Your classic: Lotus Elan S3 fhc

| 7 Jan 2026

I have always been a sports-car enthusiast.

When I was young, I had subscriptions to Road & Track and Hot Rod, I knew who Carroll Shelby was and I followed the exploits of Phil Hill, John Surtees and Graham Hill in Formula One.

After looking at a lot of cars, my first was a 1969 Fiat 124 Sport Spider.

I have owned more than 40 convertibles since: Jaguar E-types, Corvettes, BMWs, Porsches, first-generation Mazda Miatas, three Sunbeam Tigers, five Triumph TR6s and seven from Lotus – three modern Elises and four Elans, ending in my current 1967 Elan S3 Coupé Type 36, chassis 6975.

The Lotus Elan S3 fhc’s Twin Cam engine runs well – and looks very smart

I’m a devoted Hemmings Motor News and Classic & Sports Car reader, and I found my first Elan in the December 2018 issue of the former, sold as a non-runner that had been off the road for years.

The Elan was being sold by the estate’s attorney, and it was in a barn 765 miles from my home in Oklahoma, so my daughter Shelby and I borrowed a truck and trailer to head to Purdue, Indiana.

Shelby had been employed at The Vintage Connection, working on all sorts of different automobiles.

After looking over the faded white Elan, Shelby was quickly on the phone to Chris Campbell of The Vintage Connection, discussing the smell of oil in the engine and giving it a compression check.

This Lotus Elan had been in storage since 1976 when John Garvey found it in 2018

The engine was the greatest unknown: the odometer read just over 18,000 miles, but we didn’t know if that was 18,000 or 118,000! Undeterred, I bought the car.

The Lotus turned out to be very original and lightly used.

When the motor was disassembled a broken water pump was found, but there was little sign of wear or abuse.

All it needed was the internal parts cleaned, polished and reassembled, at a fraction of the price of a full rebuild.

Apparently it was the broken water pump that took the Lotus off the road back in 1976.

The Lotus Elan’s small steering wheel was fitted by its first owner

The Vintage Connection went through all of the electrical and mechanical systems, and by late summer 2019 we were driving our scruffy little Elan to local shows.

We started talking about painting it and debated the original factory white or something a bit brighter.

Then I recalled the July 2018 edition of Classic & Sports Car, with the cover photo of Jim Clark’s Elan, so we decided to replicate the brilliant Carnival Red and Bright Silver colours.

Jeff Morris stripped and painted it in his one-man shop under one condition: I had to help him remove all the original paint from the glassfibre bodyshell.

The Lotus Elan’s paintjob was inspired by a Classic & Sports Car feature; the roof is a Mercedes-Benz silver

We spent about 120 hours hand-sanding the body for primer.

When the red went on we knew that the car was going to look great, and when Jeff sprayed the Mercedes-Benz silver on the roof we were astounded.

The original steel wheels were powder-coated and the spinners rechromed, then all that remained was for the interior to be reupholstered in black, with a white headliner and sunvisors.

The dash is original, but the steering wheel is smaller than stock, probably installed by the original owner during his rallying days.

This Lotus Elan has been turning heads at shows and on the grocery run

New tyres and window rubbers finished the project in 2021, along with a decal for Border Reivers – Clark’s first team.

The Lotus now runs brilliantly: the twin Webers are tuned and the Twin Cam engine pulls strongly in every gear.

We are winning new fans at local car shows and on trips to the grocery store, one handshake at a time.

My dream car is a 1972 Ferrari 246 Dino.

Until I win the lottery, though, I will be content with our Elan and honouring the memories of Jim Clark, Colin Chapman and the great Lotus cars of the 1960s.

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