Dunc

I enjoyed that little clip Dave. Looking forward to seeing the car in the flesh. You still up for Castle Coombe? D

yes, bromley does seem to have gone a bit saxo. Although there was a great display of sporting renaults and some nice americana, the emphasis does seem to have moved from classics to max power. and there were some truly appalling chav mobiles on display last year. There is a renault 21 turbo near to where I live that makes me want to sob whenever I see it and what the owner has done to it... it is like cruelty to animals. There should be a publically appointed moderator in every branch of halfords that takes the keys off people who spend more than 200 quid on "bodystyling", lurid paint and neons... Howard was a good old sort...they all were. I'm not sure if he would remember me nowdays, but say hello to him from me if you see him. As surrey is not too far from kent, I might pop downt to one of their meets in the summer and see if the chaps from a few years ago are still around. D

I hadn't taken offence - I didn't see it as an a X sold more than Y, so X must be better comment, I was more commenting on there being a sales market for people like me who just won't buy a 2 seater as a weekend toy, as the opportunity for use would be extremely limited at weekends if they can't take their children. Looking at the data, I do see your point about the year on year sales, however there is something else to think about that is specific to the elite/eclat sale figures which skews the data, rather than to the sales concept of a 2+2 Lotus. I believe the replacement chassis issues from the rear crossmember were first sighted at around 4-5 years old. So for the early cars, there were the beginings of tales of woe from 1977-78. This would have decimated sales for the later cars. I would guess that if the original product didn't have a massive achillies heel, the sales momentum for the 2+2's might have continued for a bit longer. Sales also dropped off as the design got older. The elite is an older design than the esprit and was further through its product life cycle, James Bond also probably played a part in boosting esprit figures. I think by the time of the S2 review for the elite and eclat, the damage had been done and mud stuck. Even excels were tarnished (unfairly) with a reputation for unreliability caused by the problems of the S1 elites/eclats and disolving rear chassis crossmembers when the cars were subjected to everyday use. I'm sure I'm not alone in ruling out a 2 seater as a method of transport, so there must be a market for the Evora or a larger front engined Lotus 4 seater.

I'm in Purley/Coulsdon up in Surrey nowdays. Until 4 years ago I lived in Maidstone and would go along to the NK evening when they met at the White Hart in Sevenoaks (think they meet somewhere else now?). They were a nice bunch - Have happy memories of an indian at the Raj in Biggin Hill after Bromley Pageant, with a car park chock full of Loti. I think my 521 only made an appearance in Sevenoaks two or three times however, as most of the time it was being worked on in my garage. It didn't last very long after it was finally finished... I've been to one Surrey meet, (Dec) and intend to go on a more regular basis this year.

looking at your resto on your car reminds me so much of the yellow S1 I did.... It will be a fabulous looking car when finished. In my opinion an S1 eclat in lotus yellow is the prettiest eclat there is. We have discussed this before and I know everyone has there own opinions, but for me, the colour combination on the one you have is about as good as it gets. I know Nick has already seen what became of my yellow S1 on the facebook group, but for the others, it is the 521 in my garage.... not a pretty site. The fire happened 2 days after I got an invite to exhibit the car at Bromley P on the NK club lotus display. I had to phone Rodger back and tell him what had happened. Voice was cracking.... I'd done less than 400 miles since finishing the resto... :-(

I'm 34... A market for a Lotus with 4 seats does exist, otherwise they wouldn't have launched the Evora. The reason I have my car is because it is the one that I wanted. I have a 2 year old daughter and I want to use my car for weekend trips to France etc. A carlton would let me do that, but I wanted something a bit more unusual looking than a GM saloon. I may well buy an evora in a few years. Its the first recent lotus that I am genuinely interested in as a buyer. And as far as it not being a sales success? Elites and eclats massively outsold the S1-S2 esprits over a similar period. It was more than 2-1 in sales for the 2+2 cars. eclat S1 - 1522 elite S1 - 2535 Esprit S1 - 718 Esprit S2 - 1060

Actually, on reflection I have seen that colour before - on the prototype eclat. The one that was magazine featured a few years ago witht he lotus elite coupe badging.. Is that the prototype eclat in the pic?

The metallic green eclat looks lovely in Mikes picture. I've never seen one with that depth of colour before. Anyone know if it is original colour, or a spray? Dunc

Thanks Bibs!

Hello All, I set up a user account for this place some time ago with the moniker EclatV8, but generally spent my time over at the lotus excel forum. As that forum is shortly merging into this forum, I would like to amend my username to match the one that I used over there, as people will know me as "Dunc" rather than "EclatV8". I've had a look through the help topic, but can't seem to see how to do it. Is it something that doesn't become available until after a certain number of posts? If a mod or somone else can help that would be great, as I'm sure some other migrants may have the same issue. Were not the brightest over there and probably slot in under the elan guys in terms of average age, which has an inverse relationship with our ability to do avatars/name changes etc.... Dunc