LOG27 in Snowmass

[ElanSteve]

I've been informed by the organizers that they will be having 30 minute informal tech sessions during the concours at this year's LOG at Snowmass (August 24th - 27th).

One of these sessions will be dedicated to the M100 Elan. javascript:emoticon(':P')

Therefore I'm inviting anyone who will be attending LOG27 to attend this session. Furthermore if you have something M100 specific you'd like to present, that would be even better. Perhaps a how to on the upgraded shift linkage, musings on the various chip upgrades available, etc etc. You won't have to talk for 30 minutes (unless you want to!) we can have several guys spend, say, 5 minutes each. Or, even if we have no speakers, we can have a Q&A sessions about problems/ solutions, upgrades etc.

Let me know if you're interested in attending this session, and if you'd like to present.

LOG27 website: http://www.log27.com

Thanks,

[DeanG]

Sure. It will be a good chance ask questions and to look at the cars in detail for the answers.

[DeanG]

Emerson Fittipaldi will drive a Lotus 72.

Still track day spots still available.

Lots of Lotus cars in the Auto-X - compete against another Lotus for a change.

Interesting speakers and personalities.

M100 technical session.

[DeanG]

We will be heading out to LOG tomorrow evening (via Virginia, West Virginia, Kentucky, Indiana, Illionoise, Wisconsin, Minnesota, North Dakota, Montana, Wyoming, Idho, Utah, Colorado) hope to see you there.

[Dave M]

We're here! I've been so busy before we left I didn't get much chance to post and see who was coming, but hopefully a number of you will be here. The drive in from Michigan was good (as good as it can be with 7 & 9 year-olds - they were really good considering the distance). We got in Wed late afternoon. The weather is great, the roads are incredible (we came over Independence Pass pulling the trailer! Woo hoo!), and we're in a nice condo down the mountain just a bit from the hotel. We're off whitewater rafting tomorrow, but will catch up with folks at the reception or the tech session on Sat. PM me if you're here and we can meet up - I'll check e-mail once in a while.

[DeanG]

There was a good turnout of M100's.

Very nice roads requiring caution due to the absence of gard rales. We put in a bit over 3200 miles on the drive here. We started having a problem on Thursday with a bad CAS and overheating. We carried a spare CAS and that is fixed with a bit of help from other attendies. Tomorrow we are off to Ferrari of Denver for some work.

Emerson and the 72 were a treat to watch!

[paulrwebster]

Good God! That is equivalent to driving from London to Tehran and then carrying on for another 500 miles! And I baulk at driving from the South Coast of England to Donington

[charliex]

It was good meeting you guys out there, nice to see all the clean M100's there, wish i'd brought mine along but i'm still putting it back together, after seeing dave's plumbing i'm in perfect shape to copy it.

I only got one ticket too !

[DeanG]

Home again after 5,873 miles. Two days in Denver to get a new thermostat and some minor tweeks kept us from seeing and doing some of the things we wanted. Once again we couldn't get dig for diamonds in Arkansas. The museums in Denver are worth a visit. Excellent Native American artifacts in several of the museaums. The cloud formations were spectacular and I finally saw purple mountains magesty.

On the way to LOG we managed to see some of the badlands in N Dakota.

We spent two days in Yellowstone and Grand Teton. Had to stop for a buffalo (bison) in the road. They are big, fast and agile. The parks 40 yard separation rule between tourists and large animals makes perfect sence! We also saw moose (not as rediculous looking as I had anticipated) and an elk. There was a bear cub off the road but we didn't want to leave the car to take a look. We figured moma had to be around and we are both slow runners. Big horn sheep were too far away for us to view successfully with only smak binaculars. At one point we had to drive through steam comming out from a fisher by the side of the road.

Claudia got to tour a marble mine. She had to done the breathing apparatus and all the other safety items.

Stopped at a gost town with some other LOGers. This was the closest we ever were able to get to prairie dogs.

The roads were fun but the lack of guard t is a bit disconcerting. The highest we climed was 10,600'. It was cold and windy. I had to stop and put the top up. It was quite a struggle in the wind and thin air. Watching the boost gage at high altitude and high speed is fun. On steady 80 mph climbs the boost is on and stays on for mile after mile. Max speed recorded on the GPS was 110. Max speed recorded by the poliece was 85.

Speaking of which, the LOG hotel was at 8,800' which makes washing your car an aerobic activity.

Emo drove the 72 for just a few laps. Still it was quite impressive even though he wasn't going very fast. He was close to the track record but with so little time on the track and in the car I guess he took it easy. He certainly didn't want to crash like one Esprit which litteraly flew off the track and throug a tire wall. Certainly the most impressive crash I have ever seen. The driver walked away uninjured. We missed rides in the new 211.

There was a bigger than normal English contigent. Maybe a dozen or so including the Lotus employees and the official Lotus club people (LCI). Two folks from Austrailia were in attendance and a few Canadians.

The next LOG will be in Indianapolis the first week of August 2008. Lets see some other posts from attendies.

[Dave M]

Hi guys! We're back and life is somewhat back to normal after LOG, a holiday weekend, and now the kids getting back to school today. What a great time at the gathering! It's hard to explain how beautiful the Rocky Mountains are in the summer and despite not driving the car very much during the time there (the whole family was along for this LOG), it was great to see everyone and explore the area a bit.

Besides the 3000+ mile round trip and seeing parts of the country I've never seen before, the non-Lotus parts of the trip were lots of fun as well. We took the ski lift up the hill on Thursday, took our time hiking down, and had lunch in a grove of aspens - cool stuff. Friday was whitewater rafting down the Colorado river (the kids' favorite activity). Then on the trip home we stopped in St. Louis to go up in the Arch and sightsee a bit. And no matter what people say, the 400+ miles across Kansas *was* interesting. We were treated to the most impressive lightning display in the distance on Tuesday night and the ability to see until the curvature of the earth takes over is really awesome.

Then there was the Lotus stuff: the car show was fun - mostly because I got to hang out with lots of M100 drivers and see lots of neat mods. Dean and Charlie were there, I was able to meet Algirdas in person for the first time, and it's always great to see Mike from Alabama. Sat afternoon we got to meet Emmo and get a few autographs. I think that was the kids' second favorite thing. It takes a lot to make my boys quiet and they just stood there not really knowing what to say - although they did ask Alain DeCadanet (sp?) who also was signing about the Spitfire video that floats around the internet which they love (minus the expletives at the end). The Sat night dinner was very enjoyable with Alain telling some good stories. From what I can tell, his whole life has been spent merely trying to impress the ladies...how he now gets to drive all these cool cars isn't quite fair. The Sunday autocross was fun, but the course was VERY tight. I don't think anyone got out of first gear! The poor guys in Esprits sure had a handful. We peeked in on the Sunday dinner to hear Emmo a bit but didn't stay as the boys were very tired. Monday's track day was bittersweet - my car developed a loud knocking noise from the engine bay that turned into no power at all. Various trained ears listened and opinions were widely varied...I'm hoping it's only a valve or valves, but much more on that later as my car with be flatbeded to my engine shop this week for inspection. I only got 5-6 laps in for the track day (crap!) in my car, but spent the remainder of the day bumming rides in a few Exige Ss and the wicked fast Lotus 2 Eleven. Seeing Emmo drive in the 72 was also a highlight of any LOG I've been too. Seeing him rip around the track was like being transported back 30+ years. I couldn't help but think of Paul's Elan as the JPS colors went flying by. Despite the engine issues, my day could have been worse as one Esprit lost brakes on the high speed straight and plowed through the tire wall destroying the lower front and breaking up the driver's rear suspension. Even with a new engine rebuild I'll be cheaper than that... The 2 Eleven could use a few curves for it's styling, but otherwise is a great track car. The demo ride was a blast - man, I wish my Elan was anywhere near that light! The Exige S is also a very nice car, though from a seeat-of-the-pants feel, I think my Elan is quicker in a straight line. I never did get up to speed to see how lap times would have compared. There's always next year...

We've downloaded the whole batch of vacation photos including LOG at http://www.flickr.com/photos/dabzmeyers/ so you can skip right to the car stuff if you’d like. You'll see a number of in-car shots of scenery from my oldest (he loves the camera) and quite a few of cars during the autocross (I worked a corner for a while and had a lot of time). No we didn't string the kids up (it was called Euro Bungee), no my car isn’t seriously lowered (it leans THAT MUCH on track), the butterfly is a LONG story, and the plane that buzzed the track day was a Chinese model from WWII.

Come to Indy next year – you’ll love it!

[algirdas]

Dear All:

Check this out!

http://www.kimini.com/Diaries/2007Sept- ... ma%203.jpg

Sincerely,

Algirdas

[Dave M]

Dear All:

Check this out!

Ah...I can smell the mountain air again!

One thing that did bother me a bit: no M100s in the first row of street cars. I don't think that's the first time.

[algirdas]

Dear Dave:

I think we better face the reality that in some Lotus circles, we are viewed as being the poor, pathetic, toothless cousins from Appalachia with our M100s. I think Group Lotus takes fiendish pleasure in telling me that parts for my car are no longer available and why don't you scrap that dinosaur and get yourself an Elise?

Somewhat ironic is the fact that M100s routinely have higher mileages on them than most of the "real" Lotuses. Rumor has it that among those in the know of all things Lotus, they each have an M100 quietly tucked away in the back of the garage behind the V8 Esprits and Exiges.

I guess if you want to be sure you will be able to get home at night. . .

So I think we better stick together, support one another and be content with our back row status for the time being. Remember, it will only be temporary because it is the meek who shall inherit the earth. Then the front row will belong to us!

Asta sends her regards and thanks again for the rides. I'm teasing her that she neds to lose weight since that is what caused your engine failure. She has started a regular routine of beating me everytime I say that. (Just kidding.)

Sincerely,

Algirdas

[DeanG]

The folks at Ferrari of Denver (the Lotus dealer) checked our timing, changed the oil, replaced the thermostat and checked over a few other things for a very reasonable price. They were pleasent when dealing with us.

I am already looking forward to LOG 28 at Indianapolis. Today I spent some time looking at Indi tourist information. I think just being able to drive the M100 on a parade lap or two on the track will be great fun.

If things work out that LOG 29 is in Birmingham we have an M100 owner who who may be able to get us up front in the picture. The tradition has been to showcase the oldest and most historic cars at the front allong with the newest offering from Lotus.

[Mike]

Front row? Hmmm....

Mike from Appalachia