Lotus Elan and Lotus Elan Plus 2 Forums

Had a good race weekend at Winton and did my best time in about 15 years but still 2 seconds behind what I did in 1999 despite the track surface having much more grip, the engine having 30 more HP and the suspension and brakes being vastly superior.

The sun was bright and low on the Horizon as we were the last race of the day, hence the sun-visors were down, i still could not see the corners well due to the glare on parts of the track !







cheers
Rohan

Age doesn?t come alone!

Glad your still having fun on the track Rohan. I quit after 10 years as the younger guys were willing to take more chances and drive more aggressively than I was willing to (especially after stuffing one of my cars into the Armco in the rain). As the years went on my lap times became progressively slower, despite the various enhancements. Figured it was time to pack it in while I was still in the group out front. The weekend race where I was back at my old lap times is when I quit. Nothing like stopping when your on top.

Your car looks great!

Certified Lotus wrote:Glad your still having fun on the track Rohan. I quit after 10 years as the younger guys were willing to take more chances and drive more aggressively than I was willing to (especially after stuffing one of my cars into the Armco in the rain). As the years went on my lap times became progressively slower, despite the various enhancements. Figured it was time to pack it in while I was still in the group out front. The weekend race where I was back at my old lap times is when I quit. Nothing like stopping when your on top.

Your car looks great!

The track gives me an excuse to develop the car and engine. Its hard to justify building a new engine every couple of years just for a road car.

Back in the 90's 1:12 got me on the fronrt row now 1:14 get me near the back but no matter where you are on the grid there is always good racing. To some extent I am happy further back as some of the guys up front think they are in a door handle to door handle professional Nascar / Australian V8 supercar / European equivalent whatever that is, versus a gentlemans historic sports car race being paid for out of my own pocket

I will retire when I no longer enjoy it. i figure I have a few years left and a lot more developments I would like to try out to keep compensating for my slower driving skills.

An interested philosophical question is would I put my son in my car to race, when I find I should give it up to give me an excuse to keep building race engines? He would certainly be quicker than me now but would i expose him to the risks I take in racing a not very crash worthy 50 year old car. He is probably not interested in racing a funny old sports car anyhow as he is more interested in how do you build a 700hp Golf R32 or buying an old Ford or Holden for cheap sedan racing.

cheers
Rohan

It got too aggressive for me near the end. The young guys with deep pockets were always driving 10/10ths. 4 of them diving into a corner with me in the middle and only room for 2 cars. No body was lifting. I saw a lot of damaged cars and managed to escape the carnage each and every time. But I knew what was coming.....

I?m finding my shift of focus to restoring historic Lotus road cars with some extra ?performance? very enjoyable. I?m on my fourth car in 5 years.

I got my two sons into kart racing. Way cheaper, more fun and gave them good mechanical and driving skills. Lasted for 4 years until they went off to college.

Certified Lotus wrote:It got too aggressive for me near the end. The young guys with deep pockets were always driving 10/10ths. 4 of them diving into a corner with me in the middle and only room for 2 cars. No body was lifting. I saw a lot of damaged cars and managed to escape the carnage each and every time. But I knew what was coming.....

]

Yes been there. with to many people spinning in front of me in every race these days and when you leave space for the spinning you expose yourself to dive bombing cars behind you in corners, so in the end your slower

keep building those nice cars

cheers
Rohan