There is a new episode of JL’s Garage on the Elan scheduled for Feb 2, 2009. Please watch it and leave your comments.
Best
Carlos
There is a new episode of JL’s Garage on the Elan scheduled for Feb 2, 2009. Please watch it and leave your comments.
Best
Carlos
I’m not familiar with the show, which network is it on?
Scott
it’s not a show, “jay lenos garage” is one of the best internet sites.
cg
The video is on. It is Great!
jaylenosgarage.com/video/vid … vid=984581
If you have time:
Best
Carlos
Well worth watching!
I especially like where Jay refers to the exhaust/engine --“Why would anyone listen to the radio when they could listen to this?” I have said that for years.
To bad Jay needs the income, I only got to watch the Jewery and makeup comercials before I gave up with dialup, I bet its a big money maker with the folks that watch this kind of thing.
Gary
Great video
Technically correct and entertaining. Good to hear him plugging the specialist suppliers, we all owe a great deal to them enabling us to keep our cars on the road.
I look forwards to the video on his white Elan.
Sounds like he’s really going to hot rod the white one. 220hp, I think one of them said. I curious to know which engine transplant they plan to use for it. Hmmm, I wonder if Jim Hall has email?
Greg Z
Thanks for posting that link Carlos.
I enjoyed watching it & have passed the link on.
My friends in GB have been having a chuckle at J.J’s pronunciation of
“El aaan”
Cheers
John
A1!
And Jay’s favourite daily driver
Where can I get a twin silencer like that for my +2??
I never tire of the twincam’s sound
Peter
Great
An inspiration to any owner or prospective owner, and anyone who doesn’t have weather or an Elan underside like that…
Matthew
Great stuff even better with the volume turned right the way up!
Where do you get the 6-speed gearbox option mentioned in the piece?
What a great video. Not to take anything away from it, but did anyone else spot these inconsistencies?
When he says ?this car?, is he talking about Elans in general or is he talking about this particular Elan S4? As far as I know, the brand of carburetor was never a factory option that one could select when ordering a car. Plenty of US bound cars came equipped with Webers. The brand of carburetor was determined at the factory according to the emission requirements of the country of destination.
The steel frame is not the reason it?s hard to get a good ground. The steel frame is an excellent conductor of electricity. It?s the bad ground connections to the steel frame that promote grounding problems.
When he says they slide, I can only guess he?s referring to the tires. The donuts have nothing to do with this or any part of the suspension. Owners who keep the donuts keep them because they covet originality and/or they?re avoiding the expense of converting to CV axles.
Cornering will cause the donuts to flex in and out slightly with the camber changes associated with cornering however this flexing is not even perceptible. What is perceptible is the rubber band effect caused by the flexing of the donuts during acceleration. Nobody can ?feel? when the donuts are about to let go. A visual inspection is the only way to determine if they are nearing the end of their service life.
It?s my understanding that 12,224 were built.
Jay?s own text claims 0-60 in 7.9 seconds for a factory stock car.
What? First of all, Lotus did not develop the DFV race engine. Cosworth Engineering developed it. Second, it is my understanding that Lotus? 1963 Indy motor had nothing to do with the 3 liter DFV or with Cosworth because it was a 4.2 liter pushrod design known as the Ford Falcon motor. For 1964 and 1965, twin cam heads were used on that same 4.2-liter block. I just find Hall?s claims difficult to believe. If someone knows anything else about this, please enlighten me.
A 6-speed transmission for an Elan? Where can I get one?
In addition to the upgrades that were mentioned, it appears that he purchased other upgrades from Bean. I noticed the Gustafson Super Starter, the oil cooler, and the cassette water pump. I also noticed some sort of chrome piece to the right of the glove box. Could that be a flexible map reading light? It appeared that the hazard switch was red and lighted and was displaced by a shift pattern plaque in front of the shifter. Anybody notice anything else?
Despite the 8 inconsistencies, I found the video to be quite enjoyable especially the sounds his car made on the road. And unlike many other celebrities, Jay is down to earth, willing to share his love for interesting cars with anyone who will listen. I think that more than anything; Jay would just like to be one of the guys. That may help explain his recent announcement that he will soon be leaving the Tonight Show.
Excellent Video for sure! Just goes to show what you can do with an unlimited budget and a few professionals to assist. Lets see the White one.
Rob
I just had an enjoyable time watching the video myself. I was impressed by how correct it is, for the most part. Now the DFV… Frank, you are strictly correct, but the connection between Lotus and the DFV is hardly remote. Mike Costin and Keith Duckworth both worked for Lotus when the Twin Cam was developed and before going off to start Cosworth. I am sure some thinking carried over. The 49 was the first car to use the DFV and Graham Hill did a lot of test driving to help produce a useable power curve as opposed to the rather binary delivery produced with the original cams. Now to a six speed 'box for the Elan… Quaife had been doing a sequential six speed in a Ford T9 case. This has been replaced by a new Quaife box with proprietary casings and internals but similar external dimensions. With Mr. Leno’s resources it may very well be that he had discussions with Quaife about a six speed for his Elan. Lastly… No comments about 220 hp for the white Elan? My local engine builder / dyno man is making me dream about a road worthy 2.2 liter Twin Cam based on a Jennings Nikasil block. He thinks 200 hp is possible but that would be the limit for an eight valve Twin Cam head. Dream on.
As has already been pointed out Quaife have been doing six speed boxes to Ford Type 9 dimensions for some time. It would not take too much work to fit one to an Elan.
IIRC The Cosworh DFV is basically two BDA in a V. The BDA was built up on the 711M Ford block, so there is basic historical line from the Lotus twinc to the DFV.
The white Elan may be receiving a BDA type engine in which case 220bhp is realistic.
At the risk of being nominated pedant of the week, the DFV, having gear driven cams, was more like a couple of FVA Formula 2 engines in a V.
Excellent video.
Have I been pronouncing the name of my car wrong all these years?
( Even allowing for my god-awful Antipodean accent).
Ralph.
race-cars.com/utility/coswrthr.htm#FVA
FVA 1966 1598cc 218 Bhp. Formula 2, first Cosworth four-valve narrow angle head, 5 main 116E block, gear drive cams, won every championship 1967-71
In 1967 Ford was making one hell of a hot rod…
lotus-cortina.com/photos/wil … dbolz2.htm
Another
cosworth.com/downloads/fva_1969_spec.pdf
Keith Duckworth came into his own on this FVA, the real problem was the gear lash stack up and chattering on 5 gears pairs in sequential order was a huge. It wasn’t until Keith figured out how to minimize this with a torsion bar coupled gear on the front of the crankshaft that allowed the gear train, thus the engine live through a race. Whether this was first solved in the DFV or the FVA I can’t say but it happened and the DFV went on to glory and brought Cosworth and Ford along.
photos from the following link (with additional photos and specs)
race-cars.com/engsales/coswo … 3898ss.htm
ps - It was Walter Hayes at Ford of England and Colin at Lotus that helped get Cosworth the contract for the DFV for something like 100,000 gbp and it was speced out that there would be two engines, the development done on the 116e block for about 1/4 of that money and the rest went into the V8 DFV.
Gary
Frank, you sure know how to throw water on a good time. But yeah, I spotted those inconsistencies, also. Did you see the fit of the LH headlight bucket? It was driving me nuts; I wanted to get in there and fix it!
Greg Z