The car was first registered in 1968 - Probably one of the last batch of S3 Elan Coupes.
The original colour was 'Sand'. It was bought by a Lady in Lancashire.
I bought the car in 1972 in order to compete in Sprints and Hill Climbs.

The car was stripped of its engine, gearbox, diff and suspension. The chassis was in good condition and the rest of the car too, was in good working order, with the exception of the paint work which needed a good session with compound paste to restore its gloss.
Eventually I decided to respray the car white instead. Later the roof and lower half of the car were sprayed aubergine with the bumpers sprayed metallic orange.
Before respraying the car, I had thought about fitting wider wheels and arches. Many of the racing Elans had modified arches, much wider than the Lotus 26R, but they did not always compliment the lines of the Elan body. I designed several ideas on paper and eventually settled for a design which did not detract too much from the Elan shape. Making the bucks and moulds took hours of painstaking work, but they did the job. I was able to produce a set of GRP arches and carefully bond them to the bodywork with a minimum amount of trouble. The old arches were cut away and the new ones into the cut-out profile.

The engine was stripped and rebuilt in standard form, with the addition of steel big-end caps and a complete 'balance' job.
The flywheel was double-dowelled and a competition clutch was added. The work was carried out by Bill Crosland at Crostune in Dewsbury, West Yorkshire.

They also fitted a Salisbury LSD and a 5.1:1 diff which was soon changed for a 4.4:1 diff. The acceleration was mind boggling with the first diff but too much gear changing was required even with the Lotus Cortina MK1 gearbox, which had a very long 1st gear.

A Mike Randall (Mike The Pipe) 4 into 1 exhaust was added and the short pipe exited under the passenger door.

Harry Ratcliffe/Geoff Goodliffe, who were campaigning a much modified Lotus Elan at that time for BVRT, gave me some useful advice for stiffening and lowering the suspension. he also sold me a set of competition springs, which when fitted, felt rock solid, but also lowered the car considerably.

I admired the BVRT Elan with its squat stance, wide arches and Minilite wheels so much that I decided to buy a set of those wheels for my Elan. Tech Del, the Minilite manufacturers informed me that they could make a similar set of 8"x13" wheels, but that the peg fitting for a knock on wheel would be 4 pegs as opposed to 5 pegs on the standard Lotus hubs. Luckily I had a contact at David Brown Engineers. He was able to convince his bosses that making a special set of steel hubs for a Lotus Elan would be an ideal project for the apprentices. The hub problem was solved and the Minilites were ordered.

On to part 2