26R

[rgh0]

Hi Roger
I believe you have 2 basic approaches to restoration of your car.

1. Try to keep it as original as possible -- this will maximise its historical value but it will be more of a museum piece and maybe a road car than a practical historic racer.

To do this keep the original body strip it back to the primer and repair properly all the damage. Also try to keep and restore all the mechanical parts to the maximum extent possible and to keep them per the original factory supply. If you still want to historic race then build a replica second car up as is allowed by FIA rules....all the parts are available, it just needs lots of money !

2. Rebuild the original car as a current historic racer -- Some people will say the real value is the identity ( e.g. history and name plate) not the car itself.

To do this and be safe and competitive you will end up replacing most of the original car- eg new chassis, new body, new wheels, new mechanicals etc etc . You loose some of the history but have a "genuine" 26R car you can use and race. This may get you invitations to the bigger historic races where replicas don't get invitations as I understand it. If you wanted the old car components e.g. body chassis etc could be kept then as a road useable replica car!


Which option you choose it up to you. Its your car. it is really a choice of where you want the identity to go. Many people over time have faced this question and sometimes the identity ends up being split and confused either accidently or deliberately between the old original 26R components car and the new 26R racer. If you rebuild it fully as in option 2 and sell off the old body shell or chassis be careful to destroy any identity marks and to document the sale carefully otherwise you may have someone appear in a few years claiming they have the original 26-R-14 car ( which maybe they do in some peoples opinion!!!)

cheers
Rohan

[mark030358]

Hi,
Looks like a great project.
In my opinion, I would restore the body and car to how it was, it's fibreglass and can be repaired. To me it should be as close as to. how it left the factory, that's what it is... There are too many "To fast to Furious" cars around...

Mark

[redcarandco]

Dear mark and rohan many thanks for advices...I needed to be advised because I really did not know what to do We make up decision my wife and I last night during new year supper with entire family (were numerous)"We" decide to rebuilt it in full race options keeping all old parts to be able to "back of" if in a long long future I decided to sell it...So as supper ended this morning I decided not to go to bed and begins to dismantel some small things to kill time...I give you photos I just take five minutes ago I have already heard speaking of springall wheel but is it worth to have it refurbished or not?

[rgh0]

The original wheel is worth restoring and hanging on the wall / storing with the other original items you take off to build an all out historic racer. Put a decent small diameter thick rim race wheel on!

cheers
Rohan

[ken ob]

Well Roger if you get bored of restoring yet another 26R i could take it off your hands for a few quid.

Ken

[redcarandco]

Dear Ken ,
you are never bored of working on an elan even if sometime you are tempted to send mister Chapman to hell for somethings he could have made in an other way much more easy to repair or to renew but it is lotus....As I had hours to kill this afternoon I have began to dismantle rear diff off te car I have found a alloy casing but it seems to be "normal" but I really have no idea of what sort and which mark is the lsd I have found inside Here is a photo Can you or any body in this forum tell me All I can say it is not a salisbury nor a gleeson type It seems to have rollers inside and not possible to open it.......

[vstibbard]

Roger, if its the same as the diff cetre in my S2 26R it was a ZF pawl typre limited slip differential centre.
V

[redcarandco]

Dear V,I think you are right ,It seems to be of pawl type... I have found the way to open it and verify but as day has been long and night so short , it will be for to morrow ....Good night and best regards
Roger

[redcarandco]

I have tried to dismantle LSD on photo But I do not succeed It is well a ZF (written on in very small letter)I will ask mechanic to do it... I have seen on an other forum a race driver speaking of an elan in zandvoort with race number 34 I have not understood what he was telling but I can show him this foto were his is in front of mine...Can it help ???I have began to inspect motor parts before I bring to engine builder and I am a little bit dissapointed because I did not find cosworth cams but these I suppose to be Ian walker ones Does somebody has timing and lift of these cams IWR 135 (which seems as brand new) best regards to all
Roger

[trw99]

Doesn't look like the Sherwood Elan. Looks like it could be the same as No 114 in this pic. Pete, any ideas?

Tim

[rgh0]

....little bit dissapointed because I did not find cosworth cams but these I suppose to be Ian walker ones Does somebody has timing and lift of these cams IWR 135 (which seems as brand new) best regards to all
Roger

Hi Roger
Sorry I don't now what the IWR 135 profile is. Potentially it is a 135hp road profile? Measuring lift and duration is easy enough to do with a degree wheel and dial indicator or vernier measuring the bucket movement as it follows the cam set in the head.

It does not really matter what is inside you engine currently as if your building a serious race motor you will need a complete set of new internals with modern high lift cam profiles.

cheers
Rohan

[elansprint71]

Doesn't look like the Sherwood Elan. Looks like it could be the same as No 114 in this pic. Pete, any ideas?

Tim

Sitting on my hands at the moment... are we not talking about the car in front of the Caltex sign, rather than the Kosher Shapecraft?

[redcarandco]

Sorry Pete I plade guilty in this misunderstanding... When I joint the first photo of R-14 when starting the forum I cut it off to focalize on my car...But travelling in an other forum I have thought to understand that somebody was searching after a lotus at zandvoort with n?34 and so I posted the full sized photo . But as I said at the beginning "I am sure to make stupid things because I do not control this way of speaking...So I did my first stupidity....I should have posted it on the concerned forum...As children say I will not do it again...I'm sorry....Yes rohan we are going to use absolutely all new parts for engine but engine builder ask to see old parts to make an idea of what was a race engine at that period but I think he is going to be a little bit dissapointed too if I have well understood he is just going to keep bare block and bare head as starting point I think that these cars have undergone many adventures before arriving to us and their period live has certainly been complicate...as every race car I suppose During the time where it has been the property of the ford dealer we sold it around 1975 I cannot know what happen to the car engine All I know is that it stayed years and years in the showroom of this very small ford dealer...
best regards to all

[rgh0]

If you have the original head and block it may be worth keeping them safe and building a complete new engine.

The original head which will be a Mark 1 head with half moon protrusions in the spark plug well is also impossible to get a competitive HP out of due to its small inlet runners. The modern replacement heads by SAS and Dave Bean I presume are FIA approved and are certainly a better base for a new race engine but not cheap.

The original block if in Ok condition should be fine for race use now but if you have it and can prove its the original block for the car then its value may say use a new block

cheers
Rohan

[redcarandco]

Dear Rohan I just had engine builder at phone (it is a very good friend since I race twin cam engines ...35 years )and we have decided exactly what you suggested because head is of half moon type and so as you said impossible to machine to correct race specifications but we are going to use block I have found in car because certainly not the original one because it is a 701M overbored (85 mm) we will line it to come back to correct FIA displacement and specifications ...
best regards
Roger