Very early Excel photo

[KevW]

This is a page from "Lotus The Legend". I wouldn't mind betting it's Brian's car - what do you think Brian ? The rear bumper looks like it's been added photographically.

[MikeC]

This is a page from "Lotus The Legend". I wouldn't mind betting it's Brian's car - what do you think Brian ? The rear bumper looks like it's been added photographically.

That photo is from the shoot for first brochure. It has this red car and another yellow one, both with body-coloured mirrors and grey wheels, neither of which got to production.

Wherever thought that grey bumpers and sills looked good with red and yellow should have been shot. Fantastic with silver of light blue though.



Mike

[muphy]

I've seen Brian's car in the flesh (as it were) and I gotta say that I think the bumpers really work.

Personal choice I guess.

M

[B. Swankie]

The photo is certainly the one that use as evidence when ever I get any disputes about what is right or wrong with my car (it does usually settle any differences of opinion).The bumper colour is correct as I found this underneath the red in the joins between sills and body when restoring the car.
Brian Swankie.

[johnthebass]

Curious to read the script underneath the photo which states that total production was 1327! As I understood it the production was 2149 or thereabouts. Does the higher figure reflect Eclats as well? If that's the case then our SE's are rarer than one would have thought! Any ideas?
John.

[chrisw2811]

http://www.lotusexcel.net/phpbb/viewtop ... ber#p35788

[Bazzer25]

Really good to see a photo of an early Excel, I have a silver 83 car that has both Eclat and Excel logo's on the bodywork and is registered as an Eclat on the V5. It doesn't have a spoiler, has body coloured bumpers, gold (ish) 14" wheels (same as the red one above) and has black pinstripes just above the black body trim, is this how it would have left the factory?

[Simpatico]

For me the early cars are the best looking, the grey sills/bumpers lighten the shape to a slimmer profile, and the sleek body is devoid of spoilers and grandad mudflaps.



Must say I'm glad they went with silver wheels though.



Shame so few other people share this opinion, can you believe the red car above went unsold at £1800?

[Simpatico]

Out of interest, there seemed to be rather a lot of pre-production prototypes between the Eclat S1 and S2 morphing into the Excel featuring a mixture of old and new components like chassis, diffs, interiors and wheels. At least 3 have come to light recently or been sold, one was a 2 tone silver car which I was convinced was an owner updated bitsa-special;




.....until the designers proposal sketch came up on Ebay (it now sits in my dining room thanks to the generosity of a club member)



Then came a blue car which had been kept for decades by a Lotus engineer even after he defected to Jaguar and the XJ220 programme;



Now it seems another gold car has been literally unearthed;

http://www.preloved.co.uk/adverts/show/ ... oject.html



Again it could be accused of being an owner lash-up were it not for a set of prototype wheels worn by a pre-prod Excel in this very rare photograph



I'm still trying to identify these, they look like Pontiac Fiero items, but the GM link hadn't kicked in yet so wonder if they are an early Toyota wheel? They may have been an attempt to distance the car from the 70s-style iron-cross speedlines that eventually returned.

[G848ECF]

... I have a silver 83 car that has both Eclat and Excel logo's on the bodywork and is registered as an Eclat on the V5....

I am fairly sure that all Excels appear as Eclats on their V5s, because, it is said, Lotus wanted to save a few quid on a new type approval. This sounds very Lotusy.

[amarshall]

... I have a silver 83 car that has both Eclat and Excel logo's on the bodywork and is registered as an Eclat on the V5....

I am fairly sure that all Excels appear as Eclats on their V5s, because, it is said, Lotus wanted to save a few quid on a new type approval. This sounds very Lotusy.

Indeed they did (as Eclat Excels), but one or two owners have persuaded DVLA to change them to just "Excel".

[MikeC]

I have a silver 83 car that has both Eclat and Excel logo's on the bodywork and is registered as an Eclat on the V5. It doesn't have a spoiler, has body coloured bumpers, gold (ish) 14" wheels (same as the red one above) and has black pinstripes just above the black body trim, is this how it would have left the factory?

The 82 and early 83 cars had "excel" on the rear sides, "lotus éclat" on the back, and just "éclat" on the nose. Mid-83 the éclat was dropped from the decals and was replaced by "excel". The bumpers and sills would have been grey and the wheels silver. Only one pinstripe is correct, the 1984 cars (with the Toyota wheels) have a double stripe.


Mike

[Redexcel]

... I have a silver 83 car that has both Eclat and Excel logo's on the bodywork and is registered as an Eclat on the V5....

I am fairly sure that all Excels appear as Eclats on their V5s, because, it is said, Lotus wanted to save a few quid on a new type approval. This sounds very Lotusy.

Indeed they did (as Eclat Excels), but one or two owners have persuaded DVLA to change them to just "Excel".

Mine just said Ecat. I wrote to DVLA, and they changed it to Eclat Excel when I explained that the Excel was a sub-model of the Eclat, and it may cause problems with selling the car on if the V5 and the car had different names. They changed it without quibble.