Did I ever...

[Emma-Knight]

tell the story when Elan and me were the only survivor of a mass carambolage? Well, it was a dark, stormy night, around three o'clock in the morning in february. An hour ago I had lost the exaust pipe - at the y-pice - the gearbox mounting clamp was missing. So I was driving without - slightly rich mixture banging was causing slaps to my bottom like hit with a wet frying pan... It was hard to stay awake, though - I started the trip 23 hours earlier the day before. Landing aproach to Stanstead was with emergency landing preparation, very hard frontal wind. Once on the ground, I picked up the car and headed for the channel ferries. Hours of delay, four of five dockings in France were out of service. So I took the tunnel... Nice, short and expensive trip. Through France in sunset. Heavy rain started in Bruxelles, slowing me down on Dunlop SP10 155 tires in deep lorry track-channels on the motorway.
Then, three o'clock in the morning: a dark grey shade across the motorway - it turned out to be a fuel truck, reaching from one side of the two lanes to the other! The moment I realized this, my front wheels touched crushed ice, the truck about 75 to 50 meters away...
I found a small opening between truck and left side border - but I was on the right. Turning the steering wheel very slightly (it was a 2cm deep ice bed we were going on), I managed to get through the small left gap! To my surprize there were a lot of cars behind the truck, all crashed more or less - oops Somehow I got around all these wrecks (airbags hanging around everywhere) and after this debris-field I ended in a slow difted circle and stopped. After checking everybody else was ok and working, I resumed the trip - my first day in a Lotus.




Anna

[trw99]

Blimey! You were lucky. Your heart must have been helping that frying pan to slap your bottom. Talk about half a crown and sixpence!

I do remember reading an Elan road test in which the writer mentioned the excellent traction in the snow allowing him to go where other mere mortal cars feared to.

Tim

[steveww]

A true sphincter twitching moment

Nothing quite so dramatic for my Elan moment. I was out for an afternoon blatt along some quite back roads near to where I live. A sunny September afternoon was the perfect time to get a run in before the weather turned. It was harvest time and being a country lad I should have been more aware, but we are all wiser after the event. I approached at speed a sweeping left hand corner on my familiar route, may be a little too committed than was wise. With the harvest in progress the corner was now covered in a thin layer of slippery mud. No point in braking as that would have had me exiting through the hedge, so turn in it was. As expected the backend came round, a bit of opposite lock and all was under control. Now I noticed the rather large tractor coming the other way Some how I managed to get the Elan back straight and on to the correct side of the road just in time to squeeze passed the tractor. Good job that the Elan is so narrow. Phew, that was close. The rest of the drive home was taken at a very conservative pace

[types26/36]

Well I suppose my most dramatic moment was going off the side of a hill in Mozambique and hitting a tree
Year 2000......special stage(hillclimb) in classic rally.
Due to relocation it only went back on the road four years later in 2004.

[scott]

I had gone to historic races in Steamboat Springs Colorado a number of years ago and ran at high speed with some Panteras on the return trip. (Around 120-130mph, "5 speed with about 150hp" ) No problems at all but a little nervous about the sp rated Dunlops. Returned home fine. So a couple of days later I'm easing over a speed bump in a parking lot and Klunk! A cv joint gives way and I drop a half-shaft. Might have happened at 130+!!! Scott

[Emma-Knight]

oh boys...but the good thing is: we always have glue and emoticons!
Nice job, Brian. Seen the other pictures recently. Like the one in the garden, too.



Anna

[bcmc33]

My scary moment happened in February 1970 in my old S2 when returning from taking a girlfriend out to dinner on her birthday. Returning at some speed up the M5 motorway, I dropped down the ramp at J3 to find both brakes and steering had ?failed?.
Straight on across the island lane, over the curb and stopped in the middle of the island. Unable to open the door ??oh god, what damage have I done? was my first thought ? ?don?t bother to ask if I?m OK? said the voice from the passenger seat.
I managed to get out via the window to see that the car was embedded into the soft ground. I walked about a mile or so to a telephone to get a friend to tow me out with his Land Rover. The car was driveable ? I later found one bent steering arm was the only obvious damage.
The girlfriend, now my wife, often reminds me of this incident and still refuses to accept that there is such a thing a black-ice.


Brian Clarke