1966 LOTUS ELAN S3 SE

  • The Lotus Elan is considered by many to be one of the best handing and performing Sports cars of the 20th Century. A fact confirmed by none other than the legendary Gordon Murray, designer of the mythical McLaren F1.

    Murray was once asked by Motor Sport magazine, “It’s your last drive, one car, one road.” “What car and where?” Murray replied, “Lotus Elan, Scottish Highlands”.  


    This rare 1966 S3 Special Equipment DHC model is an absolute gem. Amongst its few previous owners (as confirmed on the original buff logbook still with the car) was Robert Horne, who also owned numerous exotic sports and sports racing cars including the Land Speed Record Ferrari 512M, and a Ford France GT40 – clearly a man who knew the best cars when he saw them.  Following Horne’s ownership the car passed through several hands finally landing with the previous owner, a mechanical engineer, who owned and cherished the car for almost 40 years. As a result of this careful ownership, the car has a comprehensive file of paperwork and invoices documenting its history and maintenance records.


    During his tenure he personally maintained the car and undertook all of the essential tasks including changing the time-worn original chassis for a Lotus-supplied galvanised replacement. The car was painted by the late, legendary Mick Miller, and the paintwork remains superb to this day. A check with the Lotus registrar also confirms that this car still retains its original factory supplied twin-cam motor fed via twin Weber carburettors. All of the important detail pieces which are becoming so hard to find for early Elans are present on this car, including, for example, black insert ‘teardrop’ gear knob, rear view mirror, Radiomobile radio, original jack etc.  Most recently this car has received a great deal of refining and servicing by specialists at Bell Classic, invoices for which are available in the history folder. 


    This is a special opportunity to own one of the very finest examples of this rare Elan S/E derivative...an exhilarating driving experience like no other!

LOCATED - U.K.


DETAIL

CHASSIS NUMBER: 45/6051

ENGINE NUMBER: LP.7018.LBA






PHOTOS: TIM SCOTT, FLUID IMAGES

SPECIFICATION

ENGINE: 1558cc TWIN CAM

CARBURETTORS: 2 WEBER 40 DCOE 18

GEARBOX: 4 SPEED + REVERSE

CHASSIS: STEEL BACKBONE CHASSIS

SUSPENSION FRONT: INDEPENDENT / DOUBLE WISHBONE / COIL SPRING / TELESCOPIC DAMPERS

SUSPENSION REAR:  CHAPMAN STRUT / COIL SPRING / TELESCOPIC DAMPERS

BRAKES: 4 WHEEL DISC BRAKES

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Please contact me for further information or to discuss the TYPE of motor car or motor boat that you are thinking of selling.