S2 Elan

[LL - NY]

All of this British car talk about reliability just makes me want to
chuckle.  FWIW, one of my good friends growing up had a dead nuts reliable
Mk 2 (is that what the 1275cc ones were called) MG Midget (hmmm, hearing
some Sprite envy, eh?). It's biggest problem was those lovely drum brakes,
which were simply digital. It caught us out one day on a road rally when the
course notes took us to a downhill T-intersection. In the wet. Over a blind
crest. And we thought we were behind time. Crested the hill saw the
decidedly British looking stone wall at the bottom and Paul hits the
brakes...well he said he did. All it did was 4 wheel lock up, (yeah 155 SR
13 (or is that 12?) Semperits didn't have much grip), he modulated, and
steered, and modulated, and steered and finally...we stopped. 1ft from the
wall in the couple of feet of berm on the grass (which is what really
stopped the car).  Needless to say, we lost more time (and had to check our
shorts). But...we actually finished 3rd.  Which wasn't a testament to our
road rally skills, but to the fact that everyone behind us sucked even
worse. (and I actually figured out ahead of time WHERE the finish was).  Oh,
BTW, his Dad's BGT was also dead nuts reliable, although the '70 XJ wasn't
quite so reliable. Probably explained why there was always some piece of
contemporary 'murican iron in their driveway to accompany the cars from the
Isles.

My $0.02 (or should that be Lbs?)

LL - NY

On Mon, Sep 28, 2009 at 12:39 PM, <MXHOWES at aol.com> wrote:

> Too bad you had so much trouble with your Elan, I bought my Europa new in
> 69, drove it for 3 years and put 65K miles on it. This car NEVER broke down
> on  me. It had a rear axle nut that liked to come loose and every time I
> see
>  that 1 1/2" socket laying in the bottom of my oddball tool drawer, I think
> about  the car. (If I had known about Locktite it would not have been a
> problem).  They also put a set of stiff front springs in it to make the
> headlights US legal  height. Once figured out, I ended up contacting Lotus
> in
> England and they sent  me the correct springs ...FREE. That was great
> except they
> put it on a boat  which took 2 months to deliver.
> There were annoying things like having to change plugs every 5K. The car
> was only 82 bhp but weighed 1350# .... going fast wasn't a
> problem....stopping was! The steel wheels were welded up by some drunk ( I
>  wanted Minilites
> anyway but couldn't find a set,  had to settle for Cosmie  (?) and the
> wobble problem was fixed.
> Maybe I am forgetting a few things but after having previously owned a MK 1
>  Sprite, anything that could get you from point A to B without breaking
> down was  fantastic.
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