2009 EURO Auto Festival Oct. 16-18

[gomper71]

For anyone interested the The 2009 Euro Auto Festival will be held October 16-18 at the BMW Zentrum located next to the BMW Manufacturing Co. on I-85, between Greenville and Spartanburg, South Carolina. I was told the number of cars is limited to 500 entries and they always meet the limit. The car show is on Saturday the 17th. I have never been, but it looks like it might be worth checking out. An Elan M-100 took first in class last year. For anyone within a couple hours drive it might be a nice road trip.

[DeanG]

It was a good event (great except for the weather an lack of Lotus participation). We were there with our 1958 Lotus Seven series 1. Other than our Lotus I saw 3 Elise in the show, 1 Esprit, 1 M100. There was an Elise & Exige in the parking lot. I spoke to about half the people attending with a Lotus. I never got to meet the M100 guy (I guess that is you gomper71). The M100 was an exceptionally nice car; red, 12K miles, good wheels...

There was an interesting mix of cars. A very good turnout of Morgans and BMW 8 series. The Mini's were fewer than I expected. It was nice to see some oddities. I never new that Vespa made a car.

A The hotel was very nice, dinner was good, breakfast very good. Inexpensive food and beer at the show. I spent $20 and had 3 autoX runs in a BMW 135. Next year the event president promised to have the additional driving/track events. We attended with our M100 in 2005 or 2006. I did the track events: rat race Z3 on a wet skid pad, autoX with a 3 series, wet/dry autoX layout in a 3 series, track laps in 5, 6 & 7 series cars. Next year we intend to take the M100 again. It is much easier than towing the Seven.

[gomper71]

Yes, that is my M-100. I did not stay at the car much with the rain and cool weather and wanting to see other cars. I got there late because I caravaned down with some other car club members. I wish they had put all the Lotuses together. I was down with the VW's. I believe I also saw a green Exige. I did not do the track events, but it sounds like fun. It is not everyday I get to see Ferrari's, Lamborghini's and some really nice old Jag XK's. I'll look for you next year.
Tom

[DeanG]

I thought that your car's paint looked very good and very red. Ours has faded in places. The hatch for the hood is the telling area.

I met about half of the lotus owners that were there. I ended up parked next to two Elise so I was able to talk to those folks. I also got to meet the Esprit's owner and talk with him. He has had the Esprit about a year and has done extensive work to get it running. I'm sorry we missed each other. I would have liked to take a detailed look at your car. According to the event chairman the problem was that until that morning they thought the cars could be parked on the lawn. They moved me twice in an attempt to get all the Lotus cars together.

I hand intended to hand out reMarque magazines to promote Lotus Ltd and the Lotus Owners Gathering (LOG) that is scheduled for Gettysburg, October 2010. I forgot the magazines in the trailer and it was a long walk to go around the autoX area. So please consider LOG next year. I will be posting something about soon.