- 1,202
After stuffing the Motorsport Elise by two laps at El Capitan, and shrugging off the challenge of the A/C Cobra at the Nurburgring, I had started wondering what I could do that might actually prove a challenge for my Boring Blue '62 Lotus Elan, and the answer came rather quickly. Could the Elan defeat the Elise, at El Capitan, without the aid of a turbo?
I treated my Elan, now with over 1000 miles showing on the clock, to the second chassis refresh of its career and an oil change. Then, some fiddling around with the engine mods available revealed that swapping the Stage 2 Turbo for a Stage 1 N/A upgrade pegged the power at 151bhp. A 25% drop in power should make a significant difference, surely? I put in some practise laps of El Cap to adjust the gearing to suit the new power level, and noticed that my laps were taking around three seconds longer than they had been with 210bhp. Over 66 laps that was a 200 second, or 3 minutes and 20 seconds, difference. That should make for a far closer race. Gearing and output set, it was time to take on the Elise once again.
I lined up in my reserved grid spot (6th). In front of me was an AMG Merc SL65, a Shelby Series 1, two TVRs, one a familiar looking yellow Cerbera Speed Six and the other a T350C, and a royal blue Motorsport Elise. The lights turned green, I flattened the throttle pedal, and then watched every one vanish while I sat still with spinning wheels... sometimes I just never learn.
By the end of the first hairpin though, the Elan's amazing g-force trick had put me back on the tail end of the bunch. I threaded my way past them cleanly, and by the end of lap 1 I was 1.5 seconds behind the leading Lotus Elise. I make a passing attempt on the fast cresting left hander after the bumpy section that's immediately after the tunnel, but we touch, and I come off worse. The car fishtails and I end up stuck nose first against a barrier, having lost control. The Cerbera that was in thrid place adds insult to injury by sideswiping me before moving on, and by the time I make it back to the start / finish line, I am 10 seconds behind the Elise and in third place.
By the end of lap 3, I have got back into second place, and I have reduced the Elise's lead to 8.6 seconds. Passing the Cerbera was surprisingly difficult. The Elan's huge cornering and braking advantage is marginallised by a severe lack of straight line pace. It means that when I approach a corner, I am rarely close enough to the car in front to launch a comfortable overtaking maneuvre.
By lap 7 the Elise had started working up to its customary period of fast pace, and the gep had stabilised at around 6.5 seconds - and then I spun. It was an all-my-own-work spin, and it cost me 3.5 seconds. The Elise was really lapping quickly now, and he pushed the gap up to 13.5 seconds by the end of lap 10... and then, suddenly, I was only 8.5 seconds behind. He must have made some kind of mistake. He pitted at the end of lap 11, still 8.5 seconds ahead at the last timer. I was nowhere near needing to pit, and moved into the lead. By the time he had got back on the track, I was 20 seconds ahead.
It was here that the Elan did something amazing. I had expected that, with 60bhp less and without turbocharged torque, it may be able to get a few more laps out of its tyres than it managed previously, when 16 laps seemed the optimum. But I still felt that it would need three stops. So when lap 22 came and went and I was still on my first set of tyres, I was frankly amazed. This meant a two stop race, and changed my race time calculations substantially. My lead had peaked at 27 seconds over the Elise before he hit his sweet spot and hauled it back down to 11 seconds in 4 stunning laps, and my tyres were orange when I pitted at the end of lap 23, but the Elise pitted on the same lap. Barring a disaster, the race had just been won. Even more astounding, the tyre wear on the front and rear wheels was even - a good sign of the Elan's astounding balance, which makes it such an effective endurance tool.
The rest of the race was easy. No disaster struck. When I took my second and last pitstop, at the end of lap 45, I was 34 seconds ahead of the Elise. I cruised home to an easy win from that point. Here are the stats:
1st Lotus Elan S1 '62 - elapsed race time 2 hours 10 mins 35 secs
2nd Lotus Motorsport Elise - 45 seconds behind at last seen checkpoint
3rd Shelby Series 1 Supercharged
4th TVR Cerbera Speed Six
5th TVR T350C
5th Mercedes Benz SL65AMG
I did not record my fastest lap but believe it was 1:55.xx. The Elan, impressively, completed the 66 lap endurance race without refuelling once.
Race was worth 200 a-spec points.
To my surprise, even with only 151bhp, the Elan had won this race comfortably. The win hardly ever seemed in doubt, despite the time consuming collision at the start. It did not need much skill from me. The car made it all easy. This all started me wondering.... just how little horsepower does the ancient, but amazing, Lotus need to beat its highly respected junior? It certainly did just fine without the turbo. Read the next instalment to find out!
I treated my Elan, now with over 1000 miles showing on the clock, to the second chassis refresh of its career and an oil change. Then, some fiddling around with the engine mods available revealed that swapping the Stage 2 Turbo for a Stage 1 N/A upgrade pegged the power at 151bhp. A 25% drop in power should make a significant difference, surely? I put in some practise laps of El Cap to adjust the gearing to suit the new power level, and noticed that my laps were taking around three seconds longer than they had been with 210bhp. Over 66 laps that was a 200 second, or 3 minutes and 20 seconds, difference. That should make for a far closer race. Gearing and output set, it was time to take on the Elise once again.
I lined up in my reserved grid spot (6th). In front of me was an AMG Merc SL65, a Shelby Series 1, two TVRs, one a familiar looking yellow Cerbera Speed Six and the other a T350C, and a royal blue Motorsport Elise. The lights turned green, I flattened the throttle pedal, and then watched every one vanish while I sat still with spinning wheels... sometimes I just never learn.
By the end of the first hairpin though, the Elan's amazing g-force trick had put me back on the tail end of the bunch. I threaded my way past them cleanly, and by the end of lap 1 I was 1.5 seconds behind the leading Lotus Elise. I make a passing attempt on the fast cresting left hander after the bumpy section that's immediately after the tunnel, but we touch, and I come off worse. The car fishtails and I end up stuck nose first against a barrier, having lost control. The Cerbera that was in thrid place adds insult to injury by sideswiping me before moving on, and by the time I make it back to the start / finish line, I am 10 seconds behind the Elise and in third place.
By the end of lap 3, I have got back into second place, and I have reduced the Elise's lead to 8.6 seconds. Passing the Cerbera was surprisingly difficult. The Elan's huge cornering and braking advantage is marginallised by a severe lack of straight line pace. It means that when I approach a corner, I am rarely close enough to the car in front to launch a comfortable overtaking maneuvre.
By lap 7 the Elise had started working up to its customary period of fast pace, and the gep had stabilised at around 6.5 seconds - and then I spun. It was an all-my-own-work spin, and it cost me 3.5 seconds. The Elise was really lapping quickly now, and he pushed the gap up to 13.5 seconds by the end of lap 10... and then, suddenly, I was only 8.5 seconds behind. He must have made some kind of mistake. He pitted at the end of lap 11, still 8.5 seconds ahead at the last timer. I was nowhere near needing to pit, and moved into the lead. By the time he had got back on the track, I was 20 seconds ahead.
It was here that the Elan did something amazing. I had expected that, with 60bhp less and without turbocharged torque, it may be able to get a few more laps out of its tyres than it managed previously, when 16 laps seemed the optimum. But I still felt that it would need three stops. So when lap 22 came and went and I was still on my first set of tyres, I was frankly amazed. This meant a two stop race, and changed my race time calculations substantially. My lead had peaked at 27 seconds over the Elise before he hit his sweet spot and hauled it back down to 11 seconds in 4 stunning laps, and my tyres were orange when I pitted at the end of lap 23, but the Elise pitted on the same lap. Barring a disaster, the race had just been won. Even more astounding, the tyre wear on the front and rear wheels was even - a good sign of the Elan's astounding balance, which makes it such an effective endurance tool.
The rest of the race was easy. No disaster struck. When I took my second and last pitstop, at the end of lap 45, I was 34 seconds ahead of the Elise. I cruised home to an easy win from that point. Here are the stats:
1st Lotus Elan S1 '62 - elapsed race time 2 hours 10 mins 35 secs
2nd Lotus Motorsport Elise - 45 seconds behind at last seen checkpoint
3rd Shelby Series 1 Supercharged
4th TVR Cerbera Speed Six
5th TVR T350C
5th Mercedes Benz SL65AMG
I did not record my fastest lap but believe it was 1:55.xx. The Elan, impressively, completed the 66 lap endurance race without refuelling once.
Race was worth 200 a-spec points.
To my surprise, even with only 151bhp, the Elan had won this race comfortably. The win hardly ever seemed in doubt, despite the time consuming collision at the start. It did not need much skill from me. The car made it all easy. This all started me wondering.... just how little horsepower does the ancient, but amazing, Lotus need to beat its highly respected junior? It certainly did just fine without the turbo. Read the next instalment to find out!
Nice report, much information in it 
