This is a meticulously restored Elan S4 with the rare black Lotus badges. After the legendary F1 driver Jim Clark died while racing a Lotus F2 car in 1962, Lotus used these black badges to mourn his death for a limited period, making cars with these badges very rare.
This car was kept in a garage for 35 years with its first owner and underwent a complete restoration with the current owner. Inside the perfectly finished engine bay, is the more powerful version of the Lotus Twin Cam engine with the Weber 40DCOE carbs instead of the Zenith Stromberg ones which were used to meet European emissions regulations.
The Elan was one Lotus’ first mass-produced cars, a sports car with lightness as its main feature which had a great impact in the industry. Cars like the Toyota 2000GT and Mazda MX-5/Miata were influenced by the Elan. Lotus used their great racing experience to make a car which greatly improved on its predecessor, the Elite. They had to solve issues such as high production costs and rigidity and did this by combining a copper frame with an FRP body. The result was a compact car with a light body which weighs only 640kg which is powered by Lotus’ famous Twin Cam engine used in the highly successful Cortinas. These engines were developed with the help from Cosworth, originally 1.5-litre engines from Ford which were then converted into high-performing 1.6-litre engines producing 105hp. The result is a car with enough power and unmatched handling for it to be as fast as cars with much more power.
This is a rare and highly collectible car due to the black badges used by Lotus as an homage to Jim Clark, the lightness makes it a fun car to drive and the restoration ensures that it can be enjoyed without issues.