my 26R Serial number

[vmax]

Incidentally, David posted his email address in one of his entries so I emailed him. It got bounced back.

[vstibbard]

I've had no responses from the two people in Denmark that I emailed.

V

[elitegal]

Dear David,
Are you there?
Email please?

[david caroll]

I am still trying to find out who now owns my Louts 26R s/n 26-S2-23, last thought to have been in Denmark owned by a man named Lars Larsson, painted yellow. it looked like my car alright, as identifying features were a miss-shapen grille opening from the notorious "local yuk" incident when Bob Colombosian shunted Jerry Titus off the track coming into Turn 9 at Bryar (now NHIS) in 1966; also, the headlites were "frenched in" without covers, which i had done when i painted #23 green for street/track use in winter of 1966/67. they were shallower than the factory headlamps, and had a drain hole in the U under the lens to drain the inevitable rain water I encountered on my endless drives in my favorite car.

my Liteweight Elan was the single best street car (Sports Car) I ever owned; I drove it year 'round without the top, putting that on only in the dead of winter, if it rained, I put on my open-face helmet with bubble and kept on truckin'. i've had many top end cars including 4 Vintage Ferraris, the second of which I sold to Bill Marriott, who of course bought no junk. He did buy my Mexico however, s/n 0226AT, the Ascari Mexico Coupe that crashed into a cliff early in the '52 Carrera Panamericana.

I always wanted my Lightweight back, but now am too old to be playing about with sports cars.

my correct email is [email protected] – i'd prefer if you contact me, you do so at that address; ihave touble using this forum.

thanks, david carroll, 9380 Hidden Lake Circle, Dexter, Michigan 48130-9518, pnone # (734)424-0043. if you call me at this number, don't be discouraged by my answering machine message – it cuts down answering scam calls. also, i wait until i see who's calling before I pick up; if I don't answer, don't be discouraged, I will pick up when I can verify who you are and wha you're calling about.

oh – i should mention that as a 26R, #23 never had a soft top. it was owned by one John Sorbello, who turned the bonnet upside down and filled it with fiberglas because SCCA got after him because the bonnet had a little section just ahead of the (racing) windscreen that fluttered at speed. Egads!! as if that constituted any kind of safety isuue...

just FYI, I've owned 4 Vintage Ferraris, an Hrg 1500 (the other car I always wanted back; I owned it in the late '60s when I bought it from Buick (?) dealer Ray Saidel in Manchester, NH, USA, then again in 2008 when I bought it back from Robert Ames, then head of Bonham's, USA. I had chased it for the 38 years in between under the wrong name, when it was cover car for Auto Week and called the "darling of the crowd" – indeed! unfortunately, the oner's name was given wrong, hence the difficuly finding Samantha (the HRG). I finally found his right name in a small article about racing on the West Coast under his right name. I sold it on to Jim Donick, Editor of VSC, the VSCCA Journal, as he is very active, and races Sam often in Vintage Racing events, so at least I get to see her in the Journal a lot. I'll always miss her though, as I do my Elan.

I've also owned a Ginetta G4, s/n W166, (Samantha's, for those numbers keepers, is W204, near the end of the 241 vehicle production run.) I also owned 2 of the earlier Elites, first a Series 1 beauty. I also loved driving them, especially my 2nd one, a Stage II coupe with the wonderful close ratio ZF gearbox and quite a bit more ooomph than the first one.

my 3rd Ferrari was an ersatz NART Spyder built by Coco Chinetti out of a Eurospec 275GTB/4 Berlinetta; i also drove the NART with the top doen all winter, only putting the top up 3 times to trailer it to far away events. I susually drove it to events and back, but not to distant ones where a breakdown wouldd mean serious problems getting back. when i would go down the main street in my home town, Brookline, Mass. with the top down, a bright Ferrari Red bit of color in a drab gray New England world, people would just stand on the sidewalk and applaud. again, indeed....

if I could attach photos of some of these cars, i'd send probably too many. as it is, if you know where my Lightweight is now, i'd appreciate knowing. thanks, –david carroll

[Unibrain]

I am still trying to find out who now owns my Louts 26R s/n 26-S2-23, ...

If you are logged into elanregistry.org and look at thedetails for 26-S2-23 there will be a button to contact the owner. This will send email to the last known address for the registered owner.

Jim

[elitegal]

Anyone notice that his posted email references classic 1920's Bugatti?

[Elan45]

I CERTAINLY DID! But, I also noted that David didn't mention that marque when discussing the HRG or various Ferarri models, so perhaps it is still in his garage.

There are times like these when I wish my 45/26R were a real 26R, but it started life as a S3-SE and the good Dr Counts converted it to 26R in the late 60s. He must have raced it back then as it had street radials on S1 wheels and Dunlop race tires on S2 wheels.

I didn't belong to SCCA back then, but ran as a guest in OVR autocrosses in my bug-eyed Sprite, and I don't remember seeing this converted car. There was another 26R that was part of that crowd, a yellow ex-Jackie Oliver car. I should have tried to buy it in 1972, but I remember looking at the nose through the perspex covers and the nose was at least an inch thick of bondo. Last I heard, that car had sold to a Minneapolis owner, but lots may have changed in the 35-40 years when I lost contact. I did buy the spare engine from that car in 1984 to fit to the Counts car, since the crash damage got the front of the original engine.

Dr Counts died in the early 70s and later his son crashed the Elan. I bought it that way in 1984, thinking it would be my next project, but an Eleven S2 and then a 20/22 FJr would take much of my time.

Roger

[david caroll]

as Fats Domino said, Yes it's me & I'm in love again... Nic Maudit (I think I remember your last name right) you were right: I left out the "e" in type - it should be [email protected], so that should open discussion again abt my 26R. to review, since I've been offf this forum so long, it was s/n 26-S2-23, and I last heard of it on this site as belonging to Lars Larsson of Denmark. I saw one picture of what I believe to be my car when painted yellow in a 3/4 Right Front slightly aerial shot on a racetrack. there were no other cars in the picture. it had its hard top on in that picture, and the distinctive faired-in headlights looked like my conversion after I threw away the buckets (literally) and had them faired in.the reason I think they're mine – meaning it must be my car – is that they're both shorter and full-sized, not like either the Chinese Eye or the smaller factory light.

the s/n was as I wrote it, with hyphens, not slashes – I'm clear on that point. there are a number of shots I took of the car when It was painted green (which I had done, along with chroming the single roll bar and putting in those lovely semi-bucket seats I bought from Pete Pulver – he called them "Touring Seats" and they had to be bolted thru the floor and had no adjustment. it didn't matter, as no-one drove #23 except me until I sold it. I traded it in, as previously discussed to Al Grillo, or rather traded it in on GT40 #P/1058, a mistake as I've said here before. Terry Bennett must have bought it from Grillo, who sold it to John Sorbello, who painted a sickly yellow, turned the bonnet upside down & filled it with fiberglass and raced it in SCCA. SCCA got after him because the bonnet had a depression in it just forward of the passenger side windscreen that fluttered at speed – but it wasn't dangerous. I had a better solution, which would have effectively weighed about 3 pounds, cured the flutter, and been just as effective as making the bonnet weigh probably 30-40 pounds (?)

note also that my car had the BRM Formula Mag wheels, with 4 spokes and long-eared knockoffs. there are lots of other clues I've mentioned here that were absolutly unique to #23, which I can cover again if necessary.

I have to go out now, but am very glad to be back, and will continue discussion anon... thanks, and if anyone can confirm Lars Larsson's ownership, I'd appreciate it. please use my correct email as given above. thanks, –david carroll