Lotus Élan S2

[Volvo P1800 = The Saint] [Aston Martin DB5 = James Bond[ [Lotus Élan S2 = Emma Peel]

It's just one of those cars from the sixties, heavily featured in TV series and movies that took on the persona of the character that drove them. For blokes of my generation this car will forever be associated with Diana Rigg and leather catsuits, and no bad thing - for those of you who are too young or cannot remember the Sixties, look up The Avengers on the internet and ignore all references to a rather dumpy Hillman saloon car and a later Marvel Comics franchise.

The Lotus Élan casting was used for a number of different model numbers. You will see it with a hardtop, you will also see it with a detachable chassis. Green with a yellow stripe is from the Lotus Gift Set GS37 and the white car can be from the Avengers set GS40 but it is known as a stand alone model. All colours get a very good price, white especially so and copper gets a good premium over blue or yellow.

318 Open Sports

This however is a good one in its own right. Opening windows, good dashboard & interior detail, opening bonnet, slide up and down windows and that Esso advert on the boot lid echoing the bumper stickers that were around at the time. I also just discovered that the line down the windscreen is not a crack as I thought it was, it is a feature of the real car and is probably the radio aerial. No.318 is always open top and always has a fixed chassis. It was supplied new with a boot decal attached reading 'I've got a tiger in my tank' and racing numbers on a sheet for you to attach yourself. Production ran from 1965 and ended in 1967 or 1968 depending on the colour. Colours are metallic steel blue, metallic copper, white and yellow with a green stripe.

GS37 Lotus Racing Team

This set came with two Élans, hard top and open, both with detachable chassis and a spare chassis, there was a Lotus Formula 1 car and a VW Pickup recovery vehicle with a racing car trailer and a number of traffic cones. The Lotus Racing Team Gift Set GS37 was added to the range in 1966 where it remained until 1969. I suspect even back in those days Colin Chapman had a bit more of a set-up than this VW Pickup with some tools in the back, no matter it is an excellent set with loads of play value..

319 Hardtop Coupe

Corgi take the excellent Élan S2 roadster from a couple of years ago and make a new and feature-filled model. We keep the opening bonnet, but what is underneath it is very different. There is a detachable chassis which has the detailed engine attached. We also get a fixed head roof which makes the tipping seats a bit useless. Colours for this version are: yellow with green top, blue with white top, red with either red or white top, green with yellow top, they can have spun hubs or cast hubs. The car was introduced in June 1967 and deleted in 1969, look out for blue with a white top.