Lotus Elan and Lotus Elan Plus 2 Forums

Regarding ?narrow? arches are you talking about the front or rear?

If the rear, you need to look at the transition just aft of the doors, The 26r has a distinctive widening that moves the arches outward. Allows for wider wheels and tires.

Regarding TTR supplying a narrow arch ?26r? wheel, this is what they told me:

?We don't actually supply that spec any longer , actually it should be deleted to avoid confusion , sorry.?

I do have TTR ?26r? wheels in a 5? width that fit under the standard S4 body (no flares) with 185/60 tires, as below. Pretty sure this wheel/tire combination won?t fit on a standard (?narrow?) body S1 to S3.

The 26r?s that I have seen accommodate wider tires/wheels than this.

The early series 1 based 26R cars started with narrow bodies, the same as the S1 Elan. The widened arches arrived a bit later, and many of the cars were retrofitted with wider arches/bodies over the intervening 50 years. I am not 100% sure, but I believe that all of the roughly 50 series one 26Rs were originally narrow body cars, and the wider arches only appears on the series 2 26Rs. Over the years many of the 26Rs have been converging on a common spec based on which replacement parts are available, and what wins races, rather than the original spec of series 1 and series 2 26R cars. To put it another way, the vast majority of original 26R cars have had their bodies replaced with newer, wide arch bodies, which were supplied as spares after cars were crashed, whether they were originally series one or series two cars. A narrow bodied Series 1 Elan 26R would be a correct replica, if you stick with the full spec of the early cars. The early, narrow body 26R cars ran the earlier style magnesium wheels (without brake cooling holes) as shown on the number 59 car below. I believe that those wheels were 4 1/2" wide magnesium wheels so that they would fit under the narrow arches.

Thank you, yes those are the wheels I am looking for! There was a pair on ebay for sale but there were only two and they looked tatty!
I have met a man who could make some alloy replicas of those (unvented) wheels (should be cheaper )
And as you said, making a replica of an earlier car would be ideal (they are my personal favourites). It wouldn't be exact to the same spec as we would have some slightly stronger parts (so no magnesium) and we would like the fast road suspension rather than full 26r so it is a bit kinder on the, pot hole ridden roads of north Wales.
Thanks to everybody who has contributed to this thread, you have answered a lot of questions for me!
Keep up the good work everyone (the more I learn the better)
Best regards, P

The car in the period picture #59 is 26/R/9 if if remember correctly. I used to own 26/R/5 and it had the same body shape although it was modified in period to accommodate 6 inch rims. Why would you want to fit the early style 26R rims?-they shroud the brakes.

I want to make it look like a period style early 26r, I have heard of the breaks being effected by the lack of holes in the wheels. My answer to this is that cars like the s2 eleven were fitted with the unvented wobbly webbs and I know that they are fine on the breaks, the same goes for 23s that I see on the hill climbs.
If I was going to be driving the car in serious competition then I would not fit these wheels due to the problem that you mentioned, however as the car will be used for nothing much more than a tootle through the country lanes and the odd trackway and hill climb, we've decided that they shouldn't be too much of a problem.
I hope that has answered your question. Thanks for the advice
Best regards, P

Elan Peter: A Lotus Eleven and a twenty three are hundreds of pounds lighter than an Elan. But if you are not going to race it doesn't matter, as you say. But why make it more complicated? Simplify, simplify and then add simplicity!

Peter. Not sure if it adds anything, but a couple of pictures of Car 26/R/27 which is in the Toyota Museum in Tokyo.

Shows the original "Narrow" arches, and a few pictures of the wheels, mentioned earlier.

Thank you, that's really good to see the wheels close up. Should be a useful reference later on.
Thanks for the pics,
Best regards, P

Hi Peter
ome pics of 26-R-4 a Shapecraft Elan that I did some work on a few years back.
It had solid wheels.

26-R-9 was my old 26R! see my id pic
cheers
Dave

Thanks Dave for the pics, how do you find the solid wheels?
Best regards, P

Hi

The solid S1 26R wheel were 13" x 5" wide rims, there was a batch a replica rims made in Japan at some point as I tried to source some for an early S1 I owned. They looked like the real thing but were I think actually bolt on. there was someone on this forum who is a photographer who posted a link to his photo blog of a trip to Japan to a Lotus club gathering.

Paste this into your browser:

https://thegaragista.com/2013/03/24/ac- ... -in-japan/

The car is green with orange painted wheels right at the end of the blog...

V

Thank you! My dream holiday, a trip to AC minds in Japan!
That s1 that you mentioned is basically what I want to make mine look like (but wedgwood blue with black wheels).
I have found a supplier of the original style seats and now need to find someone who would recover them! The interior is causing much debate in the Evans household as I want it to look like the one in the picture but the rest of the family seems to think that it would be more "practical" with rubber matts and other luxuries. I personally think that a pair of leather/vinyl seats and the door cards covered is all the luxury an elan needs!
I had heard that someone had made some "replicas" of the solid wheels, but did not know they were in japan.
I am wondering if there would be a company who could make some aluminium replicas as these would be safer...
I have heard of a place that makes wheels special order for one of the classic lotus dealers and I wondered if they could help!
Best regards, P

There was a company, UK RACING CASTINGS LIMITED, that I believe was making replica 26r wheels for various vendors. Liquidated end of 2017.

Don?t know who the vendors might be using now.

I have no real intention of using one of the actual vendors as they will want top price for the pleasure! I may have a look around and ask a few people in the know!
Best regards, P

Another thing I was thinking about was tyres! As in which ones to use. I would like either Dunlops or Avon tyres as these are the period style FIA tyres. Would anybody know which ones provide the most grip? I know it's difficult to say seeing how I need to find some wheels first but I'm just trying to work out what to do later on.
Also, does anybody own a wedgwood blue elan (any model) as I would like to se some pictures of one to see if I like the colour enough to paint it that colour (it's original colour was wedgwood blue).
Best regards, P