Make: LOTUS
Model: ELAN
Registration: MK 567
Engine Size (cc): 1558
Year of Manufacture: 1963
Date First Registered: 06/1963
MOT Expiry Date: 04/08/2025
Current V5: YES
Location: PICKERING
Guide Price: SUBMIT BEST BID
You can view from: Tuesday 27 August - Tuesday 3 September 2024

Current V5 present. Paperwork includes a previous partial V5, purchase invoice, handwritten letter from the previous owner, MOT certificate, Lotus Owners pack, folder containing Chicane magazine, MOT certificate, VIN plate, photo of the VIN plate, and extensive printed photos of the restoration.

The vendor has provided the following:

MK 567 is an historically important Lotus Elan 1600 (S1) that has been sympathetically restored to a very high standard by the crew at SWLC (South West Lotus) for the Bangers & Cash: Restoring Classics team.

MK is number 56 of 298 Elan 1600s Colin Chapman sold in component form, it was the second Elan into Scotland - the first being 997 NUR, Jim Clarke’s car.

This has been by far the most expensive, comprehensive and detailed restoration the Bangers team have undertaken thus far and it is a credit to them for taking it on. They really didn't know what they would uncover when they bought the car - and in their words - this is the story of MK… so far.

Firstly, the really important stuff you need to know if you are considering buying MK…one of the very best original early Bourne-bodied Elan 1600s around, and there really aren't very many of those.

Please come up and see the car prior to the auction so you know exactly what you are bidding on. Viewing starts on 27th August, or make a booking this week.

VIN 26/0078, unit number 3063, engine number LP148,

Date of Manufacture: 30th May 1963.

Mileage: 70k

The car is back to its original factory colour and trim specification.

(from Primrose yellow to Lotus BRG with unusual but lovely white door cards & centre console)

Lotus Certificate of Provenance (in the name of Bangers & Cash)

Original brown log book.

Current V5 & MOT

Detailed picture restoration file from SWLC (South West Lotus)

The work done includes:

Fully body off restoration, back down to bare fibreglass.

All repairs, holes and cracks attended to.

The engine bay has been fully refurbed, and the gel coat colour matched with the original grey.

The car was yellow, it’s back to its original period Lotus BRG

The dashtop has been recovered and we have possibly got the last new “old stock” S1 dash

in existence to replace the original one, which was damaged beyond repair.

Upholstery has been reconditioned, this is when we discovered the door cards and centre consol were originally white. They had been painted at some point.

New old stock genuine Triplex windscreen.

All chrome work has been rechromed.

Original steel wheels reconditioned.

The new alloy hubs are Type 18

The original engine has been rebuilt.

It has new carbs, new fuel lines, coolant hoses, new radiator, new wiring loom,

new lights, discs, suspension, shocks and rear wishbones…and a whole lot more.

The car has been rolling road tested to 100bhp

Despite lots of sensible new parts, the car is very original and wherever possible - that has been the priority.

The car's story.

Not an obvious choice for the Restoring Classics team, a tatty, sad looking non-runner - but what child of the ‘60s doesn't remember Emma Peel and appreciate how the Elan was the enthusiastic driver's choice.

The car we bought three years ago.

It really wasn't as good as it looks here.

The VIN plate looked interesting and after several evenings on Lotus forums and a couple of calls to some very knowledgeable folk, I had convinced myself that this was a very early and rare Bourne-bodied car. In Lotus circles, this is a find, the holy grail of S1 cars, the real early ones - when Colin Chapman was still very hands on.

The Bourne manufacturer plate on the bulkhead wasn't there - but there were two rivet holes and plate marks where it should have been.

The really knowledgeable Lotus owners reading this will know that I am out of my depth here …and the auction was the next day. I should have left it alone.

Bidding started at 12k, for a tatty Elan. There was clearly keen interest. The select number of enthusiastic bidders made me more confident that I was probably right, but this wasn't going to be the rare bargain I had hoped for. Several bidders dropped out at 20k, three were left in, plus me. It ended with me at 25.7k … and I didn't sleep that night.

From its original brown log book, always a magnificent aid when trying to piece together the vehicle's story, I began looking at the previous owners. Five in all, two in the trade who passed the car across to each other in a matter of weeks, and the last owner for over 50 years, with the car being off the road for 45 of them.

MK 567 is a Middlesex plate, but the Elan’s first owner was a chap called Michael Laird with a smart Edinburgh address.

Google came up trumps, and as many people in Scotland will probably know, Michael Laird was a very famous architect.

Michael Laird at the wheel of this car in 1963, note white door card.

I rang Lairds, still a very prominent architects’ practice, and tried to explain that I was attempting to find out about a 60 year old car their founder bought in May 1963. Michael Laird was by reputation a flamboyant character, given to adventure and speed. He had passed away, but his son, Simon, also an architect, was still in the city.

I tracked him down. Simon has clearly inherited his father’s love of cars and motor racing and he was amazed to hear that his dad’s car was still around and thrilled it was going to be restored. He last saw it when he was six, but remembered it well.

He told me MK 567 was the second type 26 Lotus into Scotland - the first being 997 NUR, World motor racing champion Jim Clarke’s one-off red Elan, with a silver roof.

Simon remembered the car arrived in two boxes at a mews garage in Canning Street Lane, Edinburgh, to be put together by a young medical student, turned racing driver called Edward Labinjoh.

There’s more…84 year old Edward still runs an Alfa dealership in Edinburgh.

Edward Labinjoh, who built the car in an Edinburgh mews garage.

Edward remembers putting MK 567 together well and that would have been in May 1963. The car was registered on June 21st 1963 and it was the Lotus BRG you see in the pictures, not primrose yellow.

This is an Elan with a significant history, and we are aware that with being the temporary custodian of a car like this, comes a responsibility. The restoration has to be correct, and it is. The car comes with a full detailed picture file, a Lotus heritage certificate detailing the car's place in the company's history - and the original brown log book!

The skill and passion that Phil, James, Ben, Kathy and the team at SWLC have put into this car is evident - we all have a car we are all proud of. Thank you.

So what is it worth?

It is being sold as “submit best bid” - so, the best bid on the day is in pole position.

This isn’t Jim Clarke’s Elan, which sold for 350k btw - it is more original, but not worth as much!

I haven't put a reserve on it, it’s up to you…but we do need a fair price for this unique and very special Elan.

It has cost a small fortune to get right, and I don't think MK’s story has finished yet.