The Lotus Elan was Colin Chapman’s second roadgoing design, replacing the expensive-to-build Elite with a new open roadster design fitted with an x shaped backbone chassis. Power was derived from a Lotus designed engine, based on the block from an English Ford Kent pre-crossflow 4 cylinder engine borrowed from the Ford Cortina, with a unique twincam head, cams, and front cover. The new engine was a crossflow version fitted with two Weber 40DCOE carburettors. Following Chapman’s infamous guideline of “Add Lightness” the car has a diminutive weight of approximately 1400 pounds, which, with 105 horsepower on tap with the original engine configuration, made the car remarkably quick, even in comparison to modern cars. In addition, the fully independent suspension and perfect weight distribution gave the Lotus Elan the very well earned reputation of being one of the best driving sports cars ever made. This right hand drive Elan is a very early Series 2 car, with many features unique to the earliest examples, such as the separate round early tail lights rather than the oval shaped ones on the later Series 2 cars. Like all the first two series of Elans, it doesn’t have permanently fixed frames around the side windows. In the early 1980s, before being exported to the United States, the original Lotus Chassis was replaced with a Spyder spaceframe chassis, which utilizes a tube frame rather than the stressed sheet metal setup of the original. Although slightly heavier, the Spyder frame is stiffer and improves access if driveline repairs are needed. Some point around this time, the fenders were also flared to fit wider tires. When the previous owner purchased the car, it was set up as a road race car, though still largely complete. He undertook doing some restoration work on the car, removing some of the race only parts and restoring parts of the interior. Over its life, the engine was upgraded from the base Series 2 spec to the later Sprint spec with upgraded cams and other changes to give it at least another 20 horsepower over the stock configuration. The clutch is also left over from the racing past and grabs very quickly, which takes a bit of getting used to. The driving experience of this car is truly wonderful. The car is very snug to sit in but is comfortable once you are in place. It handles amazingly well and the acceleration is still impressive compared to many more modern cars. The biggest downside is that it is so small and low that it disappears in modern traffic, so you have to be very careful to keep any eye on all the cars around you to make sure they know you’re there.