1966 Lotus Elan S2 Rally Car

Lot details
Registration No: JVK 6D
Chassis No: 36/15661
Mot Expiry: None

`The definitive small-bore sportscar', as Car & Driver has termed it, the Elan was introduced at the 1962 Earls Court Motor Show. Based around a steel backbone chassis clad with a lightweight composite body, it rode on all-round independent suspension and also featured four-wheel disc brakes, pop-up headlights and integral bumpers. The engine was clever too, mounting a Harry Mundy designed light alloy twin-cam cylinder head on a cheap, robust and readily available Ford `Kent' bottom end, mated to a four-speed manual transmission. More than the sum of its parts, the diminutive Lotus redefined its class in terms of ride, handling and performance, thanks to Colin Chapman's superlative grasp of spring and damping rates resulting in a precise yet supple chassis.

All Elans are special, but this one is a proven winner. The vendor states that this car was completely restored on a new Tony Thompson chassis with a new lightweight bodyshell incorporating reinforced footwells and boot floor, foam-filled double-skinned underwings, diff cooling vents, Tony Thompson eight-point rollcage, plumbed-in fire extinguisher, and fully adjustable Koni suspension with 26R-spec front anti-roll bar. The engine is reportedly an all-steel John Smirthwaite-built Twin Cam utilising twin Weber 45DCOE carburettors and camshafts selected for a broad torque band to suit rally use. Other parts include straight-cut gears, uprated clutch, Tony Thompson driveshafts, Salisbury LSD, magnesium Minilite-style alloys, aluminium radiator / swirl pot and Tony Thompson competition exhaust. There's bias-adjustable braking, with the handbrake lever mounted on the transmission tunnel.

It comes with an impressive history of results: 1st-in-class and 10th overall in the 2001 Classic Marathon, 1st overall on the 2002 London-Lisbon rally and a 1st-in-class on the 2005 Rally of the Tests.

Unrallied for the past five years, this well-prepared Elan nevertheless has great potential.

PLEASE NOTE: This vehicle has a current MOT certificate expiring on 20/05/2011 and not as stated in the catalogue.

PLEASE NOTE: The vendor informs us that this lot is a Lotus Elan 'S2.5' built using a 36-prefix chassis number and not an Elan S2 as catalogued. The 36-prefix chassis number series was used for the Elan S3.