+2 on tour

[JJDraper]

Its only paint and it wasn't my fault, so someone else is paying. Not a problem. One of the points of the repaint was that repairs would be easier..

On to more enjoyable things. Mrs D has endorsed the whole touring-in-a-42year-old-car thing and is now pestering me with plans for next year. Thanks for the Autorail/Autozug suggestion - very interesting, but pricing is confusing & seems expensive. Still worth a more detailed look - mixed reviews on the web. Mrs D is looking eastwards to Czech republic, Austria, Slovenia and more time in Italy. I quite fancy a trip to Corsica and on to Southern Italy.. One thing is for sure, I don't think we will be quite so manic - spending more time in each location. The cost of the whole adventure was pretty reasonable at under ?2k, including crossing, petrol & tolls, accommodation, meals etc.

Jeremy

[Ross Robbins]

Jeremy,

While I hate to hear what happened to your car, I am more impressed with your trip account and choose to focus on that portion of the post. Thank you for a delightful account of a wonderful adventure.

While Rohan, Gary, Brian, Mark and Alex as well as others are huge fountains of knowledge about maintaining and restoring Elans, I am little help there and hence post rarely. I muddle through the repair and maintenance with help from the pros and come alive when driving mine. Alex, and Gary have street cred here too. So for me, these kind of stories are inspirational and I hope to others as well. I hope to post my adventure in three weeks time from Denver, CO to Ocean City MD, then to LOG 30 in Gettysburg and then home to Denver. That will be a distance of over 4,000 miles! The USA is a BIG country.

Last week, on a 125 mile shakedown trip, I lost the bolts on a CV joint on a winding mountain road 65 miles from home and so have spent the last two days repairing the CV and replacing the damaged wishbone under the careful tutelage of Ben at Caterham USA at his shop. I'm glad it happened close to home and feel confident now that we have a solid repair with jam nuts on the bolts that came loose. Driving a Lotus is always an adventure isn't it?

Anyway, thanks for your wonderful trip account and keep 'em coming! We need more 40+ year old cars on big trips!

[bengalcharlie]

great trip Jeremy and you have a beautifully restored car!! shame about the little incident with the maestro but everything can be fixed again. Much better using the car than collecting showponies which just collect dust in the garage!
Ross, I also had a nasty experience of a solid driveshaft coming loose and ripping a rear caliper of the hub. luckily I was driving very slowly. I also changed to longer bolts that portrude completely through the CV extra secured by fitting a nyloc nut. Better be safe than sorry!
cheers
Robin

[jeff jackson]

Hi Jeremy.
Gutted for you to see the damage to your car. I have seen so many of these types of accidents in car parks where people reverse out of car spaces. It even happened to me with my daily driver.
What amuses me is the struggle people have driving the car front end into a space. It generally takes half a dozen backward and forwards manouvres to get it straight. Then reversing out you can't see whats coming along the car park, or you reverse into someone. Same backwards and forwards manouvres to get it out.
Reversing in is a doddle, the car manouveres easier when reversing in a space. Done in one go. Then when it's time to leave, just drive out. Simples.

Jeff 72 +2.