Lotus Elan Touring in Japan - May 14 & 15, 2011

[type28jp]

hello all,

there were total of 51 elan at this event and it was great to see so many elans!
last time i saw these many elans was back in 2002 in monterey, california.

type28jp

[Old English White]

hello all,

there were total of 51 elan at this event and it was great to see so many elans!
last time i saw these many elans was back in 2002 in monterey, california.

type28jp

Hi type28jp,
Thanks for your report. Nice pictures that show the real attachment for the Elan in Japan...
Keep sending news from Far Est,
Cheers,
Christian.

[Mazzini]

Staggering...perhaps somewhere in there is my old S3...

[Elanintheforest]

What a great meeting. I've never counted, but I'd be surprised if there were that many Elans at the main Donnington or Castle Coombe bash!

Shame about those numberplates, but I guess that can't be helped. Great to see such enthusiasm.

Mark

[trw99]

Great to hear from Japan, thanks type28jp. Would be very interested to know more about Elans in your country and see if we can track down past UK owners for you.

Tim

[elansprint71]

Red Shapecraft in the first photo.

[Mazzini]

It's probably the same red Shapecraft that I last saw at CC in 1985, it blasted past me in the rain.

And thanks type28jp your photos are really appreciated

[type28jp]

This is my first time attending a Lotus Elan Touring in Japan since I moved here about 2 years ago. I was told this is 4th Lotus Elan Touring event.
At the start of registration none thought it was going to be a huge gathering since we had the earthquake and tsunami disaster in March in Northern Japan but everyone tried to be as normal as we can be now and turned a great number of cars and people.
There was a charity event for the victims at the evening to support a bit from this event which was very nice to see everyone chipping in, although many of us already donated items and money.
I must say the organizer did an excellent job coordinating the event and it really was a great event!

I had put very close to 650 miles in 2 days. When I lived in LA I'd done 1,500 miles in 4 day trip but I never imagine driving close to what I'd done in USA in a couple of days in Japan since Japan is a small country and is smaller than California...
The touring took us to many wonderful mountain roads and we did detour quite bit so I can see putting a lot more mileage than normally suggested route.
Again it was really great drive and had a lot of fun.

Day1 - Kamakura to Takayama

Day2 - Takayama to Shirakawa-go
Shirakawa-go to Kamakura

[type28jp]

Yes, I believe it is a Shapecraft. In Japan, there are many interesting and rare Elan's.

[elanner]

www.elanregistry.org/stats.php currently shows only 4 Elans registered in Japan. So there's at least another 47 to go.....

[Tahoe]

Incredible! Thanks for posting those pictures.

[type28jp]

new photo attached Bird's-eye view

[trw99]

Obviously on a run way at an airfield! Good photos, thanks.

Interesting that no less than 14 of the 48 cars there were in white - not one of the more popular Elan colours in the UK.

Tim

[RIB]

Mazzini

I believe that the Shapecraft that you saw at Castle Combe is the one that was restored by Lightwork Racing and is now raced by Malcolm Ricketts. It is shown on page 125 of the Robinshaw and Ross book, with me looking at it in the background with folded arms.

I think that the one in Japan is probably the one shown on the cover of the January 1990 issue of Car Investor and Collector in Christian?s Elans on Top.

Ian

[Elanintheforest]

Below may be the two cars.

863EJU was at Coombe in 86, and 7360TJ was at Donnington the following year.

Note the Club Lotus sticker in the rear window of 7360TJ at Donnington, at at Fuji Raceway a few years ago.

Mark