Brand new Lotus Elan cost today?

[Costas]

The price of the car is already over my set limit of 16.000Euro, so I am releasing details, of it.

The car is located in Muscat, OMAN. It belongs to the fleet of cars of the personal collection of His Majesty the Sultan Qaboos bin Said who died two years ago. The Palace decided to put on auction this collection of estimated 500+ cars but in small portions of 60 cars at a time. This week it was auctioned a set of Audis, Mercedes and BMWs mostly plus some few rare cars among them, such as an Audi Quatro 1997, 2.2lt, with 4600km that was sold today at 190.000 Euros, a Nissan 150ZX, 1987, 3.0lt, 8000km which currently is at 55.000 and of course the Lotus Elan.

So the Lotus Elan was probably given as a present to his Majesty (guessing here) it is 1992, BRG, with 607km, chassis number SCC100ZT1NHH16280.
The car was never driven, still has sticker on windscreen advising not to rev above 4.000 before 1000km are driven. It only has factory km done.
As it is property of his Magesty the Sultan, you do realize that there is an army of mechanics that are maintaining all the cars in mint condition in a way that if at any point a Royal member wants to drive one, it is ready to go safely. Thus the car is in mint condition in and out. I inspected it myself, all the engine is full of tags of dates of when everything has been checked, replaced etc. The hood is like new, no scratch or crack and soft as installed today. Same goes for seals. Interior is as nobody ever sat inside, MINT. There are no words to describe it.

It still has 16 hours for final bid, already at 16.500 euros but the big increase will happen at the last 30 min as did so with all the rest of the cars. (For example the Audi Quattro was at 100.000 just 30min before end of auction and it ended up double that). I believe that the Elan will go to the area of 25k - 30k.

Unfortunately, when i inspected the car, it was inside the parking area of the Palace so no phones or cameras are allowed and I couldnt take any Videos or pictures. However you can see it at this link, if it doesnt work for you, message me on facebook or instagram for pictures.

https://mazad.om/auction/view/9016?language=en

Click on pictures to get an HD version of them

Price is on Omani Rials, you can roughly multiply by 2.5 to get it in Euros. On top of the auction 8% has to be paid for expenses and taxes, and any shipment to Europe is in the area of 3-5k euros. So at the moment even if i get the car at present price, it will cost me 25k. We will see final price in 16 hours.

I hope that this solved questions and doubts.

Please Note that His Majesty was the Ruler of Oman for 52 years and thus it adds value to the car, especially for locals.

PS. The audio system is changed, instead of Blaupunkt there is an Alpine installed, and the key holes at doors looked strange to me, probably lost keys and had to change them?

[Dave Eds]

The link works fine Costas

[Costas]

The link works fine Costas

Excellent! So you can all see how it goes tomorrow! I am considering to bid again, will see how it goes at last 15 minutes

Note: this is not ebay, when timer is near zero if you bid then it adds a couple of minutes. Keep that in mind.

[Rambo]

If it all goes tits up Costas I could sell you my yellow SE for Sh4rk 2. It has S2 wheels, Simon Carrier's (Kuching's) roll hoops, Everest chip, big boy brakes front and back, full year's MOT etc....

[Kipperozzy]

Was going to bid, but noticed it’s a LHD

[Costas]

Car was sold at about 36.000 Euros or 31.000 pounds. You have to add to this, 8% expenses, 1000 to get local license plates (otherwise cannot be exported) plus 3-5000 to ship it to Europe safely. My last bid was at 20.000.

[chrism]

Yes - a very special and unique car, gorgeous colour and condition - and given its history it's probably appropriate if it stays amongst it's countrymen.

Interestingly, no 'Ruote OZ' stickers that I could see on the wheel rims. Could the wheels have been recon'd, or would there have been a different configuration for left-hookers in Oman, I wonder?

What a lucky bid winner...

[Costas]

I have a feeling that if it wasn't bought by a collector, then the Lotus Agency either in Dubai or Qatar got it for Exhibition and Historical value.

[chrism]

Yes it would be quite 'fitting' if that's the case.

I know many would shout 'drive and enjoy it' but I would feel awkward driving (and stone-chipping) such a gorgeous rare survivor; it would feel like an act of desecration and/or vandalism to me...

[Rambo]

Interestingly, no 'Ruote OZ' stickers that I could see on the wheel rims. Could the wheels have been recon'd, or would there have been a different configuration for left-hookers in Oman, I wonder?

The wheels are probably the 16" Fed. wheels rather than the 15" OZ Ruote's fitted to our SE's.

The photo's in the auction advert are so poor I can't tell

[chrism]

Yes, after your post I looked at the dashboard for the digital clock posn.

Definitely Fed. Duh...perhaps the lhd drive bit gave it away as well

[Fredjohn]

It's not a FED car. Just ROW LHD. If you look at the boot line you will see the seam at the side not the rear.

You need to download the picture then zoom in to see this detail. And you can also just see they are Ruote OZ wheels, not FED wheels

Chassis no. also confirms this.

As if I had nothing better to do!

[chrism]

hur...even more embarrassed...

[Tuga2112]

It's not a FED car. Just ROW LHD. If you look at the boot line you will see the seam at the side not the rear.

You need to download the picture then zoom in to see this detail. And you can also just see they are Ruote OZ wheels, not FED wheels

Chassis no. also confirms this.

As if I had nothing better to do!

i agree. but the giveway for me is the front bumper on the side doesnt have the amber reflectors. which are in the fed cars.

[dapinky]

I'd just like to say that I haven't looked at the pictures, so can't comment......

....... but what the heck is a ROW LHD car?????

(As far as I know, there was only ever a Euro spec LHD or a FED spec LHD......... RHD was either UK or ROW - with ROW having a UK front end, but FED back end. which is best viewed as having the 'short' spoiler with the longer fins as part of the body tub)

[esprit888]

Ummmm, I believe there was a specific Japanese spec M100. It is the only spec that required the cat temperature sensor and warning light on the dash that lets the driver know the cat is *&^#!*g hot and should be cooled down before parking (such as on dried grass!) Some Fed spec cars had the sensor fitted but it was not connected to the harness. The Japanese cars also appear to have both rear ends.

https://forum.lotuselancentral.com/view ... =18&t=6410

[Fredjohn]

ROW LHD means to me anywhere in world not USA or UK and LHD. If that is officially Eurospec LHD, then that's what I meant.

It is definitely not a USA car of any type, given that the boot and wing design is as per UK body.

[dapinky]

Ummmm, I believe there was a specific Japanese spec M100......

Correct, but that was (is?) a RHD vehicle.

(Sorry John, I was just being pedantic, because that's what I'm like - I knew what you meant!)

[Fredjohn]

(Sorry John, I was just being pedantic, because that's what I'm like - I knew what you meant!)

[esprit888]

Ummmm, I believe there was a specific Japanese spec M100......

Correct, but that was (is?) a RHD vehicle.

(Sorry John, I was just being pedantic, because that's what I'm like - I knew what you meant!)

Ummmm, ok i would agree with you normally but over a decade ago i bought an M100 that had been imported from japan under the 15 year rule (meaning no inspection required) it was LHD, had the UK/euro front end and the federal rear end with a functioning hi cat temp gauge and a stereo that only picked up Japanese stations ?!? could have been a Euro car swapped but i didn't see any damage