The rare Lotus Elan boosted by BRM
A 1967 Lotus Elan in BRM green and orange? Simon de Burton finds a hen’s-teeth, tweaked two-seater with racing heritage
THE CLASSIC MOTOR HUB
No fan of 1960s Formula 1 racing could fail to recognise the livery of BRM on the car pictured here – but what, might you ask, is it doing on a Lotus Elan?
The answer is that this is one of only a believed 10 Elans to have been enhanced with performance tweaks by BRM works driver Mike Spence and BRM engineer Tony Rudd (who moved to Lotus two years after this car was built).
The Elan BRM’s respray was applied by Alan Rigarlsford, the chief of Mike Spence’s Lotus paint shop in 1967
THE CLASSIC MOTOR HUB
Between them, Spence and Rudd formulated a plan to buy Elans in kit form and use their knowledge gained through racing to upgrade the standard 115bhp Harry Mundy-designed engines in order to take full advantage of the car’s famed handling.
With modifications that included a gas-flowed cylinder head, bigger inlet valves, a higher compression ratio, wilder camshafts and upgraded Weber carburettors, the duo managed to squeeze between 15bhp and 25bhp more out of the Elan’s 1558cc engine, providing an impressive boost to a car that weighed just 680kg.
Fully restored but much of the car’s originality remains
The glassfibre Elan bodies, which were delivered from the factory in grey primer, were then finished in the famous Lustreen Green and vivid orange BRM colour scheme before the completed cars were offered for sale though Spence’s own Lotus dealerships.
The reason so few Elan BRMs were built is that Spence was killed during practice for the 1968 Indianapolis 500, by which time the example pictured here had been sold to its first owner, Lancashire-based amateur racing driver Bob Hayhurst.
An upgraded engine increased power from 115bhp to 130bhp
Hayhurst is said to have competed in the car extensively in and around the North for several years – notably in the dramatic and highly technical Baitings Dam hillclimb – before selling it to his nephew in 1987.
A long period of storage followed before a new owner acquired the car 14 years ago and embarked on a comprehensive restoration with the aim of keeping as many original parts as possible.
Lotus specialists Ken and Neil Myers were tasked with the project – which soon revealed that the car needed a replacement chassis. Remarkably a new, old stock item turned up, to which the components were swapped, one by one, after being carefully refurbished.
Further authenticity was assured when a can of the original Dockers brand paint was discovered, enabling the exact colour used by Spence and Rudd in 1967 to be replicated – and then applied by none other than the man who sprayed the car first time around, Alan Rigarlsford, the former paint shop manager of Spence’s Lotus dealerships. Once completed, the car was displayed for seven years at the Donington Collection prior to its closure in 2018, since when it has seen little use but remains on the button.
The Classic Motor Hub’s marketing man George Chaytor-Norris has enjoyed a blast in the ultra-rare Lotus BRM and pronounces it “a wonderful, fun sports car”. It has an impressive turn of speed and, importantly, a fabulous exhaust note.
1967 LOTUS ELAN BRM
On sale with The Classic Motor Hub, Bibury, Oxfordshire. Asking price: £60,000. classicmotorhub.com
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