Reply to: 26 chassis #s and as-built configurations
Howdy, All.
billyt wrote:
>>>>> after rebuilding 26/4204 i have been offered a very tired type 26
>>>>> without a motor or gearbox.
I wrote:
>>>> By the way, what year is 26/4204? It must be a late S2?
billyt wrote:
>>> 26/4204 is one of the earliest s2 elans made and possibly the
>>> first one in australia,it is interesting that 26/4195 was the c/o =
point
>>> for cluster taillamps,larger calipers and different p/c diameters on
>>> the rotoflex couplings.
>>> a friend of mine has 26/43?? and some of the differences are quite
>>> noticeable with a build date diff o f approx 3 weeks .
>>> i find it strange with this info readily available how you can be
>>> confused as to the early or late build of 26/4204.
>> I ass-u-me-d, and totally bodged the S2 numbering! My apologies.
>> I have never owned an S2, only two S1s and an S3. And for some
>> reason, I had assumed that the S2s continued the S1 numbering, i.e.
>> starting from 26/0500 or so, around when the last S1 would have
>> been produced. That was a ridiculous assumption of course, in
>> hindsight, because there is no way that over 5000 S2s were made!
>> Anyway the reference that I just looked at, describes the S2 as
>> starting with chassis number 26/3901, so as you have pointed out
>> 26/4204 is probably less than half way through S2 production.
> please advise where you got your start no. for s2 and if this can be
> verified. my information is that a transition period was involved where =
> s1 and s2,s were hard to differentiate. so i have trouble picking a s2
>with individual tail lamps,small calipers,no glovebox and a few other
> similarities with the s1 from 26/3901 on.
> i wonder how many actual cars where produced in the range
> 26/3900..26/4000 as acbc was renowned for fudging figures???
> is it not possible after changing models and homologation he decided
> to start a new no. series.
> as a ferrari caretaker i know that enzo never allowed the facts to
> interfere with the story he wanted known. in australia i do not believe =
> we received any ind.tail light,small caliper,etc,etc, s2 models.
> who did??
Bill you have asked a lot of really interesting questions, and so I feel
that I ought to expand the distribution of this discussion, both to get
more definitive answers from the 26 history experts (I am *not*) and
because I think there are probably others that will be interested in this =
stuff!
Thanks for your insights regarding the 26 mechanical build details that
went with the tail light change. Although I was aware of these
mechanical changes, I wasn't aware that they all happened at the same
time... are you sure it was so clear cut? I thought that this kinda =
stuff
was basically subject to what parts they had still sitting on the shelf.
Regarding the S2 start number, 26/3901; I got this info from a Lotus
West tech manual, of approximately 1984 vintage. The article itself
originated from a L/W 1974 annual clinic. This same data also appears
in the John Bolster "Lotus Elan and Europa" book, but I doubt that he
did the original research, because this book was first published in 1980, =
after the L/W article. Does anyone know who did the research?
More details follow:
Date Chassis # Comments
10/62 26/0001 Elan 1500 intro
5/63 26/0026 1558 "1600" intro, and 1st hardtop
1/64 26/0330 S1 continues into 1964
11/64 26/3901 S2 intro
1/65 26/4325 S2 continues into 1965
1/66 26/5207 S2 continues into 1966
1/66 26/5282 S2 SE intro
6/66 26/5798 S2 SE last chassis #
6/66 26/5810 S2 last chassis #
Does anyone know when the last S1 was made, and what number it
was? My recollection is that it was chassis number 500ish, but that is a =
vague memory from *many* years ago.
It appears from other notes in this L/W article, that very few S1s were
sold in '62... maybe none. Does anyone know of any specific S1s that
were confirmed to have been sold in '62?
Regarding 26/4195 as the cutoff point, for the S1-ish S2s, (certainly
sounds plausible) can anyone else confirm this?
Regarding where these S1-ish S2s went, dunno, but I would suspect they
went to the UK and the US.
I don't think that there was any time period when S1s and S2s were hard
to differentiate, but only because of the big discontinuity in the S1 and =
S2
chassis numbers. To decipher this by the equipment fitted alone, during
the transition period, might indeed be a difficult task ;-)
Regarding the number of early S2s that were actually produced from
3900 to 4000, yeah it is certainly possible that Colin might have fudged
such figures, if it suited him! But WRT homologation and such, as a
motivation for fudging numbers.... Well I doubt it, because the 26Rs =
would
have been the ones that might have been subject to such motivation, and
they were endowed with an altogether separate chassis numbering
sequence.
More likely (someone, please verify or dispute this... I've wondered this =
for a long time) is that the number of S2s (or, for that matter, S3s) =
that
were actually produced, might be less than one would initially assume,
because while they were being produced concurrently, their four digit
numbers might not have been duplicated.
For example, while 26s and 36s were being produced concurrently, in '65
and '66, were the four digit chassis numbers unique, despite their being
distinguished by the two digit prefix? In other words, do chassis 26/5305=
and 36/5305 (which would have been produced around the same time, as
far as I can tell) both exist? I would assume *not*! Does anyone know
this for sure?
Regarding the facts interfering with the story, yeah Colin was probably
just as good at putting his own spin on the facts, as was Enzo..... and =
he
certainly would have enjoyed it as good sport ;-)
If you reply to this message from the Lotus-Cars distribution, please
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Lotus-Cars digests have been running really late recently....
Regards,
erik.berg@trw.com
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