Introduction
Darren Rungasamy
The Elan maintains its associations with the great and the good, acting as a barometer as a standard of excellence.
An evolution of the much admired Elite, the Elan followed suit in 1962. Compact and elegantly styled, the inclusion of the durable Ford Twin-cam mated to a Lotus head, fitted into one of the most engaging and talented chassis ever produced by a British manufacturer. Utilising a one-piece glass-fibre body placed on a separate steel backbone chassis, the Elan was not only rigid, but the Elan's remarkable performance, handling precision and ride comfort set the standards for the compact sports car.
As the company developed the design, improvements made a great car even better and it's accepted that the Sprint is the quickest incarnation of the Elan. Arriving in 1970, the car was distinguished by its big-valve engine, offering a 25% power increase on what is already a gem of a Twin-Cam. Externally distinguishable by the gold stripe and Elan Sprint legend decoration, the Sprint is the one that petrolheads should seek.
This car comes to market from ~51 year ownership, and the car has gone through two restorations/rebuilds in its lifetime and has only covered 12,088 miles since 1992 when the odometer was reset. It has been pampered and garaged all of its life and has to be considered one of the best kept Elan Sprints currently on the market.
This listing was written from information supplied by Darren after meeting Nigel the owner, and having visited and photographed the vehicle.
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I was a previous almost highest bidder why has the car failed to sell
Sir,
Thank you for your previous bidding last autumn.
Briefly, the bidding failed to reach the “Reserve” price.
You are correct that although the bidding for my Elan Sprint, then, was very competitive, the highest bid fell just a little short of the value that I had hoped for, and so just a little less than the ” Reserve” price that was defined when the whole auctioning process (photographing etc.) was started.
Hi Nigel,
Lovely looking car. Can you confirm that when Peter Day did the rebuild, a completely new body shell was fitted.
Also, can you tell me what final drive ratio is fitted to the differential.
Shame you cannot accommodated a viewing.
Regards,
Peter.
Peter,
Good Morning and thanks for the inquiry.
YES, I can confirm that Peter Day (“Daytune”) restored the car using a whole – completely new body, supplied to him direct from Lotus. (supposedly / apparently Lotus made very small batches of whole car bodies like that for on going repairs / restorations, at that time).
It is fitted with a 3.55 Diff.
Hi Nigel,Lovely car. Can you please tell me what exactly the nature of the damage to the car was in 1973?Also what body and major mechanical items were replaced,for the car to be back on the road again,and who repeaired the car?Also,It looks like there is no brake servo fitted,could you please confirm?Many thanks.Roy.
Roy, Thanks for the questions.
Brake Servo, please see photo 17 in section ” Mechanical”.
I bought the nearly new car after ( I have always presumed) it had been spun by the first owner, with damage to the very front and a rear corner of the car.
Very few mechanical components needed to be renewed. At that time it was possible to buy (from Lotus) specific body parts so that you cut away the damage and (in effect) glue the new body parts into place, then respray the car ( I had the whole car resprayed by “London Sports Car Center”) then have the car “checked” by somebody from the DVLA (or what ever they were called then).
The car looked good, went very well ( including the honeymoon run to Southern Italy), but soon after all that my work took me abroad for about a year and then family affairs meant that the car was laid up for quite a while.
But in that time I decided to have the car restored professionally to concourse condition and I commissioned Peter Day of “Daytune” to undertake the rebuild, which mainly required him to build the car on (another Lotus galvanised and powder coated) chassis; get rid of my “repaired” body and fit a (Lotus supplied) whole body; to use all of the original component / parts, so to his (Peter Day) standard of rebuilds the car came back to me as (better than) new. (See photo No 34 in “History and Paperwork”
Through quite limited use since the rebuild and continuous garaging the car has barely deteriorated as the shown by the “Trade Classics” photo presentation and associated written descriptions for this auction – on my behalf.
Hi Nigel,Many thanks for your response,I see the servo now.I do have two other queries.Can you tell me if the engine is original to the car?I see an original engine number amongst the Peter Day paperwork,but the engine number on the V5 is clearly not correct for the car.What number is displayed on the engine block?Also,what was the original mileage of the car before the restoration? In other words,what mileage has the car covered in total, and is there any documentary evidence of this? I would really appreciate cleparification,as there appear to be several anomolies on the V5,emanating from the dvla.
Best regards,Roy.
The car went to Peter Day of Daytune for a “ground-up” rebuild with about 27000 miles on the ORIGINAL speedometer. He restored the car to a concourse as Brand New condition, for which he was renown. When I took delivery of the car from him, he had reset that same original “speedo” back zero, just prior to the MOT that he had organised, so the total mileage is about 27K + 12K, ie about 39K. There is no further documentation to confirm this.
I had not realised / noted the “strange” engine / chassis details on the V5 until your inquiry.
The details as noted by Peter Day are correct.
The engine/gearbox/differential/all interior/seats, hood, instruments (the oil pressure-combined temp gauge were renewed in “Smiths” as original) are all original. The Petrol tank has been renewed and the drive (flexi doughnuts) were renewed quite recently, and it had a new gear lever rubber gaiter. so really the car is the Peter Day Chassis and whole body (both supplied to him direct by/from Lotus) replacement, over all the original parts with little else ever requiring replacement.
Dear Nigel
Where and when might I come t view and test drive the car before the 13th. I’m in London and can pop up by train. Might you collect me from a railway station?
Best wishes
Iain
Hi Iain,
I have spoken to Nigel, unfortunately he doesn’t have any availability to view the car before the auction ends.
Best of luck if you decide to get involved in the bidding.
Thanks,
Colin.
Hi Nigel, the Elan appears to be lovely, but I would like to see it before bidding given the age of the restoration. It’s a shame, I’ve been told you have no availability to view before the auction end. Best of luck ?
Good morning, this Elan looks to have great integrity and I would like to see more, how do I arrange to visit the car? Many thanks.
Thank you for your comment; all inquiries of this type should be through Trade Classics.
Hi,
Like Nigel says, if you could send an email to hello@tradeclassics.com we can help arrange a viewing for you.
Thanks,
Colin.
Hello. I notice from one of the photos that the hood has a tear near the front nearside corner but this isn’t mentioned in the description. Is there any other damage? Thank you.
Thank you for your inquiry.
The car is now in excess of 51 years old and that hood is original.
The design of the hood – by Colin Chapman – has an ingenious but simple attachment to the body “cross bar” over the windscreen, using a simple fold over of its leading edge into wedge between the “cross bar” and an alloy rail. The whole design is for minimal weight / minimal parts and allows the hood to pack into a small space at the back of the car.
Having said that, when I first used the car in those early 1970s, the hood remained firmly attached, even at fairly sustained high speed.
The photo session, presented by Trade Classics, on my behalf, for this auction, was very comprehensive and was not done to mis-represent the car as it is now.
The hood does have a 10mm tear, exactly as you have noted. This occurred about (very approximately) 10 years ago and as I then learned the lesson to be a little more patient with it whilst putting the hood up, it has not deteriorated since then.
It’s very impressive that the hood is the original after all this time. Thank you for your reply.
Good morning fantastic looking sprint
There seems to be different reg plates
mentioned in the history can you clarify many thanks Paul
Sir, My Elan was originally registered with a 1973 “L” plate.
I was about to scrap my 1959 Morris Minor in favour of the Lotus, but although the reassignment of car registrations was not as normal then as it has now become, I de-registered the Morris and scrapped it to have the (3 letters/3numbers) registration assigned to the Lotus until my wife bought a new car (in 2010) – the Lotus was given another “L” plate, so that the wife’s car carried the Morris Minor number onwards, to date.
Vehicle Location
Bedford
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