Quite an Experience!

[richard btype]

From 1978 to 1987 I owned (my childhood dream) a series 1 1963 E type roadster which I bought with 39k miles with one previous owner. After having climbed up through the usual driving apprentice suspects of the time - Morris Minor, Mini Cooper, Cooper S, Mk 2 Jaguar, after each of these incremental steps the etype was a revelation in performance, engineering and sophistication!

During that period of ownership I covered some 20k miles and very much a summer/fun car and I spoke with my life long friend (to make sure my mind was not playing games) who used to regularly join me and who confirmed that I used to drive the wheels off the thing. Speeds of 120/130 were covered at times but very often found myself very comfortable with 90 to 110 range, It had no seat belts and fitted with Dunlop crossplys (which I always felt gave better feel than any of the radials, but would only last 3k miles on the rears) and recall local journeys at the time which I would have to try quite hard today in modern cars to better - I was always it seemed overtaking traffic on A & B roads.

I then decided to sell the car through increasing lack of use/convenience. A few years later I became seduced by the M cars produced by BMW because whilst on the motorway test driving the then new E34 M5 I was travelling at around 120 (pre camera days) put my foot down and it took off like I recalled the Etype used to.

So finally looking forward to reliving my exciting days in clearly my fearless 20's, I at last had the opportunity (yesterday) to drive my 1962 FHC for the first lengthy journey (60 miles) after carrying out recommissioning work since my purchase last November.

This car is not low mileage - 125k and is fitted with the Semperit radials but my goodness it was a wide eyed experience where I have to admit I drove like a fearful thing. I could not bring myself to travel faster than 70mph either on B, A or dual carriageways because I could find little feel through the steering to find a level of confidence!

Either the confidence will remain elusive until I complete a full resto because something is not right with the car, or fit some Dunlop cross plies or cover so many miles that I recalibrate. At present I am hoping to let someone drive it next week who very experienced with the E's might point out that something is not well or I have become so used to the M BMW's (from the 1987 to 1995 era i.e. pre electronic driving aids) that I have to accept I'll not be able to re experience those long lost days - not that I would travel at those speeds now but its the lack of feel and therefore confidence that's actually missing!

I would be interested in hearing of others experience but its left me feeling quite suprised. I also have a 1972 Lotus Elan Sprint and I don't drive the wheels off it but I'm presently straining myself to keep my natural speed below 80....

[Heuer]

My daily driver was until a couple of years ago an Alpina B5 and before that a Alpina B10V8 and it has never concerned to step from one of those into the E-Type, in fact it was a pleasure to do so. Sounds like your tyres are the problem - give Dougal at Longstone Tyres a call (or watch his video on E-Type tyre choice) and he will advise. I have Michelin XVS on my car and it regularly sees three digit speeds and rapid progress through corners, hence my rear tyres only last 8,000 miles. In fact I was so impressed with the XVS's I put them on our Elan and that really makes it handle.

[richard btype]

David

Interesting, I only went for the Vredenstein (my error in the initial post) (on the front) to match the perfectly good rear tyres of the same make - as a stop gap before the resto. It was fitted with Pirelli Cints on the front (but after studying some old photos from 1983 the same tyres were still fitted and they were marked as seconds!) Of course the other thing could be that the Vred's. need to lose a bit of new rubber to stop them squirming around on the new tall soft blocks.

My choice would I think be the Dunlops (as I used to like them) and having that period look - but I always fit Michelin to my other cars as they are generally superior.

Alpina choice good! what model is your elan?

Richard

[PeterCrespin]

Check for excess toe-out. This gives a very uncertain feel and the car seems to wander off with a mind of its own.

I wouldn't spend a penny on anything until I'd checked every bit of geometry. If the basics are right then fitting new parts and making adjustments can give worthwhile improvements. If the basics are wrong you'll waste a lot of time, effort and money and make precious little improvement or even go backwards.

Ask Jenson Button...

PEte

[Heuer]

Richard

It is a Daytune restored S4 DHC : http://etypeuk.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1482

[richard btype]

David

Well a Peter Day Elan is the one to have and when I took my elan engine to be machined I was directed to Cambridge rebores who apparently used to do the machine work for Peter Day.

It was only after stripping my Elan engine (the car having been in storage since 1982) that the 21,500 miles on the clock which I had assumed was on its second rotation was actually found to be genuine mileage still with the original sized pistons a very pleasant discovery.

All they had to do was scrape the bores and fit new rings and now all I have to do is complete the running in phase as and when weather and time allow. Extraordinarily I managed to locate the first owner who subsequently sent me down a copy of the original invoices from Lotus - one for the engine and the other for the body etc.

The colour is the same as yours I believe (Lotus Yellow) but with the white base and dellorto carbs. If I was clever I'd post up a picture...

[richard btype]

Check for excess toe-out. This gives a very uncertain feel and the car seems to wander off with a mind of its own.

I wouldn't spend a penny on anything until I'd checked every bit of geometry. If the basics are right then fitting new parts and making adjustments can give worthwhile improvements. If the basics are wrong you'll waste a lot of time, effort and money and make precious little improvement or even go backwards.

Ask Jenson Button...

PEte

Thank you Peter!

Poor old Button - I hope we are not going to see a sliding away of competetiveness (one wonders whether Dennis is a vital missing link) and like the once great Williams GP...

[richard btype]

Gents

Happy to report that I ventured out again last evening and felt far more at ease. I think the newness of the tyres is one issue, the other is the engine needs tuning - keeps spitting back when on part throttle - so I've booked her into the garage at Wimpole - Cambs on July 3rd for work on the rolling road.

After filling with fuel last evening I noticed a very strong smell of petrol and wondering if the tank is leaking when full - was not noticeable when empty...
I think a properly sorted, setup and restored E will give a big reward - only 3 years to go!