The values of the original Lotus Elan have been climbing of late. And while the inflated prices of certain classics can be hard to wrap your head around, the Elan’s prized status makes complete sense. In many ways it’s the perfect classic sports car: light, pretty, superb to drive and powered by a much-loved engine. That it was a bit simpler than the Elite that preceded it (using a steel chassis rather than a glassfibre monocoque) has only endeared the Elan further to enthusiasts now the latest cars are more than half a century old.
Yes, really - even the MX-5 that was so heavily inspired by the Lotus is 35 this year. All of which means even a Plus 2 can be £20k; the Elans that people really want - models like the later, more powerful Sprint - can be three times that. But before the 1970 Sprint, there was a racier Elan, and it came with some motorsport kudos as well: the BRM.
Back in the '60s, BRM was a proper racing team. In 1967, Mike Spence joined their F1 team, where he and engineer Tony Rudd came up with the idea of powering up the Elan. By this time the 26R had happened, and the plan was to fuse some of that motorsport fizz with everyday usability. Spence had a good relationship with Lotus having raced for them previously, and with the approval of Colin Chapman the BRM project got going.
Elan kits were ordered, and the Lotus Twin Cam engines sent to BRM for some old-school tuning: the head was gas flowed, the compression ratio increased, bigger inlet valves fitted, the cams uprated and a four-branch exhaust manifold added. With a carb tweak on top, the BRM’d Elans were rated at 130 imperial horsepower - a little more than the 126 the Sprint would eventually get. Some cars (it’s believed each one was to a slightly different spec) were rated at 140bhp thanks to even hotter cams.
The BRM met with rave reviews - Autosport reckoned the extra power added ‘a great deal of excitement’ - but the collaboration was tragically cut short after Mike Spence died at practice for the 1968 Indy 500. A few ‘Spence Specification’ cars are believed to have been made after then, but only 10 with the BRM orange are thought to have been sold through his’s Lotus garage. (Because of course F1 drivers back then were also car dealers.)
This one is number 006 and was with its original owner, a Mr RJ Hayhurst, for 20 years from 1967. Having competed with it, he was clearly keen on the little Lotus. So much so, in fact, that when it came to selling he kept the BRM in the family and repatriated it with his nephew. With them it spent a lot of time in long-term storage, before emerging in 2010 for a far-reaching restoration. There were no half measures employed, an approach that meant going as far as a respray by Alan Rigarisford, who worked in the Mike Spence paint shop - and on this car - in period.
From there it spent years in the Donington Collection before it closed down, and was regularly checked up on by its owner. The BRM featured in Classic & Sports Car in March 2022 before ending up with the current owner, and is now for sale again. A collection’s not the place for it, surely - what a joy it’d be to see the BRM Elan out in the world being driven hard again.
It’s being sold with a fantastic history, including price lists from Mike Spence, a whole heap of service records and details of the restoration process. As well as being a delightful old sports car, the Elan is a little bit of Lotus history in a way that a Sprint isn’t quite so much. So £60,000 well spent, then.
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