There is something very cool about a car previously owned by the man who created it. There’s the famous name in the history file, of course, and as you roll your wrists to make a turn you do it knowing that some very important hands once did exactly the same.
But you also get to see the car as that creator envisaged it in terms of color and trim. Which makes this 1972 Lotus Elan +2S previously run by Lotus founder Colin Chapman during the early 1970s a highlight of Silverstone Auctions’ February sale.
The Elan +2 isn’t one of Lotus’s more famous sports cars, and maybe it should be. A big brother to the more familiar regular Elan that had gone on sale in 1962, the Elan +2 introduced five years later was built around the same style of backbone chassis, but was stretched to accommodate two small rear seats. It was only available in coupe form and was more luxurious because Lotus hoped it might steal sales away from Jaguar.
Related: The Lotus Etna Was A Stillborn 1980s Hyper-Esprit, And The Drivable Prototype Is For Sale
Plus 2/S models like this one were more luxurious again, but they also had plenty of performance thanks to the ‘big valve’ version of Lotus’s twin-cam, 1.6-liter engine, which was rated at 126 hp (128 PS). That’s not a huge number by today’s standards, but with less than 2,000 lbs (907 kg) of curb weight to haul, it was hardly strained.
This particular car was built in September 1972, its fiberglass body is finished in Tawny gold and complimented by a silver roof and oatmeal vinyl interior. Chapman used the Elan for the first 6,600 (10,600 km) of its life before it was retired to the Lotus Museum, explaining why even today it only displays 6,920 miles (11,137 km) on the odometer.
These Elans are great to drive and pretty rare (though definitely not as pretty as the two-seat Elan), yet they cost a fraction of what you’d pay for a Porsche 911 of the same period. Even with its incredibly low mileage and Chapman connection, this one is only expected to sell for £60,000-70,000 ($74,000-87,000) on February 25.
