A short but VERY sweet Classic Kit Cars & Specials feature for you this week.
STEVE HOLE highlights a very special historic Lotus, a model that didn’t actually make production – the Elan Fastback. If anyone knows any proper detail about the car I’d love to find out more.
It definitely appeared in Peter Filby’s Specialist Sportscars book, albeit just a small photo (this one) and a paragraph that mentions that it was a factory produced mock up but wasn’t proceeded with.
As far as I am aware, I own the original photo of this car. The only photo of it in existence. I want people to enjoy my historic images, and as I wasn’t born yesterday, I realise that the temptation to ‘right click’ will be very high. If that’s the case, fine, please enjoy the photo. However, if you use it on a commercial website or in a publication, all I ask is that you give a modest credit to totalkitcar.com, PLEASE. I think that’s a fair request.
The bodyshell has Elan S4 wheels arches which would mean it was possibly built between 1968-1971, during which time nearly 2000 of that generation of Elan were sold. However, the door handles and rear lights are from Elan S3.
I discovered the photo quite by chance. I have been updating my archive storage and treated my vast photo collection to a bank of new filing cabinets. I was removing the drawers from the old one to make it easier to get them to the local tip, when I spotted a stray folder sitting at the bottom of the cabinet’s carcass.
On the rear of the photo is the inscription ‘Lotus Elan Fastback Prototype’.
A mystery. If you know anything about it please do get in touch.