Lotus Elan Sprint | Paint Colours

The Sprint colour schemes were Gold Lacquer front and rear bumpers, low gloss black wheels with chrome rimbellishers and either single (mono) colour or colour over white with Elan Sprint sidewinder decals, which were always gold. The under bonnet colour was Matt Black. Additionally, the body strip under the sills was always painted black by the factory to finish off the car.

During the entire Elan production Lotus tried a series of new and experimental paint finishes; sometimes complete cars were painted in batches by outside contractors and sometimes cars were sold to dealers in primer, which allowed dealers to offer custom colours. Lotus would spray a car any colour the owner fancied. So the standard colours on the Sprint were drawn from the following list, though I acknowledge other colours were used on the S4/Sprints too. Please see here for a full list of colours used by Lotus on Elans and Plus 2s from 1962 to 1974. It includes some modern currently available equivalent paint codes.

Lotus ‘L’ prefix codes indicate nitro-cellulose paint used on the Elan. At the time there were two suppliers to the factory, Pinchin, Johnson and ICI. Pinchin, Johnson was taken over by Courtaulds and merged into their paints division when they bought International Paint. ICI was taken over by Nexa Autocolor.

Lotus Code	Colour	Pinchin, Johnson Paint Reference (Lotus part number below)	ICI Paint Reference (Lotus part number below)	Nexa Autocolor Code	Notes
L 04	Cirrus White	PJ 6170X0540 A036B6318V	ICI P0309049	9049	As in brochure; as used in Gold Leaf scheme From Oct 62
L 05	Carnival Red	PJ 6170X5350 A036B6319V	ICI P0308385 or 9051 B036B6319V	8385	As in brochure; as used in Gold Leaf scheme From Oct 67
L 07	Lotus Yellow	PJ 6170X3940 A036B6321V	ICI P0309547 B036B6321V	9547	As in brochure From Oct 67
L 08	Matt Black	PJ 0235X9050RZ A036B6312V	ICI Non Gloss or Semi-Matt Black 4523		Engine bay, boot and underneath only
L 11	Regency Red	PJ 6170Y5960 A036B6356V	ICI P0309053 B036B6356V	9053	Maroon in brochure From Oct 70
L 12	Lagoon Blue (Metallic)	PJ 6170A1130 A036B6357V	ICI P0314339 or 4339M	4339	Metallic Blue in brochure From Oct 70
L 13	Pistachio Lime Green	PJ 6170W2230R1 A036B6349V	ICI P0309052	9052	Lime Green in brochure From Oct 70
L 14	Colorado Orange	PJ 6170Z5980RJ A036B6350V	ICI P0309055	9055	Light Orange in Brochure. From Oct 69 Discontinued in Oct 72
L 15	Black Gloss	ICI P030122 A036B6397V			Not an “official” Sprint colour. From Sep 72
L 16	Ford Tawny (Metallic)	PJ 6170A4330 A036B6399V	ICI P0313626 or 5RD5B	3626	From Oct 72
	Gold Lacquer	PJ 6170A3130 A036B6345V	Talbot Aztec Gold - code 143 or D512B	3460M	Elan Sprint bumpers

From my records, the most popular standard original colours were:

First – Lotus Yellow

Second – Carnival Red

Third – Lagoon Blue

Fourth – Colorado Orange

The least popular standard original colours were:

First – White

Second - Regency Red (Maroon)

Third – Pistachio Lime Green

Fourth – Ford Tawny