Hello my friends,
my wife and me we are planning to build a new home in short/midterm on a recently bought plot. Building houses has got so expensive and unpredictable, we get old, 2 of 3 kids left home already, so we downsize, the garage will not be able to hold 6 cars. Three Elans and the misses car won’t fit, at least two must leave. I know I will deeply regret it, as I did with my 1st Lotus, a beautiful pacific blue Elan M100.
So, all are for sale. All cars are LHD and have German papers.
Please feel free to ask any questions.
1964 S1: originally swiss import, car was used for racing,
exported to Germany in 1971, falsely as S4. Original German papers.
Car is in completely knocked down.
Restored so far: body (slightly wider, like 26R, new lattice, doors adjusted and painted Cirrus White by GF specialist, includes hardtop), gearbox, differential, carburettors, engine (original cyl head, rebuilt by CTM, engine fully rebuilt by Behnke senior and mantained regularly)
Prepared are: new dashboard, new insulation mats, correct floor mats, wiring loom, seat covers, exhaust front to rear, galvanized chassis, all door parts are original and present, window mechanisms present, hood parts (not the hood itself), I think I have all the correct instruments. I bought a few “bolts and nuts” kits from Susan Miller (chassis to body, suspension to body, etc), new front window. Some new body chrome parts.
I have the original brake system, not sure if I got the correct ones restored (maybe Girling 14)
Original hood mecanism, original suspension and a few new suspension parts.
Restored 4 bolt on wheels, with new inner chrome plates, no outer chrome rims.
All parts now located in my spanish warehouse in Tarragona. Sorry for that, but in Germany I have no place for storing body and such amount of boxes.
And I do not have pictures of all parts together, as even there is not enough space to do that and it would require days …
20.000€
That is the amount that I spent just on parts and body restoration.
**** SOLD ****
1966 S3 DHC (BRG): I have this car since 2005, after restored by previous owner as “car specialist”, put right (expensively) by Schaffner Racing (I worked 5 years in Switzerland). Well maintained afterwards by Behnke.
Now looked after by Auto Sigl, just changed some rubber parts and passed TÜV with no complaints at all. Car looks good, driving is good.
What needs attention:
- I would one and for all change the (walnut?) dashboard for an original one and change the wiring loom, both of which you would get with the car.
- Leather of seats could get a fresh up.
- tires are 5 or 6 years old
- in the near future donuts should be changed, they are about 10 years old.
As the sale is managed by Auto Sigl, please contact them (autohaus-sigl.de/ for details)
I might add, it is reasonable priced (not as many other German Elan currently offered online)
Pictures from 2020 here: drive.google.com/drive/folders/ … drive_link
1969 S4 FHC (red, not original). PO is the son of Behnke (Lotus importer in the 70s) who bought a seized car, fully restored it with new parts where available (at the time) and then stored it unfinished for 13 years. The car’s interior was unfinished and the engine was untouched. On purchase I restored the interior and changed the wiring harness (with some help from an Elan specialist). After a specialist checked the engine (white smoke, wrong carbs, block needed reboring), an engine rebuild was due. Brian Buckland suggested and carried out the engine swap, with a new engine rebuilt by him.
Car has been driven to Spain (1800km), needs final valve adjustment and timing is not right (too early). Car is not running at the moment as Brian suggested changing the donuts due to age. I started to do this and am stuck, cannot believe I did this on my S3 10 years ago with no problems. Still waiting for the specialist for a “house call”.
Car cost me 25K€ then, I spent 20K€ on it (history repeats), yours for 25K€.
Car will be available when donut change is done (I think any date before Christmas is too much to hope for) and TÜV is renewed.
Pictures from 2020 here: drive.google.com/drive/folders/ … sp=sharing
You are bringing a tear to my eye.
Sorry to hear you let them go, but it‘s good to downsize with age.
Philipp
You are right. Even when I was “younger”, I once had 4 cars. It was depressing to see how much care they needed over time, there was always something work on at least two cars, sometimes on all 4 … I kept the Elan (guess why) and sold the other three. It was a liberation.
which makes it even more difficult: not only you have to part with your pride and joy, but you are compelled to accept that you are ageing…
During a Lotus gathering some years ago a young lad proudly boasted that he owned four Europas but none of them were operable. From the other end of the bar came the droll reply, “That’s two more than you’ll ever have time to work on in this lifetime.”
Even if he manages to finish the 4 cars, what makes it even more difficult is that even if you finish, something is always more to do or something completely different breaks. Like a house. Or the wife
S3 DHC is sold. At least one more to go
Hi Gherit,
I have sent you a PM if that’s ok
Cheers
Alan