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Interesting article......Daily Telegraph

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It looks very nice, but once the chassis and all the running gear are replaced, the engined swapped for a Ford and the interior gutted... is it still a Lotus?

Just as there are lots of Lotus 7 Kit cars about is this an foretaste- for there can't be that many old ones to cannibalize....
 
Well, they've been doing Lotus stuff for years and years, so I guess they're reasonably sympathetic. And at the end of the day, that's what really matters - being in keeping with the original design. Isn't it?
 
Well I for one like the idea. The spyder chassis doesn't detract anything from the value of a Lotus, and it's the same for Spyder sourced suspension parts. The thought of a nice reliable Zetec twink with a 5 speed sounds like just the ticket.

You can bet Colin Chapman would have fit one of those motors into a Lotus of some description some time ago...

And really you could just keep the original motor and switch back if you felt the need...
 
[ QUOTE ]
the engined swapped for a Ford... is it still a Lotus?

[/ QUOTE ]

As the Elan engines were all based on the venerable Kent unit, a Ford engine, spiritullay it is still in synch with the original. Now if it were replaced with a Japanese twin cam it would certainly be wrong. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cheers.gif
 
Look what they're usin' in the Elise. I think it's sacreledge, but still gotta give Lotus credit: reliability is gonna be "way up there" by comparison... and better'n a Ree-nault unit by far.
 
I'm a bit conflicted about it - the result sounds really nice but I'd feel really bad for hacking up an old Lotus. Perhaps if a really rough example that was nothing more than a shell was used.
 
I'm generally not in favor of this kind of thing but, in this case, I like the idea for the following reasons:

1) Spyder has been improving Elans for years and they're well accepted by Lotus owners. Their frames have been used for many years & they have a great reputation. They are a vast improvement over the original folded sheet metal frame that was a Lotus production short-cut to begin with. Very few owners consider a Spyder frame to be a negative when evaluating an Elan.

2) There's a good supply of cars that will probably never be restored properly anyway. Elans are deceptive - a car that looks to be in fairly good shape can be a real money pit to just get running well, never mind restore.

They're great cars, either way. My ideal Elan would have an original Twink but would use the Spyder frame & suspension but I still think this conversion is a good one.
 
Must agree, John, on all comments. The original box section frame is prone to a number of failures, both from stress and corrosion. Both of my cars are currently inoperable due to frame damage from these problems. S3 has cracked across the lower "shelf" due to differential stresses and the +2 suffered collapse of the right front upright from DPO neglect of the drain holes... and I've seen many other Elan frames fail at other points. Spyder has an elegant solution, unfortunately it just is not in my budget for the time being. If it were otherwise, I wouldn't hesitate to replace the originals with Spyder units.
 
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