1972 Lotus Elan Sprint

Lot details
Registration No: DFW300L
Chassis No: 72090547E
Mot Expiry: Aug 2013

The brainchild of Ron Hickman, Lotus's much vaunted Elan was based around a steel backbone chassis and clad with lightweight glassfibre reinforced plastic bodywork. The Sprint was the final iteration. Sold between 1971 and 1973, it was essentially an uprated version of the S4. Definitive production numbers don't exist, but history suggests around 52 S4s were converted to Sprint specification by the factory and around 1,353 Sprints were manufactured from scratch. Most featured the duo-tone livery that reflected Lotus's F1 sponsorship of the time. The majority were also built with a flat bonnet, as the bulge created for the previous Stromberg-engined cars was not required for the more powerful Sprint unit that was (initially) fed by a pair of Weber 40 DCOE carburettors. The change in carburation together with bigger inlet valves, a raised compression ratio, modified camshafts and redefined inlet ports resulted in a notable 20 percent hike in power.

This Sprint is a 1972 Fixed Head Coupe that's finished in Red and White and trimmed in Black. The vendor acquired `DFW 300L' in 2010 from long term family ownership and believes it to have had only two owners prior to him. He has invested circa £7,000 in the Lotus and now describes it as "a very usable car". It is MOT'd until August 2013.