Attempting to build the world's quickest UK road legal Elan

[nalesutol]

Feb 20, 2016 2:26:00 GMT varelse said:

Can you add tinters to the resin/consumable stuff to do the colour change for you? Even just black tinter would hide the weave well enough I think?

Also, this is cool!

Thanks.

I have used a black pigment designed for carbon but the weave still shows, albeit less obvious.

[grizz]

My first thought was to just say......l "You scare me"

But the point would be missed.

This is an incredibly impressive build. And I think the fact that weight reduction became your god, means you got to take his to a different level.

Whenever I see a build like this, I do need to ask, what is your day job or background?


That photo of the car as a "Barnfind" is brilliant and needs to be brought up regularly in discussions.

I will follow this build with perverse obsession.

[Davey]

"Of I'll just show them my everyday elan project."

You sir are a Mental genius!

[fer4l]

Feb 20, 2016 9:56:33 GMT Davey said:

"Of I'll just show them my everyday elan project."

You sir are a Mental genius!

Haha - I glanced at that & misread it first time as 'You sir are a Marital genius!'

Great car & great work, but that might have been overstating things a little!

[Davey]

Feb 20, 2016 10:24:40 GMT fer4l said:

Feb 20, 2016 9:56:33 GMT Davey said:

"Of I'll just show them my everyday elan project."

You sir are a Mental genius!

Haha - I glanced at that & misread it first time as 'You sir are a Marital genius!'

Great car & great work, but that might have been overstating things a little!

Must be that aswell for the wife to tell you to sort it!

[sherv]

Great story and a great looking build,love projects like this especially when a car has been with the owner for so long and evolves.

[nalesutol]

Feb 20, 2016 8:38:44 GMT grizz said:

My first thought was to just say......l "You scare me"

But the point would be missed.

This is an incredibly impressive build. And I think the fact that weight reduction became your god, means you got to take his to a different level.

Whenever I see a build like this, I do need to ask, what is your day job or background?


That photo of the car as a "Barnfind" is brilliant and needs to be brought up regularly in discussions.

I will follow this build with perverse obsession.

I scare myself sometimes :-)

What level?

I am retired. I spent nearly 40 years as a highway engineer trying to keep Grennwich and Essex's roads passable . All my engineering 'skills' are self taught.

I hadn't thought of the photo looking like a barn find :-)

Once you get on the weight loss merrygoround it is difficult to get off as it spins ever faster. Every job I do is done with the object of doing it as light as possible. Existing parts of the car are studied to see if there is weight to be removed without compromising the overall structure. For example, I had a pair of carbon fibre doors made, using the existing doors as moulds. However, so much fettling was required to make them fit I reverted to the original fibreglass ones. However, these weigh 6kg each so I looked to see how I could reduce this. I decided to replace the door skin with carbon and drill holes everywhere. One happy result of removing the skin was that I was able to adjust the shape of the doors so they are a better fit (most Elan doors warp and stick out at the bottom). I drilled over 400 holes and removed non essential fibreglass, resulting in a door weighing just under 3kg.

Carbon door weighing just over a Kg


Door reshaped and carbon skin attached.


Lightening existing door to just under 3kg


Of course, then you realise that the door hinges are much too heavy, so you sort that out :-)

[nalesutol]

Looking at blackpopracing's impressive build reminded me that I have built a wheelie bar...just in case :-)

PS. The wheels in the thread's photos are only temporary. They are one of many items still to be hardened up on and bought.

[nalesutol]

If proof was needed that I am anal about weight reduction, here it is.

New fuel filler cap looked a little tubby so I spent a few minutes on the lathe and removed 59gms. Doesn't sound much on its own, I know, but it reduced the weight by 25%. Do this over the whole car and I would remove 175kg = 385lbs = approx 0.4 sec on the 1/4 mile :-)

[79cord]

Amazing to see the ideas that have gone into the car & great to have the history too. Good to see some sensible reinforcements with the cage, Elans could certainly loose weight in some areas but are such flexible fliers some added in the right places is a good thing.

[bjornagn]

This is totally bonkers. I love all of it. Sadly the video wont play saying that you removed it?

One question. On an Elan, there is no steel structure outboard of the frame. What is the rollcage attached to? Did you build outriggers to pick up the cage?

[nalesutol]

Hi bjornagn.

Thanks. I cut and pasted the link from photobucket so it should work. I will have a look, but is there any other way of downloading a video to this forum, similar to photos?

There is no steel sturcture to speak off (apart from some small bars in the sills, one of which I cut out to accommodate the exhaust system). We looked around for a supplier of sky hooks but couldn't find any so had to do a lot of head scratching. Instead of trying to explain it a few photos will be easier. The tubes running along the sides are welded to the steel exhaust cover on the passenger's side and to the original steel sill reinforcement on the driver's side. Where they turn through 90 degrees in the footwells some triangular plates will be welded in to add some support to the joint.











I am particularly happy with the close fit to the A pillars:


The side rails will have additional support when the 1" square bars for seat fixing are fitted.

[nalesutol]

Video I tried to download in a previous post didn't work, so I uploaded it to YouTube.

[steveg]

Brilliant thread so far. I was quite happily scrolling down at the start, nice car, nice engine then I thought I had jumped threads !

I'm sure I remember seeing the car in a magazine before, possibly Street Machine, not your normal drag racer but obviously does the job.

[nalesutol]

I see what you mean. It is difficult to know which photos to upload when the project has been ongoing for over 10 years.


It was in Street Machine  and Hot Car back in the 80s. A couple of photos in the Street Car Championship articles.

[nalesutol]

I had a mini disaster over the weekend. In making the driver's carbon fibre floor the vacuum pump decided not to do what it's name implies so 3m2 of carbon wasted. New pump arrives tomorrow so I cut up some more carbon ready to give it another go. The mould is OK so that saves a fair bit of work:





At least I now know that the seat fits into the recess :-)

[highvoltage]

Great read !
I can't help but think you are following Mr Chapman himself with the weight loss program,i'm sure he would approve !

[bstardchild]

Feck a duck....................

Jaw on the floor

[georgeb]

Just noticed the title change. Nowt like setting the bar nice and high!

[nalesutol]

Feb 22, 2016 22:56:39 GMT georgeb said:

Just noticed the title change. Nowt like setting the bar nice and high!

I don't think it is that high, but you have to set targets :-)