RE: Vegantune Evante: Spotted

RE: Vegantune Evante: Spotted

Thursday 25th April 2019

Vegantune Evante: Spotted

The spiritual successor to the Lotus Elan you've never heard of...



Lotus's diminutive two-seat Elan changed the automotive landscape when it arrived in the early sixties. Its lightweight construction bestowed it with greater acceleration than more powerful rivals, while its agile handling made it a joy to drive. Car and Driver went so far as to describe it as coming, "closer than anything else on the market to providing a Formula car for ordinary street use." Crikey.

When production ended in 1973, then, it left a hole in the hearts of enthusiasts, and in the market. Alternatives like the TVR Vixen and Marcos GT also went off sale around the same time, the Triumph TR7 and TVR M Series didn't directly fill the void and the Mazda MX-5 was still over 15 years away. So, when it became apparent that no suitable replacement was forthcoming, one man decided to go it alone. The Evante was born.

Despite its legendary reputation, by the end of its life the Elan was beginning to show one or two signs of age. To that end its spiritual successor was intended to retain all that was good about the original car, while modernising the formula just enough to recoup its relevance. The outcome, depending on who you ask, was either a resounding success or, as one PHer puts it, "a complete pile of sh*te."


Designed and created by George Walter Robinson - who ambitiously declared his aim at the time was "to be another Aston Martin" - the Evante's styling was, obviously, heavily inspired by the Elan. More so from some angles than others, it's fair to say, and viewed from the rear the car's aesthetics are particularly divisive. Mechanically the Evante also borrowed heavily from Ford - the five-speed gearbox and differential, for example, were taken from a Sierra, while switchgear came from an Escort.

It did feature a custom-built space frame chassis, though, one clad in composite body panels to ensure that Colin Chapman's lightweight ethos endured. There were 10-inch disc brakes and independent suspension all round, too, and the whole thing was powered by a Ford Kent-based 1.7-litre motor featuring noted race-engine tuner Vegantune's own dual-overhead cam head to improve performance.

So specced, the Evante produced 142hp and 129lb ft of torque for a power-to-weight ratio between that of a Porsche 944 Turbo and a Ferrari Testarossa; 0-60mph was achieved in 6.4 seconds and top speed was a heady 132mph. Outright performance wasn't even its forte, though, rather its blend of Lotus-style pace and agility with contemporary comfort and convenience - leading Motorsport magazine to call it "the genuine, pedigree son of Elan."


Unfortunately, not enough buyers agreed, and Evante production lasted just four short years. Cypriot businessman Andreas Liveras would later buy the rights to continue manufacturing the cars in the late 90s, adding Ford Zetec engines and ungainly rear lights from a Mk2 Golf, and it is from this final batch that today's Spotted comes. Which could either make it less special, or more useable, depending on your point of view.

As recently as 2007, though, it seems that some enthusiasts were still yearning for a modern-day Elan, with PHer tomuch supposedly having acquired the rights to produce the car once more, leading to a rather tepid testing of the water on this very site. His continuation cars were to begin at a seemingly optimistic £15,000, though, roughly the cost of a decent Elan at the time. Today's Spotted is listed at £12,995, but with Elan prices having risen significantly since, could the Evante finally represent the modern alternative it was intended to be?


SPECIFICATION - VEGANTUNE AVANTE

Engine: 1,699cc, four cylinder
Transmission: 5-speed manual, rear-wheel drive
Power (hp): 142@6,500rpm
Torque (lb ft): 129@5,250rpm
MPG: N/A
CO2: N/A
First registered: 1999
Recorded mileage: 12,000
Price new: £14,888
Yours for: £12,995

See the full ad here

Author
Discussion

richinlondon

Original Poster:

591 posts

121 months

Thursday 25th April 2019
quotequote all
You would always want to park the rear of that against a wall

loskie

5,144 posts

119 months

Thursday 25th April 2019
quotequote all
First thought was the back end looked like an alfa spider HOWEVER a second look at the rear said Ford Orion.

"Vegan"tune!

You couldn't take it to a car meat then!!!getmecoat

MIDangerfield

46 posts

103 months

Thursday 25th April 2019
quotequote all
Are those..... MK2 Golf rear light clusters!?

cookie1600

2,094 posts

160 months

Thursday 25th April 2019
quotequote all
MIDangerfield said:
Are those..... MK2 Golf rear light clusters!?
You missed the bit in the article that stated "ungainly rear lights from a Mk2 Golf" then?

Gameface

16,565 posts

76 months

Thursday 25th April 2019
quotequote all
This or a Chimaera?

Hhhhhmmmm...

POORCARDEALER

8,523 posts

240 months

Thursday 25th April 2019
quotequote all


Poor effort after the uber pretty Elan

Triumph Man

8,670 posts

167 months

Thursday 25th April 2019
quotequote all
That example was built in 1999?! Jesus!

Turbobanana

6,160 posts

200 months

Thursday 25th April 2019
quotequote all
From the front 3/4 it looks great - like a modernised Elan - but the rear? The earlier ones were much prettier, using horizontal light clusters from, IIRC, an Alfa GTV. The widened rear arches do it no favours either.

alorotom

11,908 posts

186 months

Thursday 25th April 2019
quotequote all
To me this is hideous.

All the pictures look like their aspect ratio is screwed (images have been stretched to be too tall) then you look at the background and realise theyre actually correct - its just ungainly.

Equus

16,770 posts

100 months

Thursday 25th April 2019
quotequote all
It also suffers from the same problem that the Spyder Zetec conversion to the Elan does: in order to give sufficient clearance to the taller Zetec engine, the whole bodyshell sits higher on the backbone chassis than it does on the original Elan, making the whole car look taller (because it is), and creating an excessive gap over the wheels in the wheelarches.

Nice idea, but the whole thing fell down on detail.

C.A.R.

3,967 posts

187 months

Thursday 25th April 2019
quotequote all
What is the opposite of "butterface"? laugh

rallycross

12,747 posts

236 months

Thursday 25th April 2019
quotequote all
POORCARDEALER said:
Poor effort after the uber pretty Elan
The original Evante from the 80’s looked rather nice, I only ever saw one up close and it looked very well made. Like this;




This later model looks horrible just buy and Mx5!

Gez79

216 posts

182 months

Thursday 25th April 2019
quotequote all
The original version is much prettier.

Think those rear lights are actually off a Triumph TR7/8 unless someone is going to tell me that triumph used Alfa lights?

Strider

165 posts

230 months

Thursday 25th April 2019
quotequote all
I relaunched the Mk 1 with George Robinson then launched the Mk 2, although why they just stopped production of the car that was starting to sell while they developed a revised model that was heavier, slower, less nimble and a lot less pretty is still a mystery. Press coverage was extensive and highly favourable. We even had it on the cover of Performance Car and Director and a huge piece in The Daily Telegraph. Looking back, I feel very lucky to have been part of a special era in British automotive manufacturing, even if not all the lessons-learnt about these companies living on little more than passion and hope were positive. Evante was the last of a bread that could not survive in the twenty first century. This is one of the Mk 2 launch pics, with a youthful me at the wheel.

Edited by Strider on Thursday 25th April 10:05

RemyMartin81D

6,759 posts

204 months

Thursday 25th April 2019
quotequote all
loskie said:
First thought was the back end looked like an alfa spider HOWEVER a second look at the rear said Ford Orion.

"Vegan"tune!

You couldn't take it to a car meat then!!!getmecoat
Well I liked the pun lol

kambites

67,461 posts

220 months

Thursday 25th April 2019
quotequote all
POORCARDEALER said:
Poor effort after the uber pretty Elan
True, but the Elan had already started to go downhill in terms of styling long before it was discontinued. The S1 was a lovely delicate little thing but it gradually got chunkier and more heavy-handed as the series progressed.

Turbobanana

6,160 posts

200 months

Thursday 25th April 2019
quotequote all
Gez79 said:
The original version is much prettier.

Think those rear lights are actually off a Triumph TR7/8 unless someone is going to tell me that triumph used Alfa lights?
Right on both counts - apologies for my earlier recollection that they were Alfa GTVs.

MCBrowncoat

864 posts

145 months

Thursday 25th April 2019
quotequote all
loskie said:
First thought was the back end looked like an alfa spider HOWEVER a second look at the rear said Ford Orion.

"Vegan"tune!

You couldn't take it to a car meat then!!!getmecoat
First thing I'd be doing is looking underneath for car-rot

That hood doesn't look to good either - might want to check for leeks

Looks like a modern stereo - does it have apple connectivity?

Still, could be fun, maybe even offer some heel and tofu




Apologies, at least two of those were terrible....

fernando the frog

298 posts

67 months

Thursday 25th April 2019
quotequote all
for £1295 maybe, not £12995

TwigtheWonderkid

43,248 posts

149 months

Thursday 25th April 2019
quotequote all
Without any doubt definitely the finest car ever................................................to come out of Spalding.