Attempting to build the fastest road legal Elan in the world

[stevebroad]

Well, there is no point in aiming low, is there? :-)

When I broke the car at the 1985 Street Racer Championships (cam follower exploded) it was running 168bhp at the wheels, which wasn't too shabby back then. I had nitrous on it as well but it was a crude setup compared to today's systems and it never worked properly (the 168bhp was without nitrous).

19 years later I finally got back into cars and decided to rebuild it. I dragged it out of the collapsing shed it was in and thought about what to do with it.



Shopping trolleys have more power so I looked into my options. Fitting EFI and and ECU might gain me another 20bhp or so for a lot of money so this wasn't really a starter. I wanted to keep it Ford based so that mods were kept to a minimum and finally settled on a Cosworth YB (bear in mind this is in early 2004). Started with a 400bhp lump from a right off but quickly revised my plans and, in discussion with my engine builder, Geoff Page, settled on a 520bhp with a pretty flat torque curve. The spec is as follows:

Sierra Cosworth 2000cc 4 cylinder engine:
Approx 520bhp on pump fuel
Ford Motorsport 200 block
Long studded (6)
Balanced knife-edged lightweight WRC crank
8.2:1 compression ratio
High pressure oil pump
Big winged WRC sump
Steel windage tray
Group A rods
Mahle pistons with R4 pockets
Group A ported and gas flowed 2WD head
Hydraulic lifters
WRC phase sensor
Escort WRC inlet manifold
Piper BD14 inlet and exhaust cams
Piper vernier cam pulleys
Piper valve springs
WRC steel head gasket
4WD exhaust manifold
Custom made 3” exhaust system (Primary Designs) Plasma coated by Zircotec
T4 RS500 turbo with 60 trim compressor housing and 360 degree bearing
.31 Actuator
8x Seimens injectors
Distributorless ignition system (camshaft pickup)
Wasted spark coil pack (Motorcraft) and high performance plug leads.
Big wing baffled alloy sump
4WD steel flywheel
Twin plate cerametallic Alcon clutch assembly
3 bar MAP

This was built in 2005 so is now pretty old hat but still ticks the power box for now. If I manage to transfer all the power to the tarmac then we will look at an upgrade.

The rest of the car has been modified to take into account the 400% power increase over standard.

Anti-lag system
Launch control
Traction control
ABS wheel sensors for above on all wheels
Custom made alloy radiator and intercooler.
Hi-Spec 4 pot alloy front calipers and larger diameter lightened grooved and drilled discs
Hi-Spec2 pot alloy rear calipers and drilled and lightened discs
All brake pipes replaced with copper hard lines and stainless braided Teflon flexible brake hose.
Elite il300 6 speed sequential gearbox fitted with full throttle pneumatic flappy paddle gear change system
Lightened propshaft
Sierra Cosworth 7.5” 3.85:1 rear diff fitted with Quaife ATB.
Custom made gun barrel drilled halfshafts.
Custom made rear hub assembly.
Lightened CV joints
Uprated chassis to beyond 26R specification (by Graham Hatherway Racing) to cope with up to 650bhp
Uprated (Tony Thompson Racing) Lotus Elan rear bottom wishbones modified for toe-in adjustability in-situ.
Custom made (GH Racing) rear top wishbones (“Rose Jointed”) and hub carriers
Custom made adjustable in-situ aluminium front top wishbones.
Spyder bottom front wishbones.
Alloy (Pace Products) front wheel hubs
Standard bushes in all suspension parts that haven’t been “Rose Jointed”.
Droop limiters all round in lieu of anti-roll bars
Fully bespoke B.A.D dampers and Eibach springs with tender springs on rear.
Rear dampers now inboard.
Standard steering rack but reconditioned and secured with solid mounts
Floor mounted brake-bias pedal box assembly.
No ICE
Carbon fibre seats (pair), dash, roof, boot lid and floor, bonnet, all interior panels, rear wheel tubs, floor and centre console
Standard doors but with carbon fibre skin, lightened and with Lexan windows
Custom quick release steering wheel with inbuilt switches and gauges
Full roll cage in T45
Full harness for track day and drag racing use.
11 litre foam filled alloy fuel tank.
Holley blue top lifter pump.
1.5l swirl tank
Pair of Bosch 044 MotorSports high pressure fuel pumps (205l/min @5bar)
High flow filter.
Aluminium dash 8 fuel lines.
Fuel pressure regulator
Hydraulic handbrake (road legal on this age of car)
Custom rear light clusters
Bodywork modified to accommodate 3-piece 15x8” alloys with 225/40/15 Michelin TB5 tyres (front) and 3-piece 15x10.5” alloys with 285/35/15 Micheloin TB5 tyres (rear).
Front splitter
Rear diffuser
Front and back bumpers moulded into bodywork
Underside smoothed
Lithium Ion battery.
No headlamps (daytime use only)
Lightweight 80amp alternator.
Component positions optimised to help in balancing car weight
Black paintwork

Most of the mods are hidden by the bodywork so I made a walkaround video prior to the body being fitted for the final time (the roll cage is welded in so the body is not now removable)

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

The roll cage was a bit of a mission. I was initially intending on only fitting a roll over bar due to my weight reduction fetish. However, on doing a twist test we discovered that the chassis, although strengthened beyond the racing 26R spec, was very twisty and not capable of coping with 520+bhp, let alone any upgrades. So I decided to fit a full cage, almost a spaceframe by the time it was finished, but the car is now rigid. It is a bespoke cage as there is nothing available, apart from the totally inadequate (for my purposes) Safety Devices offering. It took us four weeks to design and build, with the first couple of days just discussing options. It is made from T45 which saved me around 13Kg.

The seat isn't being used, by the way :-)

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

The cage extends though into the engine bay and connects to the chassis close to the front suspension uprights.

The cage was built in June 2015 and the car still had fibreglass floors, wheel tubs and interior panels. They have now all gone and been replaced with carbon fibre.

I will sort out some photos of the recent work. The plan is to get it fired up next year and sorted ready for serious use in 2018.

Edited by stevebroad on Thursday 29th December 23:53

Edited by stevebroad on Friday 6th January 21:51

[stevebroad]

Vaud said:

OP, the second youtube video is set to "private"

Not on purpose. Had a look but can't see a private flag to undo. Anyone know where I can find it?

[stevebroad]

Evanivitch said:

Great build! Would you consider it more of a silhouette car now?

Well, sort of. It is a bit like Trigger's broom.

[stevebroad]

Vaud said:

Log on to youtube.Go to the menu at the top left (the 3 horizontal stripes). Choose your library. When you find your video, select the down arrow there should be an option for "info and settings". In there you can change it to public/unlisted or private.

Cheers. Right, it says public now so please try again.

[stevebroad]

I am not sure how to go about this, as I have thousands of photos :-)

I will try sorting posts into parts of the car, but not in any particular chronological order.

Front suspension. Basically standard, except for Spyder tubular bottom wishbones, adjustable top wishbones and a ball jointed vertical link. Oh, and aluminium hubs from Pro Alloy. I wanted to be able to adjust the camber but the only commercially available units had to be removed for adjustment. As you won't get it right first time this means removing them at least twice. I decided to design my own that would be adjustable in-situ and also allow caster adjustment as well, which is the reason the vertical link screw trunnion was changed to a ball joint.



I kept the discs as solid for weight saving. Also, with ally 4 pot calipers braking will be more than adequate. Hell, the old cast iron 2 pots were fine. The discs were skimmed, drilled and wavy edged. Calipers are by H-Spec.

The dampers are bespoke items designed specifically for my car's weight and spec by Black Art Designs. Springs are Eibach (what else? :-))

The droop limiter is adjustable.

Bolts are titanium wherever pssible.

Edited by stevebroad on Friday 30th December 18:39

[stevebroad]

Thanks guys, it has taken a lot of time but I am getting there.

Rear suspension.

The original 3-point Chapman Strut/bottom wishbone setup would not have been able to cope with 500+bhp so it had to be modified. Beyond my skill and knowledge so I delegated this task to Graham Hatherway. We used the original bottom wishbone but replaced the Chapman strut with a top wishbone and a coilover. The hub carrier was replaced with a bespoke item designed and built by Graham to house RS Cosworth hubs, CV joints, rotors and calipers. Later in the build the calipers were changed to Hi-Spec 2 pots and the CV joints with lightweight Porsche 933 racing versions (which I had lightened some more :-) )



However, over a few years of building/rethinking and plan changes it became obvious that the damper position restricted wheel width. I saw an elan where the damper had been moved to the bottom and mentioned this to Graham. He immediately responded with "If you are going to move them, why not inboard?" So, after a lot of research and using the experience of Graham's friend and race partner, Bob Buck, an inboard damper setup was designed and suitable dampers commissioned. It turned out OK, but the proof of the pudding will be in the eating :-) The top wishbone is adjustable in-situ and the bottom one likewise.

Edited by stevebroad on Friday 30th December 21:12

[stevebroad]

jontysafe said:

Nice!!

Have you considered a more modern turbo set up?

I'm aiming for the same sort of power on my YB build.

Thanks. You have allthatjazz to thank for this thread as he accused me of being full of male cow excrement when I asked for help in finding an old thread of this build that I thought I had started some time ago (it turns out I hadn't). I probably am but at least I am also trying to build a car. I checked his profile and I can't see any building work going on (may have missed it, if so I apologise). Oh, well, each to his own :-)

The turbo was built over ten years ago and was pretty much state of the art then. Once the car is working (enough to do without messing with stuff already done) and I am able to use all of the available power then I will look into twin scrolling etc. 520bhp is a lot easier to achieve these days, almost a starting point for serious power :-)

Edited by stevebroad on Saturday 31st December 09:40

[stevebroad]

jontysafe said:

Fantastic build and should be a hoot to drive.

Would love to see it when finished.

Thanks. When finished it will spend a fair amount of time at the Pod. The cow excrement stops when the flag drops :-)

[stevebroad]

jontysafe said:

I'm aiming for slightly less weight than yours and probably exactly the same power wise.
Engine spec is very different but as you say 500bhp is easy these days.

Just looked up your thread. Should make for an interesting drive :-)

Have you sorted the rad issue? I did a fair bit of research on the subject and still got it wrong. I will be blocking off the extra inlet I cut as I was getting too much air into the volume in front of the rad. As I understand it, the starting ball park ratio is around 3:1 rad area:inlet area with no air able to pass around the rad. This allows the air to expand thereby reducing speed which increases the pressure. As the quest is to get the biggest pressure differential between the rad faces the slower the inlet air speed the better. Well, that's how I understand it. Placing the rad at the rear will add a fair bit of weight in pipe and fluid :-)

I will be using Evans coolant. However, many tracks don't like it, or any additives to water for that matter, as they are very slippery when spread over the track. However, with the very low pressure of an Evans system, the risk of leaks is greatly reduced.

How are you planning to transfer the power to the ground? I think that I am going to have trouble and my car will be heavier.

[stevebroad]

OK, now for my personal folly....my steering wheel.

I wanted to be able to reach all the main controls when strapped in and the only logical place was the steering wheel. I looked at fitting them in the centre console, but there was the risk of them being knocked and there isn't a lot of room, what with the hydraulic handbrake and the pneumatics for the gear change already under there.

I always hankered after an F1 style wheel but the cost is prohibitive, so I decided to make my own. No, don't laugh, I did say that this was my folly :-)

I decided what controls I wanted near to hand:

Digital dash (Dash2)
Launch control
Traction control
Line Lock
Indicators
Parachute release
Nirous (in case fitted at a later date - I have the kit)
Flappy paddles
Spare

After a few abortive designs I settled on this. I like it, which is all that matters really. If the gap between wheel and centre section proves to be too small I have another wheel which is an inch wider.

[stevebroad]

Drivetrain

Engine:





Gearbox. Elite il300 6 speed sequential:



Diff. Cosworth 7.5" 3.85:1 with Quaife ATB fitted.



Bespoke rifle drilled drive shafts designed for 650bhp. They are the same length so that torque twist is even and I only need one spare :-)
Porsche 933 Race CVs lightened
Aluminium bearing carriers and caliper brackets. Lightened Cosworth wheel hubs.

Edited by stevebroad on Saturday 31st December 15:45

[stevebroad]

SlimJim16v said:

Interesting build. I also competed in the Street Racer Championship around that time. Mk1 V6 Capri with nitrous, about 200bhp + what I thought was 50bhp nitrous but turned out to be only 25bhp. We would've been in the same class.

I think I still have a couple of magazines with the write up, I'll see if I can find them.

Jim, London (3.0 Ford Capri) 15.04/96 ?

I have all the mags, sad person that I am :-)

I didn't make the eliminations in 85, a cam follower exploded during a qualifying run.

Photo is from an earlier year:

Edited by stevebroad on Saturday 31st December 17:35

Edited by Jack Mansfield on Thursday 30th January 12:17

[stevebroad]

SlimJim16v said:

My cars were ahead of the time as Rats

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]

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.

[stevebroad]

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]

Altrezia said:

Super cool - may I commend you on an excellent base car for the project too - best brand in the world

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.

[stevebroad]

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.

[stevebroad]

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]

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

[stevebroad]

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