The battery has been out of it but the moss was starting to grow around the wheels so I decided to do something about it...I have a friend who keeps his '71 Elan in one of my garages and he was round today in the exceptionally mild weather to take it out for an hour. When he returned he said he'd help me get the BT running - I often do the same for him as the Elan can be quite tempramental.
So we connected a set of jump leads to his diesel Merc and I set about gingerly turning the BT over to see if she'd start. Within half a second, she fired up, and immediately settled into a perfect idle.
My mate with the Elan was completely blown away; it takes him 2 minutes to start the Elan on a good day! But it was the rock steady idle with no hint of wavering that surprised us both, especially since the fuel must be getting a bit ropey after all that time.She's SORNed with not MoT - and the lack of power steering means I can't take her on the road - but I gave her a few runs in the driveway to get the dust off the brakes. Once warmed up, I managed a standing start to 5k revs in first gear and she was pulling stronger than ever. I'm chuffed and relieved in equal measure. My mate is just astonished! Few cars would be very happy at such a lack of TLC. This one is just incredible - and I won't let it happen again.
Good to hear she's ale-and-hearty 
after such poor neglect 