Anyone know anything about Lotus West Racing in Simi Valley. The
acquaintance with the Lotus Elan has decided to restore rather than
sell and had them suggested as the outfit to do it.
Ah, so Lotus John has moved...
Lotus West Racing is a fellow named John Kouba, who has been a nut
for Lotus products for a long time. I tracked him down when I had
my Cortina; what made it even funnier is that it had once been HIS
Cortina. (He wasn't responsible for the mess it was in when I got
it.)
When I was having work done on the Cortina, John was building him-
self an Elan to use in vintage racing. He had replaced the struts
at each corner with proper A-arms and coil-overs and built a roll
cage into the car. Not easy in a plastic chassis; his cage had to
go through the bodywork and connect to the backbone frame. I saw
the car with the body off, then later on.
As is often the case with such people, John has a reputation for
being hard to get along with. I never found that to be the case
myself; he's extremely knowledgeable about Lotus cars, does work
to a generally high standard, and was reasonably priced when I
knew him. (He's the one who repaired the horrible mess in my
dashboard when the wiring shorted out my lights and wipers on a
dark rainy night, as well as diagnosing some engine noises and
replacing the timing chain and a few other minor things.)
If memory serves, it's actually Lotus Racing West; Lotus West is
the name of the big active club down there. They're also good
people to know, especially if you're interested in autox in the
Southern California area -- they typically put on the spring
autocross school at Lion Country Safari.
--Scott
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