Greetings all,
I just got back from the All-British Field Meet at Portland International
Raceway, and thought I'd offer a quick report (it'll have to be quick, as
I didn't stray far from the vendor area where I had my Europa on
display... did up 12 color flyers and came back with five, so there was
some interest apart from all the people who stopped to look -- "It's so
low!")
Anyhow, lots of fine British automobiles! Not many Lotae though: Mine
of course, and a stripped-for-restoration Type 47 on a trailer. Then
there was the '90 Elan for sale (didn't catch the price), Mark and Tony
Viskov's two Cortinas and a Cortina Estate Wagon from B.C., two Elans,
and a former IMSA Supercar Esprit. (The latter six were racing the slalom.)
About the slalom: Funniest car racing was a "Bond Bug" 3-wheeler;
second-funniest was the Mini Moke from B.C. My vote for most
impressive-sounding goes to the race-prepared Mini... the one with the
supercharger(!).
The Viskovs were competitive in their Cortinas, although Mark was
complaining that he couldn't get his tires hot enough to stick. I
missed his third run, and didn't hang around to hear the final scores.
During my brief visit to PIR yesterday I got to see Nelson Yaple's newly
restored Elite: Not bad! It's like a different car now in its shiny
new BRG paint... a far cry from the last time I saw it as a faded,
waterstained "Yaller Dog." Nelson told me that he'd just gotten it back
together, and that yesterday was the first time it'd been on the
freeway since the resto. Kudos to Nelson there -- it looks great!
I also ran into two of the faithful who offer pleas for help:
George Dohn, a young guy who'd been wanting to buy an S2 Europa,
but recently purchased a Corvette instead. (I didn't ask why...
possibly a trace of congenital insanity.) ;^) (And, where was he
when I first put my Europa up for sale?) At any rate, George has
in his possesion an original shop manual, parts list, and gen-u-ine
Lotus ads and brochures. He wants to sell same, and it sounded
like he'd take something in the neighborhood of $100 for the lot.
(The items appeared to be in excellent condition, but the price is
a guess, as I wasn't all that interested and didn't get into
dickering with him.) If anyone's interested, his phone number
is (503) 645-2854. Tell him you heard about it from the guy with
the red Europa at the All-British Field Meet.
Rich Baird, a gentleman with Lucas troubles. He made the trip
down from Olympia for the meet, and pounced on me for advice as the
only Europa owner in sight. Rich recently bought a Europa TC Plus-2
in pieces, and he desperately needs advice on wiring. He's got the
wiring diagram and the correct replacement harness, but he can't
figure out which leads should attach to which relay terminals --
and the wiring diagram is pretty vague on that point. He would
really like to talk to another Plus-2 owner who could coach him
on the proper connections. His number is (206) 923-1415. He
said I should call him collect if I ran across any information
for him, so anyone on the list could conceivably do the same...
trouble is, he didn't give me permission to say that. I would
suggest that anybody who can help him should call on their
nickel, explain why they're calling, and ask him to call them
back. (Tell him you heard about his troubles through the
Internet... he was awed by the fact that this list exists. I
showed him the Europa interchange list and he was even more
amazed.)
Well, it's off to the garage for me for the continuing struggle with
"Adolf" the Nazi-Volkswagen-From-Hell. (It's been beheaded, now the
plan is to refurbish and reinstall _without_ the vacuum-leak-from-no-
apparent-source... .)
-coryc
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