Lotus Elan and Lotus Elan Plus 2 Forums

I photographed this car at the Shelsley Walsh Hill Climb August 18th 2012. The link will take to a full range of images of the car.

Ian Walker Racing Lotus Elan 26R: This is the unique alloy bodied 26R constructed for the 1964 Le Mans race, by Ian Walker Racing . It was first displayed at the 1964 Racing Car Show , shake down races included a win with Jackie Stewart in the 1000 K race at the Nurburgring. One week before Le Mans, the car suffered an accident driven by Mike Spence keeping it from starting the event. The car has been raced throughout its life and has now been restored and driven by Martin Stretton.


http://garagista.smugmug.com/Cars/retro ... 163_ZrPspQ

fantastic stuff, thanks for the post.

Thanks, Enfoken.

Andy

Lovely set of photos!

One thing which has always puzzled me is how they got this contraption past the Le Mans scrutineers, who were notoriously strict.

When you say Alloy bodied what exactly do you guys mean?

Surely the whole body was not an Aluminium formed/welded assembly?

>>Surely the whole body was not an Aluminium formed/welded assembly?

Holy cow, just looked at http://garagista.smugmug.com/Cars/retro ... 163_ZrPspQ, that's exactly what it is!! This thing must have cost 10x the price of a regular 26R to build, & as pointed out by ElanSprint71 how on earth did this get through Scrutineering?

See the OP, it never made LeMans.

elancoupe wrote:See the OP, it never made LeMans.

No, but it was accepted for the race.

How it gets thro' scrutineering now is also a mystery too. Homologation? Nah- it's got "history" on its side.

However, it is a welcome addition to any race card; quite a machine.

In 1962, the Lotus 23 entries were also accepted, only to be famously excluded at scrutineering.

Is there more available information regarding the IWR 26R alloy coupe?

elancoupe wrote:In 1962, the Lotus 23 entries were also accepted, only to be famously excluded at scrutineering.

Is there more available information regarding the IWR 26R alloy coupe?

Mike, there are lots of bits and pieces all over the web; I can't think of any single large article about the car from recent years. A book is due out about Ian Walker racing cars (it's been delayed slightly) however, this is an expensive (125 USD) limited collectors edition.
http://www.coteriepress.com/IanWalkerTheManandHisCars?forumboardid=170&forumtopicid=173

OK, I knew that Coterie did an extensive photo shoot on the car, should have realized that a book was in the works.

I have had a copy on order for several months; e-mailed them today to see if they have a release date yet. Will update.

elancoupe wrote:In 1962, the Lotus 23 entries were also accepted, only to be famously excluded at scrutineering.

Is there more available information regarding the IWR 26R alloy coupe?

Hope this informs, it's from the piece I put in the last Club Lotus News on unusual Elans:

Ian Walker Fastback Elans
Ian Walker was a well known Lotus dealer, racer and friend of Colin Chapman. During the early 1960?s Ian Walker Racing Ltd ran various Lotus Elan?s in gold and green livery, driven by amongst others, Jim Clark and Peter Arundel. In early 1964 Walker designed new bodywork for the 26R Elan with a view to running it at the 1964 Le Mans in the Index of Thermal Efficiency class. This car was given the unit number of IWR/GT/1 and was initially registered XJB 1, subsequently FRX 176C. Williams & Pritchard were contracted to make up the fastback style alloy bodywork and after testing, Jackie Stewart took the car to first place in the GT race at Monthlerey. It was during preparations for the Le Mans race that, with one week to go, Mike Spence rolled the car damaging it to such an extent that it could not enter. It was subsequently restored, painted green with a gold stripe, raced and owned for many years by Paul Matty. It is still being campaigned by Martin Stretton. Having heard about this good-looking car, the Swiss Hermann Huber contacted Walker and asked him to sell the car to him for his father. After many refusals by Walker and many further requests to sell by Huber, Walker eventually offered to make a road going version for him. IWR/GT/2 was intended only as a Grand Tourer and after Williams & Pritchard had fitted the bodywork, which had a front resembling the Gordon-Keeble, the car was completed by Harold Radford in French Blue with red Connolly hide. It was delivered to Huber in 1965 and remained un-molested in the family collection until 2004, when Paul Matty provided it to a new owner on registration NAB 935D. This car is currently available again through Paul Matty. These were the only two Ian Walker Fastback Elans.

Tim

The car won the Fordwater Trophy race at the Goodwood Revival meeting yesterday.

3 26R's in the top four.

Martin Stretton 1st
Jackie Oliver in his old car 2nd
Shelby GT350 Mustang 3rd
Shaun Walker in the ex Daytona 26R 4th

Not a bad day!!

Cheers
Dave Hughes

Here is the other IWR Coupe as photographed at the Shelsley Walsh.