The Background
The ol’ “Built Not Bought” moniker has always been my Achilles heel. I love building cars, and have always wanted to build a car from scratch. So when a few years ago got my hands on a Spyder Frame, it was on!.. However, fast-forward a few years, my first child and many dollars later I didn’t have much to show for it. After the second kid absorbed what little time I had left I made the tough decision to liquidate the projects… I was determined to finally buy an Aircooled 911, but with the requirement being not-a-project meant I was going to have to shell out all the pennies I collected from the liquidations AND would need to sell my 996 for a good price. After taking the 996 to the test drive of a few Aircooled 911s, I was disgusted at the whole ‘market’ and business that is people who profit off 911s. I think I repeated the phrase “I Hate how much I want a 911” at least a hundred times… enter this particular Elan.
The Alternative
When this popped, I knew it looked familiar and immediately started doing my research on it. The car was listed here out of the UK, but the seller/ person who bought it from the UK seller had a thread on LotusTalk and I was able to start communicating with him there. I figured if I could get this for a fair price I wouldn’t need to sell my 996 AND I would have a completed Elan to enjoy. Surprisingly the bidding never picked up and I was the highest bidder, but (not surprisingly) it didn’t meet reserve. Long story short, Bryan was great and we agreed on a number that met our expectations in the middle. Win-win!
The Plan
Since its NOT a project car and went through an extensive revival there isn’t too much I NEED to do, but there is always things I WANT, so in order of importance I have the first few items
- Battery
- Rear Wheels
- Headlights
- Look at me!
-Number One project I noticed in the picture was the battery didn’t appear to be fully secured. I will get a closer look, but it appears to be secured from fore-aft movement, but not side to side. I plan to take this car into the canyons, so this needs to be secure.
-Number Two project is related to the Minilites. I LOVE Minilites and was going to get these for my own project, so these aren’t going anywhere. In fact, I’m selling the two spare OEM Wheels so I can have a Minilite spare. However, the Minilites were listed as rubbing on cornering which is something that Tony Thompson also mentions (IN BOLD nonetheless) so this is another issue I will need to address before taking this to the canyons.
-Number Three project is to do something about the headlights. I know many aren’t a fan of this look. I LOVE the 26R look, and I love having good headlights so I have a plan to improve this look. I think its one of the things that likely held people back on bidding.
-The Final, initial project will be to add brightness (see what I did there?). The Elan is tiny. We all know this, but the general public has no idea and ideally I want them to know I am there on the road with them. Normally for the Elan, I would want a bright color, but as I don’t want to deal with a color change on the car YET I need to find some simple solutions to make the car more visible. Having good headlights is one item and one reason why I want to keep the Hellas. As for the car itself, I was thinking that removing and re-wrapping the ‘bumpers’ with a chrome vinyl wrap would be a good start. I know that the Elan normally has Silver bumpers, but I don’t think that will attract attention like chrome will. Open to the communities suggestions here.
Overall, I am excited to learn RHD, all the quirks of the car and get a good feel for this car and have a long relationship.
Looks pretty good.
