LPW120E - Chassis no 1

Appears to have reappeared! octane-magazine.com/carsfors … 219&page=1

Anyone feeling brave enough?

POA I wonder how much he wants for that old rust bucket?

John :wink:

I’m feeling brave enough, maybe just not rich enough…he wants ?15k ish for it :open_mouth: It would be a nice car to do though…

What sort of Plus 2 are you after Yandy?

Mark

WOW

number one would be great to own, anyone know who the first owner was? I’m guessing it was someone at Lotus?

?15k is a lot and it looks like a lot of the parts are missing.
Was this the one on all the adverts? I thought that was silver or white??

Has anyone put together a proper detailed list of what this condition car would take to get back to A1?

Wasn’t the factory demonstrators registered with “120” ? …supposed to refer to 120 mph
That registration alone is worth money…more then the that T4 9LAN that was in the for sales.

Caveat emptor - don’t forget Lotus were proficient at swapping registration & chassis plates when the need arose. The car may not exactly match the number plate… :wink:

:arrow_right: Matthew

From chatting with the guy, the car needs everything. The engine is siezed, the chassis rusty and the paint flaking…you can imagine what the rest is like. And the bumpers and lights are missing.

It’s really hard to work out what something like that is worth. The first registered owner was…some bloke called Colin Chapman. If it was just an early Plus 2, it would be maybe ?2000. With CABC as the first owner, and being the first press car, does that add ?10k or ?12k to the value? Maybe to some folks, but by the time it’s restored, there will be very little left of the original car. And some ?20k to ?30k would have to be spent.

I reckon it’s the car in the first brochure, and all they did was to put a bit of black tape on the bottom of the ‘E’ to make it an ‘F’, and make it look current…what d’ya think?

Mark

Thats the sort of job the Lotus factory should get/restore/keep.
They sold off a lot of their heritage-time they got some back!

If it’s truely the first one, I would think that would qualify it as historically significant and should increase its value significantly. I’d sure try to get a letter from Lotus confirming that it is indeed the first +2.

Bill

LPW120F was seen at donnington a few years ago, restored, it carried chassis number 14, is it still about?

From a historic point of view it would be nice to see number 1 restored, however how much of the original fittings exist? as to its value, I rekon in that condition its worth a couple of grand more than any other plus 2 and properly restored by “recognised” tradesmen it could carry a ?5K premium over an equivalent later car.

As for ownership of such a thing, I believe it would be as much a liability as an asset, you’d be loathe to drive it for fear of damage, daren’t park it any where, wouldn’t want it to get wet,etc…

As for ?15K in need of a total restoration… that would make that a ?45K+ plus 2… surely not viable, especially in todays uncertain economic climate. As a Lotus Heritage item it would make sense.

There’s no record of LPW 120 F on DVLA, but LPW 120 E is there…and it hasn’t been on the road since 1982. Perhaps ‘F’ was exported?

Looking at the chassis numbers on the Sports Car World site, chassis number 1 has no details recorded against it. All others were manufactured in or later that August 1967, which would make them ‘F’ registration. EXCEPT chassis number 11, which was made in Jan 1967.

Mark

Also, bear in mind the fate of the original Elan Coupe. Now sold & off to HongKong, but it languished @ Nutleys for between 2-3 years, trying to fina buyer @ ?30K if memory serves me correctly.

More details here:

nutleysports.co.uk/PHOTOGALLERY.htm

I hadn’t realised that it had sold. Nutleys bought the car at H&H auction in Cheltenham a couple of years ago for ?22k, and had it on their site, as you say Richard, for ages at about ?29k.

Using this car as the benchmark has to be the best way to value this Plus 2. LNK 120 C was used extensively for magazine tests, and was also owned by Chapman. So, more famous and I guess as a 2 seater, more valuable.

On this basis, the fully restored LPW 120 E maybe worth ?18k - ?20k at auction, and ?23k - ?25k retail through a dealer? It would cost at least ?25k to restore, making it worth as-is, from the simple sums, nothing! LNK cost over ?35k to restore, and of course, something to buy in the first place.

LPW has a parts value of somewhere around ?3k. Add something for the provenance and it sounds like ?5k - ?6k to me, and that’s not commercially viable…you’d have to do it for the fun of it.

Mark

Isn’t that what owning a Lotus is all about :question: :laughing: - the only way to avoid disappointment… :wink:

:arrow_right: Matthew

Matthew, of course you’re right from the standpont of an Elan nut, like most of us on here. I was just trying to work out what would be a reasonable price for the car as it is, and pretty obviously, it’s not viable for someone to buy to make a quck buck even it it was free!

I’d be interested if it was the right money, but we’re not on the same planet currently!

Mark

As my wise old dad used to say, something is only worth what somebody else is willing to pay you for it, even if you think it’s worth double. So, they can say LPW is worth ?15K as it is now, but it remains to be seen if they shift it at that price. Someone came all the way from Hong Kong to buy LNK120C,presumably at or near the ?29K asking price, ergo that’s what it’s worth (even if Nutleys had to wait well over a year for the buyer to come along).

I think I’m loosing my marbles!! OEH120F is number 14, one of the press/demonstrators… I think I should go and hide, theres some pics of it on trevor sparrows site.

Maybe the Plus 2 should be worth ?45K -?50K. To my mind there little that comes close to matching the style, race pedigree and design purity of the cars this side of an Aston Martin DB. Mabe the original build quality was a little suspect, but I don’t think contemporary Ferraris were particularly wonderful in this respect.

Still I’ve already got one and, as I’m not selling, I don’t really care how much the’re worth :laughing:

The real sad thing is, with paint at ?5k, a chassis ?1.5K+, interior ?1.5K?, it make no economic sense at all to do a Plus 2 up even if you’re given it for free. Thats why so many are now being broken up and sold for spares.

Still, at least for now there’s a plentiful supply of secondhand parts, and in future, when Plus 2 are really rare and hard to find, maybe we who’ve held on to ours will be the ones having the last laugh

Andy

Andy, after driving an Elan, you’d think that you were driving a truck if you hopped into a DB5 / DB6. They are truly horrible cars to drive…heavy, rolling and with a gearbox from the dark ages and steering from a dumper truck…my DB Cropmaster tractor illustrates where Aston developed their mechanical background. They do look stunning though!

I totally agree about the Plus 2, and can?t understand why they are valued the way they are. Even some 2 seat Elan owners seem to dismiss them?they obviously haven?t driven one!

Mark

Hi Mark

I bought my old Plus 2 for a parts car site unseen. When I went to pick it up it was way to nice a car to part out. I certainly would have made my money back and kept all of the bits I wanted for my Elans but I couldn’t bear the thought of ruining a very nice Lotus. My friend Bill stepped in and low balled me into selling. I am glad he bought it as it is nearly back on the road after 18 months of him working on it. Another one saved from the likes of me. Funny how Lotus cars are viewed by some folks (especially those that consider themselves Lotus addicts), years ago it was the Lotus Cortina that were the parts cars and now look at where they have gone…

Gary