1965 Lotus Elan S 1.5 on 2040-cars
Des Plaines, Illinois, United States
Summer time is here! Time to get out and enjoy the back roads. And what better way to enjoy springtime driving than with a 1965 Series 1.5 Lotus Elan. Yes, this is a very rare Series 1.5. Some people say the S1 was the best Elan, some thought the S2 was better. Here you have the best of both worlds. As some of you know, the late great Colin Chapman would use up all his old parts before he switched to the new parts. So on this car he had run out of the 2 piece dash with a separate glove box and switched to the 1 piece dash with an integrated glove box. But it still has the round tail lights that came on the original S1. Thus you have a series 1.5. I'm selling this car for my friend who is a great wrench and does some amazing things with fiberglass, but he struggles painfully with a pc. So this is one of his daily summer drive toy cars. Time to thin the herd for some parking space so this one was tagged to go. This car was in a nasty accident about 15 years ago but it was bought back from the dead and properly rebuilt. The frame was straightened and reinforced. The back of the body was sawed off and a new/used rear clip was professionally grafted on by the owner at Fiberglass Solutions in Addison Illinois. The car was then professionally painted by the local paint shop down the street. The car has been driven as often as the weather allowed since it was rebuilt. The Twin Cam, weber head engine starts easy and runs well. The car handles fine and gets lots of thumbs up and double takes wherever it is driven. The dark green cloth seats are a bit overstuffed so they are comfortable. Trans was rebuilt and shifts great. New drive donuts were installed about 7 years ago. The problematic headlight vacuum system was replaced with real nifty gas struts. Miniature versions of what holds up the back of a hatchback. You pop up the headlight pods when you want the lights on at night and pop them back down when you don't. Adjustable height coil over shocks in the back. Clutch and brakes are good. Clutch master and slave cylinders were recently rebuilt. Convertible top is old but complete. It has a few patches but it keeps out at least 80 of the rain. Rear fenders have slight flares. Stock generator was replaced with an alternator. Now the warts. The paint is just so-so. It has some scratches and chips and a few cracks here and there. A little TLC would make it better. The engine starts easy and runs good but it is a bit lumpy. Could maybe use a good carb tune up. There are the usual engine oil leaks. Nothing terrible but you want to stay away from fresh concrete driveways. As
this is a Lotus, there will be a certain amount of
fiddling you will have to do on a regular basis. The car has adjustable coil overs in the rear, so it can and has a little larger tires.
If you follow ebay, you will have seen plenty of "project" Elans go for $15-$20k. Why buy a chopped up car that is missing parts and hasn't run in years when you can buy this one, drive it and enjoy it right away and tinker with it later!
Email any questions. We encourage you to come out for a test drive!
We could not find the real VIN number as we were writing this up. We will update it later....... |
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Auto Services in Illinois
Yukikaze Auto Inc ★★★★★
Woodworth Automotive ★★★★★
Vogler Ford Collision Center ★★★★★
Ultimate Exhaust ★★★★★
Twin Automotive & Transmission ★★★★★
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Lotus hits the track with new Elise S Cup R
Mon, 11 Nov 2013If you want to take a Lotus to the track but the Exige V6 Cup is a bit too much to handle, the boys from Hethel have a new offering that may be of interest.
The new Elise S Cup R features all the track-tuned bells and whistles of its six-cylinder brethren, including a competition-spec aero kit, adjustable suspension, Yokohama racing slicks on 17-inch forged alloys, tow hooks, remapped ECU, cross-drilled and ventilated disc brakes and an interior with a HANS-compatible bucket seat, six-point racing harness and quick-release steering wheel. But instead of a heavier and more powerful V6, the Elise S Cup R "adds lightness" with the same 1.8-liter supercharged inline-four with 217 horsepower and 181 pound-feet of torque as the road-going Elise S. Yet with all that track-tuned gear, it's a good four seconds per three-mile lap faster than the showroom stock version in the automaker's testing.
Interested parties can pick one up in the UK for £39,125 (before taxes, equivalent to about $63k) and either lap it to their hearts' content at private track days or enter it in one of the dozen Lotus Cup series operating around the world. Lotus only released this one photo (click above to enlarge), but you can check out the full specs in the press release below.
Lotus confirms new Elise S Cup
Tue, 09 Sep 2014Head on over to the Lotus website, and though the Elise isn't offered in the United States anymore, buyers in other markets can choose between numerous models: there's the base Elise, the Elise Club Racer, the Elise S and the Elise S Club Racer, and that's before even getting into the even more extreme Exige that's also based on the Elise. Track-day enthusiasts can also go for the full-on Elise S Cup R, but now the British sportscar manufacturer has confirmed a new variant.
Called the Elise S Cup, it slots in between the CR and the Cup R as an extreme performance model that can actually be driven to the track and back home on public roads. The S designation tells us it packs the 1.8-liter supercharged four that already produces 217 horsepower and 184 pound-feet of torque in the existing Elise S, Elise S CR and Elise S Cup R, but as we saw when Lotus was testing the new variant around the Nürburgring, the Elise S Cup packs some key upgrades.
It's got an aero kit - including front splitter, winglets, side skirts, rear diffuser and rear wing - that's more aggressive than other road-going models (though apparently less extreme than the track-focused S Cup R), helping to generate 145 lbs of downforce at 100 mph and 275 lbs at top speed and besting the Elise S around the Lotus test track by an impressive three seconds.
Lotus Evora S IPS automatic transmission option arrives in October [w/video]
Sat, 28 Jul 2012The Lotus Evora S IPS that the company showed drifting all around its test track earlier this year will be available in October, says Car and Driver. The kinder, gentler Lotus is fitted with the six-speed Intelligent Precision Shift transmission, an Aisin unit swiped from the Toyota Camry and retuned with Lotus electronics and actuators.
There are two 'regular' modes and two 'sport' modes on the IPS gearbox. The former include a traditional hands-off automatic and an auto mode with shifts handled by wheel-mounted paddles. The latter are a sport automatic setting that sharpens the car's responses and a manual sport mode for total driver control. The Evora S IPS hits showrooms in October. For now, you can take a look at Lotus' test driver giving it the beans in the video below.