Elan 50th Anniversary Events

PostPost by: memini55 » Tue Oct 18, 2011 8:48 pm

I don't know about everyone else but I like the late Sept or early Oct time frame as the weather is the best and fall colors are more enjoyable. I also think a requirement for bringing your Elan would be to drive the distance in the car. Wouldn't it be fun to see a full parking lot of driven cars. Gary you are also right about driving on non interstate roads, as you say see the country at 55-60 mph.

So is the thinking to make a pitch to the Lotus Ltd group on this?? Who would be in on this?

Mark
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PostPost by: elancoupe » Tue Oct 18, 2011 9:08 pm

memini55 wrote: Who would be in on this?

Mark



I would.

Florida ranks with Bum****** Egypt on my list of places to visit with the car.
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PostPost by: collins_dan » Tue Oct 18, 2011 9:13 pm

What about the classic car race that Lime Rock has each Labor Day weekend?
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PostPost by: pharriso » Tue Oct 18, 2011 10:14 pm

collins_dan wrote:What about the classic car race that Lime Rock has each Labor Day weekend?
Dan


That would get my vote!
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PostPost by: elancoupe » Tue Oct 18, 2011 11:22 pm

Clark Lance wrote:If we get something going during one of the Eastern or Midwestern 2012 vintage race events an all-Elan race might be possible.

Here's 14 active Elan racers that are all within stricking distance of say MidOhio:



We won't know how many participants can be secured (racers and non-racers) until something is on the calendar.




Mid Ohio would be an outstanding location for an Elan race.
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PostPost by: garyeanderson » Wed Oct 19, 2011 11:13 am

I think there are a Couple of things going here. An Elan race and then there is a get together of sorts for folks with cars and those that want to see them. My gut tells me that Mid-Ohio may be more central than Lime Rock most of the racers. Its nice to see the street cars too, stock, modded. and anything in between/beyond. I see this as opportunity to see a lot of Elans in one place. I don't know what a lot is but I think its more than I see in the course of a day at home and if its a couple hundred Elans parked in one place that would be huge. I kind of doubt that there would be that many but so what, it would be fun to see everyone that could make it from this side of the Mississippi and maybe a bit further too. Like I said, a day out and a day back is the Max that most folks will do, others have problems with 2 hours. You need to decide and Go! Time of year is important for this event if you are driving your Elan.

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PostPost by: lance54 » Wed Oct 19, 2011 2:03 pm

MidOhio was just a hypothetical given it's central location to all those east of the Mississippi.

Labor Day at Lime Rock Park is the place to be......the best vintage race event on the east coast.

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PostPost by: memini55 » Wed Oct 19, 2011 2:26 pm

So if you really want to draw a nice group from east of the muddy Miss it should try to be more central that Lime Rock. Not saying I would not do the drive but, it is about 18 hours or so for me. Not sure the old back can do that in one run in the Elan.

How about tossing out a pole to see who might come to a gathering and have a distance willing to travel?
Gary you seem to be good with the site and have a feel for locations of most, maybe you can put a better spin on this?
How many cars are active out our way and willing to come? Who knows but at least should try to see if it can work.

Clark and Gary, Of the Elites that came were not most of those fairly local cars? In talking with Carl he took a map and had shown me all the Elites he knew of and it was a large group near that area.

Is there a better way to get a handle on the running number of Elan's and locations?

Mark
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PostPost by: RotoFlexible » Wed Oct 19, 2011 2:35 pm

memini55 wrote:Is there a better way to get a handle on the running number of Elan's and locations?

This might be a start:
http://www.elanregistry.org/stats.php
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PostPost by: memini55 » Wed Oct 19, 2011 3:19 pm

Hi Andrew,

Thanks for the link. The real question will still reside, how many running/road worthy Elan's?? The list has several cars but no one would know how many really would travel.
Might be able to send out a massive email to all listed but not sure how well that would be received and not sure we would have access to them anyway.

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PostPost by: garyeanderson » Wed Oct 19, 2011 6:57 pm

I don't know the number of running/driving Elans, the Pool is large but it doesn't take much to put a car off the road as one fix leads to the next ignored issue and before you know it its all a part again. Takes only a day to strip one, takes the rest of the year and all the money you made too to get them back together is seems. I think there were 25 S1-Sprints at log30 and it was talked up pretty well here and other places too. I don't know what Las Vegas had as I haven't heard a thing about it. My guess is this type of event would draw about the same as a LOG event depending where it was held. To get more the economy would have to be shining brightly to get folks to spend the money to drive further. So far 10 folks have replied to this topic, I would hope to see more "I would Like" comments from others that may want to attend. Maybe this topic needs some links from some other sites as it develops to see that there may be something in the works and its really happening. I don't know how to turn discussion into action, thats not one of my strong points.
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PostPost by: holywood3645 » Wed Oct 19, 2011 8:44 pm

Having had my car under restoration for over 5 years, and now nearing completion ...I would love to attend..... However..... I'm in the south-west, near San Diego and some of the places you are mentioning are FAR FAR away.

I may risk a trip to Denver of San Fran' area [Laguna Seca, would be a great west coast venue]. Gaud, It used to worry me going on a 200 mile trip round when I owned my first elan the mid 70's.... 1000 plus miles each way :shock: !!!!!

If there were a few elan owners from a close proximity, it may be feasible to have a haulage company transport the cars a large part of the trip. This may also be feasible on some cross country trains?

If enough people were interested, from So Cal. I know a professional car restorer who ship 3 or 4 cars across country all the time for a show or auction, I?m sure I could get a decent price for his services. It would come down to how many people would be willing to share the expense, and how far.

50 years is pretty special... I know I?m not going to be around for the 100 year anniversary.
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PostPost by: Ross Robbins » Wed Oct 19, 2011 9:00 pm

Well I'm back from LOG 31 and it was like a Clint Eastwood spaghetti western...The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.
Good - time and friends; events and Sunday night dinner; four beautiful Plus 2's ; Senna movie and autocross.
Bad - Only two Elans; the concours lunch; the banquet speaker and the general feel of the hotel.
Ugly - The Indycar race and the loss of Dan Wheldon. A very sad day.

The announcement of LOG 32 in Orlando FL October 25-29, 2012 is official. Featured car will be: Lotus Elan type 26. Track Day: Sebring International Raceway with open touring for one hour at lunch for all registered cars!!!

I have done a preliminary route and it is only about 1,900 miles each way. If I can do 4,100 to Gettysburg and back, this can't be any worse can it? C'mon Mark, Iowa is halfway there!
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PostPost by: memini55 » Wed Oct 19, 2011 9:20 pm

Ross

Nice to hear you are safely home form your travels and we all feel the pain of the loss of another great driver. Very sad indeed. Would love to hear more details on LOG and maybe you should do another topic on it for everyone to hear.

While you were away we just started bouncing some ideas and have some good juices following with alternate ideas. I for one am open to something new and different and some of this has a good feel.

And I too won't get to see the 100 year!

Welcome back!


Mark
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PostPost by: garyeanderson » Thu Oct 20, 2011 10:49 am

Well OK, Logs attract between 2 and 25 Elans so maybe that says we need to do multiple shows. Organizing one in your area need not be too formal but hopefully several will come off. Lime Rock is fairly painless for me, 3 1/2 hours and not too expensive ($100 for tickets and fuel), Mid-Ohio would run more like $200 each way plus tickets but the tickets cost less.

My guess that the Logs attract a lot of people that have been into Lotus most of there lives and Lotus Limited members seem to have multiple ownerships. I don't know why only 2 Elans were at LOG31 my guess is that the folks that attended did in fact own more and just didn't bring them.

I think that the Log30 had quite a few because it was well talked up on this forum and an effort was made by many to get together due to the fairly central location of Gettysburg in the north east. My honest guess is that the photo from the gathering of 50 in Japan may have drawn more than anything we can do just by the nature of the size of the U.S.

Please prove me wrong again!

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