Leigh Greenham

Kaz and I set off from Oxford to Portsmouth to Caen to the Le Mans circuit to Saumur on the Loire; a very wet journey on Monday/Tuesday 7/8 May.  Then sunny journeys down through the Dordogne valley, across the spectacular Millau Viaduct, Montpellier, Nimes, across the Carmargue salt marshes with its flamingoes, to Marseilles Airport on Friday morning to pick up two petrolhead chums.  So, four-up along the Cote d'Azur, past Cannes, through Nice (Promenade des Anglais) then into Monaco from the Italian side to avoid the traffic (and photo the car in Italy!).

The Elite spent most of last weekend in the Columbus Hotel car park while we watched the Monaco Historique GP, we met Dave Excell with his Esprit, and Ian and John (both former Elite owners) racing their Lotus 18.  Hot weather, with a  thunderstorm to add spice to the final 1970s F1 race.  Classic Team Lotus did very well, look out for their reports soon.  We took the Elite four-up around the circuit one night then again the day after the racing, just two-up this time, and even got it into the harbourside paddock at the exact spot it was photographed at the 1980 GP when it was owned by the Essex Lotus F1 team.

This Monday, the two of us started the return trip via the Alpes Maritime and the spectacular Gorges du Verdon, Rhone Valley, Burgundy wine region, Champagne region, and the Reims circuit remains.  Then across the border into Belgium for the great Ypres Lotus Day yesterday, 123 cars, mostly modern, following set routes around the countryside.  Finally, onto Calais and back to Oxford last night.

Only one slight technical hiccup, our exhaust started blowing from a broken weld on the downpipe flange from the manifold, possibly caused by grounding the exhaust on a particularly nasty speed cushion near Nimes a few days earlier.  But within 30 minutes of hearing a sudden increasingly loud exhaust note and rattle on the Autoroute near Orange, we had found a specialist exhaust welder who did a great job while we waited!

No other problems whatsoever, 27mpg overall, despite lots of twisty mountain roads, congested Monaco and Nice roads (four-up with luggage, 28 degrees C weather) blats around circuits at Le Mans, Monaco and Reims and 70mph averages on the Autoroutes. What a car!

Will post a link to some photos sometime.

OK, so it’s not very likely, as there is strong competition.  But my Elite has been shortlisted and is now one of the top 20, take a look at: http://ccoty.co.uk/  and place your vote.

Leigh Greenham

As I motored north, a low and fantastic looking bright yellow Eclat whizzed southbound, on the M40 below High Wycombe around  7pm Tuesday evening.  Registration looked very impressive ECL 47S.  Minutes later, an Elan S2 was following it.  Coincidence?

Hi guys, my wife and I are doing a road trip vacation in a couple of weeks, unfortunately our 1980 Lotus Elite S2.2 will be safely at home near Oxford in England, so we'll be using one of Alamo's finest!  We're flying into Las Vegas on the 28th July, then driving out the following day across the Mojave desert to see the aircraft boneyard, then down to Hollywood/Beverly Hills/Canyons for a day or so and across to the Pacific Coast.  Then taking a couple of days to go up PCH 1, meeting some friends in Monterey for a few days then across to Yosemite for some days relaxing.  From there it's down to Death Valley (yes we know it could be 50 degrees C there) and back to LV for a couple of days, before going on to the Grand Canyon.  Flying home on 13th Aug.

If anyone lives along that route and will be around to show off their Lotus, please get in touch.  Or if you want to give us some must-see travel tips for our route, that would be most welcome too.

Leigh & Kaz Greenham
leighgreenham@aol.com

Having a Lotus Elite as a weekend car is great (spinning it in the wet at Castle Combe was a new activity last Saturday!), but a 17 year old Volvo 480 coupe as my wife's everyday car is not brilliant.  However we have a 1 in 8 chance to win a new Volvo C30 coupe if we get the most votes on the Volvo website.  Take a look at the video of our trip to Biarritz on one tank of fuel, then look at the others, place your vote, and Volvo will select one voter to win the camcorder.  http://www.volvocars...videoblogs.aspx  Thanks for your help.  Leigh