However, I had been working on the car almost non stop since lockdown and basically ran out of steam. Then my son and his girlfriend were furloughed so at home. Their gyms had closed so they asked if they could convert the bay in the barn where the Elan used to be before my new garage was built into a gym. We said yes. We then decided to convert the adjacent bay into a pool room as we had a table stored in a shed. We then decided to landscape the grassed area outside the barn so it was usable for games. This has been fun and recharged my batteries. Nearly finished now so will be back on the Elan in the next couple of weeks with renewed enthusiasm, so stay tuned
Thanks for your concerns and, yes, all is well. I went mad at the beginning of the first lockdown and burnt myself out after making roof, doors, etc. Son wanted to convert the barn bay the Elan used to be in, before he was treated to a proper garage, into a gym ( as his was shut) using equipment we had lying around (as most people seem to have ) So that was done with the addition of a dart board and beer fridge and we had some fun evenings up there.
A friend had given us a 7â pool table a year or so ago but it was too big for our conservatory. However the barn bays are just wide enough to use full length cues so a bay adjacent to the new gym was converted into a pool room. Son then wanted to build a bar! So we did and it sort of snowballed from then on.
Pinball machine, one arm bandit, fruit machine and a 800 game upright retro video game console were soon added. Air conditioning was added to protect the machines along with lighting, carpets, chairs etc. This was great to do as a change to cars and I have yet to get back on it de to numerous additional projects.
We refurbished the outside of the barn and built a 9 hole putting course on the grassed area out side the barn. I have now also built a 600m long go cart track in the paddock (with electronic lap timing, a grandstand and a Monaco inspired tunnel
We are getting ready for our drag racing/motorhome owning friends when they descend on us over the last weekend in October. After this I hope to get back on to the car. Preparing bodywork for paint is the next task which is the nearest thing to boring I can imagine when working on the car but it has to be done. Hopefully, once I get back into the swing I will see some progress.
If you like Zombie films, The Elan has a small staring role in a new one being filmed at the moment. One of the stars is attacked by two Zombies whilst working on the Elan in my garage. My wife is also in the film, playing a politician being rescued by helicopter (a real one so she got a ride in it ) My sonâs girlfriend was one of the Zombies, but no amount of makeup could make her ugly. I will let you all know if and when it is released -)
PS. That is the actor posing for the photo, not me actually working on the car
You are an absolute legend! I canât believe I just found this thread. Well done! Looking forward to witness the madness unfold in new and wonderful ways.
Hi. For those of you who were around 4 years ago, I am still workng on the car, but somehow wandered away from here. I came back today only to find that the thread had been closed but that is hardly surprising. However Jeff very kindly reanimated it so here I am
Since I last posted an update, I have been working on the car sporadically but never really stopped. I am now back on it seriously in order to get it out on the track in 2026.
I will put a review of the last 4 years together in the next few days, but in the meantime here is the most signicicant event that happened in 2023.
Steve,
Keep it up. Amazing beyond words. 21+ years. I canât even begin to imagine how many hours and $ you have in this project. Hope you are on the road soon!
Winston
Hi Steve
Great to have an update, when I saw the thread had closed I thought that was the end of the story!
Having followed the thread for many years look forward to continuing to admire your perseverance.
Richard
For anyone that wants to catch up on the last few years that arenât covered on elan.net, Steveâs got 177 pages of updates on this extreme Elan posted on Resto rides forum.
I had a look at your blog on Retro Rides. Really impressive.
In the spirit of âfor what its worthâ Simon McBeath wrote a book âcompetition car downforceâ in the same series as the books you reference. Its a good read, and as you are at that point, it might be worth reading.
I donât think your vent on the bonnet is going to be man enough for the job. With the twincam, the engine bay is really tight, I can only guess that yours is tighter. Your engine will be producing much more heat as well. Have a look at the Elise, the hot air outlet from the rad takes up a significant portion of the bonnet area. Your raised lip at the back of the bonnet may work, but as you point out, that is the highest pressure point of the car.
I am now actively looking for a secondhand copy of said book as a new one is a tad expensive As I am looking for slipperiness and the main downside with downforce is that it creates drag, which presents me with a dichotomy between grip and speed. I am trying to reduce drag as much as possible but improve traction and stability at the top end without the advantages of a windtunnel. Also, there arenât other racers trying to achieve the same thing on the drag strip with a similar car that I am aware of so I am sort of working in the dark. But it is fun
The bonnet vent was designed MANY years ago and, if I strated again, it would be different. However, it was designed to extract air from behind the radiator only without detracting too much from the overall shape of the car. Why it is slightly offset, I now canât remember The Elise hasnât got a tall engine to deal with which means packaging is easier IMO. My real problem is the lack of inner wheel aches which makes the airflow in the engine bay chaotic. However, racing is restricted to 1320 feet at a time so cooling isnât as important as on a roundy roundy car.
The raised lip idea is from my head, so have no idea if it will work, but I think that the theory is sound.
A little clarification of the start up video. It was done at Geoff Page Engineering where my Son, Alex, works. I would not trust anyone else to work on my baby. Geoff built the engine to an agreed spec many years ago and this was the first time it had started up. We werenât sure whether the hydraulic lifters would work properly after standing for many years. The car was at GPE to have Alex go over it to make sure I hadnât made any stupid mistakes and to check everything was tight. Once that was done it was time for the first start up. Alex is on start up duty (he is on the right). It didnât start up first attempt because he had forgotten to turn on the fuel pumps Once he did that it started pretty quickly once the fuel arrived. Lifters settled down pretty quickly and the valve freed itself, phew!
Although we were running a Life F88 ECU we quickly discovered that it didnât have the facility to run drive by wire. When I started building the car DBW wasnât particuarly reliable as an aftermarket mod so we decided to stay with the original setup. However, as the build evolved and I upgraded to a 6 speed sequential and flappy paddles, we went to DBW. As Simon was calibrating the ECU we dicovered that he couldnât calibrate the throttle! Although we could start the engine and run on idle we couldnât use the throttle. Not an issue as we also didnât have a radiator fitted and the intercooler wasnât installed so the turbo wasnât operational anyway
We started with just turning it over to get oil pressure. This went up to 80psi, due to the relief valve sticking. We hoped that it would free itself because the pump is in the sump!
So at least I know that the engine and fuel system works.
