V8 Conversion? 1976 Lotus Eclat

The twin-cam ‘907’ engine originally fitted to the 1975-83 Lotus Eclat isn’t known for its longevity, although it makes a fair bit of power for its size. Someone felt that this particular Lotus Eclat deserved better, and has swapped out a Rover V-8 into this car, but there are still some jobs to be done. Thanks to my buddy Chuck F. for this cool find! It’s listed for sale here on craigslist and is located in Andover, Massachusetts. The asking price is $4,000.

So what exactly is a Lotus Eclat? Well, it’s a development of the Lotus Elite. No, not that Elite, this one, the ‘ugly’ one that Lotus introduced when the company was trying to overcome its “kit car” image! This change happened when the Brits decided to apply Value Added Tax to kit cars, something that previously allowed the effective price of kits to be significantly lower than completed cars. Unfortunately, the Elite had styling that became dated very quickly, so Lotus rushed the Eclat into production.

Here’s a 1976 Lotus brochure to show you what a nice Eclat would look like. Very few were imported to the US; I found one reference source that stated that there were about 1,500 produced; another source stated that less than 140 were federalized for US markets.

The pictures are a bit lacking on this car; this is the only interior picture included in the ad. I did find a post over here on Lotustalk.com where someone looked the car over about 5 months ago (and the Lotus Elan +2 that was hanging above this Eclat at the time) and they mention how tight the garage is where the Eclat is located. The ad tells us that this car is from Florida and has no rust (important, as despite having a fiberglass body, Eclat frames are known to rust badly). They also tell us that the car needs a fuel tank, needs both brake and electrical work (it is a Lotus, after all), and that the windshield is cracked. Believe it or not, I found a new windshield easily here for less than $600 delivered!

The seller describes the V-8 conversion as “hastily done and needs improvement.” There were kits to perform this conversion available in the UK in such a way that it looked factory; I hope one of those kits was used, and maybe the car would benefit from a thorough going-over with appropriate ty-wraps and clean-up supplies. The problem as I see it is that you’re going to have to want this car badly to go down this route; Eclats (and Elites) are not particularly loved by many Lotus connoisseurs and you’ll never get the money you’ll have to put into this car back out. Any Eclat lovers out there?