Lotus Europa Community
Lotus Europa Forums => Members Cars => Topic started by: lotusfanatic on Wednesday,June 12, 2019, 10:00:07 PM
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Hello All,
is there an updated register for the cars, with details of year of manufacture/registration/model and location?
I know there is one elsewhere but it seems quite out of date - apologies if there is one here and I've missed it!
Thanks ;D
Mark
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:I-agree: I would also like to know. How many of the less than 10,000 Europas are still out there?
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Sadly the registry on lotus-europa.com hasn't been updated since 2015. When new VINs show up on EBay, Craigslist or here in the forum, I sometimes check to see if they are known cars, and they are almost never listed. My car is not listed. I also accidentally discovered a couple of erroneously recorded cars. The new crop of "barn finds" were apparently put away before the registry started and "found" after it ended in 2015.
It would be really great if someone with the time, energy and attention to detail needed would take on maintaining the registry. And, for the record, that person is NOT me.
Tom
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I wonder if the details (which stopped being updated in 2015) could be copied and then amended to keep them fresh?
There's been a lot of movement of cars across counties, countries and continents!
Again, that would require a person with the spare time to keep the register fresh...
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I wonder if the new owner of the Banks spares company would be interested in running this.
Surely it is in their interest to have a register so they can advertise their products, and so the owners of Europas worldwide can know where to buy most of the spares.
Does anyone know whom to contact?
I could phone them and discuss to merits/possibilities with them.
Alex in Norfolk (2520R, 3089R, 3755R, 4129R, 4259R, 4483R and 4688R)
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I just emailed Dan over at the site and here is his response.
Wesley B Wright
12:12 PM (2 hours ago)
Dan Everybody on the several of the Lotus Europa forums have been wondering if the registry will ever be up again. Any word one way or another.
Daniel Morrison
1:46 PM (36 minutes ago)
to me
Wesley,
It’s still active. I have been slowly updating it as I have time.
Dan
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He recently updated the info on my car, so yes it's slowly being updated.
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It’s been awhile since I’ve been there but Yahoo groups had a register. Dan Morrison has several listed under his name. I have a printout but it is not in numerical order.
Dakazman
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For those keeping up with a current number of Europas,
Found on eBay. Chopping up for parts 😭
7104110997R ( I think we can mark as a goner)
Dakazman
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I would consider creating a new registry if a few folks would be willing to help me with entering older data entry for a couple months. I develop database driven websites and could make it a very user friendly environment where information could be updated by the owners with photos.
If we all reached out to Europa owners we know it could be a very valuable resource.
Anyone interested? It would be a big project but would get us into a modern system.
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Europ-Central (http://www.lotus-europa.com) has a registry that had been active for many years. Several years ago the guy who started it passed it on to somebody to maintain but unfortunately it doesn't seem to be updated as frequently as it once was. That might be the place to start but I'd be willing to participate in any Lotus registry.
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Yahoo groups has a list going also. I can email it to you. I have a lot of pictures from lotus-Europa site that I collected.
Count me in !
Dakazman
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Dan's the man for me, sorry. Good luck though.
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It seems to me that a registry that is open for editing by many people has a much better chance of staying up to date than a registry that is maintained by one person. If 1970EuropaGuy could indeed set up something like that, with the help and cooperation of Daniel Morrison, then that would be a win for the community, no?
Somebody would need to exercise a small amount of control over the right to edit - but, with a few rare exceptions, the more who can edit the better.
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My impression is also that the existing registry is (nearly) dead. I checked the S1 section and the latest update dates from 2014! Obviously Dan does not find the necessary time to keep it up to date. He may have some very good reason but that doesn't helps with the registry. I started to maintain a small registry myself concerning the Europa S1 to keep track at least of those cars that appeared on the net.
@1970EuropaGuy I would highly appreciate if you or anybody else with the necessary knowledge would start a new Europa registry based on current database technology. I would be very happy to help to collect and maintain data. I'm not sure if an open access to the editing functionality is a good thing or not. Maybe there could be a group of registry maintainers that would share the work amongst them.
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The existing registry is being maintained by Dan Morrison. He valiantly volunteered to maintain it along with the rest of Europa Central when the originator, who had not had a Europa for several years, decided it was time to move on. Unfortunately, Dan has not been as focused on it as he might have been.
That registry is the largest and most up-to-date one I know of - Andy keeps some sort of records for Lotus I think but I don't think it is publicly available. I think it would probably be better to update the Europa Central registry than to start a new one. I would think that Dan would welcome the help. It's a great site and it would be nice to keep it updated and bring it back to its former glory. Maybe bringing extra hands to help Dan out would help bring it back!
Just at thought...
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I'll explore setting up a sample modern registry in the next few days. I've noticed so many of the Lotus and other car marque sites really haven't changed since around 2005, in other words... very primitive. Wouldn't it be great to search for a chassis number, transmission number or car location and find what you're looking for?
I agree to some extent that the old registry has lots of good historical information but I also rarely find any Europa that comes up for sale listed. Unfortunately maintaining a registry is a huge job, especially when it's been done manually by one person. I could see any owner being able to add a vehicle, images and pertinent information with editing possibilities.
Stay tuned!
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Personally I'm on the fence about an updated register, as you say for one to be hosted and maintained is a lot of work because even if you allow sign-up and member editing there's still going to be a moderating role if only to help out new users.
Again a personal view but perhaps the best outcome would be to work with the original register owner and demo a new format for the existing data ? One advantage is that most folks know about the old register and the hosting/links are already there through this and the Yahoo Europa group.
Although going away from Europas, there's a modern and very slick Elan register which allows various search methods and the big plus is that you can enter as much or as little detail as you wish. So the Elan registry is worth a look if you're scouting for ideas.
https://elanregistry.org/app/list_cars.php (https://elanregistry.org/app/list_cars.php)
and one for the Elan+2, not so slick but covers most bases.
http://lotuselan-plus2.be/register_type50.htm (http://lotuselan-plus2.be/register_type50.htm)
Brian
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Maybe it could be a topic at LOG 39. Since Europa numbers are dwindling as time passes.
They are also in a position to carry many different languages as some of parts suppliers do.
Dakazman
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Please excuse my ignorance on this matter, but does creating a new modern registry mean letting the data gathered on previous registries slip away with the sands of time? Or is previously collected data somehow integrated into a new registry? I'm all for a new and user friendly registry, but a lot of ownership history has been established on the existing registry, and it would seem a shame to lose it.
Just my 2 cents.
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Hi bainford,
I did some digging in to the Lotus Europa registry footnotes and see that they copied segments of the regristry. I would hope we just add to it than delete anything. I would love to see the origins and the journey the car took in their lifespan. Seeing pictures of previous owners with the car is what antique archeology loves. Picture your car part of a strong race history. As many builds that occur here this would be a place to share that part of the cars life, past owners struggles and the labor of love they put in.
That’s just what I would like,...or my 2cents worth.
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Hi all,
we all appreciate the efforts that Dan and others have made which must be an enormous task?
Perhaps this could be made into a team effort to help to share the work (Dan,1970EuropaGuy + any others?)
It would be incredible if we all had something to rival or even surpass the Elan's equivalent sites?
Assuming there's no breach of data security etc, existing details must be saved as that's such a great source of information and historical details for all of us, including the limited staff at Lotus Archives, to benefit from.
I have found so much information whilst browsing: from repair and maintenance tips & "work-arounds" right through to full restorations (not to mention some of the incredible modifications to these fantastic cars)
I just hope that we never lose this as "once it's gone, it's gone!"
:lotus:
Mark
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In response to a number of these comments, I think it's would be very important to keep all of the historical data, I find it interesting reading and good information as well. Even if a Europa has passed on to a new owner, the previous owners remarks are valid.
This would be one of the challenges. It appears as though all of the listings are added manually (I'll check with Dan about that). If that's the case likely the largest part of updating the registry would be to copy and paste many lines of information. Once the information is in a database life is good as changes in the structure of the internet can be accommodated easily. Many of the programs we run now can't run on older servers so that's another challenge.
I have looked at the Lotus Elan Registry https://elanregistry.org/app/list_cars.php. It's certainly a step in the right direction but still outdated by modern standards, for instance, does not work well on tablets and phones.
I've been looking at a few programming options but some more research is required as they all require substantial modification to suit the needs. Looking forward to additional thoughts about the possible project,