Question: What's your longest trip in a Lotus?

[Bill4le]

What's the longest trip you've ever taken in a Lotus? Roughly how many miles? What the trip was for? How was it? Comfort level?..etc...

Look forward to hearing the stories!

[Monsi]

120 miles... I drove around the island twice

I was comfortable and could have kept going but since i was already home it seemed kinda pointless

[MattG]

I've done a couple two day road trips, 1600-1800 miles each way. My butt started hurting on the second day due to the thin padding in the seat, but otherwise the car was extremely comfortable, better than most others I've taken on long trips (even without having cruise control to relieve the right leg).

[Iceman-]

3000 km

Roma-Mas Du Clos-Roma

Just 4 days but last 1200 done all in one.

[Alphonse]

August 1992.

Houston to Carmel, 2 days.
1st day stopped in Palm Springs. Then on to Carmel

Carmel back to Houston via Albequerque, 3 days.
1st day stopped at the California border. Second day Albequerque. Third day home. Sight seeing along the way.

Mileage, alot.
Car: 1989 Lotus Esprit.
Comfort level: excellent.

August 2005:

Lotus Owners Gathering St. Louis.
1st day, Houston to somewhere, Oklahoma.
2nd day on to St. Louis

Return trip along different route but same time frame. Only difference was that the return trip started at the end of the LOG track day.

89 Esprit.

August 2004:

Lotus Owners Gathering (LOG 24)

Houston to Birmingham - 2 days. (can't remember the stp over point)
Birmingham to Marietta, Ga. - 1 day.
Marietta back to Houston - 1 day.

[SweetDaddyD]

Seven hundred fifty-ish in a day. With a passenger. No problems. Not uncomfortable or achey. Have the thin 05 seats. Yes the probax are nicer but I have no problems with the 05 seats at all.

[JC-468]

Bought the Elise in Monday and gave it to the After Sales Service on Wednesday .

Drove nearly 932 miles only on Tuesday. Used a combination of highway and country road to get a perfect run-in procedure ... I know, that's freaky .

[realrundell]

My longest trip so far was actually the day I picked it up. I purchased my Elise used in Salt Lake City,Utah and drove it home to Vegas. It was a little over 400 miles. It was definitely a good opportunity to get intimate with my new ride. Comfort was quite good (although a bit better now with LowDown rails,I'm 6'4") once I got accustomed to the noise level. I even encountered some heavy rain and wind on my trip, but the Elise took it all in stride with outstanding fuel economy to boot!

[cory1000]

Many trip, but the longest where

Elise:
OH to ME to NJ to OH, 1800ish miles.
NJ to FL to OH to NJ, 2900ish miles.

Exige S:
OH to NV to OH, 4500ish miles

Also, did many trip from OH to NJ and back, 450 miles each way...

Also Drove the Exige S from OH to GA, left it there, rented a car and drive back to OH, few weeks later, drove back from OH to GA, picked up car on trailer with my ML350 and trailered it to CA, dropped it off in NV and drove back to OH, This was almost 7500 miles!!

Never had an issue!

[delise]

Here is a Blog you might have fun reading, good picts too - a group of Elise go on a cross country east/west coast and back roadtrip ( not me )

http://web.mac.com/jaredstack/iWeb/E...p/Welcome.html

Total distance: ~8125 miles
Total fuel: 267.4 gallons
Cumulative fuel economy: 30.4 mpg
Max mpg:

Planning Elise adventure

[Houston Lotus]

I took my longest trip this summer from my home in Houston to Watkins Glen for a track day.

Day 1. Houston to Atlanta - 811.60 miles

Day 2. Atlanta to Spartanburg, SC to take a BMW factory tour. 172.42 miles. Spartanburg to Gordonsville, VA to buy some racing supplies at CDOC. 360.18 miles.

Day 3. Gordonsville to Allentown, PA - 211.76 miles. I took some time to see family in Allentown.

Day 5. Allentown to Bernardsville, NJ to see more family. 61.52. Bernardsville to New York City (Queens) to watch a Mets game at Shea Stadium. 52.98 miles. New York City (Queens) to Allentown 105.49 miles. Took a quick side trip to Manhattan on the way back.

Day 6 - Allentown to Lancaster, PA and back to Allentown in the same day. 135.42 miles.

Day 7 - Allentown to Watkins Glen, NY. 211.76 miles.

Day 9 - Watkins Glen back to Allentown. 210.36 miles

Day 11 - Allentown to Harrisburg, PA. 81.70

Day 12 - Harrisburg to Chattanooga, TN. 655.57

Day 13 - Chattanooga to my home in Houston. 834.52

Round Trip. 3905.28 miles.

The next week I drove the car to the Texas Motor Speedway outside of Dallas for the Driver's Edge night event. Round Trip. 580.82

[dickedup]

Originally Posted by Bill4le

What's the longest trip you've ever taken in a Lotus? Roughly how many miles? What the trip was for? How was it? Comfort level?..etc...

Look forward to hearing the stories!

The record for a LONG Lotus vehicle run must be held by our leader... the Amazing Randito. He crossed the country from Georgia to California in one of the very first Buzzbombs to hit our shores.

I've done SoCal to Texas in my Esprit. With Ol' Buzzy though it was typically under 250 miles one direction.

[iridge]

615 miles in one day.

Short Story:
I picked up my Exige in Mentor, OH at sunrise and drove south through the Appalachian mountains all day.

Longer Version:
Before this, I had about 1 hour and 30 miles of time in a Lotus while test driving one from the local dealer. I had been searching ebay and this site for about a year looking for the right car because I'm just too cheap to buy it new. My wife finally got tired of seeing cars on my computer screen and told me to just buy the dam thing and get it over with. After a bit of procrastination, which cost me dearly and pissed off a nice couple in NJ that I had to outbid at the last second, I was finally a Lotus owner. But how to get it from there to here?

Well, A but more back story if you are still reading this. 2 years ago I had open heart surgery to repair my mitral valve. I was 38 at the time. The during the recovery time I got a good feel for what old age will be like. Having to take breaks while walking up 1 flight of stairs. Sleeping all day. Unable to lift my 4 year old daughter. You get the picture. After 2 years, I am pretty well recovered and much stronger (from the exercise and diet change) that I had been. So what does this have to do with a long drive? My 2 year anniversary party was in a few days, and everyone wanted me to have my present for the party, but no delivery companies could pick it up and get it here in that tight time frame… Once again, NOT hitting the buy-it-now moments after the wife said 'get it!' had bitten me in the ass.

I worked over a few options for delivery, but nothing panned out. So I just hopped on a plane 1 way to Cleveland with the intent of driving it down. Remember, I have about 30 miles of drive time in a Lotus (a 2005 Elise), so I was a bit scared taking on this drive. I was also a bit sick about buying my first car over the internet. Generally, I was close to puking the whole flight and cab ride to the hotel.

After looking over the Exige and filling out the paperwork, I went back to the hotel to try to sleep. Ya right! Sleep at a time like this? Ok, so I got up about 5:00 and ate a small breakfast, and meet up with the seller at sunrise because I knew it would take every bit of sunlight in the day to get home, an I did not want to drive at night in a car I was not quite comfortable in.

I fell into the car and slipped in my Led Zeppelin favorites CD, hooked up the nav system (Thanks Steve! I would still be lost in West Virginia without it) and started. I was soon struck with how stiff the track pack is by comparison to the Elise I had driven, and I started to worry about making the whole trip in one day. But then I turned onto the onramp and accelerated (quickly) to highway speeds…. Begin "%#*^ eating grin" stage of the journey.

Pretty soon I was over the state line and into West Virginia. Now they may be the butt of a few red-neck jokes (and that is from someone living in South Carolina), but I must commend the wonderful citizens of the state for putting together a beautiful road (smooth and twisty), and a very liberal speed limit. This is the stage of the trip where I lost any hint of "I'm gona puke" feelings I was having, and forgot that music was even playing. The car fit me like a glove! It was also Fall, and the colors were at peak. I did force myself to slow down and check out the beautiful views, but I found myself returning to staring at the road and focusing on the turns rather then the colors.

My friends and family kept calling me to check in on how I was doing... Because I had made a big deal about how hard it was going to be to drive that far in a track pack equipped car. But I kept reporting back that everything was just fine, and tried to explain the huge grin I had on my face, but I don't think that came over the phone too well.... what with the engine noise and all.

After stopping for gas the first time, I figured out the sequence of buttons to hit on the remote that will set off the car alarm, and noted that I should never do that again. Then on the second stop for gas, deep in the hills of the Appalachian mountains, I emptied a jiffy-lube. Every employee and customer came over to the gas station with cell phones clicking away asking the "what is that", "who make a lotus". "what does that cost"… I looked at it as the hazing anyone gets when joining a fraternity. Then I also got the fart can thunderbird wanting to race me. I tell you all this because I'm the kind of guy that does not seek attention. I like to fly under the radar. Was the fact that I just bought a red-neck magnet (Krypton Green at that) getting me down? Nope… Same $#% eating grin! Was the stiff suspension getting to my back? Nope… Loving every twist, turn, bump, and the few stoplights were pure joy.

Anyway, I was so infected with the dreaded Lotus 'gotta have it' disease that I stopped for fuel and piss breaks only.

I made it home in time for dinner, and then strongly considered turning back to do it again the next day.

[Bill4le]

Thanks for all the stories!!!

[dickedup]

Originally Posted by delise

Here is a Blog you might have fun reading, good picts too - a group of Elise go on a cross country east/west coast and back roadtrip ( not me )

Welcome

Total distance: ~8125 miles
Total fuel: 267.4 gallons
Cumulative fuel economy: 30.4 mpg
Max mpg:

Planning Elise adventure

However Chase still holds claim to being the very first nutty Buzzer driver to push that envelope.

[looney]

Driving across Australia in an Elise

[loki]

Over 5,000 miles with my wife! onboard. San Francisco to Vancouver BC, around BC, cross Canada to Winnipeg, Manitoba then back across the US (Rockies and Sierras) to San Fran. Wife and I still married and car still runs with 51,000 miles and 95 track dates. The car was quite comfortable to drive and wife says it was more comfortable to drive in than BMW M Roadster that proceeded it. Plus she was applauded every time she entered and exited the car. Mostly good main highways, rough off the beaten path though. Not an offroad vehicle.

[LotinElite]

Picked it up in Berryville, VA. Drove to Virginia Beach, VA. 230 miles

A few days later from Virginia Beach to Saratoga Springs, NY. 530 miles

Had to move around a bit in the seat. Ended up sitting on a sweater. Wasn't bad at all.

[FLuXeXigeS]

from my house to the Valley to Hearst Castle and back

[DeanG]

I have had a few long trips.

1989 – 500 miles - Connecticut to Virginia - 1967 Elan FHC
1991 – 400 miles – Sunday drive - 1967 Elan FHC
1997 - ??? miles - Virginia to Ohio and back for LOG 17 - 1967 Elan FHC
2004 – 9600 miles - Virginia to LOG 24 in Alabama then visiting national parks as we meandered our way to California and back - 1991 Elan (M100)
2007 – 5000 miles - Virginia to LOG 28 in Colorado via Utah, Idaho, Montana, North Dakota … and back - 1991 Elan (M100)

Anything under 400 miles in the 1967 or 1,500 miles in the M100 isn’t much of a trip. I still stand in aw of Bill B. for his roundtrip from upstate NY to Atlanta and back in a Seven series 2.