Quote Originally Posted by eaton View Post
If you ever want to really appreciate the build quality of your Porsche, do some work on an Elan.
They weren't so bad.

When you consider that the vast majority of these cars were sold in kit form and built by torchlight in Lock Up garages they did remarkably well.

The cars that were well built were reliable and I used a Sprint 130 as my daily driver for several years.

The main weakness was the Lucas loom, made with wet string earth wires and no fuses.

If you sorted these out the car was quite good.

Road cars weighed in at around 690kg with the homologated weight of the 26R being 580kg although for club racing you could get them down to around 530kg.

Phase 1 cars had around 145BHP with Cosworth tuned engines but the phase 2 BRM engine produced around 165BHP.

The 26R had a strengthened, lighter chassis, better wish bones, alloy calipers and sliding spline driveshafts to replace the rubber rotoflexes.

I have driven a number of 26Rs and Replicas over the years and they are great fun.

If you really want a hoot try a Se7en.



I have a 1969 Series 3 Twin Cam SS tucked away. It weighs in at 460kg and has a 170 BHP motor and one of the ultra-close Mk1 Lotus Cortina Race boxes.

Not the prettiest car in the world but has a really great 'grin factor'.