Estimate: £55,000 - £65,000
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“It is not cheap, but to anyone contemplating buying a cheaper two-seater sports car, I would sell the television set, the washing machine, give up smoking, even give up drinking, but scrimp and save and buy an Elan and you won't be disappointed.” Denis Jenkinson
Unfortunately these days, selling your television set and washing machine won’t make much of a dent in the cost of a half decent Elan but at least modern taxes on smoking and drinking will help perhaps even more than they did back in the ‘forty-a-day’ days. The point Jenks was making is just as valid now as it was then however.
Maturing from race car maker to fully fledged Road Car Manufacturer was never going to be easy for Lotus and while the firecracker 7 was a staple of the enthusiast market, making a decent return on such a relatively low priced machine was always going to be hard and it became more a way of keeping the race car mechanics busy (and paid) in the off-season.
With the gorgeous Mark 14 Elite, Lotus, to a degree, cracked the ‘up’ part of the market and the innovative GT sold well enough. The trouble was that as the selling price went up (much to Lotus founder Colin Chapman’s satisfaction), the manufacturing costs went up even more and while turnover jumped dramatically, profits took a nose dive.
What was needed was a premium product that did away with the costly manufacturing process involved in producing the fibreglass monocoque and race derived engine of the Elite. Committed to the ‘egg shell’ concept but with the market demanding an open car, Lotus engineers struggled to find a solution and while pencils were being chewed in the design office a test rig for the running gear of the proposed roadster was needed. For expediencies sake, the development guys fashioned a simple, steel backbone chassis and went testing. So impressive were the structural stiffness results and dynamic performance of the mule that the two seat open cockpit monocoque holy grail was quietly shelved, at least until technical advances caught up with the concept – Lotus Elise anyone? The backbone chassis was clearly the way forward and was destined to remain the basic building block for all Lotus road cars for the next thirty-five years. Cue the Elan of 1962.
At that time Lotus, it could be said, were not exactly short of the odd race car with Types 22, 23, 24 and 25 all on the books, so the 26 or Elan (road cars got proper names) was not intended to be anything other than a sports car of the open road. However, Lotus fans had other ideas and as the factory concentrated on single seaters and pure sports racers there was no stopping the public taking their Elans, slapping some numbers on the doors and going racing.
It should be said that, massively accomplished as a road car though the Elan was, subjected to the rigours of the race track, it quickly showed some fundamental shortcomings. Jackie Stewart himself commented “The Elan was the most difficult little sod of a car I have ever driven” and Privateer Racers such as Graham Warner and Ian Walker quickly modified their early production cars in line with experience gained over a number of years of sports car racing.
Though not part of their original game plan Lotus were quick to accept that there was a market for a track variant of the Elan. Chapman’s desire to ‘add lightness’ to his customers’ wallets can’t have hindered the development of the Elan into the limited production ‘26R’ either. Using their own not inconsiderable experience along with that of the likes of Warner and Walker, Lotus came up with a series of modifications that broadly covered a strategically strengthened chassis, lower and stiffer adjustable suspension, better brakes, close ratio gearbox, limited slip differential, splined drive shafts, lighter stronger wider wheels, tuned engines and the application of costafortuneium castings. The body was thinner (i.e. lighter) wider, equipped with an aerodynamically better hard top and its pop-up headlights became fixed behind Plexiglas cowls as the bigger, relocated aluminium radiator required the space normally occupied by their lifting mechanism.
All of these measures took the Elan from delicate, delightful sports car to giant killing racer on the domestic and international Sports Car scene.
Registration Number: CBU 531B
Chassis Number: 26/0455
With a rumoured only 97 cars produced by the factory but all the component parts available ‘off the shelf’, since its launch there have always been number of Elans in varying degrees of ‘26R-ness’ specification. The vast array of Historic Motorsport events to which both original and replica cars are welcomed makes them a particularly attractive proposition today though the wisdom of risking an ultra-valuable Factory car in competition may now unfortunately be questionable.
This beautifully presented 26R Replica started life as an early Series 1 Elan which the Lotus Factory Classic Certificate of Vehicle Provenance on file states left the Cheshunt Factory on 6th February 1964 bound for the Lotus dealership in Switzerland – the charmingly named ‘Holiday Cars Import’. Little is known of the car between this date and its apparent rebuild to 26R (or in FIA terminology GTS) specification in 1986. It is known to have spent time in Austria and FIA Papers were issued to it there in 1994. It was acquired by renowned Lotus and Historic Race car specialists PJS Classic and Race Cars from Italy in a mostly disassembled state in 2014 and they exhaustively rebuilt the car for the current owner over the next two years.
A brief summary of the car’s specification and the work carried out to it is as follows:
Fresh FIA specification all steel race engine built by ‘JS Motorsport’
New race stainless steel re-packable exhaust silencer
Rebuilt Quiafe Engineering close ratio (‘Bullet’) straight cut gearbox with alloy bellhousing and tail shaft housing
New ‘3J Driveline’ (Ex TranX) built Salisbury type LSD with 4.4:1 ratio differential and ramp angles tailored for the Elan
New alloy differential nose
Billet steel differential output shafts
Sliding spline drive shafts
Heavy duty raised differential mounts
Polyurethane suspension bushes
Rear adjustable spring platforms
Competition rear strut top mount kits
Aluminium steering rack clamps
250lb Front springs, 150lb rear springs
New 26R Chassis believed supplied by Tony Thompson Racing
26R style body with correct arches, front bumper, enclosed lights and differential air scoop, stripped and repainted Regal Red with Silver hardtop
Large diameter anti-roll bar
Brake calipers rebuilt by Classic Car Automotive
Aluminium radiator and header tank
Full FIA approved roll cage
Aluminium driver’s floor tied in to chassis, cage and body
New Tillett Seat
New harness
Aluminium foam filled fuel tank
New magnesium 26R style wheels
New Dunlop Racing tyres
New fire extinguisher system
New bespoke wiring loom
The Elan was built to FIA Appendix K regulations to ensure eligibility for HSCC Guards Trophy and Masters 'Gentlemen Drivers' Series along with rallies such as Tour Auto. However since its specification was finalised, these regulations have been tweaked slightly and it is our understanding that for FIA papers to be granted the adjustable spring mounts the car currently sports would need to be permanently fixed though this is not a particularly onerous task.
Of specific note are the dynamometer sheets on file which show this engine gives 168.1 BHP at 6,900 RPM and an equally impressive 140 lbft of torque at 5,700 RPM. Prospective purchasers should also be aware the engine alone cost in the region of £20,000 and to build a car to this specification today would likely require an investment the wrong side of £70,000.
A genuinely turn-key, freshly built race car eligible for a huge variety of high profile Historic Motorsport events that can now be acquired for a fraction of its build costs simply due to the owners F3 Chevron shaped change of plans. Highly recommended.
