Attempting to build the fastest road legal Elan in the world

Attempting to build the fastest road legal Elan in the world

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SlimJim16v

5,617 posts

142 months

Saturday 31st December 2016
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Yep, me. Big ends went once, best of 13.99.

Guy with the Marcos usually won our category. Trailered there and on competition tyres.

Edited by SlimJim16v on Saturday 31st December 17:39

SlimJim16v

5,617 posts

142 months

Saturday 31st December 2016
quotequote all
My cars were ahead of the time as Rats wink

It seems hard to believe now that as road cars then, the only std cars that had better performance were the supercars of the time. Now a warm hatch would be quicker.

stevebroad

Original Poster:

442 posts

235 months

Sunday 1st January 2017
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SlimJim16v said:
My cars were ahead of the time as Rats wink

It seems hard to believe now that as road cars then, the only std cars that had better performance were the supercars of the time. Now a warm hatch would be quicker.
Exactly my problem when it came to rebuild the Elan. The old engine, even with more mods, just wouldn't be able to hack it against modern cars.

stevebroad

Original Poster:

442 posts

235 months

Sunday 1st January 2017
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Happy New Year to everyone. Let's hope that we see a lot of the project cars on here out on the streets/strips/tracks this year.

Altrezia

8,517 posts

210 months

Sunday 1st January 2017
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Super cool - may I commend you on an excellent base car for the project too - best brand in the world biggrin

I prefer corners to straights - every been on track with it? if so, how does it do?

stevebroad

Original Poster:

442 posts

235 months

Sunday 1st January 2017
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Although a lot of the controls are on the steering wheel, they wouldn't all fit so I had to decide where to put them. The logical place was in the centre of the dash, so as not to be hidden by the steering wheel. After a lot of iterations, I finally settled on a design. The panel incorporates lights, horn, starter, clutch slip control, fuel pump, fan, brake light on/off/flash plus a few spares.



The commercial pneumatic systems are very good, but also very expensive. So, rightly or, as it may well turn out, wrongly I decided that I could make a system for less money.

Bought a couple of Mercedes flappy paddle buttons from eBay and stuck on my own paddle extensions.





The cost of commercial actuators for paddle systems is silly high, so I sourced one from AliExpress at around £10. This turned out to not be quite powerful enough on the push stroke due to the shaft reducing the effective area of the piston. However this allowed me to calculate what I needed and the latest actuator seems to work fine with a little in reserve. The solenoid came from eBay.





Next I needed an air reservoir, which I again sourced from AliExpress. It is a carbon fibre paint ball gun tank, rated at 5000psi so should be enough :-)




I need to maintain a pressure between 100-125psi so I bought a 200psi pump from, guess where? Yup, AliExpress :-) I added a pressure control switch to the tank and a pressure regulator to the supply line.





The push fit connectors all came from AliExpress (getting boring now). I bought packs of 5 for the same price people were reselling one on eBay for. I do, however, now have many spares :-)

The throttle blip actuator and solenoid and the parachute release solenoid are more AliExpress purchases (and, no, I am not on commission :-) )





The final set up can be seen in the chassis walkaround on YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wuy8O4SCW8E


Edited by stevebroad on Sunday 1st January 12:27

stevebroad

Original Poster:

442 posts

235 months

Sunday 1st January 2017
quotequote all
Altrezia said:
Super cool - may I commend you on an excellent base car for the project too - best brand in the world biggrin

I prefer corners to straights - every been on track with it? if so, how does it do?
Many years ago (back in the late 70s) I won the inaugural Club Lotus sprint meeting at North Weald, beating a Lotus 11 in the process, so it was pretty good back then.



Although the main purpose for the build is drag racing, but I have been in conversation with Steve at Time Attack about entering a few events next year, probably in the Pro Extreme class. I will be discussing this in more detail with him and Mike the scrutineer at the NEC in January.

SlimJim16v

5,617 posts

142 months

Sunday 1st January 2017
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Should be quick whatever you take part in. What sort of weight do you think it'll end up?

stevebroad

Original Poster:

442 posts

235 months

Sunday 1st January 2017
quotequote all
SlimJim16v said:
Should be quick whatever you take part in. What sort of weight do you think it'll end up?
At the moment, it is a length of a piece of string :-) I had initially hoped to keep it below 600kg. However, when it came back from having the roll cage built I weighed it without windows, doors, seats and a host of other things and it came to 608Kg. I estimated that there was another 100kg to be added so I was looking at it ending up the same weight as a standard Elan. Not bad considering the cage and heavier engine and diff, bigger wheels, fuel and pneumatic systems. Since then I have replaced boot floor, roof, rear tubs, rear paneling, driver and passenger floors, dash and all other interior panels made of fibreglass with carbon fibre, removing a fair number of kilos. I am hoping to keep it between 650 and 700kg and as near to 650 as possible.

Paul S4

1,181 posts

209 months

Sunday 1st January 2017
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Hats off to you sir...

I had a Standard S4SE DHC Elan which had, , in effect a Sprint head/big Valves. That work on the head ( following a head gasket issue ) made it so much quicker than standard, so I cannot imagine what yours is going to drive like !!

Are you going to use the standard shell or a lightweight 26R one...mind with all that horsepower it would not really make much difference !!

Great thread by the way !

stevebroad

Original Poster:

442 posts

235 months

Sunday 1st January 2017
quotequote all
Paul S4 said:
Hats off to you sir...

I had a Standard S4SE DHC Elan which had, , in effect a Sprint head/big Valves. That work on the head ( following a head gasket issue ) made it so much quicker than standard, so I cannot imagine what yours is going to drive like !!

Are you going to use the standard shell or a lightweight 26R one...mind with all that horsepower it would not really make much difference !!

Great thread by the way !
Thanks. The shell, or what is left of it, is a standard one. However, the interior and boot floors and all the interior is now carbon (including seats), along with the roof, boot lid, bonnet and door skins.


Edited by stevebroad on Sunday 1st January 16:10

stevebroad

Original Poster:

442 posts

235 months

Sunday 1st January 2017
quotequote all
We got home rather late this morning so having a lazy day. Thought I might as well do some more posting for your deliction :-)

Wheelie Bar. I had hit a bit of a wall with the car, mentally, and I needed a distraction so decided to build a wheelie bar. Of course it had to be in carbon, is there any other material?

Decided on 38mm diameter tubes would do the job so ordered three from, you have already probably guessed, AliExpress. The aluminium wheel hub, end caps and stiffener/adjuster were all fabricated in house.









However, I did make a fundamental, schoolboy, geometric error. Can you guess what it is from the video? :-)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=50npvK8siLU

A little bit of additional welding solved the problem. What a plonker.





Edited by stevebroad on Sunday 1st January 18:45

xjay1337

15,966 posts

117 months

Sunday 1st January 2017
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Yummy.
Lots of little bits and pieces to help.

I noticed yo stuck with solid discs to save weight.
I always assumed that vented discs were lighter.
Drilled could be an option too?

SlimJim16v

5,617 posts

142 months

Sunday 1st January 2017
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I think vented discs have more metal so heavier. However, if using floating vented discs with Ali bells, I think they may be lighter.

stevebroad

Original Poster:

442 posts

235 months

Sunday 1st January 2017
quotequote all
SlimJim16v said:
I think vented discs have more metal so heavier. However, if using floating vented discs with Ali bells, I think they may be lighter.
I checked this as, although the cost would have been a lot higher, I would have used ali bells, but with the drilled, skimmed and wavy edged rotors, coupled with slightly lighter calipers there was no contest. Even the vented rotors on their own without the bells were heavier than my skinny discs :-)

Drilling discs using my CNC mill:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AD2D_fA6NUQ



Look closely and you can see how thin the rear discs are :-)




Edited by stevebroad on Sunday 1st January 19:53

chuntington101

5,733 posts

235 months

Monday 2nd January 2017
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Are you just going to drag race the car or take it on track as well? If it's just for dragging why not go for a auto box?

stevebroad

Original Poster:

442 posts

235 months

Monday 2nd January 2017
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chuntington101 said:
Are you just going to drag race the car or take it on track as well? If it's just for dragging why not go for a auto box?
Although car is being built primarily for drag racing, the is to also use it for sprints and hill climbs. I am also looking at Time Attack.

An auto box would not fit into the chassis without a great deal of structural modification. Also, a six speed sequential allows for more fine tuning options and is lighter.

Paul S4

1,181 posts

209 months

Monday 2nd January 2017
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What is the advantage of 'wavy discs'...presumably either heat dissipation and/or lightness ?


RemyMartin

6,759 posts

204 months

Monday 2nd January 2017
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If it's wet, you're welcome

laugh

Du1point8

21,604 posts

191 months

Monday 2nd January 2017
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In for updates.