Anyone with a Elan ?

[kpm]

Hi I am looking to get a second car, the requirements are it must be a convertable, be good on track days and be under say £8k as well as reasonable cheap to maintain. At the moment I am fairly stuck on getting low end caterham but then I thought about the Elan.

Does any one know much about these ? are they cheap to run ? good on track etc.

If anyone knows the best place to learn about these please let me know.

Thanks

[poptosis]

Have you considered getting a reasonable MX5 for say 5K and sprucing it up for the track? Alternativly - save up for an elise

[Martin_S]

Are we talking classic (RWD) Elan, or M100?

I know nothing about the M100 Elan, but I've owned, driven and rebuilt several original Elans, so if it's the latter you are considering, I can probably give useful advice.

[gfun]

Would you be able to find a decent Elan for 8k ?

I think your on the right track with the Caterham / Westfield idea.

[mustard]

£8k will buy you a very good Elan SE, Jap mechanics so nice an reliable, cheap as chips to get insured under a classic policy and quite tunable for not that much money (though I have no experience of that) handling is as good as FWD gets , havent tried mine on the track yet, but fancy giving it a whirl

for more info on these great cars www.lotuselancentral.com

[Martin_S]

No, a decent drophead Elan would certainly cost more than £8K. You could get a FHC or Plus 2 suitable for track days for that money.

IMHO, a Sylva would offer better value than either a Caterham or a Westfield, but then I'm biased, 'cos I own one myself.

On the other hand, check out which marque has won the 750MC Kit Car championship every year for a long as anyone can remember...

[kpm]

Thanks for the views and info links, which I will have a look at. It was just a thought as I had a bit of a thing for them when they were launched.
Cheers
k