Lotus Festival

September seems to have come early! A busy summer, including the acquisition of a 'companion' +2S 130/5.  See http://lotuselanplus2s.blogspot.co.uk

Both cars made the trip to Brands Hatch for the Lotus Festival at the end of August. About 135 miles round trip, awful traffic on the M25 in Kent due to the M26 being closed. But both cars behaved well, with Pauline driving the Elan (her choice, the clutch is lighter). A huge difference in comfort and refinement reported, although the reduced tyre pressures have definitely helped.

Shame about the heavy showers, but loads of enthusiasts and their Loti.

I particularly liked this one-off special.

Summer 2016 update

So far so good this year!

Over 1000 miles already, a good few local car events and meetings. I'm really enjoying Brooklands in particular.

No major problems to report. I've stopped the Iridium plugs experiment and am just using super unleaded with no additive. The Millers additive seemed to produce some pretty unpleasant fumes in the garage.

An oil change, consumption is ok. The brake servo has developed a minor quirk where the brakes don't release for a couple of seconds after the brake pedal is released. Wierd.

I'd struggled to set up the carburettors and finally took the jets out to check - and found that the idle  jet emulsion tubes were different; one pair lean one pair rich. Now all the same, set up easier and running improved.

The car is still too noisy and the gearing too low for it to be a touring car. A shame, but it's great fun to drive relatively short distances.

Tyre pressures reduced (still above Lotus recommendation) to 20/24 to see if that improves the ride.

January 2016

No updates for 8 months, must either be good news or bad?

Mainly good!

About 1700 miles since the engine rebuild, and no major issues. A small amount of oil consumed (and leaked), no water loss.  Much nicer to drive, flexible and more responsive.

I've fitted (expensive) iridium plugs which seem to have helped with cold starting, and have started to use a Millers petrol additive which allegedly increases the octane rating by two points, helps protect the fuel system from ethanol corrosion and helps the valve seats cope with unleaded fuel. Too early to report on results.

No major trips this year. We decided, due to lack of trust, not to use the car on a Dorset holiday. The longest trip was to Brands for the Lotus Festival, where the car was part of the Historic Lotus Club display.

This year I've joined Brooklands Trust in addition to HLC, the Historic Lotus Register and Club Lotus. I've decided not to rejoin GRRC  - expensive, most events very crowded and 'samey' and frankly some of the members are far too pompous for my liking. I'll never forget the request to ban 'those bloody kit cars' from a GRRC trackday. Too fast for your badly driven poser-mobile, eh?

I've also started a Classic Vehicles group at my local U3A, as well as going along to a range of local car meetings as well as some excellent events including Dunsfold Wings and Wheels (got to drive the runway this time), Brooklands New Year meeting and Motorsport day. So very sociable and I've made some good friends in the process.

A few pictures from the year - this is from the HLC dinner in November.

.... and this was taken at the Brooklands Motorsport day event - the car is on the old banking. 

This is probably my favourite, from New Years Day.

Finally, 'little and large', taken at a local car event.