LIKE MANY READERS, I feel as though I know the Octane writers from reading their stories in the magazine. I am an Elan fan, who ran my first Elan as a daily driver, and like editor James Elliott I lived in South London at the time – so imagine my surprise to see James’s new acquisition in a recent issue!
I’ve owned three Elans over the past 40 years or so – the first while in my 20s, which gave me the full spectrum of highs and lows that comes with running an unrestored Elan. By the start of the millennium I couldn’t resist the urge for another, this time a blue-over-white Sprint with only two previous owners and 30,000 miles. The apparently wealthy owner explained that he’d had it converted to run on unleaded – well, whoever carried out the work opted for non-Lotus valves and on the way to Goodwood
