Lotus Elan and Lotus Elan Plus 2 Forums

The local Lotus club (PALS) held an event this past weekend featuring Bob and Richard talking about the early days at Lotus. I shot a video of the highlights as I always find the stories fascinating and thought it would be worthwhile to document some history.

Enjoy the stories.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=syoeKkR76aA&t=3s

Bob and Richard - Always informative and entertaining. Thanks for sharing Glen!

Very entertaining! I am sure DRB would really appreciate Richard's comments...

Thank you so much Glen. That is literally priceless to capture some of the incredible memories Bob Dance has so clearly. Names, dates, places...it is all fresh in his mind. And while I enjoy Richard's stories, it is those early racing stories of Bob's that we need to get someone to sit down with a video and capture. He has told so many to us over the years, like the Wooden Indian at the Dallas GP, and the midnight bulldozer in Portugal that really need to be captured for posterity. This was a good start so bless you for doing it and for sharing it!!

Thanks Chris, Phil and Ross. I have a very fond memory of when I first met Bob Dance, it was at one of Richard?s tours of the Lotus Factory (2011) a meeting with Danny Bahar along with a tour of the Team Lotus shop. On the first night we had this group dinner at the hotel and Bob sat down next to me. I barely knew his background and introduced myself along with asking him a few questions. Well, several hours later I walked away from my seat at the table with a fascinating personal historical tour of Lotus, it?s racing heritage and insights to the ?governor?. More over, Bob was totally engaged and acted like I was the only person in the room. It was a memorable conversation and one that I thought ? I wish I made a video of it for historical purposes?. Over the years I have met Bob at least another 6 times and each meeting provides more stories and new information. He is such a delightful man and has amazing recall for his age. When the event was planned for a Bob and Richard to talk at the PALS social, I knew I had to record this.

By the way, if your interested I have two video?s on my YouTube channel of Danny speaking to our tour group (The lost Lotus Tapes, June 2011). He had some interesting insights to the Lotus brand that were right on the mark.

Glen,

Thanks from this side of the pond.

Doug.

Thanks for this video. In particular I enjoyed the overview of the Hethel site.

It jogged a very foggy memory for me of being there on July 9, 1969 to pick up my (US export) Elan. I was so excited that I hadn't eaten a thing after getting off the plane from the US and then taking a train out to Wymondham to collect my car. Probably a bit delirious. I remember cars whizzing around the test loop but not much else.

Car is still here with me after braving the horrible Napa fire just now. Just a bit of wear due to a raccoon climbing into the car after evacuation to collect some dog food left in the front seat. On balance, I can live with the minor damage to my original seats considering I could have lost the whole car.

Again, thanks for this great video.

In addition to agreeing with the other high praise, I liked hearing Jeff Lynne in the intro.