DTC 711J

[paul356]

All,

I recently bought a '71 FHC elan S4, the registration is DTC 711J.

After spending hours rummaging through the history file it seems that the car might have a bit of racing history and I wondered if anyone remembered it?

The last owner had the car for three or four years but knew little of its previous history. The history file is intriguing and suggests that the car has an all steel engine with Cosworth fast road cams and a dry sump system fitted. It also has a Sailsbury diff.

The spec reads:

Steel EN40 Forged Crank
Con rods - holbay steel
Camshafts - cosworth L1
Compression: 11.25-1
Competition clutch
Clutch master cylinder 5/8 bore
Timing 32 deg before TDC
Dry sump system with Rowland pump
Webber 40 DCOE carbs with 36mm chokes
Main jets 160
Tubes F16
Slow running jet 45F9
Top air jet 140
Fitted Sailsbury Ltd Slip Diff
Crown wheel and pinion 9-40 (4.4 - 1)

The car is definitely still fitted with its dry sump and I suspect the other widgets are all still in there...although I have yet to strip it down.

The car is currently blue was previously black, its origninal colour was dark blue. It also has modified, extented wheel arches.

I think the engine was probably built up in the mid 80's but the tech sheet and BHP graph both look impressive but have neither a builder's name or BHP tester's name on them!

I also came across a scrutineers ticket for 1984 but it didn't say if it was a hillclimb or sprint or which club it was!

From the current and old brown log book, previous owners were:

David A Cooper
John A Barratt - Preston
John Kenneth - Turton, Lancs
Paul Frederick - Ramsbottom, Lancs
Two Trees Car Sales - Cheadle, Cheshire
G Gilbert -Scarborough, Yorks
Alan Sanderson - Rochdale, Lancs


Can anyone tell me anything about its past life?

Cheers

Paul

[paros]

Paul

I ought to have the answer but don't!
The previous owners fox me although all near where I used to be in Cheshire.
my guess is hill climb or sprints from the carb and cam spec.
What tyres and wheels are with the car?
It has wide arches as I would expect, but is the bodyshell 'paper thin'?
I will scratch my head on tis one
best of luck
Richard

[paul356]

Richard,

The car is at my parents and I haven't yet had the chance to check but I think it is running on 6J x 13's, on Revolution Knock on's.

The wide wings are clearly later additions and I am pretty sure the body is standard thickness. Weirdly, it doesn't seem to have had a roll cage or full harnesses fitted...not sure if this implies someone started building it up but then never finished??

I have also been back through the history file and managed to find a scrutineers pass ticket for the BARC Yorkshire Centre, dated 13.3.83. It was entered as car number 11, the scrutineer being T M Wood. I'd be interested to know what sort of event the car was entered in and if there is anything still around relating to the race (it might tell me what spec the car was running at that point in time). A bit of a slim chance but worth putting it up here just in case anyone knows Mr T M Wood and he just happens to have detailed records of the cars he scrutineered....(pigs might fly!!!!!!!!!!!).

Anyway, all help appreciated!

Paul

[ncm]

Paul, BARC Yorkshire centre own/run Harewood hillclimb course so it will be a fair bet that this is where your car was run. Lack of roll cage and harnesses suggest it was entered in a standard road car class .

Cheers, Brian.

[ayrton7]

Hi Paul

I see you haven't been on here since 2008 but was just wondering if you still had this car as it was completely rebuilt by my Grandfather in around 2003 or 2004 for who I'm guessing is the previous owner called Jeremy?

We was looking through pictures the other week and came across some of the finished car and just thought I would put the plate into the computer to see if there was any info, so if you do still have it, it would be nice to hear back.

Thanks,
Ayrton

[trw99]

The car is showing up as off the road since August 2009.

It was first registered on 4 Feb 71 in Bristol, which must make it one of the very last S4s before the Sprint came to market.

Ayrton, you may get somewhere if you send a Private Message to Paul via this forum. That usually generates an email directly to the lister. Paul last visited here in Jul 08, so he may have forgotten all about his posting.

Tim