Monaco 2012 ?

[Leigh]

Kaz and I set off from Oxford to Portsmouth to Caen to the Le Mans circuit to Saumur on the Loire; a very wet journey on Monday/Tuesday 7/8 May. Then sunny journeys down through the Dordogne valley, across the spectacular Millau Viaduct, Montpellier, Nimes, across the Carmargue salt marshes with its flamingoes, to Marseilles Airport on Friday morning to pick up two petrolhead chums. So, four-up along the Cote d'Azur, past Cannes, through Nice (Promenade des Anglais) then into Monaco from the Italian side to avoid the traffic (and photo the car in Italy!).

The Elite spent most of last weekend in the Columbus Hotel car park while we watched the Monaco Historique GP, we met Dave Excell with his Esprit, and Ian and John (both former Elite owners) racing their Lotus 18. Hot weather, with a thunderstorm to add spice to the final 1970s F1 race. Classic Team Lotus did very well, look out for their reports soon. We took the Elite four-up around the circuit one night then again the day after the racing, just two-up this time, and even got it into the harbourside paddock at the exact spot it was photographed at the 1980 GP when it was owned by the Essex Lotus F1 team.

This Monday, the two of us started the return trip via the Alpes Maritime and the spectacular Gorges du Verdon, Rhone Valley, Burgundy wine region, Champagne region, and the Reims circuit remains. Then across the border into Belgium for the great Ypres Lotus Day yesterday, 123 cars, mostly modern, following set routes around the countryside. Finally, onto Calais and back to Oxford last night.

Only one slight technical hiccup, our exhaust started blowing from a broken weld on the downpipe flange from the manifold, possibly caused by grounding the exhaust on a particularly nasty speed cushion near Nimes a few days earlier. But within 30 minutes of hearing a sudden increasingly loud exhaust note and rattle on the Autoroute near Orange, we had found a specialist exhaust welder who did a great job while we waited!

No other problems whatsoever, 2,200 miles in 10 days, 27mpg overall, despite lots of twisty mountain roads, congested Monaco and Nice roads (four-up with luggage, 28 degrees C weather) blats around circuits at Le Mans, Monaco and Reims and 70mph averages on the Autoroutes. What a car!

Will post a link to some photos sometime.

[amarshall]

<sigh> I hope you can feel the envy emanating from here!

[Lotus-e-Clan]

Yes yes yes yes!

We need MORE posts like this instead of pointless moaning about Excel values!

Great post!

[alanmoss]

Brilliant Leigh. Sounds wonderful. Well done.

[shaunw]

I'm not jealous This is what owning a Lotus should be all about, driving on great roads with friends

Shaun

[Leigh]

For those interested in a few pictures (!), the link below should take you to a public file containing 80 pics of the ‘Lotus Elite to Monaco’, and when you click on the first image it should open in a gallery format (alphabetical order, not chronological, name of pic bottom left of each page).

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/jdftfk2qicll ... o%20Monaco

[Emmerg]

lovely photos Leigh - car looked great. photo no. 2 particularly cool.

[amarshall]

lovely photos Leigh - car looked great. photo no. 2 particularly cool.

Agreed - looks like a great outing, in spite of the weather.

[Lotus-e-Clan]

I really like your Elite. Much nicer looking than my old Black 76 501. If I were to have another it would be an S2.2 in the same colour and same wheels as yours ...it's a beauty!

[chrisw2811]

Hi Leigh, what a great trip! Fantastic pictures and your car looks brilliant.