Lotus Southwest info

[Billmack]

I am informed that my elan was originally sold by lotus southwest. Any info about this dealer would be much appreciated.

[pharriso]

Lotus Southwest was a distributor, not a dealer. Listed on this Ad from 1970:

Lotus Southwest would have had a number of dealers, in the same way that Lotus East sold through the dealers listed.

[Billmack]

Thank you!

[Elan45]

There is a current Lotus dealer in the Dallas area, which I believe owes part of its heritage to this old distributor.

In my conversations w/ Frankl Bertram quite a few years back, I believe he broke away from Lotus SW to form Sports Car World, 11063 Harry Hines Blvd, Dallas in the late 70's. A few years later, SCW moved to Evant Texas and remained at that location until Franks death, IIRC, in the early 2000's.

I visited some friends in 2010 in Texas hill country and driving back toward Ohio, I happened to find myself in Evant. I remembered a road name, which I drove down for a few miles but never saw a building large enough to house a business that could have been SCW.

I believe Frank's estate sold to the current Dallas dealer and occasionally I see NOS Lotus parts on Ebay from a Dallas address, which to me, supports my premise.

Roger

[Billmack]

Son of a gun! I think I bought some Esprit parts for a car I repaired last year from that guy! I 'll see if I can make contact again. Thanks

[mbell]

Scw is still going on Dallas but it's not a lotus dealer. They supply parts and have a number of classic lotus cars for spares. They don't seem very active in promoting the parts business thou.

I think most of their work is around repairs of more modern lotus. A scca team that fields classic lotus is also based there.

(I have a friend with some equipment locate in one of thier buildings that I've help do some repairs on but only at weekends when scw was closed.)

[Billmack]

Interesting. I'd like to track the ownership of my car if anyone from there has old records. What sort of equipment do you guys repair there?

[mbell]

I don't think it has any official connections back to a dealer, so doubt they have any records for your car

A large CNC mill that he is recommissioning.

[Elan45]

Bill,

My pre airflow coupe was a Texas car. It was vandalized by a football team after the owner flunked a couple of members of the team. It was repired and sold again through Bob Guest sportscars. From Dallas it went to Litttle Rock AR, and I bought it there in 1978. But I have been unable to find any further history over these many years. I did find out that Bob Guest was a respected name in Dallas and only died a few years ago.

My Lotus 20 project is also a Texas car as it was race number 12 of Team Rosebud, but again, very little information from its time in Texas. If you do come across any information, I'd appreciate you letting me know.

Roger

[Billmack]

Cool! Happy to help if I find anything. What is a 20? FJ,FF??