Lotus Elan and Lotus Elan Plus 2 Forums

Just a brief note....while driving my 69 Elan +2 north on I95 in South
Carolina in the right lane at around 65 mph, a brand new Elise cruised
beside me. We each exchanged broad smiles and thumbs up, and stayed
together for a few seconds...and then the future moved ahead, leaving
the history behind in the rear view mirror. It was a great moment for
me. And now....I must explain to my wife that while I don't 'need an
Elise....I want one!'

steve

p.s. Was on return from a family vacation in SC, and we drove my Elan
and 61 MGA roundtrip to SC from NY in 95 deg heat and 95 pct humidity.
Both cars performed very well (a lot better than the drivers).

Steve,

I had the reverse happen... on I-95 in South Florida I caught up to a
new yellow Elise in my Sprint on my way to watch a vintage race at
Moroso in W. Palm Bch. I honked a friendly "Hello" and they must have
thought I was a Miata ... ie. no response whatsoever. Looked down
their noses at me... didn't know a classic Lotus when it was right
beside them!

So I then left them in MY rear view mirror!

Gary
'71 Elan Sprint coupe
Miami, FL
__________________________________________________________________

--- In ***@***.***, "nygroup" <Nygroup@a...> wrote:

Just a brief note....while driving my 69 Elan +2 north on I95 in
South Carolina in the right lane at around 65 mph, a brand new Elise
cruised beside me. We each exchanged broad smiles and thumbs up, and
stayed together for a few seconds...and then the future moved ahead,
leaving the history behind in the rear view mirror. It was a great
moment for me. And now....I must explain to my wife that while I
don't 'need an Elise....I want one!'

steve

Gary

You should try it in a Lotus 7. May as well be wearing a West**eld baseball
hat. Some of the 'new Lotus' owners don't really have much of a clue
regarding the history of the badge. Goes to show they bought them because
they are fine machines rather than descendants of one some of the greatest
ever made.

Still, at least I don't own a genuine Cobra or GT40...

You response is the only one to give.

Best

Rob T
S3 FHC
S2 7

-----Original Message-----
From: ***@***.***lto:***@***.***
Behalf Of Gary
Sent: 13 July 2005 03:11
To: ***@***.***
Subject: [LotusElan.net] Re: Back to the Future: Elan style


Steve,

I had the reverse happen... on I-95 in South Florida I caught up to a
new yellow Elise in my Sprint on my way to watch a vintage race at
Moroso in W. Palm Bch. I honked a friendly "Hello" and they must have
thought I was a Miata ... ie. no response whatsoever. Looked down
their noses at me... didn't know a classic Lotus when it was right
beside them!

So I then left them in MY rear view mirror!

Gary
'71 Elan Sprint coupe
Miami, FL
__________________________________________________________________

--- In ***@***.***, "nygroup" <Nygroup@a...> wrote:

Just a brief note....while driving my 69 Elan +2 north on I95 in
South Carolina in the right lane at around 65 mph, a brand new Elise
cruised beside me. We each exchanged broad smiles and thumbs up, and
stayed together for a few seconds...and then the future moved ahead,
leaving the history behind in the rear view mirror. It was a great
moment for me. And now....I must explain to my wife that while I
don't 'need an Elise....I want one!'

steve

The folks in the Elise knew the Elan immediately. That was the best
part. I agree that many of the new Elise owners probably have no
knowledge of the older cars. The good news is that many do (I hope to
be among that group!).

steve





--- In ***@***.***, "Rob Thornton" <rob@t...> wrote:

This was a hot topic a couple of weeks ago and I thought I'd pass on my recent experience:

Last Sunday morning we packed up the Elan SS DHC in Columbus Ohio and headed off to Pittsburgh for their annual romp in the park, specifically, the Pittsburgh Vintage Grand Prix. This is a unique event where they race mostly pre 1960 cars in a city park with haybales "protecting" the lamp poles and fire hydrants and there are plenty of curbs for the hi center crowned roadsand plenty of stone walls, just like you can imagine might have been in 1950. I've gone over to watch several times, not wanting to risk my Eleven against those immovable elements.

After the last race of the day was rained out, we headed about 40 miles north to Butler, where in the 1930s and pre-war 40s was the site of productionof the American Austin and American Bantam autos. The company originally paid a royalty to Austin in UK, but the depression was not a great time to start a car company and of course in America where "bigger is better" was not the most receptive market and after several failings of the company, the payments ceased. Anyway, my father owned several of these cute little gems back then and I'm pretty sure I rode home from the hospital in his last onewhen I was born. They are basically a mirror image of the Austin 7, clothed in an American designed body.

I became the owner of a derelict coupe in my early teens and had a partially bodied example running for my high school transportation. Little did I know at the time that a little over 10 years earlier, a chap in London had done much the same thing, but changed the name of his special to Lotus. It wasn't until after I bought the Elan SS (1974) that we had driven to this site, that I found out about early Lotus history. So, at Butler, was a celebration of the 75th anniversary of production of the American Austin and the 100th anniversary of Sir Herbert's fist car. By Monday afternoon, when we headed home, about 60 of the cars had shown up, including a large truckload from California and 2 Austin 7s.

Sunday night shortly after our arrival, I noticed one of the few people I knew from previous AA-B meets. We started a conversation and he asked what I'd brought. When I told him we'd driven over in the Elan, he exclaimed he'djust bought a new Elise. He had no idea what any previous Lotus looked like, so we had to go look at my Elan. We did get a few other comments but most people there had no idea they were looking at a car linked to their own, and of course, Bob B, the new Elise owner had no idea that his new car's heritage dated back to Colin Chapman's Austin specials. In fact, he noticed the Chapman autograph steering wheel and wondered who's signature it was andwhat significance it had! Duh____

Oh, the Elan handled the 500 mile trip in fine form, but the 2.5/1 1st gear, close ratio box and 3.7 final drive is not at all suited to Pittsburgh's hilly terrain.

Roger


Carolina in the right lane at around 65 mph, a brand new Elise cruised
beside me. We each exchanged broad smiles and thumbs up, and stayed
together for a few seconds...and then the future moved ahead, leaving
the history behind in the rear view mirror. It was a great moment for
me. And now....I must explain to my wife that while I don't 'need an
Elise....I want one!'

steve

p.s. Was on return from a family vacation in SC, and we drove my Elan
and 61 MGA roundtrip to SC from NY in 95 deg heat and 95 pct humidity.
Both cars performed very well (a lot better than the drivers).





















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Pittsburgh's hilly terrain.


Hmmm, my 2:51 / 3:90 has always loved the hills around western Pa.

6 Lotuses in the Saturday cars show, and few more Elises were lurking
elsewhere.


Mike B