An early, early, early S1 Lotus Elan just turned up for sale. This is why they should take away my computer.
About a year ago, I drove a very nicely restored Lotus Elan Coupe for a feature we did on the coolest driver's cars of all time. It wasn't my first vintage Lotus experience—that honor goes to a full-blat, bug-teethed, eat-the-wind S3 Seven that I rode in during high school, a car that scarred me for life—but it was, in all likelihood, the best. The Elan danced up and down the Massachusetts back roads during that drive like it was guided by the hand of God: great, fantastic, light-as-a-feather stuff. Classic by any definition of the word. And enough to convince me that I wanted one.
Which is why I kind of blanched when a friend emailed me the link below. It's $19,000, but someone is selling a hugely patinated (ten years ago, that term would've been replaced with "projectized") early Elan. Early enough that it's got the six rear taillights. Oh, how I want. Oh, how I want. Ohhhhhhh, how I want.