I’m not a new owner - I bought this car sight unseen (other than pictures) off of eBay 4 years ago. But I’ve finally gotten to the point where I trust the car enough to drive it farther than the free towing range on my Haggerty policy.
BTW - I blame practically all of what I had to address on the last renovation some PO did or, more likely, had done. Other than maybe the doughnuts - those were pretty fundamental.
Anyway, back to the topic. In June I drove the car from Tulsa, OK to Carthage, MO, about 300 mi round trip, to attend an “All British” car show they have their annually. We also brought along our MGB, which we’d brought to this show every year since it’s restoration in '14.
The trip was on backroads. The only problem with the roads was how straight they were, that was a shame. But the car ran great. Very happy with the acceleration. Steering light and accurate. Very quick, even with a 3.55 diff.
Negatives were 1) difficulty in starting when hot. I searched and found several reports of this problem, with no solution, other than install a gear reduction starter and overpower the starting problem. The speedo read 20% high, which I already knew about, and the tach wasn’t particularly accurate, or precise, which I also knew about. The radio was show, also known. And my newly repaired driver’s door window fell back down into the door the first time I tried it. Which was a shame, since we dealt with a couple of thunderstorms during the trip.
In spite of it all, we took the best in class trophy (not hard, we were the only Lotus) and Best in Show, likely because Elan’s are cute, and rare - ours was likely the first one this show had gotten in 20 years.
After returning, I thought it best that I work in a 100 degree garage in the heat of an Oklahoma summer to address as many of the negatives as possible before Sept 6, when we would drive another 300 miles or so to another All Brit show in Fayetteville, AR.
I basically rewired the engine bay and dash to fix myriad issues, replacing the radio, having the tach converted to voltage sensing, and calibrating the speedo in the process. The starter also got addressed. New speakers in the doors, and I took another swing at the driver’s door window as well. Replaced the seat belts so the passenger would have one that locked, at wife’s request.
We got back yesterday. Much “funner” drive, we took the long way back though/over the hills, which the car handled beautifully. Lots of fun with the excess horsepower compared to the B I’m used to. My speedo guy still needs to do some work - the needle swung a bit, but it generally ran 10% fast this time. Tach was spot on. Radio worked well enough, but the suppression wires I needed to eliminate ignition noise didn’t arrive until we were on the road. Even so, noisy tunes were better than none. Window worked perfectly (knock on dash). Hot starting took a bit more cranking, but the starter had no problem with that. I did have to push start it one morning - my 2 possible explanations are either I pulled the key out with the ignition on (unlikely, but possible with this key/switch) or the driver’s window switch stuck on “up” overnight. First time it had done this, and it didn’t repeat, and had not happened before, so I think I just need to keep an eye on those two reasons, unless someone can come up with another. We got Best in Class again - and again, we were the only Lotus. But lots of nice comments.
Still things I want to address, but I think I have a reliable car now. Maybe we can make it to the next LOG in Salt Lake city - it’s only 1200 miles from Tulsa.
I do think I’ll put a call in to the Voight shop, though - I think I’d want a 5th gear for that trip.