Our group (Ted, Chris, Bruce & Debbie and me) in three Elan’s and one Europa had breakfast together at 8am and we were on the road by 8:45am. Beautiful day, cool and crisp with fluffy clouds. As usual, our routes are all back roads to have as little traffic as possible and enjoy the views and the driving.
We had decided to go visit F40 Motor Sports. It was not exactly a route to take us back home but what the heck, all of us watch chasing classic cars and we might be lucky to see Wayne and hopefully Roger. 1 1/2 hours later we pull into F40 motor sports. We met Chris’ brother there in an NSX and had a number of conversations. The people inside the show room had seen all these Lotus’ pulled up and parked and wondered why we hadn’t come in, so they came outside to us. Mike introduced himself as the head of sales for F40 and asked about our cars and what we were up to. He said Wayne happened to be here today and would enjoy meeting us and Roger was working in the garage.
All Debbie had to hear was Roger was in the garage and she peeled off to see him. After a few minutes of conversation with Mike I also went over the the garage and we chatted with Roger for a fairly long time. He was a hoot! Great guy and I told him his parts in the TV show are my favorites. We took a group picture with him and then Wayne appeared. We all chatted on the reason why a bunch of Lotus’ were together and he wanted to hear about our cars. Then we did another group picture with Wayne and our cars and finally went into the showroom to look at what was for sale. A few of us bought t-shirts for a longer memory of our experience.
Our destination for the end of the day was Poughkeepsie NY (none of us had ever been there, which is why we picked it) and along the way we stopped at a diner for lunch, a covered bridge and then Lime Rock Park (race track) which brought back old memories for Bruce, Chris and I as we had all raced here at some point of our lives.
Chris took off on his own as he wanted to get home from this point and left our group.
We drove meandering country roads through Connecticut and NY until we got the our hotel (the third Holiday Inn Express on our trip, they really are nice hotels and include a great breakfast) in Poughkeepsie. Debbie picked a restaurant from the list the hotel provided and we all freshened up and took an Uber to Shadows on the Hudson. Fantastic view, great food and great friends!
2358R is running great! Hasn’t missed a beat and it handles like it’s on rails. Oil pressure, engine temp, alternator charging and idle are all what they should be. Lots of HP for this car and it is a joy to be behind the wheel. Much different experience than my Elan’s and a lot of fun to drive. The speedo cable broke (I forgot to lube it when I installed it so operator error) but otherwise everything works as it should. I’m very happy with the results. And I’ll mention again, it shifts very well now that I know the pattern........
Tomorrow is our last day of Lotus road trip. Looking forward to a few more adventures.
