Dashboards; aluminium legal for App.K?

[Greg Cozier]

I've seen FIA race cars advertised for sale with aluminium dashboards but not sure what the alternate dash is on pg 12 of the homologation form. Can I use aluminium? If so, who makes them?

[davidholroyd]

i was told it had to be wood ..

[holywood3645]

Balsa is wood!

Lay it on top of you aluminium dash.

James

[Greg Cozier]

Thinking about flocking it.

[Greg Cozier]

Balsa is wood!

Lay it on top of you aluminium dash.

James

That would fit the regs of the period 261-16.

3mm aluminium, thinnest wood veneer available, black crinkle-coat paint (flocking would be better but will make labelling difficult)..

http://argent.fia.com/web/fia-public.ns ... _261_a.pdf

[elansprint71]

I've seen FIA race cars advertised for sale with aluminium dashboards but not sure what the alternate dash is on pg 12 of the homologation form. Can I use aluminium? If so, who makes them?

Page 12, 1/2/1965, says "As from chassis No. 26/3901 all cars fitted with New Dash Panel and Interior trim... "

This is when the Series 2 was introduced and therefore the "new" dash panel is the S2 full-width dash, as shown in photo #1.

imho FIA 127 is a bit of a dog's breakfast because "someone" was being very clever at the time by homolgating bits and pieces onto the standard road car, rather than treating the 26/r as a separate entity, most probably because they had not made 100 identical 26/r units at the time. I think that I'm correct in saying that the 26/r does not get a mention at all by the FIA, in period.

[Greg Cozier]

Thanks all. Ian at Classical dash is going to make me a plywood dashboard with custom instrument layout which I'll prime and crinklecoat when the fitting and wiring is done.

[patrics]

Gents
Just out of interest how much weight will be saved with an aluminium dash? I always thought the wooden dash was particularly light or is it the stiffness?

Regards
Steve

[twincamman]

Lotus making 100 of anything identically ? Really ?????? ..ed

[elansprint71]

Lotus making 100 of anything identically ? Really ?????? ..ed

Ed makes an excellent point; when Colin Crapman homologated the Elan for racing, he somehow managed to homologate the road car, produced in thousands (no two the same!), rather than the 26/R, of which Lotus made about a hundred, although nobody can be sure as, even then, there were duplicates and now there are possibly 250 and rising.

[twincamman]

being a race car these were modified by the owners for their own preferences before the car turned a wheel in anger.One of my many vees, of which 49 were built, and not one was unmodified by the owners before they were raced ? STREET CARS DIFFER FROM RACE CARS IN A BIG WAY .as racers differ from ordinary people in the same way 1st the driver cares nothing about the provenance of the car --its value..its history ..engineering or design or many time as in the case of Lotus the safety ;;;the true racer only cares that it goes fast and will change and ignore anything to achieve this goal .So to compare a pure race car to a factory production car is futile ?in my time driving if some one won a race with a tool box bolted to the front of the car next event 20 cars would have a box attached to the front of their car and not one would resemble another in size attachment placement or shape . ed

[JohnDanbyRacing]

We have just updated our FIA papers for our race Elan's and I know they are going to start clamping down on aluminium dashboards for app.K cars.





2 different styles of dashboards that we have designed/made.