26r identities and other info
Post by: Davidb » Sun Jul 05, 2009 2:30 am
At Monterey in 1986 there were five 26Rs racing, including myself in 26R5, Gil Nickel, Don Orosco in the Gold Bug Elan and two others. We were all beaten. By a GT40? A Porsche 906? A Chevron B16? No, By a bloody AC Aceca!! It was prepared and driven by Chris Lawrence-he of the SuperSport Morgan Plus 4 and developement engineer on the latest Morgan Aero Eight race cars. Read his autobiography "Morgan Maverick" for a full description.
Here I am beside him in 26R5 as we come down through the 'Corkscrew' in the warmup laps.
Here I am beside him in 26R5 as we come down through the 'Corkscrew' in the warmup laps.
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Post by: Davidb » Sun Jul 05, 2009 3:36 am
Following the lead on the location of 26-S2-18 here is the advt for it that Barber Motorsport Park presumably bought it from:
http://www.vprace.com/carsales/lotus_26r.htm
Such a deal!!
http://www.vprace.com/carsales/lotus_26r.htm
Such a deal!!
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Post by: Davidb » Sun Jul 05, 2009 10:06 pm
It's one of those "I should never have sold it...." stories!
I bought the car at the absolute nadir of it's career - for five thousand dollars.
I sold it a couple of years later to Nino Epifani Restorations for $25,000 I think. Nino is a top US restorer of cars such as Maserati 300S, Ferrari Testa Rosa etc, etc. His bill to restore it to race ready condition must have been about $100K. But this was the late eighties and 26Rs were selling for $250,000 so who cared? Fast forward 20 years, the car needs money to keep it race ready. Dave Vegher does not come cheap, and 195bhp comes pretty expensive! I would say somebody lost their shirt at 100 grand when this sold.
I bought the car at the absolute nadir of it's career - for five thousand dollars.
I sold it a couple of years later to Nino Epifani Restorations for $25,000 I think. Nino is a top US restorer of cars such as Maserati 300S, Ferrari Testa Rosa etc, etc. His bill to restore it to race ready condition must have been about $100K. But this was the late eighties and 26Rs were selling for $250,000 so who cared? Fast forward 20 years, the car needs money to keep it race ready. Dave Vegher does not come cheap, and 195bhp comes pretty expensive! I would say somebody lost their shirt at 100 grand when this sold.
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Post by: Davidb » Mon Jul 06, 2009 5:44 pm
Since Brian Hart was getting 190 bhp out of a TC in 1972 in the 416 engine it doesn't seem unlikely that 37 years later another 5bhp could be found....
Spec sheet:
http://www.race-cars.com/engsold/lotus/ ... 2724d1.gif
Spec sheet:
http://www.race-cars.com/engsold/lotus/ ... 2724d1.gif
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Post by: Davidb » Tue Jul 07, 2009 1:52 am
Unfortunately 26R5 was missing it's plate! I was able to identify the chassis number by contacting previous owners who were clear about the number-although one man remembered it as "26RS5" but he was a Porsche nut as well so that was probably the reason....
The other 26Rs that I have examined-and I always look at the plate-have the small plate. The plate on a Series one should be a simple: 26R-5 or whatever. I saw a photo of a plate recently that said 26R-S1-1* .....WRONG
The S2 26R just says "26-S2-18" or whatever number. No "R" appears on the chassis plate-- In my experience
The plate on 26-S2-18 is exactly as I remember it. The abrasion mark on it is from a vacuum line that went to twin brake boosters at some point I seem to recall.
I still have the boosters.
The other 26Rs that I have examined-and I always look at the plate-have the small plate. The plate on a Series one should be a simple: 26R-5 or whatever. I saw a photo of a plate recently that said 26R-S1-1* .....WRONG
The S2 26R just says "26-S2-18" or whatever number. No "R" appears on the chassis plate-- In my experience
The plate on 26-S2-18 is exactly as I remember it. The abrasion mark on it is from a vacuum line that went to twin brake boosters at some point I seem to recall.
I still have the boosters.
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Post by: rgh0 » Fri Jul 10, 2009 8:06 am
Davidb wrote:Since Brian Hart was getting 190 bhp out of a TC in 1972 in the 416 engine it doesn't seem unlikely that 37 years later another 5bhp could be found....
Spec sheet:
http://www.race-cars.com/engsold/lotus/ ... 2724d1.gif
The Hart 190 hp engines were running fuel injection if I recall. They also had very limited life between rebuilds. With better materials you can probably get a longer life for a Hart spec engine today but I still think 195hp on Carbs from 1600cc is a courageous claim. The only person I know doing serious twin cam development work these days is John McCoy and from what I see of his latest work it looks very much like he has ended up with a similar solution to what Brian Hart had all those years ago.
You will also struggle to fit an optimum exhaust in an Elan to get to the 190hp Hart levels unless your regs allow body mods to run a 4 to 1 the exhaust out the side of the engine bay.
cheers
Rohan
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Post by: Davidb » Fri Jul 10, 2009 3:29 pm
You may be right! I hadn't considered that Brian Hart was using FI by 1972.
John McCoy is only an hour away from me. I will be seeing him next week at the Mission Historic races-I will talk to him then. I was in his shop in the last year and he is doing some very interesting things....
John McCoy is only an hour away from me. I will be seeing him next week at the Mission Historic races-I will talk to him then. I was in his shop in the last year and he is doing some very interesting things....
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