Lotus Elan and Lotus Elan Plus 2 Forums

2nd and last race of the season at Silverstone last Sunday. 1st corner fun with spinning Chevrons.

Andy

Finally some new content in the racing section, that looks hectic....

But... would any of those cars run in The Guards Trophy back in the day? Certainly not in the top class.

1st lap had yellow flags at ever corner for spinning Chevrons and the Lenham, with the Elva spinning at the 2nd corner on the 2nd lap, think the sports race cars had got cabin fever from being locked away all year.

Andy

After much wrestling with new technology ( at least for this old person) i have managed to upload a video of the 1st 2 laps to youtube. Took longer to do than the race

https://youtu.be/_JEqko9R1qs

Andy

A very nice video! Looking over your shoulder from my couch is definitely the best way for me to go racing!

Fantastic Video, does it have digital gimbal?
How does it achieve the panning montion on the corners?

Innes

terrific video, full marks to you for the car as well, its sounds and is very smooth on the track. Who built the engine and drive train?

Cheers

Vaughan

Hi thanks for the compliments
The camera is a Gopro hero 7 which seems to pan automatically. For me difficult to set up managed to take 600 photos in practice rather than a video
The engine has been recently rebuilt by L H Owen renowned BMW race engine builder with a new SAS cylinder head. Straight cut gears not Quaife but the company Quaife bought out. Suspension set up by Rickets Racing has transformed the car. By the end of the 40min race the fusebox cover had fallen off, the ignition light was on, the lead had come out of the alternator and fluid was coming out of the bonnet onto the windscreen , this was from the gearbox breather pipe.
Bought the original car in 2002 and finally running good just needs a better driver

batfish wrote:Hi thanks for the compliments
The camera is a Gopro hero 7 which seems to pan automatically. For me difficult to set up managed to take 600 photos in practice rather than a video
The engine has been recently rebuilt by L H Owen renowned BMW race engine builder with a new SAS cylinder head. Straight cut gears not Quaife but the company Quaife bought out. Suspension set up by Rickets Racing has transformed the car. By the end of the 40min race the fusebox cover had fallen off, the ignition light was on, the lead had come out of the alternator and fluid was coming out of the bonnet onto the windscreen , this was from the gearbox breather pipe.
Bought the original car in 2002 and finally running good just needs a better driver

Blimey, my gearbox breather is only slightly higher than the top of the gearbox level, we'll have to see in that one (it does have a loop in the pipework before the filter)
A bit squirrelly under braking at the start, I didn't fathom if that got better as the race went on.
What lap timer are you using? It seemed to have sector time comparision lights?

Graeme

Hi Graeme
The gearbox breather pipe does need to go into a collector something to sort out during the winter.
It does move about under braking. I had the bump steer checked and it is supposed to be ok. Will have to look at the calipers, any other ideas what could cause this gratefully accepted.
The lap timer is AIM Solo. Very clever works on gps and knows what circuit you are on. Downloads lap times and loads of graphs which I dont have a clue what they mean

batfish wrote:Hi Graeme
The gearbox breather pipe does need to go into a collector something to sort out during the winter.
It does move about under braking. I had the bump steer checked and it is supposed to be ok. Will have to look at the calipers, any other ideas what could cause this gratefully accepted.
The lap timer is AIM Solo. Very clever works on gps and knows what circuit you are on. Downloads lap times and loads of graphs which I dont have a clue what they mean

Mine is running (around the block) and the final pieces of the jigsaw are, HTP, corner weighting and a lap time system.
Most friends have used the Vbox solution.
I called Chris Randell the other day and asked him about corner weighting at Hofmanns. I may go there after NY as they did a good job on my Exige.
I do feel a bit indebted to Mike Laughlin, however, as he's always been very helpful and civil to my pesterings on the phone.

PS, I no expert , but I wonder if the pads are just snatching at the discs when cold? Does it get better as they heat up? Perhaps whatever brand you use need to get into their working window?
I've opted for CL

Andy

Very good quality video and it looks as if you are going in the right direction.

I'm quite intrigued by the gearbox breather issue on the Elan as this seems to be quite an "Easter Egg" and indeed it is a problem that has plagued a few racers here in France.

I have a top plate with two breathers (plastic 90° parts from a later Ford gearbox) which I plan to pipe to a twin inlet breather bottle (to be purchased, possibly an AP brake fluid reservoir) in addition to the standard breather.

However, it would be nice to know what the underlying cause of the problem might be.

Brake pads: is this a glazing problem?

Andrew

Hi
Regarding the gearbox breather we are thinking the pipe may be getting airflow over it helping to draw out fluid so going to reroute it and vent it into the oil catch tank see if that solves it
Did look at the video later in the race and the brakes seem to be pulling straight so proably cold brakes caused the movement. Still to understand why after a race the offside front wheel has a lot more dust and streaking than the nearside. Took the rear brakes off today as the dust seals are totally degraded, brittle and broken up which is surprising as not been on long.