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lotus factory


andy brad
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Put me down for an Esprit please.

 

Lotus? Lots of trouble, usually serious.....:-)

 

That's going to be a special model...

 

there is another load of trumped up sh****** I love my lotus great fun in the summer i hibernate now for a couple of months lol

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Have to agree.  It was said very tongue in cheek.  

 

Although not strictly a Lotus, I still have very fond memories of my Mk 1 Lotus Cortina I dove in the 70's and rue the day I missed out on a Lotus Carlton in the 90's....

 

Sadly the years took their toll on my ability to get in and out of something small.  My wife and I still fall about laughing at our inability to get out of a Lotus Elise in the showroom at Taplow.  The sales guy couldn't keep a straight face either as this older couple seemed to be stuck and unable to fold our legs over the deep cill..... :D

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Gordon s,

 

Never had a problem with my Lotus Elise. Went like a scolded cat all around the Harz Mountains in Germany. Drove the locals barmy as neither Porsches or motorbikes could keep up. So I only use to race bikers, and there were some good ones in the Harz. Thing was most Germans thought my Elise was the not too disimilar looking Toyota sports car. Few in fact had ever heard of Lotus, so I had to use the term "Lotus Formula 1 racing". Being an ex motorcylist myself, I quickly learnt how to handle the Elise. Which went round corners on dry days like a go-cart, and on wet days and cobblestones, simply did 360 degree spins. Terrified the locals sipping coffee outside the cafes in Stolberg with its cobbled streets, one Sunday. When I changed my mind as to which turning to take, and deliberately did a 360 degree turn to line the car up, for the direction I wanted to go. Just spotted in my rear view mirror, as the car spun around, all the people at the cafe tables, leaping in all directions.  

 

attachicon.gifLotus near Blue Anchor Somerset (01).JPG

Above: The day after I bought the car. Picture taken in West Somerset near Blue Anchor. 

 

On another day, I chased a motorcylist around the twisty Forest Mountain roads for ten miles. Before he gave up tryng to shake me off, and waved me past. So I promptly put the foot down and tore off to the next village, where I stopped at a petrol station and waited for him to catch up. He also thought my car was the Toyota. When the penny finally dropped, as I pointed to the chrome letters on the boot. He got his camera out, to take pictures and then invited me around to his place for coffee. Don't think he was too impressed, when his tasty looking girlfriend wanted to go for a spin in the Lotus. She was simply petrified, as obviously she was sitting in the left hand seat and could see the oncoming traffic, every time I pulled out to overtake yet more traffic. But the acceleration of the Lotus Elise was so good I could do motorcyle type maneouvres.  

 

Used to go to a place called Rubeland on Sundays where lots of bikers met at a large country car park where people went for picnics. I would park the Lotus amogst the bikes, and the bikers soon learnt what a Lotus was. Just close to the car park was a tunnel, and I would arrive through this tunnel with a lovely roar. On one occasion, I came out of the tunnel to see the local cops had pulled a bike for speeding. As I was already doing near 80mph I thought I had better carry on and come back later so put the foot down, and probably passed the gapping cops at around 100mph+. When I came back half an hour later, all the bikers started cheering, and gathered around before I could get out of car. That's when they learnt what a Lotus Elise can do....

 

Had to give up the Lotus, as I'm now in Spain, and there are too many road surface problems for a very low car like the Elise. So instead I bought a Tank for Spain....

 

attachicon.gifLotus Stolberg (02).JPG

Above: A couple of months later in Stolberg in the Harz Mountains, Germany. Near to where I lived at the time. Behind the car is one of the ancient castlefied town gateways. This being the place were I terrified the locals drinking coffee outside the cafes, with my 360 degree turns..... 

   

71000

What a hero............

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spot on

Before we were married, back before 1967, my wife's aunt lived in Cadmore Lane - at the bottom of Delamare Road.  I used to walk around the corner on a quiet Sunday when visiting just to peer through the fencing. Since then, recently, I have been a member of the Clacton IPMS model club and two weeks ago visited the Clacton N Gauge Society where there is a member, Alan Clark, who worked there in those days and has great memories of Colin Chapman et all. Lovely to see the photo and the model. Well done.

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This is my first attempt at modelling from scratch. it takes a day to cut out windows unbelievable.

Lucky so far i still have all my fingers and thumbs :triniti:

The only reason i started this project  is Oxford now do the lotus cortina and the elite shown in the picture at the 1:76 scale i had a headache trying to scale the factory from the picture. its about a 1 mtr long, I will now need a bigger layout to fit it in  :yahoo: i have not mentioned that the the wife yet :smoke: struggling getting the élan in the correct scale i have managed to get a couple that are close enough but i need at least 20 each. i have used left over UPVC to make it from cos thats what is left over from the domestic work here at home. here is a pic of cutting the rood profile on my milling machine

post-28131-0-88578700-1517423793_thumb.jpg

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a certain Louts man

 

I've heard rumour that Lotus pushed their luck with the local plod by using the A10  (A11 today) as a test track....

A certain Lotus manager still does https://www.msn.com/en-gb/cars/news/lotus-chief-executive-caught-at-102mph-avoids-speeding-points-as-he-likes-to-test-drive-cars-himself/ar-AAv3MsY.

When they've got their own test track alongside the factory his excuse was a bit lame..

Edited by TheQ
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