Please Introduce your self and welcome to LotusElan.net

[1964 S1]

Peter, do you have any pictures of the Bolwell models? I'd love to see them.
Eric

[alexblack13]

Hello folks.

Here is a wee bit more about me. I'm 62 this week. Thursday in fact..! I am mech' eng' working in the woodworking machinery industry. I sell (hopefully, as I am on commission!), install, commission, repair and service all types of woodworking machinery. I have done this since around 1977/8. I decided on a change around 1985 and went off to gain my Commercial Pilots License. (I had held my PPL/ IR for a few years before that). All was going well with this idea untill my heart attack stopped play. Back to the drawing board! So I went back to woodworking machinery sales... Still in this industry to-day.

Cars began with a mini van. Then a 1200 Cortina, 1500GT Cortina, Lotus Cortina (GPB432C) Cortina Mk21600E.. MK2 Savage V6, Jeff Uren car... Then onto Lotus Elan +2... MGB GT.. Followed by a +2 S130.. Elite was next which I found just awfull. Then an RS2000 and back to my +2 S130. LMP413K. Second time round! (Sold that to buy the plane share).

Went off cars then and bought the share in an Airplane .. Grumman American AA5 G-BASG, which was one of the loves of my life. Sadly the heart attack brought that to an end also. Also sadly the aircraft no longer exists having been written off in an accident a couple of years ago being flown by an ex RAF oldie. He walked away!

After the plane episode.. God knows how many 3 ser' bmw's and 2 new Z4's... Still have one. Mrs B's daily car. Very good it is too.. The sprint is the return to Lotus I had been promising myself and as you know is my current Lotus car. In between that lot we also had a go at Kart racing my boy and I. We got pretty good. Finishing second one year in the Scottish super series. He went off to work for Shell, Some plonker stole our new Caravan and we stopped karting all in a month or two. Don't half miss that too.

Had many Motorcycles also. Suzuki / Honda/ early Triumph/ etc, to name a few. I now have a Honda Pan European St 1100, and I ride my little Lambretta's during summer for the fun of it. The Pan is laid up till I get fit again after my bypass.

More or less it car wise etc.


Wish List just now is for a happy retirement asap so I can get on with my 'touring' career.. And a Boxter S which I would keep.

Alex B....

[69S4]

Been waiting until I had a few posts under my belt before doing this bit. I must admit I was a bit dubious when Gary got this thread going but as it's developed its been great to be able to put backgrounds to posts. Did wonder about adding mugshots but in my case at least it would contravene the obscene posts regulations so maybe best omitted.

First a bit of background. My name is Stuart Holding. I'm 58 and live in a little market town about 10 miles from Oxford, UK. These days I run a small photographic business but originally trained as a biochemist and spent the first decade of my working life in research labs. I've no formal engineering training and anything I know in this area is via self teaching or a few evening classes (eg 2yrs of welding at the local agricultural college). The rest of the family consists of wife, Helen and our two teenage children, one at school and the other at uni.

I've had my FHC S4 Elan since the early 80's and covered about 100,000 miles in it. For some years it was my only transport but has recently just been put back on the road after a 10yr layup. I've tended to use it in cycles - use until all the problems build up and I'm sick of it it, then stick it in the back of the garage and forget about it for a few years. That's the problem with the car, no matter what's gone wrong with it I've never wanted to sell it although strangely it's been the only car I've owned I've felt like that with. Most of the other vehicles that have got under my skin have been motorcycles and I have a small stable of bikes that have managed to make it through the bank manager's embargo on such things.

In the distant past it was keeping various two wheel wrecks on the road, particularly when far from these shores, that honed whatever mechanical skills I have and the Elan has proved to be a worthy successor to those bikes. Unless something on the car needs serious professional input (reboring cylinders, grinding crank etc) I tend to do it myself. Two wheel touring has been a constant pull on my time and money, something I still do and enjoy as much as I did on the first trip back in 1970. http://www.pisquicktours.co.uk/ is a website I've started putting together covering my early days on two wheels. Pure vanity publishing! Maybe the kids'll be interested if they start researching their family tree in the future.

Not really much worth saying on my car history. With the exception of a Lotus 7 that got sold to finance the purchase of my first house its been a succession of transport today, gone tomorrow nondescript vehicles that either ended up in collisions, stolen or sold for pence just to get rid of them. At the moment we've just scrappaged an old Fiat to get my wife a Mini Cooper and we also run a middle aged LR Disco. I'm not that impressed with the Discovery. For something with such a "Tonka toy" go anywhere image it feels almost as fragile as the Elan with constant problems. Not sure what we'll replace it with when the time comes.

[RotoFlexible]

My name is Andrew Bodge. (Yes, Bodge. More on that later.) I was born in '51 and grew up in the Los Angeles area. My father had a combination of the sports car and hot rod bugs; he put a 6-cyl GMC motor into a chartreuse Triumph 1800, with the result that a rear axle broke at an inopportune moment and the Triumph ended up partway into a candy store. Fortunately, no one was hurt...

My father subscribed to Road & Track nearly from its inception and I spent many hours with it. Among other things, R&T carried the Ecurie Shirlee ads (which can be seen in the Library section of this site). The raw snob appeal, combined with Lotus' F1 success (well documented in the magazine), made its impression. In '64, we moved to Connecticut and I first saw Elans in the, er, fiberglass. My father was intrigued as well, and in 1967, about the time I got my driver's license, he bought a '66 S2 used - the same car I have today, more than 100,000 miles later.

I went to college, entered the work force (first as a technical editor, later a tech. writer and finally a software engineer), married (and acquired stepchildren) - a reasonably normal progression through life. For some of that time, the Elan was a daily driver and occasional autocrosser. In the mid '70s, I did a couple of years of high-speed time trials at the old Bryar Motorsports Park in New Hampshire. The Elan had haphazard maintenance, mostly fixing problems as they cropped up. Eventually, some time in the early '80s, my carelessness caught up to me and a ruptured brake line resulted in a heavy front-end collision. The car was off the road for about five years, then returned with an S3 front clip. More years of light use and indifferent maintenance followed.

By 2005, the car was just plain tired. Things kept breaking. I tried to sell it a time or two. At about this time, I found LotusElan.net. Following these forums inspired me to, finally, put things right. What started out as a proper engine rebuild (to Sprint specs) and suspension renovation ended up as a body-off, stripped-chassis overhaul, with the engine enlarged to 1700cc (in the original block) and built by a first-rate engine builder. It took about a year and a half (and more money than I am willing to add up) but the results are well worth it - in both reliability and performance. I am back to using the Elan on a regular basis - for commuting, pleasure driving, long trips, without regard to weather. Thanks, Gary and others, for encouragement and help along the way.

About the name: I have been reluctant to use my full name in my posts because "bodge" is frequently used by our British correspondents to refer to a clumsy repair - "he made a real bodge of it." I cringe every time I read it. Would you buy an old British car from someone named Bodge? But, it is my name. It supposedly came from a Welsh immigrant way back when. It is a relatively rare, but by no means unheard-of, name in the US.

[rjaxe]

[size=85]Hello, I am a retired aerospace engineer living in the westcountry. I lusted after an Elan in my youth but could not afford one and finished up with a Frogeye Sprite which eventually succumbed to rust. There followed a series of mundane saloons and Company cars to meet the needs of the family. When I retired I decided on PlusTwo and searched the internet, e-bay etc for an S130 with good bodywork. After several disappointing examples one came up but the engine had suffered a broken conrod and as a consequence a wrecked cylinder block. Figuring, as an engineer, repairing an engine was something I could undertake, I bid for it but narrowly lost out. However this buyer pulled out and I was offered the car as the second highest bidder, so I bought it.
Obtaining a genuine replacement block proved to be a bit more difficult than I had imagined but after several dissapointments and not to say scams I found a short engine with a sound block. Gave all the parts a good clean and coat of paint where appropriate. Measured the critical dimensions and rejected those out of spec then gathered up the required new parts. For piece of mind I had the crank, rods etc crack detected. Fortunately the block only needed a light hone to match the pistons and with a boxful of parts and a borrowed engine stand, build commenced.
Great fun for engineers of course and as it was summer the work was mostly done outside, I was pleasently surprised by the interest shown by passers- by, many of whom were ex-aerospace engineers. It must be a inherent engineers trait that we cannot resist "having a look" when someone has something in bits.
A thick folder came the car and this showed the extend of a refurbishment that had taken place in the late 90's/early 00's The car had been comprehensively rebuilt including a very detailed paint job, totting up the receipts, around ?9k had been spent by the then owner who had made a very good job of it. So apart from the wear and tear since the rebuild, not a lot a of work was required to get the car on the road. So after 6 months of intermittant work the car was MOT'd without a problem and I was experiencing my first Lotus driving experience.
Having been to the Ramparts street circuit at Angouleme in France , decided to take the car there for its first significant long run, 1200 miles round trip and all went fine and it was most enjoyable.
Since then I have continued tidying up the car, rebuild the suspension and brakes, changed the diff to a 3.54 ratio and spent a lot of time on the electrics replacing any dodgy parts and wiring. Next tasks are to try and sort out the oil leaks, miscellaneous creaks from the trim and a mysterious thump from the rear suspension
I try to attend as many local events as I can but so far have been dissapointed by the lack of Lotus cars in attendance in our area. I have only come across one Plus 2, two 2 seat Elans and two Europa's all summer, there surely must be more, where are they all?
Did I make the right decision? definitely! A relatively simple car to work, suport through this web site is amazing, spares are generally easily obtained and not expensive compared with my BMW, never fails to attract interest and so far the car has been reliable. So after all that here it is:

[ringe]

Hello,

my name is Matthias Ringe, born 1970, living in T?bingen in Germany.
I own US66 26/5118 since October 2005. The car was in Califonia for
most of its life, is on its original chassis, and has never been
restored.

I'm sorry for being a lurker but I was able to find answers to my
questions by reading and searching the forum. I will try to be more
active.

Matthias

[Ross Robbins]

As one who frequents Lotus Elan net almost daily, I am a bit red-faced at not finding this thread until now. It was Gary?s signature line that got me looking as I usually only visit the Elan, Plus 2 and TIC threads.

I am as my login says, Ross Robbins. I live in a suburb of Denver Colorado USA and am nearing retirement age. Retirement however is not realistic with the financial meltdown of my 101K (for you folks across the pond, it was a 401K, a tax favored investment plan melted down by 300). A builder for 27 years, I built over 320 custom homes. Now I consult with builders and train new home sales teams. I have had a lot of free time this past year. I am remarried and have two grown kids, a son who was properly raised and has appreciation for all cars and especially Lotus cars, and a daughter who is a lovely girl but treats cars as appliances. I know enough to be dangerous while working on my cars and have, finally, come to the realization that I am financially and emotionally ahead to just clean, polish and drive them and let someone qualified do the mechanical work. I am now on my third day of changing one of two motor mounts in my Plus 2. Still haven?t quite got the lesson have I?

I have had a twenty year Lotus affliction starting with a 1966 Elan S2 vintage racer that I bought in 1994 as a prepared car after getting fed up with breaking axles in my Sprite. I knew only a bit about Lotus and the racing successes in F1 as well as the LeMans early success and subsequent Chapman vow never to return. I have an extensive Lotus library now thanks to eBay and have learned a lot about the amazing spark that is in each Lotus. I have raced all over the US and Canada since 1992 and have so far checked off 38 different tracks, mostly with that Elan I sold in 2007. I had a temporarily fatal heart attack and was replumbed with a new non Lucas high flow low pressure pump version after being jump started by an particularly good pair of paramedics and am now cleared to race a 1972 Mallock 11B, an old Clubmans car. I had a Westfield Eleven and an early non airflow version of the Elan coupe, as well as a Lotus Europa Twin cam Special, and a 1989 Esprit Turbo, all now gone

My wife Ann and I are active in Lotus Colorado (affectionately called LOCO), participate in all kinds of drives and events and currently own and drive five Lotus Cars. We have a 1965 Lotus Elan S-2 that has recently been rebuilt after a devastating electrical fire while uninsured, an original, unrestored 1960 Elite that has only 25,995 miles including our completion of the Texas 1000 Rally and the Copperstate 1000 Rally, a 1968 Seven S-3 in which we did another Texas 1000, (actually almost 1,300 miles) having only the Brooklands screens for weather protection, and a 1991 Elan M100, one of only 53 Norfolk Mustard yellow cars imported in which we did the 1000 mile Peak to Peak rally in Colorado. Finally, we have a 1970 Elan Plus 2S in Bahama Yellow, that was modified early in its life with a Weber head instead of the normal Stromberg head. Then there is the last car in the collection: it is what I call a Point Seven, exactly like a real Lotus Seven, except at a 5/8th scale with a weed whacker motor. At least I don?t still have them all?I have thinned the herd a bit and probably will let a couple more go although they are all different enough to justify keeping every one. Three that will never go though are the Elite, the Seven and the Elan. We welcome any visitors to stay at our home and go for a drive as the cars are all road licensed and fueled. Well, I can usually guarantee at least three ready to go. Please let me know if you will be in the area. We would love to have you as our guest.

[alaric]

Hi.

I'm early 40s and live with my family on the South Coast of the UK. It's a great part of the world. I have a degree in Physics and Electronics and am now working as a systems engineer.

All the best.

Sean.

[frearther]

Well, Gary, you asked for it, so don't blame me if it's long and boring (it comes with age).

I guess it?s my turn now. My name is Arther Frederick, and I live in Chatham Center, N.Y., USA ? east of Albany, almost to the Massachusetts border. I?m happily married (51 years and counting, so you know I?m no spring chicken), have four grown children and 8 or 9 grandchildren (it depends on how you count a step-granddaughter).

It was friends in college that got me interested in cars in general and ?funny little foreign cars? in particular. Going to school not far from Watkins Glen and having a roommate whose home was there didn?t hurt, either.

The first car that I actually owned was an MGA purchased new in 1956; in my senior year in college, I drove my fiancee?s VW, but we got disengaged, so I became without wheels. The MG taught me that there was still a place for wooden floorboards in the latter half of the 20th century. But it wasn?t long before I had to have a Porsche Speedster (on the salary of a second lieutenant). The Speedster served well as daily transportation, honeymoon vehicle, family car (while we had only one small child) and autocrosser. It helped me get my first FTD in 1959 and a couple of upstate NY class championships. But when jacking up the front made the car bend in the middle, I had to sell it, for financial reasons, after 11 years.

A couple of Minis followed that. First was a 1275 Cooper S, then a 1098 (I think) Cooper.

Finally, one day in the early 1970?s, I was sitting in a friend?s office when I spied a rather sad Elan on a flatbed truck heading out of town. I followed it for about 10 miles until I could see where it was headed; it was the local auto auction. I found out that it had been sitting in the garage of a Dodge dealer a half block from my place of business, and I never knew it. The PO had swerved to avoid a rabbit (small ?r?), broadsided a guard rail, and flipped. A stout roll bar avoid a complete disaster, as well as severe injury to the owner. At any rate, I saw my chance for an Elan ? along with a lot of work. I purchased the car at auction and spent the next year making it roadworthy, if not beautiful. This allowed me to get back into autocrossing and shooting for overall wins, of which I was fortunate enough to get a decent number.

1979 saw our first child going to college and the other three following close behind, so the Elan got mothballed. Besides, it was handling strangely. Some years later, I discovered that the LF tower on the chassis was rusted out (handled strangely? I guess so!). So it was a replacement chassis and a thorough mechanical rebuild, a process that was to be done in 2007 but didn?t make it.

As an aside, our local SCCA region was celebrating its 50th anniversary in 2007 with a daylong event at the nearby Saratoga Auto Museum: www.saratogaautomuseum.com/ A friend and I were racing all out to see which of us could get our resto done in time for it. It turned out that I had some setbacks and couldn?t get the engine finished and so had to trailer the car that day. My friend finished and was driving to the event when his car overheated; a mouse had built a nest nest in a hose while the engine was apart, so he had to return home and return in his family car.

At any rate, I finally got the engine done, drove 2 miles, and found the sump full of watery sludge. Two years later, it?s finally done and running. Thank God.

If you?re in the neighborhood (and if I haven?t bored you to tears), drop in for a chat and a beer. But be sure to PM me first ? Jane and I might just be on a cruise.

[Galwaylotus]

Ok. I guess it's my turn. I'm a 61 year old mechanical engineer (sound familiar?) who was born and educated in the States. I raced a Royale RP2 FF1600 in the New England Region SCCA for a couple of years until the lack of money and a bit of wanderlust took me to Idaho - no racing there! I traded the Royale to a friend for a S3 Elan DHC that looked good on the outside but was missing a window motor, leaked oil, and had a seized caliper piston. I left the Elan in Connecticut when I moved to Idaho and it took a few years before I reclaimed it and brought it out west. I replaced the missiing/broken bits and stopped the oil leaks (yes, it really didn't leak when I resealed the engine!!). In the interval, I had taken a year off and spent it in Ireland with a couple of short trips to the Continent for the Monte Carlo Rally and later for the Le Mans 24 Hours and the French GP - the 1979 one that marked the first "modern era" victory for a turbocharged engine F1 car. After I returned to Idaho, I worked as an engineer on my own contract, then sailed for a few weeks in the Caribbean with some friends, and then flew back to Ireland for the winter. I decided that this is where I would call home so it was back to the USA to earn more money and get my things out of storage. I sold the Lotus to a friend of the friend from whom I got it then shipped my stuff to Ireland including a 1980 Kawasaki 550 GPz I'd bought when I worked in California. I moved here around Easter time 1982, rented a house, and met my landlady a few weeks later. We were married a year afterward and now have two grown daughters. When she asked me a couple of years ago what I'd like for our 25th anniversary and my 60th birthday, I half jokeingly said a Lotus Elan. When she said ok, I had to be picked up off the floor. I've had my S3 SE FHC for about 15 months now but after driving it 500 trouble-free miles home I had problems that kept me off the road for about a year as I had only the street on which to work and Irish westcoast weather is not conducive to working outside - especially the lat few years. The details of my trials and tribulations are in the Forum. It's a runner again and I'm upgrading the brakes and will do the electrics soon. My philospohy is that I don't want to lose the character of the original car but Lotus was always improving the cars and in the interest of safety and reliability the few changes I'm making are justified.

I look at the Forum most days and contribute a) when I have a problem and need advice (thanks to all who have helped), and b) when I think I can help someone else, not necessarily in that order.

I find it interesting that there are so many with similar backgrounds to my own who have introduced themselves on this thread. Keep up the good work, folks.

Bill Barry

[Vanden Perre]

Hello,

I'm Olivier, 48 y.o, from Brussels. Fifteen years ago I started to look for an old sportscar of the 60's. I first thought to buy an Alfa and then in 1999 while at Spa for the Tour de France Historique, I saw a yellow Elan (from Portugal) and decided this was the car I was going to buy. It took me a few years to find one. I went to England to see some but finally found mine 10 km from where I live. After a respray, an engine rebuild an several thousand Euros expenses, I now own a nice pre airflow FHC S3.
I dream to tour the Alps with the Elan and this is why I am looking for other enthusiasts to join me next summer. See my other topic ??LotusElan.net in the Alps 2010?? in Free Parking.
Cheers.

Olivier

[frearther]

Hey, Gary, this was a good idea. It's interesting to find out about other Elan owners around the world. BTW, is Scituate near Boston? I'm too lazy to google it.

[CBUEB1771]

Hey, Gary, this was a good idea. It's interesting to find out about other Elan owners around the world. BTW, is Scituate near Boston? I'm too lazy to google it.

I'll intervene on behalf of Gary and Beau. Scituate is a waterfront community and a southern suburb of Boston, perhaps 25 miles away.

[garyeanderson]

HI Art

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&sour ... ma&aqi=g10

Look for Kent St.

This isn't the oldest street in the U.S. but it was layed out in 1633 so it been around for a while.

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=Ke ... f&oq=&aqi=

http://books.google.com/books?id=DL0OAA ... ts&f=false

Folks from the old country, my ancesters are not amongst them. I'm not even a towney, I was born in Detroit
http://www.scituatehistoricalsociety.or ... _home.html

[b-havers]

Good idea of presentating ourselves, though I guess I'll never meet most of you face-to-face ( as I live in Norway). (Well; I met Sean from Ireland last summer, though, when he visited Oslo with 50 or so other car-entusiast.)

Anyhow; here is my story, the long and winding road leading to my Elan +2S 130/4

Living in Norway, being a car-enthusiast isn't too easy. A lot of tax on parts and things, and tons of regulations re restoring, registrating and using our cars...

I was born in august 1963, named Bj?rn-Anders Haverstad - and spend my days working in the IT industry.
I live just outside the Norwegian capitol Oslo, in a small suburb called Ski.

Bought my first car (a 1968 VW Beetle) back in 1978, and pertly restored this so I could use it when getting my driving lisence in 1981.
Fortunately, I soon got into brit-cars.

My first, an Austin Healey Sprite, was bought in 1984 (I think...), and from there I've been thru a lot of cars; Triumph's, Jensen, Chevy, Fiat Spider, DKW, another Healey Sprite, MGs, Hillmann's, Marina's, Reliant, Jaguar XJ, Austin Seven's, Marcos, Caterham, Matra, Porsche, a couple of Formula Ford's and Formula Vee's... and finally; Lotus.

I bought an 1969 Europa (US Spec S2 - Type 65) unseen from California in 1998, and got a car in need of 100% restauration - thoug boths photoes and sellers word told me this was a 'daily driven car in near mint condition'. Well well, hopefully we learn from our mistakes.
Started up the restauration, and worked a lot the forst two-three years, but got tired, and did less and less work. Two years ago I put it away to a garage, to finish it for me. This has taken much longer than any of us had hoped for, but latest news (from last week) is that it will be on the road shortly. Very well timed, as snow is only days away

Three years ago I took the family to London for an oval weekend, and got some hours for myselv on a saturday. Took the train to Cantebury, in order to visit UK Sportscars. Found an +2S Elan (1971 130/S), which seemed good, and I bought it.

When getting the car back to Norway, I discovered some faults that had to be fixed before registrating the car (new sills, seatbelts, brakeparts etc), but finally got the plates in august 2006.
Used the car a lot during the late summer/autumn, and completely fell in love with it.

The Elan was put in safe storage during the winter, and when I took it out the next spring, I felt 'something' was wrong.
It didn't quite have the torque from the previous year, and it smoked a lot.
So, head was taken off, skimmed and overhauled - and was fitted during early autumn.
Car wouldn't start, and thanks to another norwegian on this forum, it was rebuilt from electronic to original ignition - and started.
It stil smoked - alot..., so I decide to go for a full engine rebuild.

Engine was picked out, and sent to the same garage doing my Europa. The engine rebuild took more than resonable time, but I got it back late this summer.
Fitted the engine, and all the cables etc. Filled oil, and water. Experienced a huge waterleak

Engine out again, bought new (modern) waterpump, and fitted the engine. tested with water/oil first this time, looked fine.
Fitted the cables, and adjusted ignition.

Nothing...
A lot of adjusting, far off from what the book said, and the car started - nearly.
A lot of oil poured out from somewhere on the rearpart of engine.

Talked to the garage; they will take the whole car back, and check the engine, timing, oilseals etc, and fix this for me - as soon as the Europa is finished and returned to me.

So, in spite of having four toy-cars in the garage, I haven't driven a single meter this summer.
But next summer.....


My cars, my history and lot of pics can be seen at http://www.haverstad.net