What....you wouldn't put the 'handling by Lotus' Isuzu Impulse, or the 1990 ZR1 Corvette with the Lotus designed engine in the 'other Lotus' category? Years ago, when I had my G Bodied Esprit, I talked my way into an all-GM show because GM USED to own Lotus.
Seriously, even when dividing by 'vintage,' there are now some problems with how folks view it.
Last weekend here at the largest local BCD, they had 2 Lotus classes: up to 1980, and 81 to present. The Esprit guys were not happy about being in class with all the Elise/Exige, and the Elige folks didn't seem too happy in the same class with the Esprits. As it was, in the more recent class...'Special Edition' cars took the top three spots: Jim Clark Esprit 1st (mystifying with that dayglow yellow interior...but the Mario Andretti photo clinched it), Club Racer Exige 2nd (at 20 in the US, one of the most common colors for an Exige:evil
, and an uber-rare roadworthy Essex Esprit 3rd.Then again, there was a guy with a 77 Esprit who wasn't happy his car wasn't in the same class with other Esprits. Blamed me, even though I was simply directing cars to park per the organizer's request. But, with his Buick V8 conversion, not sure where he really belonged.
Most car shows require pre-registrations to establish a class. In other words, if 3 or more Europas pre register, there would be a Europa class.
A lot of folks at last week's show did not pre-register, myself included. If we had done so, there may indeed have been a separate Elige/Exise class.
Were I doing one around here, now, having a good sense of car distribution in the region, I'd break the more recent vintage to M100 and Esprit, and another class for Elise and Exige.
