It sold for a strong number.
Any thoughts?
I thought it was a really nice build with a great motor. The parts that went into the build are the best bits available. However, at the end of the day, it was an Elan S3 coupe with a BDG engine that unfortunately puts it in vintage race groups with newer prototypes and ex IMSA Porsches. If it had been an authentic 26R with a 1600 twincam and verified history, it would have brought much more.
It looks like a very high quality build.
Given that none of it is standard and cost does not seem to have been a restraining factor, it seems a surprising choice to have a mechanical fuel injection system instead of EFI.
I 100% agree with both of you.
Obviously, I think an Elan with a BD is a fun car (I have one), but that engine really limits what vintage orgs will allow it and where you could use it. If they’ll take an engine swapped car, it seems that EFI (or DCOEs) would be allowed also. Which would also avoid that hood bulge.
Frankly, despite it being a collection of very nice parts, I’m happily shocked that it brought as much as it did.
The motor was worth $30k or more.
It was a lovely build. $47k doesn’t begin to recoup the cost. AS the others have said, it would be hard to find a place to run that car. Would be a hoot.
there has been a number of BDG mods over the years: do they often use this kind of cable driven injection pump setup on top of the block ? a side - and sad - consequence of this implementation is the bulge added on top of the bonnet, damaging the line of the car…
The mechanical injection seen on that engine is what one would call “period correct”.
There are many options including EFI and Weber DCOEs that would eliminate the mechanical injection pump cable (and thus the hood bulge). I mentioned this in an earlier post.
Who knows? Maybe the builder liked the period correct mechanical injection? Maybe it was a compromise required by the vintage racing org they ran with? Like you, I would try hard to remove it. It’s awful to tune, and the hood bulge is unattractive.