performance. I have personally carried the frame of both a Europa and Elan over my shoulder to have them chemicals stripped prior to starting restoration. The rest of the car is similar. Drive one and you will never forget it. Drive an Elan with the top down on a twisting mountain road with others trying to keep up and failing will be something to remember as well.
When I was a kid in SoCal, most owners seem to think they could run their Elans on the road like they were Chevy Novas (or similar), hence the Elan’s (Elite’s and Europa’s) tendency to be in the shop, very frequently.
I love your comment about the wannabe Phil Hills and Jimmy Clarks, Bruce. I used to kick Lotus owners’ backsides with the Porsche-powered VW in SCCSCC events to the point where they complained to the organisers and had my car – and an Alpine-powered Renault 4CV – moved into same class as Formula Fords! I think the owner of the Renault left the comps. I turned up at the next event in a Volvo 164E. LOL
I repeat my comment about the amazing things that lightness can bring to a car. I think you might have been even lighter if not as aerodynamic. I bet you had a blast. My best memory of an Elan is on one of Kansas City’s most twisty roads called Little Blue Drive. I was with the owner of the local Citroen / Maserati dealership having test driven a new SM looking for flaws before delivery and we were pulled off to the side as an dark green Elan came blasting by at full song.
A few moments later the Mustangs, Charger and Camaro that were trying to catch him came past again at full song. The dealer laughed as he knew both the car and owner who make a lot of betting money against the muscle car crowds about who could run away from whom.
He was laughing his head off as he knew what the outcome was going to be. Horses for courses I guess, Good times.
Cool story, Bruce. I can imagine what the drivers of the other cars must have thought, which due to the rules, I won’t attempt to repeat here… ;-)
I’ve always built cars that were as light as possible and powered by an under-stressed engine that put out a lot of torque, in relative terms. I always strived to have the finished products be both quick and reliable – and cornered significantly better than when the vehicles arrived at my place – and stopped without dramas.
With my own machines, it was always done on a tap-water budget.
Jim Hall,who worked on the Miata project said he tried to get it,
but wasn’t able to.He does own a Lotus Cortina.
So is this Barn Finds UK now? – I just HAD to ask,
with all the UK vehicles posted here lately.
I had a ’64 Elan (“S1-1/2”) years ago.incredible cars,
but you’ll work on one about as often as you drive one
Not all flares are a box flare, which refers to a vertical plane that’s bowed outwards to cover the wheels — see the BMW E30 M3, Lancia Delta Integrale, Audi Ur-Quattro, Porsche 944, and late wide-body Mitsubishi Starion for canonical examples of proper box flares.
So is this Barn Finds UK now? – I just HAD to ask,
with all the UK vehicles posted here lately.
I had a ’64 Elan (“S1-1/2”) years ago.incredible cars,
but you’ll work on one about as often as you drive one
Possibly the saddest thing I’ve seen was when driving home from work when I lived in England 30 odd years ago, was seeing an Elan fully on fire on the other side of the road. To this day I think about it and shed a tear…. and make sure all my old cars have current modern fuel lines to avoid this sort of tragedy!
car SubGothius! You beat me to the flare comment. You forgot to add Greenwood Corvette to the “box flair” comment! On this car “bubble flair” would be more appropriate.
Nice looking car!
I’d be interested to know how much difference shown wheels & tyres have on the “Finesse” these were noted for, especially when the original equipment tyre was only a 155×13.
Why are all the really cool small sport cars from everywhere but here? I think that Americans missed something along the way?
The Lotus Elan is pretty much the epitome of an all around great performer. Spent more time looking at them and helping with grunt work than riding or driving ! A couple of 12 year old boys helping to set body on frames under direction of a perfectionist (friends dad)…Close friends still, learned a lot !
@ wrong way…Where is “here” ? Which planet do you reside?
You may have missed something along the way too.
LMAO, I reside in the planet of North Dakota! LOL, I am laughing so hard I can’t hardly text! Darnit, I am a leftover 60s hippy! I can’t help it that I was into getting stoned! Until the USMC, sent my butt to Vietnam then the party was over! Now I am just kinda brain dead? LMAO
Go Sioux!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I can only imagine myself flying down a twisty country road with a Soviet spy on my tail and Emma Peel sitting next to me not too far away in the tiny cockpit of this Lotus.I have wanted an Elan since I was a kid watching The Avengers TV series dreaming about the car and the woman.
As far as the reliability issues this car is not unlike any other car, meaning it has quirks and those quirks must be tended to before they become stranding problems. Preventative maintenance.
As the owner of another sports car with a reputation for being ill tempered and unreliable, my 1974 Fiat X1/9 which I bought new and still drive regularly gave me a few unexpected lessons with only about 25,000 miles on the clock. An expensive lesson that was not mentioned in the manuel was changing that cam belt. What? a belt? for the cam shaft? Who heard of such a thing? After replacing the belt, 6 valves and some machine work on the head, the lesson was learned. I also learned from other Exe owners that the transmission must be kept full at all times because of main shaft bushings, not bearings that were located at near the oil level at its full point. Even a slightly low transmission oil level was disastrous. With internal CV joints (pre-79) it was guaranteed to drip oil. I faithfully kept the cam belt fresh and the transmission oil topped and here I am 44 years later and this car still runs like a swiss watch. I can put this car on like a spandex suit and drive it across the country tomorrow without a care. Getting in and out are the challenge now but its worth the effort. All smiles!
same, I’m not ‘out growing’ my car (cept round the waist) I’m ‘out aging’ it. Rusty hinges dont bend so well.