Replacement headlights for M100

[yobm100]

I was sick and tired of those cheap motors that would always break for my front headlights. I went to a car modification shop and suggested that I remove the flip headlights and replace them with Nissan 300zx lights!
He told me that I would save as well on weight since these are much lighter. It turned out to be stunning!! This is what my car looks like today!! If some of you guys are interested to see how it was done, I will take a pic inside the hood.

take care guys.

Yohann from Montreal

lotuselanm100.JPG

[tweetdriver63]

That's an amazing coincidence. Just yesterday I was passing a 300ZX and wondering if those lights would fit an M100. I'm not planning to do anything like that since I recently replaced the motor on one side, and a rebuilt one for the other side is on its way to me as I type. I was just thinking.

Can you post a few more pics from different angles that show the fit/look a little better?

[texas2201]

almost a perfect fit - but not my cup of tea - I like pop ups

[yobm100]

It gives more a modern look than the original pop-ups. I saved some weight and the nicest thing is that I will NEVER have problems with these &^%! headlight motors!

[Don.Hasi]

My first thought was this: Seems to me, that they have had the same thought or nearly done it in the same way...

Kind regards

[uk08462]

What sort of light do they give in comparison to the standard usits?

[Nige]

Don, can't see your picture.

I've thought about this quite often and would be interested to see more pictures, particularly close ups of the external appearance and how thye lamp units are mounted in the car. There may be an issue with the legal height of the lights in the UK particularly if the car is lowered, I'm not sure. The simplification and less to go wrong is what appeals most.

[yobm100]

I will take more pictures today and will post them in about an hour from now. You will see what was done to fit those lights.

[Doug]

Yohann,

we had pics and details from another US Red Elan that had the same mod in the past, but that was years ago. It is interesting how close to perfect the fit was out of the box on the other. I never regularly drove the car at night, so headlight performance was low on my upgrade list, but it certainly will be higher on many others' lists.

-D

[dapinky]

To follow up on what Nige said about the height for UK use......

....firstly i can't imagine that our laws are any more stringent than US ones - remember what they had to do to the MGB lights high enough to get it saleable in America

That said, the laws regarding lights here are the Road Vehicl Lighting Regs 1989 - basically there has to be at least 500mm between the road surface and the bottom edge of the illuminated area of the lights (not the centre of the lens, but the bottom edge). Measurements are taken at Kerbweight with tyre pressures as per manufacturers specs.

(There's a lot more to it, but that is the one which is most likely to be failed on!)

[yobm100]

Ok here are the pics requested. The reinforcement metal bar was installed after the lights were added on. Like I said there's no wind noise at all and the car passed all provincial (Quebec, Canada) inspections after the modifications.

DSCF1144.JPG

DSCF1142.JPG

[The Ref]

that has got to be the worst mod i have ever seen . what is the point in doing that to the car ? if you did not like a car with pop up lights why buy the Elan in the first place ?

[yobm100]

Well you don't buy a car because it has pop-ups or not!! When I purchassed it, the car had pop-ups but to be honest with you guys, I hated these pop-up lights.
Then came the problems that everyone knows regarding these cheap motors. I didn't hesitate to go with this options. Most people I have shown it to, love the mod. Don't forget that I will never have an issue with those motors in the future, the car is lighter and love the look!! Thanks for your feedback though!

[Nige]

Thanks for those photos. I recall the pictures of the car with these lights on here a long time ago. The fit is near perfect. What's the purpose of the metal reinforcement, is it to support the light units?

[tweetdriver63]

Well, when it comes to pop-ups vs non-pop-ups, I suspect that if Lotus had continued the M100 production, that would have been one of the first updates they would have made to the design. The pop-up is dead. What modern cars do you see with them?? Most likely, until they made a more significant body panel mod, Lotus would have used lights like these from another model. These lights, BTW, have the supercar connection already, as they are on the Lambo Diablo.

[paulrwebster]

Here's the old thread:
viewtopic.php?f=80&t=5452&hilit=300zx&start=40

[Monty]

Yeah i remember seeing photo`s years ago of this conversion, would imagine it`s the same car and people didn`t have a good thing to say about it back then But obviously if ever the parts were impossible to get then i suppose at least it`s an option.
Think if you ever came to sell the vechille you would have a hard time selling, well you would in the UK. As long as your happy with the conversion then thats all that counts.

Never heard anyone say they don`t like the Popup lights before It`s not as if the motors fail that often and when they do it`s only 3 bushes that usually need replacing

The reason why manufactures in the UK don`t use popups anymore is down to regulations

[superbad]

Well, when it comes to pop-ups vs non-pop-ups, I suspect that if Lotus had continued the M100 production, that would have been one of the first updates they would have made to the design.

Not sure about that, they left pop-ups on the Esprit until 2003. Granted, they never made a major change to the bodywork after 1988.

[tweetdriver63]

I can't think of any cars over here that started out with pop-ups and didn't switch. Even the Corvette, which was a long-time hold out to the tradition, switched a few years ago. I'm not just talking about American cars either. MX5's, Mitsubishi 3000GT/Dodge Stealth, Eclipse, Nissan/Datsun Z, Firebird, Sunbird, Supra....the list goes on.

[yobm100]

Great info guys!!! By the way selling the car in Canada isn't really an issue. I had at least three people that made an offer to buy this car without even me putting it for sale. Even the Lotus dealer here in Montreal (John Scotti automobile) had a client that was looking for this car and he wanted to buy it off me.
The metal enforcement bar were installed due to regulation of Provincial Laws in Quebec, Canada for security reasons after the mod was done on the headlight. Since the original lights were changed, they asked me to install a safety enforcement bar in case of a collision. It gives a nice look anyways. I plan to paint them in red anyways soon.
It's unbelievable you guys found an M100 that went through the same mod as I did. It looks like the same car..lol!! At least it's good to know I am not the only one out there.
The pop-ups is completely out of style and very 80's to me. I remember back then I had a Mazda RX7 which had those pop-ups. I can imagine Mazda doing this with their 2009 models!!
I understand that a car should be stock as possible to come a collectible, but did we get this car (M100) to collect it or to drive it?
The most important is THAT I LOVE THIS CAR and wouldn't trade it for a newer Lotus.