"Lotus Elite - Racing Car for the Road" ...

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Re: "Lotus Elite - Racing Car for the Road" ...

Post by stretch »

Very nice Andy. Also know nothing about them until now. :)
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Re: "Lotus Elite - Racing Car for the Road" ...

Post by 911hillclimber »

Forgive my obvious ignorance everyone.

Is there a connection to this engine for the Climax water pump engine and the Hillman Imp engine, or ate the 3 miles apart or just simply totally different?
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Re: "Lotus Elite - Racing Car for the Road" ...

Post by Lightweight_911 »

jb wrote:Although I admire most of your cars this one is the only one that I would rather have than my 911
I wasn't expecting that Jason !!

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- subtracting weight makes you faster everywhere”
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Re: "Lotus Elite - Racing Car for the Road" ...

Post by Nine One One »

911hillclimber wrote:Forgive my obvious ignorance everyone.

Is there a connection to this engine for the Climax water pump engine and the Hillman Imp engine, or ate the 3 miles apart or just simply totally different?


Post WW2

Coventry Climax ET 199 (1949 model)
In the late 1940s, the company shifted away from automobile engines and into other markets, including marine diesel, fire pumps, and forklift trucks. In 1946, the ET199 was announced, which the company claimed was the first British-produced forklift truck. The ET199 was designed to carry a 4,000 lb (1,800 kg) load with a 24-inch (610 mm) load centre, and with a 9 ft (2.7 m) lift height.[4]

In 1950, Harry Mundy joined Coventry Climax, and a new lightweight all-aluminium overhead camshaft engine was developed in response to the government's ambitious requisition outline asking for a portable fire pump that was capable of pumping double the amount of water specified in the previous outline, with half the weight.

This was designated the FW for "Feather Weight". The engine was displayed at the Motor Show in London and attracted attention from the motor racing fraternity for its very high "horsepower per pound of weight". With strong persuasions at the show, including those by Cyril Kieft (who had Stirling Moss as an F3 driver) and a young Colin Chapman, Lee concluded that success in competition could lead to more customers for the company, and so the team designed the FWA, a Feather Weight engine for Automobiles.


Kieft 1100 at 1954 24 Hours of Le Mans
The first Coventry Climax racing engine appeared at the 1954 24 Hours of Le Mans in the front of one of two Kieft 1100 sports racers, but both cars (one with an MG engine) failed to finish the race due to problems unrelated to the engines. The FWA became popular in sportscar racing and was followed by the Mark II and then by the FWB, which had a capacity of nearly 1.5-litres. The new Formula Two regulations suited the 1.5-litre engine, and it quickly became the engine to have in F2 racing. By 1957, the first Climax engines began to appear in Formula One in the back of Cooper chassis.

Initially, these were FWBs, but the FPF engine followed. Stirling Moss scored the company's first Formula One victory in Argentina in 1958, using a 2-litre version of the engine. In general terms, however, the engines were not powerful enough to compete with the 2.5-litre machinery, and it was not until the 2.5-litre version of the FPF arrived in 1959 that Jack Brabham was able to win the world championship in a Cooper-Climax. At the same time, the company produced the FWE engine for Lotus Elite, and this enjoyed considerable success in sports car racing, with a series of class wins at the Le Mans events in the early 1960s.

In 1961, there was a new 1.5-litre formula, and the FPF engine was given a new lease on life, although the company began work on a V8 engine, designated the FWMV, and this became competitive in 1962 predominantly in Lotus, Cooper, Brabham, and Lola chassis, with Jim Clark's Lotus outstandingly the most successful. There were a total of 22 Grand Prix victories before 1966 with crossplane, flatplane, two- and four-valve versions of the FWMV. When the new, 3-litre, formula was introduced, Coventry Climax decided not to build engines for the new formula and withdrew from racing after the unsuccessful FWMW project, with the exception of the new 2-Litre version of the FWMV.

Also, in the early 1960s, Coventry Climax was approached by Rootes to mass-produce FWMAs for use in a compact family car project called Apex with an all-aluminium alloy overhead cam engine combined with a full-synchromesh aluminium transaxle. This combination was considered very radical at the time, especially the synchromesh on all forward gears, which had been declared 'impossible' by Alec Issigonis of BMC Mini fame. The adoption to mass-production was successful, and the project came out to the market as the 875cc Hillman Imp totaling over 400,000 units made by 1976, including the later 998cc version.
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Re: "Lotus Elite - Racing Car for the Road" ...

Post by Lightweight_911 »

911hillclimber wrote:Forgive my obvious ignorance everyone.

Is there a connection to this engine for the Climax water pump engine and the Hillman Imp engine, or ate the 3 miles apart or just simply totally different?

Yes, they're all related Graham.

Back in 1950 with the outbreak of the Korean war, the British Civil Defence put out a contract for someone to design/build a lightweight portable fire pump.

The specification required a maximum weight of 350 pounds & the ability to go immediately from cold start to a constant 4-5000 rpm.

Enter Coventry Climax under the guidance of Harry Mundy (ex-Bentley, Bristol & more famously Jaguar) plus Walter Hassan (ex-BRM) who came up with the FWP (feather weight pump) - an all-aluminium SOHC 4-cylinder engine weighing a mere 180 lbs.

This in turn led to the development of an automotive version - the (1020 cc) FWA - which found its way into a number of racing cars - Lotus XI, Fairthorpe, Turner, etc.

There were further iterations - FWB (1460 cc) & FWE (1216 cc Feather Weight Elite) which used a cross between the FWA's stroke & the FWB's bore.

The Hillman Imp engine was a further development of the original Coventry Climax engine (although I don't think any parts are interchangeable) for mass production.

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Last edited by Lightweight_911 on Sun Feb 12, 2023 5:21 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Andy

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- subtracting weight makes you faster everywhere”
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Re: "Lotus Elite - Racing Car for the Road" ...

Post by Lightweight_911 »

.

- on with the story ...

4. Gearbox – standard fitment was a 4-speed MG gearbox with a highly sought after ZF all-synchro box offered as an option on S2 models (& incorporated as part of the SE package).

One of the drawbacks of the original transmission was that it was quite low geared (std rear axle ratio of 4.22:1 plus a direct 4th gear) meaning that the engine is running at quite high revs at 'cruising' speeds. This led (about 15 years ago) to the development of a 5-speed conversion – greatly improving driveability with its 'overdrive' 5th gear. This is all achieved without any modifications to the monocoque - so is completely reversible.

Image

Image

Again – this car already had the 5-speed gearbox fitted :wink:

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- subtracting weight makes you faster everywhere”
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Re: "Lotus Elite - Racing Car for the Road" ...

Post by Lightweight_911 »

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5. Rear suspension – the original rear wishbones (shown on the right in the picture below) utilised a 'rubber ball' type location at the inboard end which can wear prematurely leading to instability (caused by unwanted changes in toe angle).

Image

Image

These days most cars that are regularly driven have had their rear wishbones converted to rose joints in place of the 'ball & socket' arrangement for their inner location. This Elite had this conversion – along with the (very expensive) Tolman Motorsport adjustable suspension set-up.

Image

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- subtracting weight makes you faster everywhere”
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Re: "Lotus Elite - Racing Car for the Road" ...

Post by Hugo 356 »

Lightweight_911 wrote:The Hillman Imp engine was a further development of the original Coventry Climax engine
The Rootes derivative was prone to overheating; your Imp went limp and you experienced an anti-Climax
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Re: "Lotus Elite - Racing Car for the Road" ...

Post by Lightweight_911 »

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This shot gives an indication of just how small an Elite is - parked behind a Porsche Macan :

Image

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- subtracting weight makes you faster everywhere”
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Re: "Lotus Elite - Racing Car for the Road" ...

Post by majordad »

I’ve two relevant memories

— traveling from Galway to Dublin in an IMP where we could top up the oilman water from the backseat on the move by lifting the rear panel.

— My Army days on a Friday where duties including starting the Coventry Climax Fire Pump. Soldiers being soldiers this was often done hurriedly and without connecting up the cooling hoses. There was a shed full of seized engines from overheating.
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Re: "Lotus Elite - Racing Car for the Road" ...

Post by Lightweight_911 »

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So, to summarise, the bodyshell had been restored & painted inside & out to a high standard, the engine had been fully rebuilt & uprated (more details later), a reconditioned 5-speed gearbox fitted along with new propshaft & clutch, new adjustable F&R suspension including rose-jointed rear wishbones, new F&R brakes, new wire wheels fitted with Pirelli Cinturato tyres, overhauled diff & reconditioned driveshafts, new wiring loom, etc

So that just leaves the interior.

One of the features that lets many Elites down is the seats - they are often poorly re-upholstered with the quality of chosen materials adding to the disappointment.

The interior of an Elite is a fairly simple design so all the more reason to get it right.

Luckily, the quality of this car's interior matches the rest - the seats having been beautifully redone in black leather by an ex-Aston Martin trimmer:

Image

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Image


Although most of the above restoration work was carried out 12+ years ago, the car has only done approx 10k miles since so still in excellent condition.


.
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- subtracting weight makes you faster everywhere”
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Re: "Lotus Elite - Racing Car for the Road" ...

Post by alfacat »

Hi Andy
What an utterly lovely car and with what appears to be a perfect spec, I even love the colour!
I wish you good health and good weather to enjoy it...

All the best
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Re: "Lotus Elite - Racing Car for the Road" ...

Post by IanM »

8)
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Re: "Lotus Elite - Racing Car for the Road" ...

Post by jtparr »

Admire the elegant simplicity of the interior….nothing frivolous or superfluous
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Re: "Lotus Elite - Racing Car for the Road" ...

Post by rhd racer »

That is beautiful, quite a find. It is difficult to see how you could have found a better car to be honest. Enjoy
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