26R Style car advice.

Good evening all. I wondered if you could help me?
I have just bought a 1965 Elan s2 that will hopefully be turned into a narrow-arch car. The above leads me to ask the following question. How much would it cost to get full 26r suspension, hubs, springs, shock absorbers etc? I have seen individual parts for sale but would like to know the actual price rather than an estimated cost as I need to know the full price to see if I can afford to do it!
Best regards, P

I would contact TTR with a list of what you want and get a quote from them for the total cost

cheers
Rohan

That is what I did. What ever they suggest just buy.

You could refer to this:

tonythompsonracing.co.uk/wo … your-elan/

And then go here to find prices:

tonythompsonracing.co.uk/pa … r-and-gts/

It adds up in a hurry, and there is always something else you need. My own 65 S2 only has a few salvageable parts, so mine is going to have rather shocking cost. But hey… Looking at my order sheet for just suspension parts, it looks like somewhat more than 12k pounds, plust the surprises.

In addition, I discovered hub assembly is a bit (way) beyond my mechanical abilities, so I’ve had to sub out to a machinist.

John

Thanks for all of the tips. I am forever grateful. I will try contacting Tony Thompson although I can imagine the bills escalate very quickly (as many of you have mentioned).
I plan to make it slightly road spec however meaning the cost of break parts and bits should not be so daunting.
Best regards, P

I have just priced it up. I reckon that the rolling chassis will cost ?12,000 by doing it to the specifications I have chosen. The car needs to have the odd road parts on it, i.e. road car brake discs, pads etc because we will be hill climbing it and would have to drive it to events. That way, we will be able to use it as a fast road car when we are not racing. And by the way, we will not be doing that much hill climbing! :laughing:
Best regards, P

What do you mean by “narrow arch car”? That would preclude fitting almost all of the 26/R components.

silverstoneauctions.com/lotus-elan-26-r
Have a look at this car, we are trying to make a similar car to this!
Best regards, P

That has wide, 26/R, arches.

They look standard S1 to me - see attached for comparison.

David

I always thought they were!!! Tony Thompson sell 26R wheels for “narrow arch cars”
tonythompsonracing.co.uk/pa … t-on-each/
I have have been told by several people that some of the earlier 26Rs were narrow arched!
Best regards, P

…here’s one…

Yes, hat is one of my favourites. That is one of the very first cars, and you can clearly see the narrow arches.
Very good photo.
Best regards, P

The first 26R I ever saw racing was Bill Young’s in Southern California, back in the early 60’s. When compared to a standard Elan, we called it the “Coke Bottle Elan”.

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 :smiley: )
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