1966 Lotus Elan FHC: The "Bought-not-Built" car

[2mAn]

**The Background**
The ol' "Built Not Bought" moniker has always been my Achilles heel. I love building cars, and have always wanted to build a car from scratch. So when a few years ago got my hands on a Spyder Frame, it was on!.. However, fast-forward a few years, my first child and many dollars later I didn't have much to show for it. After the second kid absorbed what little time I had left I made the tough decision to liquidate the projects... I was determined to finally buy an Aircooled 911, but with the requirement being not-a-project meant I was going to have to shell out all the pennies I collected from the liquidations AND would need to sell my 996 for a good price. After taking the 996 to the test drive of a few Aircooled 911s, I was disgusted at the whole 'market' and business that is people who profit off 911s. I think I repeated the phrase "I Hate how much I want a 911" at least a hundred times.... enter this particular Elan.

**The Alternative**

https://bringatrailer.com/listing/1966-lotus-coupe/

When this popped, I knew it looked familiar and immediately started doing my research on it. The car was listed here out of the UK, but the seller/ person who bought it from the UK seller had a thread on LotusTalk and I was able to start communicating with him there. I figured if I could get this for a fair price I wouldn't need to sell my 996 AND I would have a completed Elan to enjoy. Surprisingly the bidding never picked up and I was the highest bidder, but (not surprisingly) it didn't meet reserve. Long story short, Bryan was great and we agreed on a number that met our expectations in the middle. Win-win!

**The Plan**
Since its NOT a project car and went through an extensive revival there isn't too much I NEED to do, but there is always things I WANT, so in order of importance I have the first few items

1. Battery
2. Rear Wheels
3. Headlights
4. Look at me!

-Number One project I noticed in the picture was the battery didn't appear to be fully secured. I will get a closer look, but it appears to be secured from fore-aft movement, but not side to side. I plan to take this car into the canyons, so this needs to be secure.
-Number Two project is related to the Minilites. I LOVE Minilites and was going to get these for my own project, so these aren't going anywhere. In fact, I'm selling the two spare OEM Wheels so I can have a Minilite spare. However, the Minilites were listed as rubbing on cornering which is something that Tony Thompson also mentions (IN BOLD nonetheless) so this is another issue I will need to address before taking this to the canyons.
-Number Three project is to do something about the headlights. I know many aren't a fan of this look. I LOVE the 26R look, and I love having good headlights so I have a plan to improve this look. I think its one of the things that likely held people back on bidding.
-The Final, initial project will be to add brightness (see what I did there?). The Elan is tiny. We all know this, but the general public has no idea and ideally I want them to know I am there on the road with them. Normally for the Elan, I would want a bright color, but as I don't want to deal with a color change on the car YET I need to find some simple solutions to make the car more visible. Having good headlights is one item and one reason why I want to keep the Hellas. As for the car itself, I was thinking that removing and re-wrapping the 'bumpers' with a chrome vinyl wrap would be a good start. I know that the Elan normally has Silver bumpers, but I don't think that will attract attention like chrome will. Open to the communities suggestions here.

Overall, I am excited to learn RHD, all the quirks of the car and get a good feel for this car and have a long relationship.

[2mAn]

**The First Drive**
In the short drive that I had my impressions are that this car is going to be a hoot, but I have to definitely check off the tasks I listed above. The Seat adjustment will be first and I will try to get that done later today. It looks fairly straightforward, but we'll see...



NICE


Update: I moved the seat from the rear position to the front position so now I can sit in the car without needing a pillow behind me. Much easier than expected, which is great news for when I want to try out the 26R seat.

Project (0)

Up next, Project (1) …

I will probably sort out the spare components and list up what I dont need.

[MrBurgundy]

Wow very off brand. Surprised it has an engine in it lol

[kronus]

a 60s lotus not hovering on a set of jackstands is a sight to behold, indeed. beautiful car.

[2mAn]

Project (1) - Battery

Reusing the pic from the auction, but this is how it looks sitting in place.



Removing the battery and assessing the space, so I can compare the width & depth I had to use. It appears there has been some fresh fiberglass in place, either as a reinforcement or repair. Still looks good and isnt a concern for me. (How about you?)





The Plan

As an avid 'dumpster diver' I had already scoured the classifieds on Lotus Talk and found a homemade battery bracket that was designed for use in an Elise and using a DEKA ETX20L Battery. Might save a few pounds in this process, but the aim was more to have it secure for my canyon runs. Bracket is en-route where I will confirm if it was worth the 2- Jacksons I spent on it.


I will buy the battery once that's all confirmed and see if I can check this off and move on to Project (2)

[MrBurgundy]

How is RDH?

[roguetoaster]

Well, hell. This is one I envy. As a child, my Dad had an Elan in the back of the garage. BRG, not sure what engine it had, or even what year it was, but I loved climbing over the junk behind it to "drive" it. It got sold without me ever getting a ride in it, probably before I was 10.

I really didn't know they went so cheap. Nice pick up.

[2mAn]

MrBurgundy The hardest part of driving RHD isnt the shifting as I thought, it was more about placement of the car in the lanes and on the road. Luckily this thing is so small I could drive it in the middle of the lane and still be inside it!

roguetoaster thats cool, my Dad never had anything cool growing up. Still no idea how I became such a nutjob with cars, but here we are... I paid more than the high bid that didnt win it, but it was certainly a bargain next to the $50k+ Aircooled Porsches I was getting annoyed with.

kronus Thanks, just need to figure out what to do with the German cars now...

[OSAH racing]

Lotus for the driving enthusiast Win. I learned to drive in a 1960 MG A. Those close ratio boxes and screaming little motors really heighten the experience. Well done.

[82eye]

this is infinitely more interesting than another porsche. good job.

[varg]

You have a lot of good driving roads out there, a sorted vintage Lotus seems like a good car for that. I'm inclined to think that you aren't missing out on as much as you think with air cooled Porsches, they don't seem remotely worth the price of admission to me. But, the only aircooled variants in my range are projects or lame stuff like convertibles with automatic transmissions, if you could buy a 964 turbo instead of a hairdresser spec car for $50k maybe I'd be more interested in them. My main concern with RHD cars when I was looking at RX7s is that in my area there are a lot of left turn lanes cut into the medians of divided highways and when you're in a turn lane with opposing traffic it's hard to see around big modern cars in the left seat of a small car, let alone the right. An Elan is such a tiny car you probably can't see anything from left or right side though. I once saw a RHD car with one of those rectangular convex mirrors mounted on the inside of the passenger side A pillar for situations like what I described above.

[E30SPDFRK]

Hell yeah, finally! I was amazed the bidding on that one didn't go higher too. I think the wrap and modifications scared most of the typical buyers away

[uturn]

How is RDH?

RHD is not that bad...it's driving on the left and then coming back to America and driving on the right that will get you.(vice versa) I've turned into oncoming traffic a couple times...