- 1,202
Someone on this forum had, some time ago, asked for nominations for cars which were good giant killers. At that time, I suspected that the '63 Lotus Elan, famous for its astonishing balance and grip, could be such a car, but I had not raced it often enough to have real evidence of its comparative ability. But then, when my Dull Blue example, armed with 210 turbocharged BHP, 5 speed gearbox and a stage 3 diet strolled to victory in all 5 races in the Turbo Challenge series (Professional Hall) without breaking a sweat. It collected between 130 and 140 a-spec points per race, and won each one comfortably despite being outclassed by all contestants in acceleration and top speed. It's cornering advantage was so big that even the High Speed Ring was a barely challenging race.
All this made me wonder what famous GT4 giants the tiny Lotus could slay, and the first would be one that had defeated my 580BHP Corvette Stingray - the infamous Motorsport Elise that frequents the El Capitan Enduro.
My racing Elan is far from standard. The Stage 3 weight reduction leaves it at an anorexic 500kg, and the engine, with stage 2 turbo, racing exhaust and a racing chip musters 210BHP once polished, balanced and treated to an oil change. It also sported a racing clutch and flywheel, a carbon propshaft, racing brakes and a fully customizable gearbox to allow a higher top speed than the 114mph allowed by the standard box. I added racing suspension too, but left all settings standard since the car's balance was almost perfect. A wing cannot be installed. I did not fit an LSD since the car was very driveable without one. Thus armed, and once treated to a chassis refresh and new set of sports - hard boots, I went off in search of the Motorsport Elise.
The Elise proved uninterested in racing against its elder, and it took a few reentries to tempt it out of hiding, but eventually I got this lineup:
Lotus Motorsport Elise
Zonda C12
TVR Cerbera Speed 6
Chevvy Corvette Grand Sport ('96 model)
Callaway C12
'63 Lotus Elan
The presence of the Zonda was exciting - I did not know how the Elan was going to fare against the Elise, but if it was outclassed, at least a good battle for second place seemed on the cards. I entered the race and was pleased to see 200 a-spec points offered as I pulled up to my grid position. I did not make a note of the starting order but the Elise was not on pole. I think it was 3rd or 4th. Since it is customary for the best looking driver to start at the back, I started in 6th
One short countdown and too many revs later, and I found myself still sitting still on my grid position, barely able to see the rest of the field vanish up the road through a cloud of my own tyre smoke. 5 seconds into the race and I'm already 5 seconds behind.. but it turns out that this was going to be pretty much the most exciting part of the whole race. Once I had the Elan moving forward, there was no stopping the little monster, and by the end of the first lap I was leading by a second and a half, having traded some paint with the yellow Cerbara en route
The Zonda was in second, the Elise was in third. Overtaking had been ridiculously easy as the Elan had so much more speed in the corners, and was also much better on the brakes. I recall overtaking a few cars around the outside in the Turbo Challenge, such is the Elan's superiority when changing direction.
At this point I was easily extending my lead on the Elise and was trying to make the most of my advantage before the younger Lotus got its tyres up to full heat and started lapping at its best potential. By the start of lap 7, though, I had 20 seconds on the Elise, and was quite sure it should be lapping at full speed by then. It seemed only tyre durability could stop me winning at this point, so I slacked off just a little to try and get more mileage out of the tyres.
Then the Elise started lapping really quickly, and by lap 11 the gap was down to 16.5 seconds - but then the Elise pitted. Since my tyres were all still good, and the wear was quite even (the right rear was just starting to go a little bit yellow) it became obvious at that point that the race was already won.
By lap 17 I still hadn't pitted. The right rear was now orange, and the rest of the tyres yellow, but the Lotus seemed to have as much speed and balance as it had displayed all race... until I missed my braking point going into the first hairpin. I turned in hard, still on the brakes, a maneuver which the Elan would normally shrug off nonchalantly, but this time the worn rear tyre punished me and I had a half spin
. At the end of the lap I pitted... fuel use had been minimal so I just changed all the tyres.
There wasn't much to report after this point. The Elise seemed to pit about every 12 laps, and I pitted on lap 33, still not needing fuel. On lap 36 I lapped the Elise easily and, after pitting one more time on lap 53 (when I did refuel) I strolled home to victory. When I crossed the line, the Elise was visible in front of me. One more lap and it would have been 2 laps down.
An easy 200 points then. The formidably competitive AI Motorsport Elise had been thoroughly outclassed by a car nearly 40 years its senior. But the Elan, even in this very highly tuned state, was still ridiculously easy to drive, and its speed was so easily accessible that it really proved an ideal endurance racer.
The next giant in my sights was the A/C Cobra that beats all and sundry in the 1000 Miles! events for classic cars in the European Hall. I'll tell you all about that run, and about an amazing rematch between the Elan and Elise at El Capitan, in the future.
For now, here's the finishing stats for the El Capitan Enduro.
1st Lotus Elan.
2nd Lotus Motorsport Elise
3rd Pagani Zonda C12
4th TVR Cerbera Speed 6
5th Corvette Grand Sport
6th Callaway C12
Race time 2 hours 7 minutes and 7 seconds
Fastest Lap for Elan: 1:51.026
All this made me wonder what famous GT4 giants the tiny Lotus could slay, and the first would be one that had defeated my 580BHP Corvette Stingray - the infamous Motorsport Elise that frequents the El Capitan Enduro.
My racing Elan is far from standard. The Stage 3 weight reduction leaves it at an anorexic 500kg, and the engine, with stage 2 turbo, racing exhaust and a racing chip musters 210BHP once polished, balanced and treated to an oil change. It also sported a racing clutch and flywheel, a carbon propshaft, racing brakes and a fully customizable gearbox to allow a higher top speed than the 114mph allowed by the standard box. I added racing suspension too, but left all settings standard since the car's balance was almost perfect. A wing cannot be installed. I did not fit an LSD since the car was very driveable without one. Thus armed, and once treated to a chassis refresh and new set of sports - hard boots, I went off in search of the Motorsport Elise.
The Elise proved uninterested in racing against its elder, and it took a few reentries to tempt it out of hiding, but eventually I got this lineup:
Lotus Motorsport Elise
Zonda C12
TVR Cerbera Speed 6
Chevvy Corvette Grand Sport ('96 model)
Callaway C12
'63 Lotus Elan
The presence of the Zonda was exciting - I did not know how the Elan was going to fare against the Elise, but if it was outclassed, at least a good battle for second place seemed on the cards. I entered the race and was pleased to see 200 a-spec points offered as I pulled up to my grid position. I did not make a note of the starting order but the Elise was not on pole. I think it was 3rd or 4th. Since it is customary for the best looking driver to start at the back, I started in 6th
One short countdown and too many revs later, and I found myself still sitting still on my grid position, barely able to see the rest of the field vanish up the road through a cloud of my own tyre smoke. 5 seconds into the race and I'm already 5 seconds behind.. but it turns out that this was going to be pretty much the most exciting part of the whole race. Once I had the Elan moving forward, there was no stopping the little monster, and by the end of the first lap I was leading by a second and a half, having traded some paint with the yellow Cerbara en route
The Zonda was in second, the Elise was in third. Overtaking had been ridiculously easy as the Elan had so much more speed in the corners, and was also much better on the brakes. I recall overtaking a few cars around the outside in the Turbo Challenge, such is the Elan's superiority when changing direction.At this point I was easily extending my lead on the Elise and was trying to make the most of my advantage before the younger Lotus got its tyres up to full heat and started lapping at its best potential. By the start of lap 7, though, I had 20 seconds on the Elise, and was quite sure it should be lapping at full speed by then. It seemed only tyre durability could stop me winning at this point, so I slacked off just a little to try and get more mileage out of the tyres.
Then the Elise started lapping really quickly, and by lap 11 the gap was down to 16.5 seconds - but then the Elise pitted. Since my tyres were all still good, and the wear was quite even (the right rear was just starting to go a little bit yellow) it became obvious at that point that the race was already won.
By lap 17 I still hadn't pitted. The right rear was now orange, and the rest of the tyres yellow, but the Lotus seemed to have as much speed and balance as it had displayed all race... until I missed my braking point going into the first hairpin. I turned in hard, still on the brakes, a maneuver which the Elan would normally shrug off nonchalantly, but this time the worn rear tyre punished me and I had a half spin
. At the end of the lap I pitted... fuel use had been minimal so I just changed all the tyres.There wasn't much to report after this point. The Elise seemed to pit about every 12 laps, and I pitted on lap 33, still not needing fuel. On lap 36 I lapped the Elise easily and, after pitting one more time on lap 53 (when I did refuel) I strolled home to victory. When I crossed the line, the Elise was visible in front of me. One more lap and it would have been 2 laps down.
An easy 200 points then. The formidably competitive AI Motorsport Elise had been thoroughly outclassed by a car nearly 40 years its senior. But the Elan, even in this very highly tuned state, was still ridiculously easy to drive, and its speed was so easily accessible that it really proved an ideal endurance racer.
The next giant in my sights was the A/C Cobra that beats all and sundry in the 1000 Miles! events for classic cars in the European Hall. I'll tell you all about that run, and about an amazing rematch between the Elan and Elise at El Capitan, in the future.
For now, here's the finishing stats for the El Capitan Enduro.
1st Lotus Elan.
2nd Lotus Motorsport Elise
3rd Pagani Zonda C12
4th TVR Cerbera Speed 6
5th Corvette Grand Sport
6th Callaway C12
Race time 2 hours 7 minutes and 7 seconds
Fastest Lap for Elan: 1:51.026
