Bespoke Customisations....

[Jamie N]

A little bunch of recent Jamifications, a pair of OEM (Honda) front fogs , a deeper front lip , honey comb Grille , shiny stainless A pillar
bracket, and replacement screen edging trim.

The front fogs had to be substantially modified in order to conform with the Elan recess, I removed them from a 2001 Civic coupe, had
to heat weld plastic tabs on the rear in order to connect them as well. Really pleased how they turned out, and they make the front that
bit more interesting, never seen an Elan with fogs filling the space before.


The JDM number plate carrier came from a Toyota Supra, (the 90's one with the big spoiler), its pretty short but my plate is as well so all
good. The front lip is from a Vauxhall, it comes as a 2 piece but it needs some slight fettling in order to correspond (mostly just the
hairdryer on high temp setting ). In 2 minds whether to cut away the bottom centre indented section so that it gives it a bit
extra shape.


A bit difficult to make out the custom grille, I might add a coloured border to it to give it a bit extra definition.


I think a white border might look ok, this is the full set of honey comb grilles, I think I prefer the fogs now that I have
them.


This is the newly done A pillar bracket and screen surrounds trims, they go right along the top of the screen and totally
transform the look from those utterly awful warped and cracked things that were originally on it, this has been
a job I have been meaning to do for a while, I cant actually remember the model the donor trims came from
but it was a newish Toyota. Very pleased how this area looks now, with the most recent version of Header / A pillar
seal and the polished steel bracket I don't think I could get it looking any neater and clean.
They don't require those little corner caps either, just angled against each other, keeps it tidy.


Lastly, just out of curiosity I fitted these Mini Cooper 16" alloys I have spare, I think they look ok, but not silver
on white, maybe charcoal grey or satin black.

[Elanlover]

Hmm.....you do know that the grillwork where you placed the fog lights are where the intercooler and oil cooler live right? Blocking that airflow could have serious ramifications on engine heat if the oil isn't being cooled. Your Turbo boost will suffer too when the intercooler isn't subjected to airflow. There are other ways to go regarding fog lights that don't block the entire area.

[Jamie N]

Hmm.....you do know that the grillwork where you placed the fog lights are where the intercooler and oil cooler live right? Blocking that airflow could have serious ramifications on engine heat if the oil isn't being cooled. Your Turbo boost will suffer too when the intercooler isn't subjected to airflow. There are other ways to go regarding fog lights that don't block the entire area.

And the reason that none of that matters one jot.... the Turbo engine will be replaced with a Honda K20 VTEC Type R,
Eventually .

There are actually gaps around the lamps and the surrounds, its not completely blocked, combined with the fact that
I hardly drive it and when I do it never gets hammered, having front fogs will make no difference whatsoever.

[GeoffSmith]

Hmm.....you do know that the grillwork where you placed the fog lights are where the intercooler and oil cooler live right? Blocking that airflow could have serious ramifications on engine heat if the oil isn't being cooled. Your Turbo boost will suffer too when the intercooler isn't subjected to airflow. There are other ways to go regarding fog lights that don't block the entire area.

And the reason that none of that matters one jot.... the Turbo engine will be replaced with a Honda K20 VTEC Type R,
Eventually .

There are actually gaps around the lamps and the surrounds, its not completely blocked, combined with the fact that
I hardly drive it and when I do it never gets hammered, having front fogs will make no difference whatsoever.

Unless you're driving on fog.

[par]

Foglights really suit the bumper and the lip looks quite neat, certainly better than the twisted piece of rubber that sits on the front of mine!

The wheels fill the arches nicely, I think charcoal grey would be the best options for the colour.

[Steve A]

Yet more innovations to be applauded, all clever stuff

[Rambo]

I hardly drive it and when I do it never gets hammered....

That must be the understatement of the year That bumper is so pristine white the car must have been kept in the garage since last I saw it Nae stone chips, tar stains, dead midges, scratches etc.. WTF is going on Jamie ? You must get out and drive it more

PS I like the grille and foglights. Nice work from the rubber maestro

[Scott J]

Lotus = should be hammered frequently .

[Jamie N]

Lotus = should be hammered frequently .

Lotus... In this salty area...should be Hammerited frequently! .

Rest assured Scott when the K20 goes in it will get plenty V-TEC engagement ,
That should be on your list of mods for the Elise, a different league of hammering
altogether ! .

Definitely no Midges in this place Mark, the filthy diesel fumes keep them well in check .

[Simon_P]

And watch the value of your car plummet!

Nicely done, but in my humble opinion modern sparkly bits on an old car are more mutton dressed as lamb rather than wolf in sheep's clothing.

[Jamie N]

And watch the value of your car plummet!

No need to worry about the value of my car Simon, with a K20 in residence under the bonnet
I can assure you it will never be for sale anyway, if it suddenly became worth 900 quid
I couldn't be less bothered, honestly, it's value with a superior engine like a K20 isn't even in
the equation.

Strangely though when fitted to an Elise the price sky rockets through the roof!, I wonder how
you came to that conclusion with no other K20 Elan on Earth to base it on?, or was that just
surmising.

At the end of the day it's just a car, and it's my car, to de-value whichever way I choose .

[par]

Put me at the front of the queue to buy your Elan once it is fitted with a K20 if you do go down that road!

More than happy to pay you 50% of the value of a similar Elan which has a less modern, less powerful, less supported engine which you struggle to get parts for

[Steve A]

As long as the conversion is done well (that's a given with Jamie) others would soon consider going the same way
if the isuzu unit becomes uneconomical to replace or repair.

If this was a mark 1 Lotus cortina then you'd be mad but at the moment the Elan just isn't that classic.

[Scott J]

And watch the value of your car plummet!

Strangely though when fitted to an Elise the price sky rockets through the roof!, I wonder how
you came to that conclusion with no other K20 Elan on Earth to base it on?, or was that just
surmising.

.

True, and Honda powered Elise is worth £10,000 more . The grills your making, need something similar to replace the chicken wire above Elise rear diffuser .

[Simon_P]

Agreed, your car, do as you like - makes the value of mine go up.

Experience.

Originality, originality, originality!

Sure they are not all that classic yet, but it's the good original ones that have the value.

The Isuzu unit won't become uneconomic to repair, it will make the value of a good one go up.

The car with a replacement engine will struggle to reach the value of the donor car plus the engine. But it will have lost the value of the original engine.

This is a front wheel drive elan, comparison with an elise is somewhat futile.

Have you seen the cost of tool boxes recently?

[wayne]

Sorry, I don't mean to sound negative, but Wouldn't the fog lights block air flow to the oil cooler and Turbo charge cooler??
Would there be a noticeable difference in performance with the lack of cooling?

[Giniw]

(viewtopic.php?f=30&t=26607#p339674 )

[wayne]

Looks well maid Jamie, but I prefer to keep things original. Good luck.

[ElanBRG]

Sorry, I don't mean to sound negative, but Wouldn't the fog lights block air flow to the oil cooler and Turbo charge cooler??
Would there be a noticeable difference in performance with the lack of cooling?

Yeah, I wouldn't drive the car with that much restriction on the oil cooler. Not sure I really like the look either. It's better when the lens of the light fills the entire opening like on the later Esprits.

[Nick Brough]

Agreed, your car, do as you like - makes the value of mine go up.

Experience.

Originality, originality, originality!

Sure they are not all that classic yet, but it's the good original ones that have the value.

The Isuzu unit won't become uneconomic to repair, it will make the value of a good one go up.

The car with a replacement engine will struggle to reach the value of the donor car plus the engine. But it will have lost the value of the original engine.

This is a front wheel drive elan, comparison with an elise is somewhat futile.

Have you seen the cost of tool boxes recently?

After over 37 years of buying classic / collector cars, (ok some weren’t classic when I bought them, 3 year old 1978 MK2 RS2000 for example), my advice would usually be to keep the car original as possible. Who wants to see a rover v8 in a Bugatti Type 55 for example?

However, and I don’t want to upset anyone here as I am new to Lotus ownership and the front wheel drive Elan in my opinion is currently very undervalued at present, what we are talking here is a different kettle of fish. Firstly, with the greatest of respect the Elan M100 is not particularly rare and not particularly high end, so values will rise I am sure but I don’t think they will go stratospheric, (should have kept that RS2000). Secondly, the engine as I understand it was originally going to be a Toyota, so a Honda engine, which I think is the proposed engine replacement, in my opinion would be commensurate.

Finally, again in my opinion it is probably best to buy a classic or potential classic that you like, modify it how you want within reason, (Ken Atwell who started off the whole replica market in the 1980’s put a XR3i engine in his), and see it as a distinct advantage if it does rise in value.

Or, if you really want to buy a sure fire gilt edged classic investment buy my cars when I sell them as my last 4 have rocketed in value a couple of years after I sold them!!!!. Although, there is a rumour going round I once sold a classic car for more than I paid for it.

I think this project of Jamie’s sounds really interesting I look forward to watching it progress, I would advise keeping the old engine though in case. I don't want to frighten you or put you off, the government are proposing changes in modified classics I think even in the worst case scenario you will be ok, unlike myself who having put a car through IVA last year now find they are proposing bringinging in retrospective emissions tests that my non cat 4 quad webber engined car will have no chance passing an MOT.

Nick