And as feared by others: a long report of how a Lotus Elise S1 left the UK for Belgium.
So there I was, getting a ticket for Eurostar Brussels-London Waterloo. First surprise: a one-way ticket Brussels-London costs 120 Eur more than a 2-way ticket. It seems trivial but state-run railroad companies never stop surprising me (they never make a profit either)
Trainjourney -starting at 06Hr50 am- was uneventful and contrary to popular believe (Engeland where trains are late and slow): smooth connections, hardly any waiting untill the last bit (Newport (Gwent)) where I had to wait an hour.
No prob: I went for breakfast at 1100 am. Searched and found a kind of snack, not too scrubby, ordered the bespoke breakfast. I was the only customer. While waiting at the counter, 3 younsters came in: 2 girls and a lad (about 18-20) and sat down the table next to mine. Little problem: their table had but 2 chairs.
What did the bloke do? Tossed my coat on the ground, took my seat.
So I went to him and said that it was my coat and my chair. I could have been speaking to a cow, the same eyes. So I took him by the scruff of his neck. Hell: no bones, only blubber! Still got my chair back along with some mumbling.
Ate my breakfast. Next time along with travel info -thanks again for those who replied- I will need some adresses where one can have that famous English breakfast. What I got there, was even under my cooking capabilities.
An hour later and I was in Lydney and after a short walk found the Lotus Elise waiting for me. The car was as descibed (thanks Adrian!), after a testdrive the cash changed parties and I had a grey Elise 135 Sport with a Lotus short ratio box and sport suspension, not forgetting a hard top.
Adrian told me he always put in 95 Ron, I filled her up with 98 Ron and hit the road. After about 5 minutes there was a noticeable change in power: cruising speed went from 60 tot 70 MPH... hey hey :-)
Steering, brakes all nice and unassisted, brakes felt like wood untill I warmed them a bit up (and got used the feel). This piece of kit stops on a nickel :-)
After about half an hour the Lotus -and I- had enough of walking and we went running (what do you think?). Under 3000 RPM noice is acceptable, above 3000 RPM ... the installed radio CD is pretty useless. The stainless exhaust is a fair bit louder but who cares. 100 MPH came up with no problem, I ran out of RPM at 140 MPH due to the short ratio box.
Straight to London then... The GF (top-notch navigator) couldn't come along and what did I do? Drive around London? Nope, straight through and got lost within
10 minutes. 90 minutes of trafic jam, seeing Big Ben, Marble Arch and finally a sign for Dover. The Elise coped fine. As some said: RHD was not hard but I searched a fair few times the gearstick in the wrong place.I guess people - the kind who drive Jeeps, Land Rover and such- can not see an Elise, it being somewhat low. I had -again- my fair deal of drivers sleeping at
60 MPH on the fast lane with no-one to the left. Hell: while Germany is taking over the British car industry , there is no excuse for the British not to steal some German discipline on the road. Please to NOT steal Russian road manners!Me at Dover, 2 hours before the P&O-ferry left. So doing some roadholding tests in the neighbourhood: the Elise gives a lot of confidence but the sport suspension is bonehard and my bum became quite sore.
Tried some drifting around roundabouts (without trafic in sight) but it needs less grip or more power to do that. I'll settle for more power ;-)
Caught my ferry and the heavens opened: heavy rain, thunder and lighting. For those taking a ferry to Calais: go for Norfolk Line instead of P&O. At Norfolk you can play PS2-Elise for free. P&O charged me 3 UKP for a coffee... Fell asleep in the bar and was kindly waked up by crew personel when the ship had allready docked. Had to run to the Elise courtesy of those people waiting, cursing and using their horn so that the stupid Belgian would move his car.
Calais was pitchdark, no signs, heavy raining (the inside of the Elise stays dry: the hardtop will stay on). A lot of standing water on the road, people driving at 30 kph, the Elise passed witout a hitch at 3 times that speed: so there was the reason for the bathtub-design of the chassis :-)
The GF was missed a lot: got lost again. Drove at random but managed to find Dunkerque and then De Panne, Veurne, I was in Belgium! Full speed down to Brussels... I arrived at home around 02Hr30 am.
Tucked the Elise in the garage and -of course- couldn't sleep. Went to bed anyway wondering about fuel comsumption: it hardly uses any! Did 240 miles using only 30 liters! The NSX would need about the double while you would have to drive pussy-footed or the 928 would claim triple. Let's leave the Cossie out of the equation on this one :)
Feeling quite OK now: my own little collection of cars is growing nicely. No excuse for an Italian F-car any more I guess. I however need more space!
So: that is it. Inspected the car in detail next day, all the children of the neighbourhood came inspecting too. Being still a kid, I drove the whole bunch around, took pictures with them in the car, printed the photos in the office. If I want to become a politician I might have some votes.
Mental note: get some stainless screws from the workshop and replace those (surface) rusted Lotus fixings.
The Elise is OK, in a state acceptable for a 1997 car. Maintenance was done locally, not immediately to Lotus standards but I guess a fair bit cheaper. Overall a fine car. Still working how to get elegantly out of it though!
GF likes it (this IS important!), I like her ;) Mom likes it too (this is important too) but flatly refuses to get in (most people refuse to be passenger while I am driving). Little brother is allready hinting to put the Elise in his garage.( he will have to wait a bit ;-))
Cheers to all.
Tom De Moor