Thumbs up!

[Kaliuzhkin]

We already have a thread on funny/stupid remarks made about our voitures. However, for every kid who asks how we made enough money to buy the Lotus, there's a kid, all excited about seeing the magnificant car and eager to tell his parents all about it.

We love our cars but so does our community. We brighten things up with our cars. At least once every drive, I hear someone express admiration of my Elise. Tonight, in the supermarket parking lot, the driver of the car parked next to mine gave me a thumbs up. Yesterday, I heard some guys discussing the car and the last thing I heard was "It's a f**kin' Lotus."

(I have never seen another Lotus in Queens. Lots of Jaguars but no Lotus. Is there another owner here?)

This thread is to emphasize the positive. What positive/admiring remarks have you overheard or were directed at you?

[lotusforsale]

Originally Posted by Kaliuzhkin

(I have never seen another Lotus in Queens. Lots of Jaguars but no Lotus. Is there another owner here?)

This thread is to emphasize the positive. What positive/admiring remarks have you overheard or were directed at you?

Yes, but have you ever seen a Queen in a Lotus?

Seriously, one thing I've been cognizant of with this car is to not mentally transfer the admiration of the car to me, as a person. The car does not make me a better or worse person.

Most people admiring the car, whether taking cell phone pix while driving by, looking at it at a car show, or approaching it in a parking lot are fixated on the car. They couldn't care less who is driving.

I'm at best just a vehicle for information. Kind of like the button you push at a museum exhibit for audio information/explanation.That's what I see my role to be. Some want to know what 'I' do to afford such a car, but in general these are people to whom I'd be utterly invisible while in my daily driver.

When I do get a chance to actually talk to interested folks, I like to tell them about Lotus, most know nothing of the marque. The 7 F1 championships. The first rear engined car to win Indy. The car that pioneered sponsorship decals and paint jobs (not so good) and ground effects and active suspension. The many name drivers: Hill, Walker, Fittipaldi, Andretti, Clark, Bundy, Senna, Mansell, on and on.

I actually have on of the World Champion Constructors badges from an old Europa I've owned stuck inside the car.

The cool thing is meeting people who have solide or tangential relationships to Lotus.

A few years ago, when I was collecting slot cars, I advertised in Lotus Remarque that I was buying. A guy from Ohio called and said he had a ton of stuff from the '60's, and he'd send to me for $50 total, just to cover shipping. He was dying of cancer, wanted his old slots to go to a Lotus enhusiast. He proceeded to tell me about the GENUINE Shelby 289 Cobra and 427 Cobras he's owned, in addition to his various Lotus. What he sent me, slot-car wise, was of tremendous vintage value.

More recently, I met a guy who owned one of those Dodges Shadows with a Lotus engine, and just last year sold it at Carlisle. I"ve been a Lotus student, but had little knowledge of that car.

Long winded way of saying...we're just stewards, keepers, of a little bit of classic automotive history.

[Bavarian Motorist]

I enjoy pleasing people with the car. I'll give a ride, stop and talk about it, whatever. I even tell people the real value of the car in hopes they might go and buy one. Fat chance, but ya never know.

I know it's not about me, and I hang out around enough exotic car owners to be very humble because their possessions put mine to shame. That's not the point. The point is it makes people happy and if I can facilitate that, why shouldn't I?

[FLuXeXigeS]

bunch of the kids in my 'hood, always a double take either followed by a wave/thumbs up, or they point at it to show their other friends or parents when i drive by

and in drive thru's 99% of the time reactions are positive and the window guy always calls the rest of the shift members to show them the car sitting in the drive thru window LOL