Yes the Elan is a lot of fun.. Basically a speeding ticket looking for a place to happen!
The Cosworth motor was imported by a fellow from a wrecked RS Escort. He was a lotus club member who unfortunately passed away a couple of years ago. My friend was good chums with him and always said that they would help each other to sort out thier cars and parts for each other if anything nasty ever happened to the other one. You never expect to have to follow up on a promise like that but...
So my friend ( Brian ) had to do just that.. Then he found out that the motor was left to him in the will. It was in pieces of course, and quite sad. Well brian is an engineer, and manufactures his own parts when he has to ( I wish I was smart like that ) and he put the motor together with great care, making mods to correct some of the common problems with these over stressed beasts. So now the motor is fully rebuilt and ready to go. I had a spare Lotus motor with a great deal of mods also, and as I have a few motors I didn't really need it so we agreed to swap. Worked out well for both of us.. He got more horsepower,I got a BDA!
I was going to put it into the Elan, but the motor I have is quite powerful anyway, so now I am looking for another car to put the engine in.
An Escort MK1 shell would be ideal, but finding one will be tough in Canada. I think maybe a 105E or a MK1 Cortina would be fun. I have a header coming from England for it ( should be here any time) and just need a few small parts ( plug wires, wp pulley ) and some info to tune it.