50th Anniversary of the Lotus Elan

[Charlie Farley]

To set the scene :

Paul Tooms is a well-known driver in Modsports (2011 Champion) driving an Elan. He cannot make the Saturday at Brands, so misses the qualifying. This means that on Sunday’s race, he has to start from the last.
The following is Paul Tooms (the driver) answering a question from a fellow Elan owner:

“Christian, - here's a link to my on-board video. I did my best to chase down Al Fleming, but his is a GTS car with wide A048 tyres and it was just too quick for me. Had I realised he was in my class, I might have tried a bit more of a cunning approach .....

Still it was all tremendous fun. I didn't get to see much of the rest of the festival as I was busy with the car etc. I edited the video rather quickly - I think I may have selected wrong frame speed so it runs a tad fast (i'll try and fix that in due course when I get a moment)

Thanks to all who set it up, took part or supported it.

Paul.”

And the answer to a separate question about which Class of car he was competing in:

“Complete mix of specs. There were 2 classes - FIA & Classic. FIA were proper 26R type cars on Dunlop M tyres at 580 kg etc. In the right hands (Andy Wolfe, Nick Fleming) extremely quick.

Classic cars were a big variety -at the bottom end were the HSCC roadsports spec cars at 640 kg, 40 DCOE carbs and free running diff. Then a complete spectrum all the way up to 2 litre dry sumped lightweight in a 26R type chassis with LSD and 205 section yoko A048's.

Mine is a fully compliant HSCC spec car and is 1598 cc on 40 DCOE carbs - around 170 BHP. Size matters, but what you do with it is pretty important too!

Paul”

And finally, to the video:

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gJ0_YbUapgE]Elan 50th Race Brands Hatch - On Board with Paul Tooms - YouTube[/ame]

 

[René]

wow...what a start :thumbsup: did you have a rocket system on board?
good driving also.
and fun the speeding up part

your car is very fast with and light ofcorse, sounds very good too.

always loved the Elan coupe and especially the 26R (but very expensive)

I'm also a fan of the Europa, say type 47 or the wider type 62 :idea:

different set-up with the engine in the back, but what would be a "better" track/road car, a good Elan coupe or a good Europa...

the Europa I found a bit more special (alien) looking :laugh:

 

[Randy V]

Great driving... Some rather interesting lines at some parts, but you can't see the 87 car's position, so presuming it was just inside at the quarterpanel.

What I find interesting is the film speed.. It seemed like the BTCC filming at first which I alway thought was played back at twice the speed. Later found out that they really were going "That Fast"..

 

[Rick Muck- Mark IV]

What I find interesting is the film speed.. It seemed like the BTCC filming at first which I alway thought was played back at twice the speed. Later found out that they really were going "That Fast"..

Randy,

Later part is sped up....look at he timer on the dash. Looks to be 20-25% overspeed. Still really cool and some hard-arse driving!