'91 Lotus Elan M100

Going to look at an Elan on Wed. and was hoping to get some advise as what to look for as far as problem areas. Also, does anyone know if this car was ever covered in the magazine?

Thanks

Paging Jay...

Also, you could check the Car Directory to see if it was ever featured in the magazine.

Yeah, I like mine pretty well. Tons of fun and so much better looking than an MX5. People who don't know what it is will think you're driving some kind of super-exotic.

The Isuzu powertrain is pretty reliable, and a lot of other parts are GM partsbin pieces and aren't too bad to find. There aren't many specific problem areas to watch for - obviously check the car over for cracks in the body and make sure the (galvanised) chassis is straight. Rusty rear wishbones look scary, but brand new galvanised ones can be had for something like £650 + shipping from the U.K. Rear drop links are completely out of production and impossible to find n.o.s. - I had to get one from a scrapyard in England (for all of £25) but it might be cheaper to get a machine shop to make one up.

There are a lot of parts available from Lotus Aftersales for dirt cheap. I got a brand new steering rack for £127! The price list is here, you have to order them through your nearest Lotus dealer though.

My friend has had issues with oil leaks around the valve cover (replaced gasket 2x IIRC) on his

body parts are $$$$$ and some parts are unobtanium (IIRC something about the US body being different and out of production, so if a fender bender happened he would have to shell out for a whole new body)

mechanically its an isuzu impulse turbo

heres some motivation http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uOs5fHjzVw4

(note, he was on shoddy tires and had a dead shock or 2)

oh yeah.. if you get it be ready for tupperware jokes, flying doorstop jokes, and mercury capri widebody jokes.. (this kind of capri http://www.casabrian.com/images/medium/Home/capri_061200.JPG)

Friend of mine has one and we looked a a fairly large number of them before we found a good 'un over here in the UK. He doesn't seem to have many problem with it - just make sure you don't get one with accident damage that hasn't been put quite right.

Another thing that comes to mind is that the door(?) seals appear to at least have been unobtanium for a while. I think they might be available again but they're quite expensive. They're also made from some sort of open cell foam covered in rubber so once the rubber covering splits, they'll soak...

In reply to dbgrubbs: I loved mine very quick and would really show its heels to bigger sportscars when it came to the twisties in true lotus style. Plus you could carry two golf bags in the trunk. had it for 7 years and 45k only plroblem it ever had was it dropped the gear linkage and I lost the lower half of the gearbox ( as in in could not select lost) I had an exhaust on it that was just about perfect basically an axle back exhaust not too loud just right but the 205-45/16 tires were brutal on wheels especially here in NJ. think rubber band side wall height. I auto-x'd it on euro 15" wheels and it was a ton of fun just could have used a limited slip to lay the power down. Take a good look @ the dash and make sure it is not pulling up @ the base of the windshield a PITA to repair/replace. Also check the front edge of the rear wheel flares as the car has such a coke bottle shape from the top that they tend to get chipped up pretty bad a-la porsche 993 style. So a repaint could be instore for the rear of the car. That said go for it a truly great car.

enjoy

Apexcarver wrote: oh yeah.. if you get it be ready for tupperware jokes, flying doorstop jokes, and mercury capri widebody jokes..

I never understood that, I think the Elan is a great looking car.

pinchvalve wrote:

Apexcarver wrote: oh yeah.. if you get it be ready for tupperware jokes, flying doorstop jokes, and mercury capri widebody jokes..

I never understood that, I think the Elan is a great looking car.

My friend who has it is deserving more then the car, we just had to come up with ways to poke fun because he bought a F&'in lotus and we are jealous.

sooo, KIA made some too?!?

That's the story. Seems that Kia made some under license.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kia_Elan

I always liked Elans even though they were wrong wheel drive. I had a couple of customers at the Isuzu dealer who owned them.

Ok, here's the deal with this car. The top had a hole in it 4-5 years ago. The owner left the car outside for several years not wanting to drive it with a hole in the top. I "assume" that he covered it with a tarp or something as the interior is still in decent but dirty shape. Anyway, the car has been sitting for years without being run. The paint is not in good shape. The clearcoat is peeling all over. The interior needs a good cleaning and a few trim pieces fixed or replaced. The top mechanism needs work. It goes up and down but it needs work. No body damage other than the front air damn is cracked where he hit his driveway at a steep angle. The car has 41K miles on it. He said he was having no problems with it other than the top when he parked it. I pulled the air inlet off the turbo and the turbo spins freely. Nothing horrible looking in the oil. The engine doesn't scare me though. I owned a 1991 Isuzu Impulse RS with the same engine so I know my way around it.

Am I crazy for wanting to tow this thing home? $3K crazy?

For that $ and you have to think about towing it home? I think you'd be crazy not too. I wouldn't mind having it my driveway for that much. Of course I've always liked Elans of any year, including the M100.

How much do they go for in good, useable condition?

Anywhere from $6K in sorry condition (running though) to $15K in prime condition. From what I can find anyway.

I'd lowball him first, but I'd also drag it home for three grand if he held his ground.

I followed some guy home and always wondered just what the hell it was I'd been following and I finally have my answer- one of those!!! his had a giant 3 or 4" straight pipe hanging out the back and sounded like a tractor but it went like mad stink and I had lots of fun keeping up with him in my turbo'd 240sx shod with falken azenis. neat little car, sad to see the FWD though.

Decent repaint is going to cost 5k min. New top figure 2k. Is the interior budget free, or should we todd in 1k for clean-up?

Sitting never does a car good, so figure on another few thousand to put things right.

So for arguments sake you are in for 11k minimum by the time you get a decent car. This is assuming no drivetrain work and you are buying a pig in a poke in this respect.

Plus your time.

If I could get the best one out there for 15k and not have to workon it, that is the way to go. I would, however, seriously consider buying the 3k car as a parts car to support the good one and or e-bay parts to defray the purchase cosst.

I'd take it for $3k and run.

In reply to NOHOME:

Luckily I'm not looking for it to become a perfect car. I found out a long time ago that you can't start with something like this and end up with a perfect car without exceeding what a "perfect" car is already fetching. But, I'd like to get it running again and looking "decent". If I can't do that within a decent budget I'll probably part it out.

I don't think you can compare prices across the Atlantic but I payed £3400 for a driver in reasonable shape. It HAS been in the shop for a few months but that's mostly because I was trying to source all the parts myself between several trips to Canada, Indonesia, and the U.K. over the first half of the year. I could have fixed everything it needed in less than a week if I'd had all the bits ready and a decent place to work on it.

The only ones I know of were at the local Lotus dealer. They still have one of them. A very clean, low-mileage example they're asking $25K for... seems a bit high to me... The other one they had wasn't quite as clean and had more miles and sold sometime last year in the low teens, IIRC.

www.princetonlotus.com

For three large, it would be sitting in my shop right now with me trying to figure out where to keep it/what to move. Please don't tell me where it is.

Well, after a lot of work, it's in the garage safe and sound. Now on to the fun stuff!!!

andrave wrote: I followed some guy home and always wondered just what the hell it was I'd been following and I finally have my answer- one of those!!! his had a giant 3 or 4" straight pipe hanging out the back and sounded like a tractor but it went like mad stink and I had lots of fun keeping up with him in my turbo'd 240sx shod with falken azenis. neat little car, sad to see the FWD though.

Why so sad over fwd? It seems to work pretty well if you 240 couldn't keep up!

Joey