What's your daily driver?

[stuartgb100]

Blimey Christian,

I had to look twice.

Thought you were bringing a Christmas tree home !

Regards,
Stuart.

[terryp]

Gary posted some pictures with Lotus on the back of a pick up. have you ever seen a Ginetta Chassis on a Ford 100E!
This was my daily driver 25 years ago with a new Ginetta G15 chassis ready to be taken to the stove enamellers (It made it!)
The body can be seen in our front garden where it was all put back together again.....my understanding parents.....

Terry

[69S4]

But before the Elan, I rode a CB-77. One Thanksgiving morning I set off up Little Tijunga Canyon Road toward the ski slopes. The sides of the road gradually turned white, and then the road tuned into a sheet of ice in parts. This was an exciting ride. But with proper gear, comfy.

David
1968 36/7988

Tough bikes those CB77s. In the good old days mine got driven round some of the more interesting parts of Europe ( http://www.pisquicktours.co.uk/1971.htm ) as well as being a daily driver



Still got the engine for one in my garage. Picture was taken traversing a flood in North Wales

These days its a Land Rover Discovery for family trips / holidays / workhorse stuff and a Mini Cooper that my wife uses to go to work.
The Mini is interesting (cross referencing to another thread) in that the first four gears are pretty close to the Elan 4 speed box but the Mini has 5th and 6th as well so you get an idea of what a six speed box in the Elan would be like. 5th is 20 mph/1000rpm and 6th is 24. It does make for easy cruising.

Stuart

[Jason1]

Hi

Terry where is that picture taken? it looks like Dagenham?

Jason

[Frank Howard]

Terry,

Is that your Ginetta body parked behind the fence?

[JJDraper]

Well it won't be this one any more...

My youngest daughter started her own scrappage scheme a few days ago.. No injuries or alcohol involved, just inexperience.

I really liked it as well! Proper Twin Cam Zetec on board.

Jeremy

[terryp]

Hi

Terry where is that picture taken? it looks like Dagenham?

Jason

On the St Helier Estate Carshalton Nr to Sutton. I think all those council houses in London that were built in the early 1930's looked the same

Terry,

Is that your Ginetta body parked behind the fence?

Yes my parents let me rebuild the car in the garden, I was 21 and did it very quickly!


Terry

[RotoFlexible]

2004 Passat Wagon (Estate). It is a pleasure to drive and handles all the nasty Elan-hostile conditions with ease. It is also great for hauling around bits of the car. Here is the chassis on the way to the chemical strippers:

My wife's bicycle is on the roof next to the chassis, and mine is probably in the back.

For a while this past summer (rain and all), the Elan was a daily driver as my stepson was in residence and used the Passat. I will use it for commuting on nice days but I don't see the point of putting up the hood on rainy days when the Passat is available. Now that the snow/salt/bitter cold has closed in (see Gary's post), the Elan is in the garage for a spell.

[csjohnson]

I guess the question is - if you have a Lotus, why is it not your daily driver?

David
1968 36/7988

Lets see now, this picture was taken 9 days ago on December 20th at 10 am, it was bare earth at 12 hours earlier.



16 inches of white nasty cold frozen water. Saturday night (December 26th) into Sunday (the 27th) it rained about a i/2 an inch and the Temperature warmed up to 55 degrees Fahrenheit and all of that white stuff melted and washed away. At the moment its 13 F and supposed to be 7F by morning, it is now bare frozen earth. Yesterday I pulled to the side of the road and got a wheel off the pavement and nearly got stuck in the mud. Last June it was 49 F the whole month except for 2 or 3 days, last time I looked at a calender summer begins on June 21st in the northern hemisphere. July started off with 3 days of rain but it warmed up into the low 50's F if my memory serves me well. Summer in Scituate 2009 was about 3 weeks, I call it summer when the temp get above 80 degrees F. Um I guess I don't really want to continue why I don't drive my Elan with no top, windows or heater but I think you know where I am leading with this.

Gary

Nice looking dog. ;o)

[msd1107]

Stuart,

Your rainy day picture brings back fond(?) memories.

Sometimes it rained so much, some intersections were flooded and for me the only way through was by motorcycle ignoring the flooded cars.

Rather interesting on mine, since it was totally stripped to save weight. Clip-ons and rear sets made for interesting low speed riding. No centre stand or starter meant push starting from cold. 350 kit, H/C roller cam and self ported let me pull 11,500 rpm (the standard 9000 gave 105 mph, which I exceeded on a regular basis on a new uphill stretch of freeway). One of 100 5-speeds Honda produced let me pull well over 60 in the 1.9 1st gear (just in case you think our 2.51 CR gearbox is high geared)

Of course, now I wish I had kept the bike, but I put tons of enjoyable miles on it, and it went into vintage racing when I sold it. It is still a popular bike, with much content on the web, and much better availability of parts now than when it was 20 years old.

Our Elan is going in the same direction, with more comprehensive sources of previously unobtainable parts to keep our cars on the road.

David
1968 36/7988

[gordont]

I may only drive 7 miles to work each day (but saying that I have covered around 8000 miles in the last 8 months) but am I the only one that uses his elan as a daily driver?
Yeah it leaks (around the doors) when it rains, and I constantly worry about Lucas the crown prince of darkness but pretty reliable and no point in having it if it isn't on the road.
I saw another elan (the 3rd I've seen in the last 8 months) the other day and being the eternal optimist hope to see a few more.....

Happy New Year to all

[gordont]

I may only drive 7 miles to work each day (but saying that I have covered around 8000 miles in the last 8 months) but am I the only one that uses his elan as a daily driver?
Yeah it leaks (around the doors) when it rains, and I constantly worry about Lucas the crown prince of darkness but pretty reliable and no point in having it if it isn't on the road.
I saw another elan (the 3rd I've seen in the last 8 months) the other day and being the eternal optimist hope to see a few more.....

Happy New Year to all

[adigra]

It's quite interesting to me how the "regular" daily drivers reflect the different environments (around the globe) and needs each of us have, but how we all have these little old plastic cars in common. I imagine our jobs, general interests, etc. might be just as varied so I think it's fascinating to find out about all of you through our mutual appreciation of Elans.

I live in a city and would not dare leave the Elan in a cinema carpark, or go to a supermarket with it, etc. I need a car which I can lock and forget for hours, or overnight parked on a street... Elan is for enjoyment, country lanes, the coast, south of France, and so on. I intend to use it as much as possible and take it on long trips across Europe, but I certainly wouldn't enjoy going with it to IKEA.

Adi

[69S4]

I live in a city and would not dare leave the Elan in a cinema carpark, or go to a supermarket with it, etc. I need a car which I can lock and forget for hours, or overnight parked on a street... Elan is for enjoyment, country lanes, the coast, south of France, and so on. I intend to use it as much as possible and take it on long trips across Europe, but I certainly wouldn't enjoy going with it to IKEA.

Adi

I've had two spells over my 25+ yrs with the Elan where it's been my daily driver and you then have to face up to supermarket car parks, security etc. I live in an extremely safe small market town but years ago, when my brother had a period living in a more undesirable neighborhood, I had the car stolen less than half an hour after I arrived to visit him. Fortunately, with under a gallon of fuel in it they didn't get far and they dumped it at the side of the road undamaged.

Scarred by that episode security is the main issue for me in using the car on a daily basis. By modern standards Elans are ridiculously easy to steal - no steering lock or immobiliser and with childishly simple door locks. I do worry about leaving it in hotel car parks even with a master battery switch to disconnect all of the electrics and I'd be interested to hear what approach others have taken to increase security. On the up side at least it fits into std car park bays with enough space to open the doors as they seem to have been sized for 60's cars and not adjusted since.

Stuart

[mac5777]

My old driver was as 1988 Audi 80 Quattro with 218,000 miles and now its a 5-year old Volvo, which sits outside in the weather while the Lotus, of course, is in the garage.

Sarto