FEATURE : LOTUS ELAN 26R
Lotus Elans , including 26Rs , are always popular in the Guards Trophy
Lotus Elan 26Rs gather for Snetterton celebration
The Historic Sports Car Club will celebrate 60 years of the Lotus Elan 26R during the Guards Trophy race here at Snetterton this weekend . Paul Lawrence takes a look at the 26R story .
The season opening Guards Trophy race has been earmarked for a special celebration of the 60th anniversary season of the racing version of the Lotus Elan with the aim of attracting the single biggest number of 26Rs on one grid for some time . To celebrate the story of the 26R , Clive Chapman from Classic Team Lotus will support the race at his local circuit and hopes to be here to present the end of race awards . In addition , the winning 26R driver and their partner will be given a guided tour of the Classic Team Lotus facility and the top three finishers will be presented with some CTL team kit .
Andy Dee-Crowne , CEO of the HSCC , says : “ We ’ re delighted to host the celebration of 60 years of the Elan 26R . It remains of the most desirable race cars of its time and where better to honour this all-time classic than here at Snetterton , the closest race track to the spiritual home of racing Lotuses .”
The 26R story It was back in 1962 that Lotus first launched one of its most successful road cars . The Lotus Elan was designated the Lotus Type 26 . The Elan was first built as a 1500cc then as a 1600cc car , and then later as the Series 2 ( S2 ).
The exact number of cars built in period remains unclear as records are inconclusive , but it is thought to be around about 10,000 and the commercial success of the Elan as a performance road car was a massive boost to Colin Chapman ’ s racing ambitions as his cars took World Championship titles through the 1960s with Jim Clark and Graham Hill . Clark , famously , had an Elan as a road car and was photographed with his Elan outside the family farm in the Scottish borders .
The Elan was the first Lotus road
“ We pay tribute to an iconic sports car of the 1960s ”
car to use a steel backbone chassis and a fibreglass body and that was a construction model that Lotus used for several decades . The Elan was true to Colin Chapman ’ s lightweight design philosophy and was soon receiving rave reviews because of its handling and performance . Production finally ceased in 1972 by which time assembly had moved to the Lotus works at Hethel in Norwich . One of the keys to the Elan was the 1558 cc Lotus twin-cam engine , which was based on the earlier Ford Kent pre-crossflow 1500 unit used in the very early cars . With a twin-cam head fitted , the engine became a staple of Ford and Lotus production for performance road and race cars over coming years .
Inevitably , the Elan was soon being used as a race car , even though Chapman was initially sceptical abouts its suitability for competition .
However , always the entrepreneur ,
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