[ChrisB]

I attended the first meeting of the San Diego & Orange County Lotus Ltd. Club, which is just in the process of being formed. At this point I am not a member of any Lotus club and wanted to get an idea of what this one would be about and who would attend.

The meeting was held at Viking Motorsports in Costa Mesa. I was surprised at both the large number of Esprits in attendance and the few Elises there. I'm guessing about 30 - 35 people were there. If I found them all, there were 19 Esprits, 1 M100 Elan, 1 '66 Elan, 1 Elise S1 Sport 190, 2 Federal Elises and 1 pre-production Fed Elise. These Esprits must be garage queens; I almost never see one on the streets here...and I didn't think to bring a camera! Three other Elisetalkers were there (that I know of).

The meeting was, mostly, just that. Everyone got together, talked car stuff and looked at each other's cars. About the only organized part of it was a sign-up sheet for those potentially interested in joining a club.

 

[peck555]

pictures?

 

[mikester]

It was nice to see a fairly large turnout (Chris - nice as always to see you and Deb !). As Chris said, not a huge Elise turnout though - Ivor was there, and a few other Elisetalkers, it was also cool to check out Harry's Lotus Works-built Europa, very cool car. I forgot to bring my camera, but several people did take photos so maybe some will appear on this or another site...

 

[ChrisB]

pictures?

Pictures from the meeting, lunch afterwards and some from Crystal Cove (earlier that morning?).

http://community.webshots.com/album/212758100ozqWGa

Mike: I didn't notice it at the time, but they got a full shot of the three of us during our connoisseur of fine foods and wines conversation.

Edit: I forgot to mention that Ivor had his new hardtop (they come painted from the factory, not unpainted as rumored), he had removed the LOTUS letters from the back and installed a ROW rear Lotus badge (a couple of the pictures show this). We also got to compare his new air horns to a standard Elise horn. It was louder, though not hugely louder. More importantly, it had a little higher pitch and was much more shrill. A definite mod for me.

 

[ChrisB]

The Sport 190 that was at the meeting, was not Dan's. We were surprised to learn that there was another Nrfolk Mustard Sport 190 in the area. It apears identical to Dan's except it does not have the added second spoiler on the back (as in my avatar). He bought the car in Boston and drove it to CA! In a Sport 190 that had to be a brutal drive.