Hi Andy, thanks for the response - it’s an impressive design; shame it’s a one off.
Ollie
Hope this is open to plus2 as well.
Here is a young man and his dads newly acquired plus 2 in 1977. The plus 2 is still recognisable but the young, slim, hairy, fashionable boy is not 
This is one from either 1977 or 1978, I wasn’t so picky about labeling or explaining the photo albums back then. It will be some time after I’d bought it as it originally had a score down the driver’s door & rear wing which I sprayed in the first few weeks of ownership.
I think the bonnet with Stromberg bulge is original to the car as it’s one of the last S3’s and registered after the Stromberg S4 had been shown. It also originally had a silver stick-on band underneath the stainless steel sill trim which I removed at the same time because it was stone-chipped away at either end and of course I hadn’t any spare cash to buy another one from Lotus
Nope, it was in July 1971 that it left the factory. It had had, if I recall, something like five owners in five years and it was one of them that painted in the black and silver details, including the wheels. Twin sun visors were standardised as a fitment from mid 1971 onwards.
Tim
Roy - does yours still look like the pics from the 70’s or is it more like the avatar picture now?
Sadly, it’s as in the avatar! 
However, I can see light at the end of the tunnel with the work on the house so I am aiming at 2012 to restart on the Elan.
Whoops, sorry! Off topic.
Roy
'65 S2
Roy
I think the S2 is great. A coat of paint and toss the engine back in and Go!
Please don’t remove the flairs and loose the past history. It would make look just like all of the other sweet Elan’s. Yours has great character and and a clearly defined past that says this is “MY” Elan.
p-a
as far as photos go, I think there may be some from the 76 to 78 period at my parents house but they won’t be found until some time in the future
Roy
Definitely keep the history - quick polish, put the engine in (maybe engine in first then polish) and drive it!
Come on time is ticking and I reckon there are less than a few of us driving our elans as it is.
A quick polish? Ah, if only…!
What MUST be done is rebuilding the sill latices and sills. Not a job I am looking forward to as I am a ‘nuts and bolts’ man, not a ‘fibre fill and paint’ man.
The engine is ready and waiting…
Roy
'65 S2
Here are some older snaps of my Elan.
The first is from a camping trip to Torquay in 1972 when the Elan belonged to a friend. My car was the cracking little modified Mini (I wish I still had it). The ‘L’ plate was because I was teaching my Mum to drive (In fact the car was hers - but I took it over, modified it and made it just about impossible for her to drive!!).
Down the lanes the Mini and the Elan were very well matched. The Corsair GT didn’t stand a chance.
The second photo is from '73 after I had bought the Elan and painted it in JPS colours. I had also taken a trip through a fence! Mini is in the foreground.
I wonder if I’ve still got the tanktop?
The third photo shows the Elan rotting in a garage sometime in the early '90s prior to its restorarion
Nice jumper!
Another JPS paint-job too. 
Interesting that the dealer fitted stick on registration plate to the bonnet.
And look at that expanding briefcase, the content of which would these days no doubt fit onto an iPhone!
Tim
Roy bought the kit from Cheshunt, but had a garage local to him in Brightlingsea assemble it. It seems the stick on plate was a temporary fix, later photos show the car to have the standard numbers in the grille.
Roy kept everything, in the early 70’s he moved the the US and took the Elan with him, thirty or forty years later I re-imported the Elan to the UK, in the boot was the original UK rear number plate, on the back panel were the original plastic number plate bolts - minutes later the plate was reattached… I still have to sort out that re-registration business with the DVLA, but it should be alright because of the heap of supporting documentation.
How’s this one for a 1970’s colour and photo. I do not have an actual date as it was in a previous ownwership then. I think this is quite an early photo as I know the car wasn’t registered until May 74, had been damaged and off the road by about 1980/81 and also had been repainted red over white in between.
I know Tawny was the original colour and I can’t see that it would have any paintwork done yet the lower strip under the door is not painted black so did some escape the factory without this being done?
Finally found a picture of my first Elan. This must have been after our honeymoon as this morgan arrived sometime later. I changed the elan’s head gasket in an outside carpark at a posh Austrian Hotel.
Ive got round to it, heres 2 pics. The red S1 was in 1969 and the Sprint is our wedding in 1974. The car was sold shortly after, as we needed furniture, for ?1450. 30 years later we bought our current Elan which, we were only discussing on Saturday, was one of the best things we ever did. The people weve met, places weve been, friends weve made. Not you lot, obviously. Jim P.S. Though I dont have the Sprint, I do still have the wife and the jacket.
This thread makes me think that “Elans are wasted on the young”.
The number that are driven hard while we were in our teens and 20’s, then filed away for many years before being reclaimed and restored. Closest I can get is my avatar photo from 1981, and now the frame is out and we’re trying to start forward progress to get back on the road.
P-A and others, glad to hear some shouting “save the character”. This is truly “my Elan”, and I still love the lines and the Europa wheels.
Great thread. If I can find a “before” photo, I’ll post later.
Dave
the photo is of our elan at the 1968 crimond sprint using a parachute as brakes. taken from the scottish clubman magazine of oct 1968. driven by robin johnston.
