Lotus Elan

Registration Q163 RFM

Chassis     Spydersport spaceframe

Body    Christopher Neil Sprint

Suspension    Double wishbones all round. Spitfire wheels

    front triumph spitfire rack & uprights, Lotus links, lotus coil over dampers

    rear Lotus lower link Home made uprights & upper link spax 1.875inch coil over dampers

Brakes front 9in. disc girling M14 calipers - rear same disc as front, renault 5 GT turbo calipers

Engine/gearbox    Alfa Romeo twin cam 1750 ca 1970

    Kent cams, dual weber 40DCOE carbs

Diff ford 3.55:1 RS2000 diff in lotus casing

Instrumentation    Graphics LCD display with home made 6502 based single board computer running PASCAL. Displayed mph in big numbers, analog bar graphs for rpm tank oil volts & fuel, also analogue clock date & day of week.. Trip & odometers. Looked well cool but nobody ever offered me a small fortune to do them some.

Built in a shed over about 3yrs, 1st registered around 1992. Cost around £7000 Driven 30000miles in 4 years. Pictured above being taken away after sale.

Seats - Cobra "sportscar recliners" fell apart in the end.

To drive - roof off, excellent. roof on, hell. Performance similar to original elan, handling gorgeous. Safety non existent, real death trap. Notable moments; fantastic performance hike when cams reground; bursting into flames at some traffic lights. Cam timing disaster - oops 4 new inlet valves.

Problems - getting parts for the old alfa engine, scrap yard bits are all knackered already, never finished internally (no carpets, plywood dash, wires hanging out. Oh dear, putting the roof up. Damp - until I built a car port!

Difficult parts to get; door frames, genuine lotus rear brakes, chapman struts, stub axles & hubs

Why did I do it? Well I had this engine & gearbox that needed a home. All available kit cars looked like a right dog's breakfast. The elan was called a kit by christopher neil but was effectively built from spare parts. This is a ruinously expensive way to build a vehicle. There are all sorts of specialist bits you need right down to door hinges. I would have been better off buying a basket case elan for the bits but sadly this was 1990 when "classic cars" were very silly money indeed.

BTW, the black lump behind the car by the front door of the house is a 2nd hand V8 engine to go in the next project........

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