Autocar October 1962: Lotus Elan 1500 article

[Bill]

Hey guys,
Bill's son here... teaching the old man how to scan. This is the article, as he promised a little while back. Also the bill of sale for his car!
Enjoy

This is the coverpage of the article

[gjz30075]

Very cool! Thanks

[ken ob]

Thank you, I like the bill of sale.
Now if only i could get my time machine working .......

Ken

[Spyder fan]

Fabulous!

Thanks for posting this, I love the sales invoice

F.O.B. London charge 10. 0. 0 !!

?30 for a radio!!!! and just ?8. 10 shillings for Dunlop SP Tyres

Seriously that radio was a whole lot of money at 2.5% of the total cost. A new Elise today for ?30,000 would mean the radio would cost ?750 using the same ratio.....

Bill, do you recall how much it cost to ship?

[DJ908]

I have no wish to steal Bill or Bill's son's thunder here and post all the relevant information which I too gathered when I bought my Elan back in the 60's. I have a full price list of all the options available.

The cost of the radios had gone up when I bought my car. I ordered it without the radio - it was too expensive. But it came fitted with one anyway. The extra for the SP Sports tyres? I think that was a bit of a racket as well. It was just a means of clipping some more money from you for all the wheels were fitted with SP Sports tyres and they were not going to be bothered removing them and fitting something a bit cheaper.

If that sort of material is of interest then I will post it separately.

Bill - 50 years of ownership of an Elan? Do you (we) get a gold watch or something for owning an Elan that long?

Robert

[Bill]

To answer questions

Alan
The shipping bill - freighter to Vancouver docks, brokerage, port fees totaled $605.00 Cdn

Robert -
The Radiomobile radio is the only thing I had to pay duty on, 15% - it ticked me off - especially since it was not tuned to our frequencies - it was / is not the best.

On top of that a couple of years ago some jerk removed one of the tuner knobs at the Vancouver British Field Meet - I am still looking for a replacement - anybody got one (or an old Smiths Radiomobile 900T series one to part with).

I don't need a gold watch - I HAVE the Elan to drive.

To All

This is fun, now I will have to see if I retained my sons instruction and I will try to post the 1963 artilcles from Sports Car Graphic and Canada Track and Traffic magazines.

Bill

[DJ908]

Bill

I don?t need a gold watch either, for the same reason as you. Although I have to say that my Elan has probably aged a bit better than me. I probably need the gold watch for lasting as long as I have.

And that Radiomobile radio? It was and is about as useless as tits on a bull. I tried to explain that to the folk at Lotus at the time and I think they agreed that I could keep the radio. I suspect they had lost the blanking panel where it sat. Never use the damned thing anyway. For there is enough music coming from those four trumpets sucking away on the carburettors and the muted noise coming out the back.

It was the Bill Boddy article in a Motorsport which got to me. The only car which he felt he could drive and average 69mph but not exceed 70 overall.

Shipping costs? I suspect I got off lightly at the time compared with what you paid.

I have a dream to ship my car up to Vancouver and then drive up to Dawson and on up the Dempster Highway ? as far as I can go. To Tuktoyatuk if the road is open. All those miles on those lovely gravel and ice roads. The car (and its driver) would be in its element.

And then return south and drive to the East Coast.

Robert

[Bill]

Robert

You DONT want to drive the Dempster highway in an Elan - tough gravel road. I did it years ago with my Yukon bride in a Ford pickup - fly fished the Blackstone river at the end of the summer road - - lovely scenery tho.

You are correct about the radio - I am only maintaining origionality - it doe kind of weekly work tho.

When did you purchase your car?

Bill

[SJ Lambert]

Thanks Bill & Son - I love the early articles!

BTW - How's Miller going in net?

[dgym]

excuse me a moment,
an Australian, talking about hockey!?

you've gotta subscribe to the NHL gamecenter SJ Lambert, it's THE BEST for any Australian hockey fans.

i'm even watching all the games from the 90's to make up for when I was a teen and couldn't get me any coverage.

..off topic, sorry

[DJ908]

Bill

When I bought my Elan all those years ago, several years after you bought yours, I had a real sense of adventure. That car and I would go places where people do not normally go! But perhaps as I have gotten older, my sense of adventure has evaporated somewhat. The car is still willing though. I used to listen for the tingle, tingle sound as the loose gravel between the wheel tracks occasionally touched the exhaust silencer and I became an expert at refitting the silencer when it was wiped off on some hump on the road. I am sure that?s why we were all issued with a tool roll with enough spanners in there to carry out roadside repairs.

But it was the sublime handling of the car on those loose surfaces which used to thrill me. And the sense of satisfaction when having reached your destination someone would remark. ?Did you see that little sports car parked there? How on earth did it manage to drive in here?? That?s what Colin Chapman built these cars for ? to achieve the near impossible.

I shall continue to dream about driving up the Dempster, perhaps if I make as far as your front porch we can just sit and talk about it and reminisce on the ownership of the cars we have. Two older fellows sitting side by side looking out at two old cars also sitting side by side. One with the steering wheel on the left and one with the steering wheel on the right.

I cannot claim to have owned my car as long as you for in my case when I first set my heart on buying one I faced a problem. You simply could not import one into New Zealand unless you paid the full price in Pounds Sterling and had what was then called an Import Licence to do so. So I went back to work for a few more years for the only alternative for me was to earn more money to pay for a trip to England to buy the car. And then I had to stay there for at least 21 months and show that I had owned the car for 12 months before I was allowed to ship the car back home ? as personal baggage.

Yes it was those articles in the Autocar and the like which encouraged me to work on and save for the only car which I will ever be able to claim I owned from new.

Robert

[Bill]

Hockey fans - The season has just begun - no comments yet.

Robert - I forgot to tell you - the Dempster highway is an ice road from the Blackstone River on to Tuk - winter only - you don't want to be there!

I had the priveledge of hosting another Kiwi Lotus guy from Auckland last month, Robin Le Roy -has a +2 - an NZ Air crew member on lay over and hopped over to my tite little island for a nite / day to BS Lotuses and a shop tour.
Anytime you want to visit you are more than welcome- lots of room.

I will private mail you on the other matter

Bill

[SJ Lambert]

I spent a year living up near Buffalo in the eighties, hence the hockey interest ( though I'm a Rangers fan, the "Lu we need you back" , "....we're all Canucks" song resonates with me - btw how 'bout those Rangers going the Wild when 3 - zip down, 2 game misconducts and scoring 5 in the third to pinch a W just now - as the King said, they got away with one.......