Dear all,
As I am new to the forum I thought I would introduce myself and my pride & joy. My wife calls my +2 ‘The other Woman’ and gets a bit miffed at the attention that gets lavished on it.
Anyway car is 1969 Elan +2S 50/1705 so an earlyish ‘S’. Its had a full Spyder ‘factory’ conversion to 2.0 zetec with 180bhp & 165 lb torque (more than enough), colour is Royal Blue and was sprayed by myself 4 years ago, I was at Castle Combe for the track day in May and got lots of nice comments. I owned the car for 4 years in standard trim and really liked it, but just wanted a bit extra on the day to day driveability.
My opinion on the Spyder conversion is that its no different to what Caterham do with their 7’s, they have taken a great concept and refined certain areas whilst keeping the character of the car intact.
thanks for the pictures, 910CBL Red series 2 elite belongs to a good friend of mine (Don Hands) the picture was taken late summer last year outside his house near Ipswich. Unfortunately the Elite is up on the ramps feeling sorry for itself at the moment with suspected head gasket failure (we hope), if it’s anything more serious then there will be a very big bill, think two twincam rebuilds and some more… ouch .
A nice tidy job, I guess you did it all yourself, Spyder rarely achieve that standard.
Where did you get the idea of the LOTUS lettering on tha cam cover, from looking under the bonnet of a metallic blue S4 Zetec Elan maybe?
I often have a sneaky peek at other peoples cars I own an architectural ironmongers (posh term for bloke who sells hinges and handles) and we engrave and stove enamel signs, so the cam cover was no problem, I also have a sticker that fits over the electric shock hazard part, it says ‘WARNING, PROLONGED USE MAY CAUSE ADDICTION’.
My Wife is hankering after an S4 DHC, I doubt if I will get a good one for under ?20k so it looks like another of Mr Chapman’s creations will become a donor for the Zetec treatment.
Spyder built the whole car for me and did a proper job imho, although the paint was by me and I have spent a good 30+ hours spannering to get it ‘perfick’ as we say down here in Kent.
There are plenty of good S4 dhc / Sprint cars for under ?20k. As you appear to be handy with the spanners you could spend less and do the tweaking yourself.
Steve,
Only just got round to looking at this, thanks for finding me something ?250 less than ?20,000
Seriously I am either looking to spend ?30,000 on a really good car thats been freshly restored or to restore a basket case from the ground up, possibly with a Zetec or at least with throttle bodies on an original twincam (my wife and carburettors don’t get on ). This car will be for my wife and frankly she has no mechanical sympathy to speak of, warning lights (including low petrol) are studiously ignored, rotoflex couplings are summarily destroyed, under dash hanbrakes are used to suspend shopping bags and of course the choke control is a handy device to hang her handbag from, preferably fully extended of course
I fear that an original car will be wasted on her (and me)
I love the colour you have here. Is it definitely royal blue? I’m restoring a 69 S4, and planning to use the original royal blue . However it looks a bit dark on the europa at elan-archive-f16/royal-blue-elan-t5394.html). Your colour looks a little closer the very vivid, possibly jazz blue on contemporary VW/Audi/Ford Focus.
Pete
Its definitely Royal Blue, but you have to consider that it’s modern basecoat and clear paint and is highly glossy. In different lights it appears deeper or lighter in hue. The original cellulose and acrylic paints used by the factory in the 60"s and 70"s wouldn’t have had the depth of shine, so period photos will look a different shade depending on the light conditions. Any of the keen photographers on here will tell you about the importance of lighting conditions, for instance the colour of my interior is a very tasteful light tan leather, but the photos make it look a sickly shade of mustard. I have the paint code for Royal Blue somewhere and its also printed on the spare tin of basecoat I have in reserve for any knocks or scrapes, I can look it up if you want.
Thanks Alan and Mike for rapid response which has convinced me to go with this colour. The codes would be helpful, and recommended primer colour. It’s original, with ‘contemporary twist’. Is there a paint and supplier you’d recommend (i’m in South West)? Best regards, Pete
The car belongs (belonged) to my friend Don Hands, I have emailed you his details, he has definitely sold ‘Cybil’ (CBL) to Paul Matty, but he is probably preparing the car for sale or has already sold it on to a waiting buyer.
Hi, i have stumbled upon this thread whilst trawling google in the hunt for a paint code
I am looking to paint my track car in the same blue that was found on the Tyrrell 009, which I was tipped off as being Ford royal blue from the 70’s, which seems to be the colour your Elan is! or at least a bloody good match.
Would you mind sharing the paint code? It would be much appreciated
The paint code is L09 Royal Blue PJ 6170Z1920 ICI P030 7557
It’s an original Lotus offered colour of the period, but they probably borrowed it from another manufacturer. I have had anoraks come up to me and tell me it’s a Porsche colour and they know this because their uncle’s best mates wife had a cousin who owned one… you get the picture I’m sure