1967 Lotus Elan S2 Convertible
Registration no. WAR 540E
Chassis no. 457001
Engine no. LP7943LBA

One of the Veteran Racing Car Club Ltd's customers (the current lady vendor) purchased this Elan from Mr Roger Watkins, its owner from 1978/1979. Mr Watkins had acquired the Elan from, he thought, the original owner who had run it for a few years until the engine had failed. The car had then been stored and the body damaged. He had worked on the engine but had never run it, and the car had not moved at all during his ownership of some 30 years.

In VRCC's workshop it was established that the chassis was complete and undamaged, while the engine appeared to have been rebuilt but was in unknown condition. Many other parts were present but needed work, and the body was poor. Its new owner commissioned a restoration. She wanted a road car not a racing car, but wanted the Elan to be built to survive hard use and the occasional track day.

The work included stripping and zinc-dipping the chassis and the purchase of an entire new road-weight body (the original body was too poor to restore). Parts were obtained from Elan specialist Bob Yarwood. John Smirthwaite of JS Motorsports rebuilt the engine to fast road specification (recent dynamometer printouts available). The chassis and mechanical parts were assembled by VRCC to check that all moving parts were present. The whole car was then sent to and rebuilt by Larry Kennedy of Witchhampton Garage in Dorset using mainly new or renovated parts. (Larry Kennedy is a former Elan racer and builder of championship-winning Elans over many years.)
The original seat frames were repaired, stripped, powder coated, properly padded and covered in leather. A new leather interior together with new carpets was installed by Mark Thomas (invoice on file) and a new mohair hood purchased and fitted by Larry Kennedy to match the dark blue interior. A Mazda electric headlight motor conversion was installed. New replica alloy wheels and new tyres were acquired and fitted. The car was painted in FIAT Azure Blue, which is close to an original Elan colour but a modern paint. The shell of a hardtop (without fittings and rear glass) is included in the sale.
The restoration was completed in 2013. Since then, because of pressure of work, the Elan has hardly been used although it did attend one track day at Goodwood in 2017 where it performed faultlessly. It has recently been recommissioned and has a fresh MoT, although it does no longer needs one. The accompanying history file contains supporting correspondence, restoration bills, photographs, and a V5C document.