Miata vs original Elan

makes me really sad I passed on a europa all those years ago...

I used to be a member of the Lotus club in Ottawa. This was pre-Elise, so it was all, umm, "classic" Loti. They'd make fun of my soulless Japanese copy, I'd offer to carry parts. Everyone was happy I don't think any members had just one Lotus, because there was always one on long-term disability. The president of the club hadn't had hers on the road in five years.

One weekend, they had a BBQ at one of the member's cottages in Quebec, about 90 minutes away. Instructions were given. I followed them and arrived right on time - surprising the owner of the cottage, who hadn't even started setting up. Silly me.

Over the next hour or so, Lotuses trickled in. Every single one of them thought they had a better way to get there. Every single one got lost. Every single one had some sort of mechanical problem (memorable was the Europa that required the passenger to get out and kick the exposed shift mechanism to go into reverse). Everyone had a blast.

Fun club.

Picture taken on the return trip from a Lotus meet in the UK. Given Keith's story, it seems fitting.

(whispering) behold the Lotus in its natural habitat...

Q: What do you call a running Europa? A: What? They got one running?

Dr. Hess, and any of your other Lotus fanatics out there... if you ever get near Birmingham, Alabama you have to make the pilgrimage to Barber Motorsports Museum. George Barber's got a huge collection of Lotuses. I think his intention is to eventually have one of each model.

It's an honest to god world class facility. Primarily a motorcycle museum and of course the track, but there are a number of cars in the collection. I think he's got the largest collection of Lotuses in the USA. You can walk right up and drool down into the cockpit of everything from replicas of the 1 and 2 through purpose built racers. It never fails to suck me in when I take folks over there, just astounding.

http://barbermuseum.org/ and there's a photo tour at http://barbermuseum.org/slide/index.htm which will give you an idea but unfortunately it does not show that area of the museum.

WELL worth the trip for any gearhead, especially anyone who is into motorcycles as the bike collection is simply staggering.

Luke wrote: Picture taken on the return trip from a Lotus meet in the UK. Given Keith's story, it seems fitting.

When were you over there? I'm going to be driving MY Elan to England and back for a big meet in April. Hopefully it won't turn out this way.

The last time I drove it back from England, I had to do most of the trip on two cylinders...

J

LOG (Lotus Owners Gathering, the big US Lotus meet) this year is at Barber. I'd love to go, but it's Sturgis this year and I can't afford both. We went to the one in Dallas a couple years ago.

Europas are the best and worst of Lotus. When they're running, there isn't much that can hang with them. Nothing on the street, certainly, short of a few supercars and that depends on the "course." Only problem is they don't run often. I'm planning on a Toyota motor, probably a 1zzfe with vvt, for my Europa, but it has to wait until the Locost is done. And proress has slowed on the Locost with the weather, trees, leg, etc.

Dorsai wrote: Dr. Hess, and any of your other Lotus fanatics out there... if you ever get near Birmingham, Alabama you have to make the pilgrimage to Barber Motorsports Museum. George Barber's got a huge collection of Lotuses. I think his intention is to eventually have one of each model.

I just watched the Lotus episode of Victory by Design. After seeing that more than half the cars used in the episode were part of the Barber collection (and half the footage taken at the motorsports park), I ran to my wife and ordered her to pack our kid up so we could go to Birmingham.

That approach was less than successful, so now I have to wait until the LOG.

The first "exotic" car I ever noticed was a Europa. It was in the early 70's in Wichita Falls, Texas.

The owner had a buggy whip with an bright orange flag mounted to the rear bumper - a good idea for driving a knee-high car in pickup country.

I've been smitten by Europa's for practicallty as long as I can remember. My fantasy is to take a shell and completely redo practically everything with Japanese components. But first, I'll need to see if I can even fit in one!

I know a guy that had a Europa, he was about 6'4". He took the seat tracks off and just laid the seat in. The seat area is about the same size as the seat so it didn't slide sideways and we used the seat belt to hold him and the seat in place. It was something to see to watch him fold himself in. He said that was the hard part, once your in plenty of room.

Did anone else tie together LOG and terd?

I just thought "it's big, it's heavy, it's wood"

Tim Baxter wrote: I just thought "it's big, it's heavy, it's wood"

its fun for a girl and a boy

Jay wrote: When were you over there? I'm going to be driving MY Elan to England and back for a big meet in April. Hopefully it won't turn out this way. The last time I drove it back from England, I had to do most of the trip on two cylinders... J

I wasn't, unfortunately. It was a friend who took that photo.

I should point out that while the Lotuses in my story may have had mechanical problems of varying degrees, all obstacles were overcome and the destination was reached eventually. It was part of the fun for these guys. I do miss that group.

A Brit I used to work with had a bumper sticker on his Land Rover that said "The parts falling off this vehicle are of the finest British manufacture" A neighbor of mine has a Europa in its natural state - sunken into his back yard with weeds growing around it. I'd think about it but I"m not sure if I actually think they're attractive cars or not. I've been a fan of the Esprit since I found out they could be driven underwater and carried missiles to shoot guys out of the sky. I think they're awesome, actually. Isn't it kind of ironic that an electric car is being built based on a British car? I hope Lucas didn't do any of the development work. I did just buy a '64 Corvette. I'm betting it won't leave me stranded at least as much as these. I've been watching too much Top Gear and I'm getting vindictive. I thought it was quite obvious that the Miata is an updated copy of the Elan. They did a spectacular job, though.

The later Esprits are quite different. I feel bad, almost, when everyone else at my British car club is telling Lucas jokes and discussing what fell off their LBC. My biggest complaint is the AC isn't working on my 20 year old car. It's a Sanden compressor.

I suspect that after the old man died, the people running the company had an epiphany and realized they could sell their cars for more money if they didn't fall apart all the time. Who knew?

I came to the conclusion a long time ago that British sports cars were really no different from a reliability standpoint than anything else of the era (at least of the '60's and '70's, in the '80's the terrible assembly quality had a lot to do with it). The reason they got their bad rep was 1) early on a lot of the technology they used was completely foreign. I mean, the MGA had disc brakes in 1959, the Corvette didn't get them until 1965. Think of the average wrench turner of the time who popped a wheel off and saw that alien lookin' thing. Or the super simple 3 piece SU carb compared to a Quadrajet of the time. Not enough screws to fiddle with and no accelerator pump meant that again the average wrench turner was completely lost and as is normal with something not understood it's considered a piece of crap. 2) They were cheap mostly due to the dollar being strong against the pound and that automatically lowered peoples' expectations. 3) Since they were cheap people bought them as 'throwaway' cars and did only minimal maintenance and we all know what happens there. People would buy them, run them for 3 or 4 years then sell or trade and the second owner received the largesse of #1's cheapness and of course it's the car's fault. 4) There were cost cutting measures that may not have affected the usefulness of the vehicle but definitely caused perception problems, like the MGB not having a synchronized first gear or an alternator until 1968.

That's a pretty good summary.

I'd say probably 70-80% of the British car problems I've seen were due to ham-fisted "repairs" and "upgrades". The remaining 20-30% were just due to age. A sorted one is every bit as reliable as any other old car.

Actually, my '77 B was probably more reliable than the 89 Accord I had at the same time.

The problem with blaming "ham-fisted repairs and upgrades" is that, usually, something has happened to the original part that requires a repair or makes one wish for an upgrade in the first place.

Another item that lead to problems with various foreign cars from the 60's, in the US, is that the typical mechanic didn't have a good selection of metric wrenches. And let's not even mention Whitworth.

Oh, darn.

Honestly, if I had to pick ONE thing that's screwed up more British cars than anything, it would be people butchering the electrics when nothing more than a corroded connector or ground was at fault. I think a lot of people who messed with british car electrics never did understand that brown is ground.

People's perceptions of British car reliability is based mainly upon their experience (or the second hand experiences of others) with Triumphs and MGB; cars that were only sold in this country until 1980. Granted, Lotus cars of the era suffered from the same ills, but people forget that Lotus has continued to make a small batch of cars each year since then, continually improving them along the way. Most have never had any experience with newer British cars and their ridicule is often based upon old information.

The one thing that the British car industry got right that nobody else did, in my opinion, was thanks to Lucas.

No, seriously.

They all use the same basic wire diagram. If you're used to working on Land Rovers and someone asks you to check out their MGB, you know that a green wire with a red stripe is the left side turn indicator. The wiper system is a clever modular design that can be used on just about anything from a Mini to a Rolls Royce. The fragile lights were (for a long time) a standardized design, so repair shops only had to stock a couple of different options instead of a different taillight for each side of every year of every car made by every subsidiary of GM. Smart.

This level of standardization makes it cheaper to develop cars, cheaper to build cars and cheaper to maintain cars. Based on some of the achingly beautiful cars that used those off-the-shelf lights, it doesn't even hurt from a styling point of view.