No brian , certainly not .
I spoke to the new owner , and the guy was waiting since the early 90’s …
No matter of ?uros , then .
Anyway , I wouldn’t to have to live with such rare car … One is enough !
Christian.
Does Malcolm Rickets still have the other?
Only a few years ago he owned both of them.
I do like that car but prefer the “Elitebulance” that he also owns, the lucky Man.
Christian, great picture of the Elanbulance at the old Reims circuit. I stopped off there in my Elan back in Sept on the way back from the Alps but didn’t take any pics. Previous visit was this time last year when I passed through on a motorcycle - pic below.
Do you know if the circuit is ever used for anything or is it just gradually being reclaimed by nature. Actually, the way Reims is expanding it’ll probably be in the middle of a housing estate soon
Malcolm sold the blue Elanbulance JLX 629K in 2006 to a Mr L Ohlsen in Sweden.
The yellow Elanbulance, which started out as CAC 681J and then became GGW 874J, was the third Sprint FHC off the production line and has one of the ‘rare’ forward facing Big Valve cam covers. It was the first Hexagon Elanbulance conversion and is the one tested by Autosport in Sep 72. It was first sold to a London based brain surgeon. I believe Malcolm owned it from Oct 94.
What a mass of information you must have stored; impressive.
I recall seeing both cars at the Lotus Donington Exhibition & I think Malcolm had them both there one year, one inside & the other outside next to his mobile home.
One thing’s for sure, if you buy one of his Cars you don’t have to worry about the quality of the restoration.
Bet his prices are scary though.
Olivier, thanks for the link - a really interesting read. Looks like I missed the circuit reunion by a couple of weeks. This year I was there two weeks early and last year about three weeks late. I’ll have to keep an eye on what’s happening there next year and see if I can arrange to be passing through at the right time.
slightly at a tangent, but the old Reims paddock is well worth a stop. Behind the painted facade the buildings are crumbling fast! See them while you can…
This picture was taken last year on the way to the Dijon classic ‘L’Age D’Or’ … yet another little gem of a jaunt.
That picture reminds me of the Buildings that were remaining at the “Miramas” circuit (not far from Marseilles / Arle).
When BMW built their High speed & Handling testing tracks there they were in the process of ripping down all of the old buildings.
I told the management that it was sacrilege to do so & did manage to get the Grandstand saved.
I hope that something can be done to save those historic Buildings at Riems & that they could be put to some sort of associated use.
I did one of the Lake District rideouts about 10yrs ago. Great value and a really great day despite managing to break my thumb I was impressed with the bikes and when I wanted to replace a Honda XR600 that I’d used for a couple of overland trips to West Africa the CCM ticked most of the boxes - particularly the one labeled price! In the pic the bike was in “desert shakedown mode” as I was intending overlanding to Mali on it last Dec /Jan but a foot injury put that on hold.
Just about everyone warned me that CCMs were so unreliable that it’d breakdown before I got off my drive but after a bit of post purchase fettling it’s been exactly the opposite, virtually nothing has gone wrong in 5 yrs. Just as well, trying to keep the Elan going
It was a long time ago - can hardly remember the year nevermind the details. I’m pretty certain it was '98. I was working at Silverstone at the time and there was bunch of us who went - mainly instructors but some others - mechanics etc. I was the circuit photographer at the time. We were split into two groups as some them had an mx background and they set off on one wheel up a vertical cliff face while the rest of us went round and round the car park singing nursery rhymes for a while before you took the training wheels off
We stayed in the log cabins I seem to remember. It was April and the cabins were bl**dy freezing
I managed to break my thumb by getting it trapped in the stand hinge as it swung up. I was lying across the bike recovering after pushing it out of yet another bog and took too much weight off of it so the stand automatically came up. A stupid system that I’ve changed on my bike.
That not withstanding I had a great day and learnt a lot, much of which got put to good use in the Sahara a few years later. I still can’t ride in deep sand though and have to get off and push.