It was barely a month since I had gotten my latest “Seattle car” Elan project parked in the basement of the Lakehouse when I got several emails & texts from folks in the Indianapolis area telling me that there was
Elan Project No. 11
Cost Overruns
As most of you know, my hobby is restoring old Lotus Elans. I usually find a cheap basket case that needs everything, drag it and all the boxes of parts home and then spend a couple thousand hours and tens
The Lotus Position
Classic Motorsports magazine covers a lot of topics about classic and vintage cars across many different marques… British, German, Italian, and sometimes American. Recently though, there has been deeper delving into the Lotus spectrum. Last summer, there was a side-by-side
Musical Elan Chassis
You know the game called “Musical Chairs” that you played when you were a kid? Some adults would set up a bunch of chairs in a circle facing outwards, one less chair then there were kids. The music would start and you would walk around the chairs until the music stopped and you had to
Truing Up the Body Fit on a 1973 Lotus Europa – Part 2
Last month, Part 1 of this article detailed this project that I undertook to true up the body fit on my Lotus Europa in an attempt to get panel fits close to contemporary specifications. That’s typically a 4 or 5
Truing Up the Body Fit on a 1973 Lotus Europa – Part 1
There is some fanaticism required to restore and then love an early Lotus. I did a complete mechanical and cosmetic restoration of my Twin Cam and many of you have seen the results. She’s sweet! I had the body professionally
Selling Smurf
My hobby is restoring old Lotus Elans. I buy them all beat up or worn out or neglected for decades or just in boxes. I tear them all the way down – every last nut and bolt comes off. Then
Europa Euphoria, Part 34
I got an email from the new owner who was happy with the car, which made me feel good. He cleaned the car up from the transport to Canada and took it to the Toronto British car festival. There were over
Europa Euphoria, Part 33
Now comes the next challenge, selling the car. What price for all this work? No Europa is worth Ferrari bucks. But then again, this is a very nice Europa. Not many Europas have had a body off restoration. If you
Europa Euphoria, Part 32
I picked up the car from Ken the interior guy (great work as usual) and began working away at the couple of small but pesky bugs still left in the car. I had sent out the Tach and Speedo to MoMa