Caught in the Classifieds: Lotus Elan 2 130/5
A classic Lotus Elan for the summer.
Lotus is a car company in the news at the moment. Whether it's the supposed complete new range of cars to be launched in the next five years, an announcement of a new motorsport initiative, or the frankly bizarre battle over the name in Formula 1, not a week seems to go by without the name cropping up as a headline in the motoring press.
Through all this, attention seems to be turning towards some of their classic models, and the Elan in particular. The two-seat Elan Sprint has been appreciating rapidly over the last few months, and there was even talk on Twitter of an example selling for £42,000 recently.
Usually when a car appreciates rapidly, the market quickly looks to a similar and cheaper alternative to fill a price gap that the rising star has just vacated and I suspect this may be the case with the Elan +2. Personally I prefer the looks of the larger +2 and it's also the more practical proposition.
The Elan +2 entered production in 1967 and was produced all the way through to 1975. Using basically the same architecture as the standard Elan, the backbone chassis was lengthened giving a wheelbase of 2.4 meters (incidentally the same length as the two-seater Ferrari V12 Berlinettas of the sixties), and allowing for an additional two seats. Lotus produced around 5,200 +2s in that time and it’s estimated around 1,200 remain roadworthy today.
At this point, in the interests of full disclosure, the car I have picked out is being sold by a friend of mine, Mark Shannon (www.markshannon.net) and if this article does lead to him selling the car, hopefully he'll buy me a beer!
This particular example is a later 1974 example which boasts the more powerful 130bhp engine and the five-speed gearbox. The colour scheme is particularly striking, with the exterior having been recently repainted in Olympic blue and an oatmeal coloured interior. The blue exterior looks like it would make an ideal base colour for a Gulf racing livery for anyone thinking of using the car for the annual pilgrimage to Le Mans. The +2 seating should give plenty of space for the tent and beer too.
The Achilles heel of all Elans is the backbone chassis. This suffers from corrosion and cracking, and many cars have had replacement chassis, either from Lotus themselves or from Spyder Engineering. This car has had the replacement chassis, although you will have to speak to Mark to confirm if this is a Lotus or Spyder item.
Update: The price has now been reduced to a very reasonable £9,950. If you're interested, the car is advertised on Pistonheads.
