LOTUS ELITE 501
RUN BY Martin Buckley OWNED SINCE December 2022 PREVIOUS REPORT Sept 2023
I’ve got hands-on with the Elite lately by adding a non-standard, stick-on chrome waistband, removing the fuel tank (it seems to be in good nick), and attaching the bonnet and bootlid gas struts.
Inside, I gave it a pair of brown footwell carpets left over from my last go at improving the Range Rover interior (the material is actually a closer match for the Elite’s carpet), but I still have to attach the dashboard mirror, fit the headlining acquired from Lotusbits (I might let my wife do that job) and reassemble the boot carpet and various covers for the fuel tank. I should just about manage sticking the ‘Lotus’ badges to the centre caps of the wheels.
To lift my spirits, I got the front end sorted by my painter, ‘Budget Bill’. He has repaired the split in the nose, and resprayed the front wings and bonnet, all of which has made the Lotus look a lot better. Pilkington Glass supplied a new windscreen – more about that in the next update, by which time it will hopefully be in place.
In August, I sent the Lotus away to my old friend Simon Martin in Shepperton to get the car a bit closer to being in full running order. In the boot was a box of goodies from Lotusbits, after I chopped in my Excel chassis against new parts. If a frame swap is ever going to happen, it’s going to be with an Elite/éclat item (maybe the S2 galvanised type, which do occasionally turn up), just to keep things simple. Actually it’s a case of ‘when’ not ‘if ’, because Simon has confirmed the Elite is pretty rotten in places. In theory it could be welded, but you run the risk of spoiling the suspension geometry in the process because the thin steel bends all too easily.
Simon, who has his own Éclat S1 for reference, quickly installed the new fuel pump, and replaced the fuel lines and filters – after he had fitted the refurbished tank. Soon enough, after the addition of a new oil and filter, the engine was running, with good oil pressure. The carburettors had to be freed up, which brought the tickover down nicely once a new return spring had been added.
I made a start on repairing the air-filter box, but Simon finished the job – although it’s hard to work out how the panel between the airbox tubing and the radiator goes back in. A new set of coolant pipes, from Malc Gilliver at Classic Silicone Hoses, also went in, but I can’t see where water is coming from under the cam boxes: it drips down on to the exhaust manifold with predictably steamy results.
Simon has gone right through the brakes, too. It was deemed easier – and no more expensive in the end – to get a pair of new Girling calipers off the shelf from Lotusbits, rather than send the originals off to be refurbished.
He stopped short of adding new discs (are they really shared with the Triumph GT6?), but Simon replaced pretty much everything else, including the brake master cylinder, lines and flexi hoses. He also rebuilt the rear drums, so I now not only have a firm pedal, but also a decent handbrake.
At first glance the exhaust looked okay, but closer inspection revealed various bodges and it would likely become noisy when the engine was run for any length of time. We ended up replacing the whole of the system from the manifolds backwards, along with new hangers throughout.
The net result of all this is that I now have a Lotus that starts, stops and drives, but which still has a rusty chassis. Having not allowed logic and reason to be a part of this process, I’m still not sure where my Elite dream-cumnightmare is taking me, or even if I can be bothered to go along for the ride, but something about it is compelling, so I suspect it will at least generate another report.