Description
The birth of the Lotus Elan 26R
When it arrived, the Lotus 26 was a return to Colin Chapman's roots, a car that reflected his vision that a car should be light, thin and agile. It was the first Lotus not to be specifically designed for racing. Indeed, its predecessor, the Lotus Elite, was designed primarily as a road car for the smaller classes of motor sport from the outset, and in particular was designed to go for the Performance Index win. This was clearly not the ambition of the Elan.
However, the first owners could not help but take the Elan to the track. Unsuited to this environment, not optimised to be pushed to its limits, the Elan was not satisfactory. Lotus resisted the idea of modifying the car to make it more suitable for racing. Chapman left it to private teams to work on the Elan. Ian Walker and Graham Warner both sought to make the Lotus Elan a beast of the track. Their respective teams - Ian Walker Racing and The Chequered Flag - made major advances on the model.
The installation of rear wheel scoops, optimised brake and differential cooling, the replacement of the retractable headlights with fixed units and the installation of an NACA socket were all part of the package. At Graham Warner in particular, the work went further with wider wheel arches to accommodate adequate tyres, while the suspension received better sized anti-roll bars. Jackie Stewart and Mike Spence took the wheel of the Lotus Elan LOV1, a sort of premise of the 26R.
Faced with this success, and while the Elite continued to represent a financial abyss for the British brand, Colin Chapman finally decided to develop a competition version of the Elan. Its mission was to replace the Seven. Much of the work initiated by Ian Walker and Graham Warner was taken up and transposed to the 26R.
Mechanically, the 26R featured lightweight racing wishbones, sliding spline driveshafts instead of rubber seals, larger anti-roll bars and reinforcement around the suspension mounting points. The pedals have been repositioned for easier heel-toeing, dual circuit brakes with twin master cylinders and light alloy calipers are standard.
Suspension is provided by steel wishbones with coil springs/ dampers at the front, and a large lower wishbone and spring/ damper unit at the rear. The fibreglass bodywork is shaped by Ron Hickman.
The Elan's 140bhp Cosworth twin-cam four-cylinder engine was designed by Harry Mundy. The former BRM and Coventry Climax man took over the Ford 116E block with displacement increased to 1558cc from 1499cc on the first version.
The car offered for sale by Naito Engineering is a Lotus Elan S2, upgraded to a 26R S2.
Acquired in 2021 by us.
Naito Engineering has carried out extensive work which is documented by the invoices for the work.
This car is very well prepared for competition as well as street use.
