Lotus West -Tech Manual

[pharriso]

I have just acquired a Tech Manual published by Lotus West in the 1970's. Lot's of useful info , if a little dated.

Before I scan it & make it available here, are there any surviving members of Lotus West that I could ask about making the document public, Mike Ostrov for example?

[StressCraxx]

Hello pharriso,

Lotus West is defunct. The organization is no more. I was a member, I have a copy, don't recall if it was copyrighted. Mike Ostrov may have useful input. I don't know if Larry Lim is around anymore(LW president). I know Dan Griffin has passed on.

As far as reprinting/republishing, I would ask various model experts for their opinions on some of the solutions presented. Some recommendations are of questionable mechanical or electrical practice. Feel free to PM me if desired.

Regards,
Dan

[elancoupe]

Hello pharriso,



As far as reprinting/republishing, I would ask various model experts for their opinions on some of the solutions presented. Some recommendations are of questionable mechanical or electrical practice. Feel free to PM me if desired.

Regards,
Dan

I have a copy as well, and would second this.

[lotusS2guy]

I am one of the founders of Lotus/West (member #2) and as noted above, we disbanded when the Elans and Europas became garage queens rather than daily drivers.

The Tech Manual was a labor of love written by many owners in the club who just loved the cars and needed them to be fast on the slalom weekends and reliable commuter cars during the week. I think I have a few articles in there myself.

Feel free to publish any of the articles or the entire book. I guess you could call it open source now.

Regards and stay safe

Herb Berkwits

[StressCraxx]

I am one of the founders of Lotus/West (member #2) and as noted above, we disbanded when the Elans and Europas became garage queens rather than daily drivers.

The Tech Manual was a labor of love written by many owners in the club who just loved the cars and needed them to be fast on the slalom weekends and reliable commuter cars during the week. I think I have a few articles in there myself.

Feel free to publish any of the articles or the entire book. I guess you could call it open source now.

Regards and stay safe

Herb Berkwits

Hello Herb,

So glad to hear you are on the forum. I was a Lotus-less member in the mid 70's when the club met at the DWP. When I found my Elan in '79 in Denver, I was a member again. My father worked at JPL with Dan Griffin and we lived near Dan in Glendora. Still have the LW sticker on my old windscreen and a pile of newsletters in my files. Of course, I lifted my forum nickname from the newsletter. My question for you is, who was semi-Colin?

Regards,
Dan Wise

[lotusS2guy]

Hi Dan
I remember those DWP days well. It was one of the nicest venues we had for meetings.

I must admit I do not know who semi-Colin was. Perhaps it was an amalgamation of all the gearheads responsible for the Stress Cracks newsletter. Remember, there were no PCs or Internet back in the early 70s, so production of the newsletter usually was a pizza and beer orgy with about 10 guys (and their wives and girlfriends) typing away on whatever typewriters we could gather together. The L/W Tech Manual is a compendium of tech articles that had been previously published in the newsletters.

The comments in this string led me to pull out my copy of the Tech Manual which I had not looked at in years. While it's no Buckland Manual, there are some pretty good articles.

Take care.
Herb

[Chrispy]

I'd be pretty keen to see it! Sound like some interesting info from back in the day Maybe not current best practice, but sounds like a good read nonetheless.

[sprintsoft]

Phil,

That’s very generous, if you decide to post it I’d also be very interested to read it!
Iain

[StressCraxx]

Hi Dan
I remember those DWP days well. It was one of the nicest venues we had for meetings.

I must admit I do not know who semi-Colin was. Perhaps it was an amalgamation of all the gearheads responsible for the Stress Cracks newsletter. Remember, there were no PCs or Internet back in the early 70s, so production of the newsletter usually was a pizza and beer orgy with about 10 guys (and their wives and girlfriends) typing away on whatever typewriters we could gather together. The L/W Tech Manual is a compendium of tech articles that had been previously published in the newsletters.

The comments in this string led me to pull out my copy of the Tech Manual which I had not looked at in years. While it's no Buckland Manual, there are some pretty good articles.

Take care.
Herb

Hello Herb,

I agree there are some pretty good articles, one really saved my bacon when I couldn't find the correct heater valve during a Colorado winter. The one using an Elan wheel as part of a front shock/spring compressor almost ended badly for me... I helped write a few articles for the GGLC years ago, on a borrowed typewriter with all the misspellings and typos. Between the service manual, parts book, Dave Bean, an occasional call to Rod Bean and the tech manual you could keep your elan running....

Regards,
Dan

[pharriso]

Great to hear that some of you that were in Lotus West are still active with your Elans & are still here ; after all the Tech manual was published 45 years ago (when I was 15 )

I will scan the Tech Manual , making it searchable & also linking the index, it will take some time, but I think it deserves to be preserved.

[StressCraxx]

Great to hear that some of you that were in Lotus West are still active with your Elans & are still here ; after all the Tech manual was published 45 years ago (when I was 15 )

I will scan the Tech Manual , making it searchable & also linking the index, it will take some time, but I think it deserves to be preserved.

To lift a line from Monty Python and the Holy Grail -

"We're not dead yet!"

Regards,
Dan

[mwhitaker]

This Tech Manual sounds really great Phil-thanks for going to the trouble of making it available to us-when you are as limited as I am in knowlege/ability then every bit helps!
Cheers, Mark

69 Elan S4 DHC
45/8396

[Mike Ostrov]

Hi, Phil. As Dan said "we are not dead...............yet".

Even older tech articles will be most useful for new owners, so, please do scan and make it available.

Many of the articles I did for the Climax Elite and Super Seven have been archived on our Golden Gate Lotus Club website.

I did a 350 page Climax Elite Technical Abstracts in 1990 and in public domain on our Elite World Register website as well as our entire Club Elite Newsletters starting in 1971.

Back to the morning papers, some waffles with blueberry syrup and a dark chocolate drop in each square before i head to my little Lotus hobby shop to start replacing the 8 uprated springs I fabricated for my two Elite/Elans, which have Climax Elite bodies on stretched (4.125 inch) Elan frames fully adjustable suspension and re enforced, all on our 15 inch wire wheels. The MK I has a FWB Coventry Climax 1460 cc with a Datsun 280 zx 5 speed and the MK II has a 1725 cc Stromberg TC in front of a C-4 (1971 Pinto Estate Wagon automatic). Could not use the Weber TC as the automatic is vacuum controlled. Just a fun composite and engineering exercise. The uprated springs were a result of the increased weight. Now, these old bones require a softer ride.

Cheers. Mike.

[pharriso]

The Lotus West Technical Manual is now online at http://lionheartsolutions.com/lotus/LotusWest/

Thanks to James (holywood3645) for providing a hardcopy of the 1983 version of the Technical manual so I could add Missing/added/Revised articles.

Thanks also to some of the remaining Lotus West members for reviewing my work & giving their permission to publish the articles.

The Technical Manual lives on to help us maintain our old(er) Lotus' & remind us how information was shared prior to the Internet.

[SENC]

Thanks Phil, looks very useful!