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Elan 50 Years in the USA

PostPosted: Fri Aug 23, 2013 7:14 pm
by lance54
The poster alone is worth the trip......

Re: Elan 50 Years in the USA

PostPosted: Fri Aug 23, 2013 7:50 pm
by el-saturn
and make us drool (?) oh gorsh, i?d luv ta be there 36 / 4982 -------------- she smuggled a
later cyl. head to austria -------------- the buyer from NL won?t have to deal with ADDED VALUE: dutch VAT, custom fees, processing, stamps, toilet tissue (and all the other bs they invented) and the other crap we?re always confronted with. did any of U ever arrive at dover: at night with some parts which did have documents.
BUT the kind which also had certain mods????? i sure did: the worst was when we arrived with a brand new 956 gearbox and when this punk din?t agree with the 955 pound invoice which the bookkeeper made for us (as
we told him to do) - the box had no names on it B U T everything besides the casting was shining in the most
beautiful of all racing colors: TITANIUM! and one of the customs chaps just asked me if i knew that all of the bolts,nuts etc were made of titanium?????????? i said NO. and for the next 12hrs the box was confiscated and we went to the nearby grubby hotel -------------- the company we were working for (BRUN motorsport) somehow
got us ou of there -------------------------------- to northhampton (john thompson/tony southgate) --- just another story for a few of U sandy

Re: Elan 50 Years in the USA

PostPosted: Sat Aug 24, 2013 6:19 pm
by Bill
After enquiring to the factory for purchase of my Elan in the last 1/2 of 1963 I ordered 26/0538 in December, there were no dealers in Canada at that time. I believe Lotus was negotiating with an agent in Toronto, 3000 miles from me, at the time as I see by the factory shipping log that the dealer had 2 cars shipped to them in the same time frame as my car left the factory.

In 1964-65 I believe that Checker Flag Motors in Vancouver became a dealership.

I almost bought an Elite at the time but when I found out that Jim Clarke drove an Elan that clinched it for me.

Bill

Re: Elan 50 Years in the USA

PostPosted: Sun Aug 25, 2013 10:05 am
by MyLotus
Will be there and will post photo on my website when I return. Let me know anyone is looking for something special. I will gladly enquire.

Alain
www.auto-historia.ca

Re: Elan 50 Years in the USA

PostPosted: Sun Aug 25, 2013 12:36 pm
by pharriso
I'll be there & looking forward to meeting everyone on Sunday.

Clark, can we obtain hard copies of that poster?

Re: Elan 50 Years in the USA

PostPosted: Sun Aug 25, 2013 2:05 pm
by CBUEB1771
pharriso wrote:Clark, can we obtain hard copies of that poster?


Phil,
Trust me, Skip Barber makes sure that everything is for sale. Hope to see everyone a week from today.

Re: Elan 50 Years in the USA

PostPosted: Sat Aug 31, 2013 1:13 am
by lance54
Day one of the 31st Lime Rock is in the history and yes the poster is available at the track for $10. For $20 you can have the post on you back while wearing this years T-shirt.

Come on down to Lime Rock Park on Sunday September 1 and join the fun. 10 Elans in the Elan Concours Class, 100 additional concours cars and 500+ cars in the Gathering of the Marques. Motoring mayhem at it's best.

Re: Elan 50 Years in the USA

PostPosted: Mon Sep 02, 2013 2:29 pm
by pharriso
Thanks to Clark we had a wonderful event at Lime Rock over the weekend.

On Saturday we had a "corral" for Lotii which gave us an opportunity to meet face to face. At lunchtime we took a couple of parade laps around the track:
LimeRock_ParadeLap.jpg and

In the afternoon some of LotusElaners met up at Clark's paddock & admired his great display chassis, race car & beautiful Elite:
LikelyLads.jpg and
Greg(gjz30075), Phil(pharriso), Nick (elanner) & Clark (clarklance) around Clark's display Chassis

No racing is allowed at Lime Rock on Sundays so Clark had arranged for us to be prominant in the "Sunday in the Park" concours event. Approximately 15 cars entered including Clarks display chassis & the Barber museum's 26R:
FamousFrank.jpg and
FamousFrank rides the display chassis

SkipBarber26R.jpg and


All of the cars in the concours were beautiful!
ConcoursCars.jpg and
Cars & Owners

Here are the lucky owners:
ElanOwners.jpg and


The concours was won by Greg Z with his freshly restored Elan Sprint, with David Porter's S4 a close 2nd, Congrats to Greg!

FirstPlace.jpg and
Greg Z (gjz30073) with his beautiful Sprint & trophy

ConcoursWinners.jpg and
The Top 3

Re: Elan 50 Years in the USA

PostPosted: Mon Sep 02, 2013 2:36 pm
by pharriso
No trip to LimeRock would be complete for an Elanorak without visiting Millerton & the site of the old Lotus East facility:
Millerton_LotusEast.jpg and


Highlights of the weekend for me were:
1. Meeting fellow LotusElan.net 'ers
2. Seeing Clark's great display Chassis
3. Finally meeting Gary:
GuestStar.jpg and
Piss Ant & friend

4. Taking part in the concours
5. Finally figuring out what was wrong with my top steering column clamp!!

Many thanks to Clark for organizing a great event, worthy of the 50 years of the Elan in North America!

Re: Elan 50 Years in the USA

PostPosted: Mon Sep 02, 2013 4:24 pm
by elanner
Phil,

Thanks for posting.

I think I was the only one of us dumb enough to camp over Saturday night. And experience an overnight summer thunderstorm, in a tent, that I won't soon forget. Unbelievable. Fortunately my Elan's hood is in good shape, and I fitted the new trunk seal a few weeks ago, so the poor car stood up to the onslaught pretty well. But the minor footwell leaks and drips around the windows still added up to a pretty damp interior.

I think the wet tent and towels sitting in the trunk during Sunday were sufficient to flatten the battery and result in my ignominious push start on the track at the end of the day!

However, others had it worse. There were many more tents than shown in this photo the evening before......

LimeRockWeather2013.JPG and


Nick

Re: Elan 50 Years in the USA

PostPosted: Tue Sep 03, 2013 1:04 pm
by dpchamp87
Very fun event! Thanks to Murray and Clark for placing the Elans right at Start/Finish and for putting on such a superb event. Greg Z was a deserving winner in the Elan class but all the cars were stunning.

I ended up driving home on Monday dodging the rain drops for 80 miles but only one drip on my knee...

See you all next year if not before.

David

Re: Elan 50 Years in the USA

PostPosted: Thu Sep 05, 2013 5:09 pm
by pharriso
Sports Cars Digest have done a good write up on Lime Rock Historic Festival 31 - http://www.sportscardigest.com/lime-rock-historic-festival-2013-concours-photo-gallery/

Great picture of Greg's car!

Re: Elan 50 Years in the USA

PostPosted: Thu Sep 05, 2013 5:45 pm
by gjz30075
I wish all of us were there for the shot.

Although this was an Elan celebration, we need to give congrats to Clark Lance for a 2nd place in the "Businessman's Express" class with his beautiful '61 Lotus Elite.

Greg Z

Re: Elan 50 Years in the USA

PostPosted: Tue Sep 17, 2013 9:42 am
by pharriso
Alain has posted some great shots of our Elans in the Brand's Hatch thread http://www.lotuselan.net/forums/lotus-talk-f50/pics-elans-from-brands-hatch-aug-2013-lotus-festival-t29340.html#p195226

Congrats Clark, I still think the Elite is the prettiest car ever built...