Lotus Elan Central

by **XiPHiAS** » Sat 17.05.2008, 23:07

Let me re-introduce myself... :smt039

A couple of years ago I was already a member of LEC for some years, I had a '92 Calypso Red Lotus Elan from 1999 to 2002.
For older members and regulars I am the person that introduced the Red Elan with the Esprit V8 font and back. So i'm very happy to see some people made my dream come tru trough the years I was offline. There are still some pictures on the forum from my previously owned Elan.

But a little help (my first elan):

So today was a very happy day for me, after 6 years i've bought me a Lotus Elan again. In 2002 I need to sell my Elan because I need the money to invest in my company, and I missed the Elan and the Belgian Lotus Club alot.

So everyting is going well (privatly and business) now; so I was thinking it is the right moment to buy again a Lotus Elan. :smt050

After a long but good search i've found the right Elan in Germany.
As u saw the last week i've gave a good input to Gazza for his S2 registry :p

So i've bought me a '91 Calypso Red Lotus Elan SE with 31.250km (19.417 miles) on the clock. Yes, 31.250km ... I think one of the last Elans with such a low mileage. I was actually looking for a yellow one, but I couldn't find a good one... The two yellow Elans i've found was one with +140.000km (Belgium) and one with +65.000km very very far (+-10h driving for me) in Germany but... the low mileage of the red one I bought was for me "the reason" to go again for the red one. Also it was not so far ... The car was just 265km away from my home... :roll:

Future plans are :
- full checkup - check!
- minor body repair
- inox exaust - check!
- AP big-brakes - check!
- shortshifter - check!
- some engine tuning - check!

Pictures of my new one will folow asap.

ps. I am Belgian, so my English is not exellent.

by **Dico** » Sun 18.05.2008, 08:07

Welcome back. Sounds like you got yourself a nice example.
I daren't ever sell mine as I know I would only regret it.

Btw - Your English is better than most on here

(including mine)

by **John_W** » Sun 18.05.2008, 09:31

XiPHiAS,
I remember your ideas for Esprit body styling on the Elan. They have been referred to many times. Stevo tried to use your ideas when he was modifying and re-spraying the body on his car, however ran out of time to incorporate the Esprit front.

If you've been away for six years, you have a lot of reading to do to find out what's been happening. Don't miss ElanScan, Mountain chips, brake upgrades, hard-top, or Samco water hoses.

Welcome back. I hope you enjoy the Elan as much the second time around. It says a lot that you liked the Elan so much you bought another one. It certainly sounds like you found a good one.

John

by **TJi** » Sun 18.05.2008, 20:43

There must be a law of conservation of Elans in Germany. I bring one in, you take one out... :wink:

- J

by **XiPHiAS** » Sun 18.05.2008, 21:29

TJi wrote:There must be a law of conservation of Elans in Germany. I bring one in, you take one out...

- J

Belgium is (almost) a part of Germany

It was just 265km from my home... that's closer than Aachen to Frankfurt

by **F1 LOTUS** » Sun 18.05.2008, 21:41

Welcome back - so you gonna go ahead and do this now? :poke:

by **XiPHiAS** » Sun 18.05.2008, 21:48

F1 LOTUS wrote:Welcome back - so you gonna go ahead and do this now?

I think not, but people that know me ... *ahum* :smt033

First I start with some technical and performance modifications. Like an AP brakesystem, INOX full exhaust system, suspension, sport clutch and shortshifter and then ... "engine tuning". My target is ~250hp

When the car is technical 250% better than the original Elan :-D

, I will think about the future exterior plans.
But at this moment the performance is my highest priority.

by **XiPHiAS** » Wed 21.05.2008, 20:58

Today I did some work ...

* Visited the Belgian Lotus importer (Antwerp) for some necessary documents. Because the car is older than 1996, there are no "european testimony papers" with the car but I don't know the right word for this in English ... anyone?
Costs : 121€

* Visited the Belgian customs for importing the car into Belgium
Costs : 0.10€

by **dermotbell** » Wed 21.05.2008, 23:31

In our country this means Gordo Brown can't tax us for having a car that produces more emissions than allowed even tho' the car was made after thge law was introduced.

However as he has changed the classic car tax law he probably has lost nothing. :evil:

by **XiPHiAS** » Fri 23.05.2008, 08:54

Today i've got confirmation of my personalised numberplate (620€) ... :smt033

In Belgium we had XXX.000 ...
( x : letter - 0 : number)

But within some weeks we have a new combination 000.XXX
Yesterday they announced on the radio and internet that the new combination will be available soon ... So I reserved 100.TUS directly. :-D

If U pay more (874€) U can have a numberplate with 5 caracters to, but it's always with 2 x 0 or 3 x 0 and I could't find a nice combination.

Here in Belgium personalised numberplates are very rare, I don't know why ... I see in England and US that personalised numberplates are more normal than here ... I dunno why ... Maybe the price?

by **TJi** » Fri 23.05.2008, 12:14

Considering three of my last five cars have cost less than €847 :smt119

, I'd say ya, price has something to do with it.

- J

by **XiPHiAS** » Tue 27.05.2008, 22:26

Tomorow is a bigg day ...

I have an appointment with the checkup-center (MOT?) so normally I will be streetlegal alround noon. woohoo!

by **Doug** » Thu 29.05.2008, 06:22

Welcome Back!!

:smt039

by **Nige** » Thu 29.05.2008, 14:14

Welcome back. I remember the styling ideas and think they still look good. I do agree with you on getting the mechanical bits sorted out before the look of it though.

by **XiPHiAS** » Sun 08.06.2008, 21:03

My car is in the garage at the moment ...

They did several things to my car.
- 2 new tyres (front)
- new front lip (was missing)
- did a small service and full checkup
- installed "Dave's" shortshiftkit

- goes to the checkup-centre (MOT in England??)
- installed a inox sport exhaust line

Normaly I will get my beauty at home at the middle of this week.
Then I can enjoy everything ... the new and very nice sound of the sport exhaustsystem, the feeling of the shortshift. I am so curious ...

And I've ordere the AP Racing big brake kit.

The delivery will take 3-4 weeks so they will on within a month. (i hope)

by **John_W** » Sun 08.06.2008, 21:10

Sounds like you're going to town and doing it properly. A nice Everest chip would go nicely with the new brakes.

Enjoy the summer.

John :burnout:

by **XiPHiAS** » Sun 08.06.2008, 21:12

oh ...

The 'special order' KW suspension is delayed. My Girlfriend decided that -if I buy me a toy she also need somthing nice-... so we ordered a 5 persons Jacuzzi

So the KW suspension is for next year...

Because the original brakes are crap, I made the decision to do the brakes first ...

At this moment I am inspecting the website of "Mountain Chips" I think that ECU's give me more 'riable' power out of my little Lotus. For me the Elan is fast enough but a little bit more is always nice

but the brakes need to be done first... :-D

And aside of that... I am searching for info to modify the engine. I like to have a Bailey Motorsport or HKS blowoff valve, some nice Samco hoses and doing some experiments with different intakes if my ElanScan interface is here.

So this will be a NICE summer !!

by **XiPHiAS** » Sun 22.06.2008, 20:47

Dave's Shortshift ... done

The shortshift give me a better feeling, the gearchanges are shorter.
I need some time to learn again and sift fast, but in my opinion ... it's one of the best mod I've done to my Elan already... like installing the inox exhaustline... the sound is so much better... :-D