2544 miles in my new Elan

[Dave M]

On January 5th, I went on a cross-country adventure to get a new Elan. I found a red one in San Francisco that needed some love and a little bit of elbow grease.

http://lotuselancentral.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=8290

It will become a project car to be fixed up, played with, then probably sold, as I really can’t justify two Elans at this stage of life (as much as I want to!). I hadn’t mentioned much about the car on the forum as I wasn’t 100% sure I’d be getting it until I’d seen it. The previous owner was very good about getting me all sorts of pictures and descriptions about the car, and a HUGE thanks to Ekapol who took the time to verify everything, went for a drive in the car, and wrote up a huge description for me on everything he saw. I felt like I knew the car before I saw it in person. I owe you one, Ekapol…thanks SO much! I’ll write more about the car in a project thread as a start work on things, but this is about the fun of a long distance trip.

My wife and I flew out to San Francisco on Friday, did a bit of sightseeing and had a great brunch with some other Elan owners on Saturday.

http://lotuselancentral.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=8658

We then got the car on Sunday. On Monday morning, my wife flew back home while I picked up a friend who had flown into San Francisco on Sunday to help with the big drive home. Because of the possibility running into snow storms in Utah, it was decided that we should take the “southern route” via Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, then back to Michigan. Most driving was along I-40, then northeast along I-55. I have a few pictures at

http://new.photos.yahoo.com/themeyersfa ... 2383956832

Though since a fair amount of the trip was at night, we didn’t take as many as we would have liked. Both my passenger (Brett) and I needed to get back for work, so it became more of quick journey than a sightseeing trip. Nonetheless, we had a ton of fun. I’d do it again in a heartbeat…once my butt stops aching from sitting so long!

Monday, January 8

9:30 am (all times EST) – leave my hotel with 60,233 miles on the clock. I sent my wife home with only a carry-on bag to make her flight easier, so I’m attempting to fit our big clothes bag, my emergency tool kit, and various other small items in the car so Brett has room for his stuff. I begin thinking we’ll need to put things under the hood storage lid and forgo any top-down driving, however after picking up Brett and doing some creative packing, we get everything stowed without much in the passenger compartment.

11:30 am – After picking up Brett, grabbing breakfast and making the “tourist trip” down Lombard Street http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lombard_St ... _Francisco , we head out of town over the Bay Bridge. We are on the lower level of the bridge and visions of the earthquake-collapsed sections from years ago are too fresh in my mind. We drive faster. Lots of traffic through Oakland and San Leandro, but soon we’re on I-5 heading south and let the car stretch its legs. We see one yellow Elise, which oddly turns out to be the only other Lotus spotted on the whole trip.

3:00 pm – Bakersfield, CA and lunch. We stop to get some cleaner and a tire gauge at an auto parts store and are amazed to see how much dirt comes off the steering wheel alone! No wonder it felt a little sticky…ugh. It is finally warm enough here in southern California, so time to put the top down. We know the further east we travel; the less likely we’ll be able to do this. Once we get to Michigan, it’ll be April or May before I can! Driver switch to Brett so I can stretch my right foot a bit. I miss not having cruise control.

6:00 pm – Entering the Mohave Desert. We pass a HUGE wind farm at the Tehachapi Pass. Windmills as far as the eye can see. We have a few in Michigan, but nothing like this. Amazing… We stop for gas and attempt to install the MBC that I’ve brought along, however I think the ball and spring setup isn’t working. The car continues to overboost, so after a few attempts we give up on the thrill of the added power and stick to “stock”. Boy, does the sun feel good!

6:45 pm – We pass Edwards Air Force base. There is an F-16 flying low during one stretch and a few trainers in formation making lazy circles. The history of American flight and the thought of air speed records hang in the haze and make us want to drive faster, but the road is not limited access and is somewhat busy. We’ll act like John Glenn later in the trip. As we leave the area, a strange, twin-prop, black plane circles to the north. Some type of unmanned spy plane test? Hmmm…

8:00 pm – Time for another restroom break and time to put the top up. It’s starting to get dark and cold. We’re getting up in altitude and you can feel it. The heater is struggling to keep up, too. We’ve noticed that the engine temp gauge has been hovering near the bottom mark through most of the drive, but now it doesn’t move. We’re guessing the thermostat is stuck open and make plans for a possible stop the next day somewhere on route to swap it out. We grab our jackets and hats and prepare for what could be a cool night. Driver switch back to me.

10:10 pm – Needles, CA. We stop for dinner after a long stretch. We haven’t been able to find the College Football National Championship game on the radio, so we try to find someplace with a television. Actually, we try to find *anyplace* in Needles, CA with food. We luck out and find a bar with the game on, however it is some sort of bizarre social melting pot. There’s the barmaid 10 years out of Playboy, the 300 pound Mexican with one good eye, a man in glasses who wanders from table to table telling everyone he sees two of everything, the country music line-dancing dude who looks like the Marlboro Man, etc. Good people, great burgers and beer, and loud music at halftime: the last stop in California.

11:30 pm – Arizona arrives in the dark. Shortly thereafter we stop for another break as I’m getting tired and Brett takes over so I can get a little sleep. My third night sleeping in an Elan. It isn’t any more comfortable than the first two.

Tuesday, January 9

1:30 am – Brett is getting tired so we switch again. Dubbed the “werewolf stop”, we exit somewhere in pitch black darkness, surrounded by woods. Without any nearby light sources, I’ve never seen stars go brilliant. Despite the cold, we just stand there and stare at the gorgeous sky. The stars are so bright even on the horizon that you can make out the mountains nearby. This was one regret of the trip: that we couldn’t see more through this stretch of the Rockies. The pictures would have been fantastic! I’ll come back another time for sure.

2:30 am – We pass a sign for Meteor Crater. http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/images/meteorcrater.html I’m tempted to stop, but I’m not sure how far off the road it is. Plus it won’t be light for hours. It’s so dark out here, the crater could be right in front of you and you couldn’t see it. Another place to come back to…

4:00 am – Gas in the high desert and it is cold outside! The temp is probably around 20 degrees and it’s a long way from Bakersfield with the top down.

5:00 am – We crest a hill coming into Albuquerque. It is absolutely beautiful. The same sort of view you get coming into a large city at night on an airplane, except we’re in a car coming down from the mountains. City lights almost as far as the eye can see. Very cool.

9:00 am – Outside of Santa Rosa, NM. We stop for gas as the sun comes up over the prairie. As I’m standing at the pump I get an idea that beats the thought of spending the day hunting down a thermostat and then installing it in the cold: Bags. Burger King and McDonalds ARE good for something…their bags. A few requisitioned from the trash and stuffed in the radiator opening and we’re off. One mile down the road and we’ve got lovely heat! A few slight adjustments as the trip goes on and we keep the temp gauge right at the ¼ mark. MacGyver, baby.

11:00 am – We’re in Texas and feel like we could get out and walk faster. So far the speed limit has been 75 mph through Arizona and New Mexico. We’ve been doing a fair bit more than that and now we hit Texas where the limit is 65 and police are EVERYWHERE. Thankfully we won’t be here long! One of the weirdest moments of the trip is driving into Amarillo – we are cruising along low hills and flat plains when we come up over a rise and drive right into suburban hell. Chain restaurants and strip malls out of nowhere. Weird. Although we did see the Big Texan Steak Ranch. Home of the “free” 72 oz. steak (if you can eat it all). www.bigtexan.com. We might have stopped had it been a little later in the day…

[Dave M]

12:30 pm – Everything IS bigger in Texas. In Groom, TX we pass the largest cross in the Western Hemisphere. We’ve turned on the Blue Collar Comedy channel on the Sirius radio because it seems like the right thing to do. Especially when tumbleweeds are rolling across the highway.

3:15 pm – After lunch we finally get out of Texas and into Oklahoma, but not without one final police sighting. No kidding, within view of the state line, some poor dude was pulled over. Revenue generation is alive and well in the Lone Star State. Hopefully your area is a little less patrolled, Doc!

9:45 pm – We cross into Missouri. We stopped a few times in Oklahoma, but I don’t really remember much about the state – we don’t even have any notes about it. I remember skirting around Oklahoma City wondering where the tornado hit downtown a few years back and hauling tail on the north side of Tulsa with fast traffic, but that’s it. We must have been getting tired.

11:00 pm – We get to the north side of Springfield, MO and meet up with a wonderful couple Brett knows. They’ve been good enough to put us up for the night and a bed feels great. My butt is quite sore. I don’t remember the stock seats being so uncomfortable, but then again I’ve never spent 41 hours straight in them before.

Wednesday, January 10

7:30 am – The clear skies we have been blessed with make for some very cold mornings. It’s only about 15-20 F, but in Michigan we really haven’t had winter yet. So my blood isn’t thick yet and I’m still a wuss about the cold. The Elan isn’t, thank goodness and starts on the first crank despite being covered in frost. We have a quick cup of coffee while the car warms and then head northeast once again with the heater on high and thanking Burger King and McDonalds for the lovely bags.

10:00 am – About 45 minutes outside of St. Louis we start to see the first clouds of the trip. We thank God for such a beautiful trip weather-wise. A week before and Highway 40 was shut down in New Mexico from a freak snowstorm. A few days after our trip, Texas, Oklahoma, and Missouri got hit with an ice storm. Here we are seeing clouds for the first time after 2,000 miles!

11:00 am – Downtown St. Louis. After a failed attempt in East Saint Louis, IL trying to get a clear picture of the Elan with Gateway Arch and the Mississippi River in the background, we go back across the river and give ourselves a break stopping at the base of the Arch. For those who haven’t seen it, you should. I’ve been up in it years before, but to stand at the base with the Mississippi River right across the street is pretty amazing. Traffic is incredibly light and we park the car right in front of the Arch for some photos. No one seems to care as we run around getting different pictures and stretching our legs. I have one pic where it is just the car and the stairway to the Arch in the background. I wanted to get the Arch in the picture too, but the bases are too far apart – the thing is huge! I’d have needed to be about 1/3 the way across the River to get it in frame.

2:30 pm – Even though the police in Illinois are trying to keep up with the Texans, we find spots here and there to let the car breathe a little. We’re getting close to home now and our right feet are getting heavy again. Just north of Urbana, IL we stop for gas and a driver change and I’m the pilot again. After getting back on the highway I see a group of four cars coming up on us quickly, so I get on the gas to tuck in with them. “Tuck in” means match their speed of 100+ mph in this case. As we wait for the last car to go by in the passing lane we look over to see who might be driving this quickly and are greeted with the sight that will be the funniest moment of the trip and a memory to joke about for years. The car is nothing out of the ordinary, a brownish Pontiac G6 GT, however the driver is a 65+ year old woman. She has one hand on the wheel, then very slowly raises a cigarette with her other hand to take a puff. At 110 mph. A nice, calm puff. It was done so casually that she would have looked more at home sitting on a park bench. A bit scary, yes…but it hits us as so funny we don’t get over to the other lane and chase for about 30 seconds we’re laughing so hard. By that time the group has advanced and it takes a bit to catch up. Brett gets a quick pic of the speedo as we’re in pursuit. We run between 90-110 for about 20 minutes in light traffic following the group until I get thinking about the 4 cars ahead (silver, white, grey, and brown), and the screaming red Elan behind. I realize who is getting pulled over if this group is clocked by the police and decide to back off a bit – however now even 75 mph seems slow!

3:30 pm – After taking a few country roads to avoid the toll road backups in the Chicago area, we get to the Indiana state line. One more state to go… From a fun standpoint, these are some of the best roads we’ve been on. Winding over hills and around sweeping corners, two lane side roads sure beat the Interstate. Too bad we both needed to get back to work – we could have found a lot more of these twisties.

4:30 pm – We are finally in the home stretch…we enter Michigan in the far southwestern corner of the state. As always, we are astounded at how bad the roads are here in Michigan after traveling so far on smoother roads. For the Interstate to be this bumpy is inexcusable. Hopefully the State gets its budget in order soon so they have a little more money to fix a few potholes. Nonetheless we head north along Lake Michigan and see a brilliant orange and red sunset as a finishing touch to our trip.

6:30 pm – 2544 miles behind us and the new car is home. We are greeted by our families, a great dinner, and beer. Finally we can have a good drink and not worry about getting into the car right away. Mmmm. I can’t speak for Brett, but other than a sore rear end, I really feel pretty good. I don’t think I could have turned around and headed back to California that evening, but I had a lot more miles left in me. Maybe a nice hot shower first, though!

All in all it was an amazing trip. We didn’t do a true coast-to-coast, but had we taken I-80 straight across, we were only about 400 miles short. The car ran beautifully outside of the thermostat issue. One interesting note was the fact that we averaged about 30 mpg at an average speed of 75 mph. It dropped to about 28 mpg when the speed was around 80. Not bad at all. However when the thermostat was an issue and the car was running unusually cold, we averaged 4 mpg less at the same speeds.

If you have some time and the desire, I highly recommend some quality time like this in your Elan. It reminds you what a wonderful and competent car it really is despite its age. It’s not the perfect cross-country car by any means, but it does a pretty darn good job eating up the miles and *is* the car you want when you find that nice, quiet two-lane road to nowhere. Leave yourself enough time to take those roads and you’ll have a smile on your face for a long time.

[theelanman]

thats a lot of reading for a pi$$ed up insombniac!!!!!!
yeah and I cant spell either.........
hic!!!!!

[theelanman]

sorry should also have have said 'good read'
sounds like a great road trip.........
whats next???....emulating costas and his trip to donny...!!!!
smiles per mile..........wins every time!!!!

[Sy V]

I refer the author to Monday 6:45PM, second sentence.

Well done Dave, you get today's prize for including 'American'and 'history' in the same sentence!

Joking apart; that's a wonderful write-up and the scenery is something very special. Well done mate.

[Doug]

[Ekapol]

Another story to tell how reliable our Elans are.

Reminding me about last time it took me 3 days from Connecticut back to San Francisco - one driver, one passenger. I did all the driving. Weird that after 2 days you kinda feel the seat is a part of you and your fingers reach is right at the front bumper, cruising at 100-110 mph for really long time.

That was in my Subaru SUV. Perhaps that's why I don't recall smiling too much

Nice write-up Dave

[Dave M]

Brett just sent me a few pics and I forgot this one was in there. See the Jan 10th, 2:30 pm post above.

Oh, and of course this was done on a racetrack under controlled conditions.

I'll be pulling the windshield washer fluid bulb shortly...

[Ekapol]

Oh, and of course this was done on a racetrack under controlled conditions.

[Doug]

I'll be pulling the windshield washer fluid bulb shortly...

I was just about to ask what that light was for on the extreme left as I never recall seeing it

then now I remember that is why I pulled the wiring off the washer bottle connector shortly after getting the car (as the slosh effect would make the light come on and off)

so no need to pull the bulb, just remove the 2 wire connector.

I showed this to Ekapol, but since he is here it will be a reminder to him -- well, then I had even pulled the wipers off the car so who needed washer jets??

[Ekapol]

Yes, I remember you told me Doug. The connector is still out. I don't need a reminder for the windshield wiper fluid. Please let me know if you remember the other stuff you pulled out

The temp gauge looks pretty high for that speed. Was it a pretty hot day on the track Dave?

[Doug]

i think he mentioned the thermostat may be stuck a bit closed in this or the other thread -- i would agree that may be the case with the temp gauge there at that speed (unless that's after you put the whopper bag in the front grille??)

[Dave M]

I showed this to Ekapol, but since he is here it will be a reminder to him -- well, then I had even pulled the wipers off the car so who needed washer jets??

Hey - I hadn't even thought of that, but there's another weight savings for the white Elan. Wiper motor and everything! I've pulled the entire washer fluid system out of the car anyway. Though I may have to consider driving in the wet at times...hmmmm.

[Ekapol]

but there's another weight savings for the white Elan.

These days I don't fill in more than half tank of gas. Keep the washer fluid 1/4 full, driver on beer diet

But then you have to answer those questions at the gas station more often

[Dave M]

(unless that's after you put the whopper bag in the front grille??)

Yep...the bags needed to be "adjusted" for that speed.

[Houdini]

Way to go Dave!

My first Elan I drove from Southern California up through Yellowstone National Park, then Glacier National Park, and then across Montana all the way to Wisconsin and then back again. All together I put 5300 miles on the Elan in one trip. It's an experience I'll never forget and would love to do again sometime. The highlight of the trip was driving through Glacier National Park with the top down and snow flurries gently falling. Incredible to say the least.

If anyone has the chance they should try an extended drive in there Elan. Maybe not 5300 miles like I did, but enough to experience the adventure.

[donsladek]

Dave,

Which car are you driving to LOG in Aspen this year?:-D

Great tale of your adventure!

Don Sladek

[Dave M]

Which car are you driving to LOG in Aspen this year?:-D

The VW EuroVan! (pulling the white Elan on the trailer ) The whole family is coming, so we're taking the comfortable option.

Although when I think about it, I'd spend less on gas if we drove both Elans instead of the thirsty VW pulling a trailer. I'll see if I can talk the wife into that one... I know my boys would be all for it!

[Doug]

Although when I think about it, I'd spend less on gas if we drove both Elans instead of the thirsty VW pulling a trailer. I'll see if I can talk the wife into that one... I know my boys would be all for it!

that'd be one the kids would always remember . . .

[Mike]

Dave- I've been away- too bad work interferes with pleasure. What a great trip you had- thanks for documenting it. It needs to go into ReMarque so I'll give them a heads up so some/all of it can be published. You may win writer of the year at LOG 27!

Your trip proves to me the stock hoses are fine until 75,000 mi based on ECD, with age not significant (unless generations are involved). Since I was the one who started the whole thing about hose replacement, and never got past the discussion stage, I'm emabarrased for lack of follow through- but at least it planted a seed over in England (I presume) leading to development of the silicone hoses that defeat ECD and will last for the life of the car. Here are the rest of my shortcomings you can appreciate, having been in my car, thus not doing justice to my Elan:

1) Installed the Avo's on the front. The back Avo's have been in the trunk of my company car for 9 months
2) Installed the Auto Europe roll bar and safety harness, but no harness bar like yours (the shoulder harness straps are jury-rig wrapped around the roll bar sections)
3) Installed the Everest chip, but the Top End filter w/elbow and the TE Blow off valve are sitting in my utility closet for 2 years. Anyone who says getting the ECU out of and back in the FED car is easy is full of it
4) Purchased a second set of Elan wheels with the Kuhmo 700's but I've never had the opportunity to run them on the track (LOG 26 was a greasy piece of $$%%# due to the rain so I ran my street tires)

Kind of half-ass I'm sorry to say. Now I bought a Mustang for my 15 year old son, so guess where I spend my time now? Hope to see you and the rest of the US crew in Colorado. Maybe I won't be the only one tracking the M100 this time- it was lonely in Texas.

Regards
Mike