Who drives your Elan or +2?

[JJDraper]

I have been a user of his forum for many years now, and there seems to be bit of a gender bias - if I can put it that way... Why is this? This was brought home to me yesterday, as a visitor said she was a Lotus fan and Mrs D duly obliged by taking her out for a thrash around the local lanes in the +2. They came back half an hour later - said visitor said it confirmed her love of the Lotus. I don't think it was a euphemism...

The point is, would you let anyone else drive your car, male or female?

Jeremy

[trw99]

Good point Jeremy! I can only recall three ladies contributing to this forum in the years I've been on it. It would be jolly nice to see more of them here.

I believe we should encourage anyone who expresses an interest in our cars to have a drive in them. After all, in that way we would be far more likely to attract others to the marque and to Elans in particular, which is no bad thing. I'll bet we all had our love of Lotus reconfirmed and enforced by our first drive in one.

Tim

[jimj]

Being gullible I was reeled in by an expert last week. Tina says;" Jim can I borrow the Elan for an hour or so next week?" "Of course" I replied. "I`ll wash it after I`ve used it and leave the Range Rover with you while I borrow it". "No need for that, Tina". "And Jim, if you wouldn`t mind washing the Range Rover..........."

Here`s a pic. of the missus driving the Elan in September. Strangely, when we married 38 years ago she was only 6 months younger than me. Now she`s 20 years younger, but that`s Ok.
Jim

[jmp]

My wife has always driven all of our vehicles, elans (her daily driver in the late '70's), morgans, big motorhomes etc. My daughter is now keen to borrow the S4 elan but I want to fit an electric fuel pump first as she is not patient when it comes to starting it. Funnily enough she is not keen on borrowing a morgan as they look old fashioned, the elan seems to have more street cred. Unfortunately the lad is not keen on driving the elan or a morgan, just as well as these days the insurers won't touch him on insurance for either of them till he is 25, and that's as a named driver on the classic car policies. In the seventies in our early twenties both myself and my wife had sports cars with no problem insuring them in our own name.

John

[twincamman]

No NO No ---The Brown Owl does not touch any of my cars . She drives to the front of the hood , stops parking when the front wheels contact the parking barriers. I let her take the super 7 for a drive when it was newly restored , it came back with the nose cone, rippedt off parking in the mall and is inattentive to a fault on the road . I wont ride with her driving . I restored a bugeye for her and the reason she wont drive it ' its too rough riding ---hurts my boobs' --- well it doesn't hurt mine ---no female has ever graced the Lotus either TOO MUCH COMPLAINING ABOUT SPEED NOISE AND HAIR DO DAMAGE -------they belong in Chebbys and Caddies and buses - one person has driven the Elan a vintage racer friend who races an MGB ----came back impressed and raved about the speed and handling ---ed

[Quart Meg Miles]

Tim,

You may have to revise your count as I am no lady, as if it wasn't apparent.

However, my wife learnt to drive on the S2, though passed her test on a school car which she nearly wrecked by changing into first gear at roundabouts, and later used it for commuting on country roads. She also drove our +2S130/5 and had trouble keeping it below 90 mph but was probably just copying my style.

Sadly, incipient arthritis prevents her from driving it now but it is still her prefered form of transport when it's not raining.

One or two old college friends drove the Elan when I visited them in 1969 and the only other person crashed it, bending the brand-new chassis. He had been very kind lending me his car while it had been fitted and this was his "thank you" drive!

[DeanG]

Nobody. It sits forlorned in the shed.

[stugilmour]

So far only driven by two other guys to share the driving on a couple of long tours from Ontario and to Las Vegas. Oh ya, and two laps of Sebring by Steve Smith to show me the way 'round . Hope my wife can learn a stick shift on it when we take a tour.

Dean, gotta get it running for LOG33.

[twincamman]

ya Dean ---get it out -----life is tooooooo short .. ..ed

[reb53]

Any car nut I know who's interested can take the Sprint for a drive.
As long as they have a current license, and I go along to encourage them to drive it properly.

The only exception has been my son who I let take it out with his new girlfriend.
No insurance so hope it was worth it.....

Ralph.

[sprint4dm]

My wife won,t even sit in mine it's a noisy, smelly plastic waste of money and it's about time I grew up!!!!

I quite like this attitude, it means I don't have to worry about her doing any damage to my pride and joy. She drives a Range Rover and could possibly drive right over the Elan and not even notice.

Dave

[tcsoar]

WELLLLLLL no ones driving mine

Not even me

Finally got the car finished and tested and took it for its first drive to get the MOT on 8th October. Same day gave the necessary documents to the local DVLA office to get it registered in my name and taxed, still havent got anything back.

Chris.