OCTANE CARS OWNING+ DRIVING + MAINTAINING

I HAVE FORM when it comes to Lotus Elans. The reason is simple. It is a sports car so good that it makes even a tepid shoe like me resemble a highly competent driver, and it’s the best of its generation by a country mile.

- Elan man

I know lots of Alfa Spider fans think otherwise citing the Milanese’s thoroughbred engine and box as its main advantages but, despite me being jealous of that fifth gear, a decent Elan will run rings round the Alfa on road or track. Doesn't mean I don’t love the Alfa, which I do, but unless you are factoring in the inconvenient truths of side impact protection and ease of hood erection, there is no contest.

I bought my first Elan, a 1966 S2 so no window frames), in 1999 and ran it for 13 years in all weathers. For several years it was my main year-round commuter car in London. With the patient help of Paul Matty, we got it so reliable that I could confidently impertinently?) do the round trip to the Le Mans Classic armed with only an adjustable spanner.

Then came kids, and in March 2012 I was forced to sell’ it after about 40,000 glorious miles. Happily that didn’t quite mean the end of the Elan line for me, because I swapped it with Paul Matty, of course) for a brown envelope of crisp tenners to stave off the bank and a 1969 2 with Strombergs and a glass sunroof so I could keep getting my fix.

Stuart Quick of Quickfit SBS ingeniously found a way to put harnesses in the back, so it was my school-run car for a while. But as the kids got bigger, so did the debts and I said goodbye to that one at the H&H sale at Chateau Impney barely 18 months later.

Since 2014, nothing. I’ve sold a few spares, but I diligently kept all the books and manuals, and even an Elan-related eBay seller name, safe in the knowledge that I would one day own another one. I had assumed that day might be when pensions matured or kids left home, but by regularly misusing my position to bleat about the injustice of my Elan-less plight in print, I eventually landed my fish.