Iome

This is already a month old photo. And just a every day life photo from a shopping mall parking lot. But I like it how Elite stands next to more ordinary cars like Mondeo or Leon here. Happy new year everybody!

I have two, and I think there should be two of them. The manual says: "Solenoid valves are positioned adjacent to each headlamp operating cylinder."

I'm running for the Finnish parliament from Pirate Party. We have election on April 19th. Here's my Elite with pirate flags. I might keep the flags even after the elections because I like how they look.

Tocus: If I could have chosen, I would have taken LHD car. But there are not many cars for sale and this was right time and right price. And there are cons and pros. For an exotic car, RHD increases the exotic feeling here in LHD country. In practice there's very little difference if a car is LHD or RHD, when one gets used to it. And an update for the status of the car. It's now registered in Finland and has Finnish registration plates.

Tänne palstalle varmaan saa suomeksikin kirjoitella? Ajattelin laittaa tällaisen moikkaviestin, kun tänään sain vihdoin rekisterikilvet autoon minkä hain vähän aiemmin Englannista. Auton hakemisesta oli juttua tuolla englanninkielisellä puolella: http://www.thelotusforums.com/forums/topic/71618-how-to-survive-a-2000-mile-journey-with-a-newly-acquired-elite/ Autoon riitti tosiaan uudet lamput hakea kaupasta ja meni sillä Suomen rekisteriin. Löytyi hintaan 16 euroa (!) kappale sopivat pyöreät lamput lähikaupasta. Vähän pulleammat kuin alkuperäiset, mutta sopivat kuitenkin. Että tällainen on sitten nyt Suomessa. Ilmoittaudun etukäteen mukaan, jos on Lotus-miittejä kesällä luvassa! (ei ole edestä kuvaa, kun en viitsinyt ottaa ulos autotallista, kun toinen auton on edessä, mutta tuossa edellisessä linkissä oli jotain kuviakin)

I hope I can see your Austin sometime sometime. My father suggested me that I should have bought a Rolls-Royce, but that doesn't really fit in to my small garage. So I did consider Austin Allegro Vanden Plas for a while. They are so adorable with their Rolls-Royce type front grilles, leather seats with piknic tables etc. http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b9/Vanden_Plas_1500_1977.jpg/800px-Vanden_Plas_1500_1977.jpg http://www.pembrokeshireclassicinvestments.co.uk/uploaded/images/alleg%20reartables.jpg

One hero, maybe the biggest, must be Mel from MPH Autocentre, Lydney, who sold me this car. Very modest person who sold me a better car than was to be expected by the eBay ad. Especially that I've heard bad stories about buying cars from UK, warnings not to trust dealers there. But it's probably near big cities where dubious car dealers operate? And Lydney was a nice small town far from cities. For example one could have read the emissions in the ad that it almost failed. But in the test report CO 0,30% (limit <= 4,5%) and HC 561 PPM (limit <= 1200 PPM) so passed with wide margin. What I'm going to do next with the car? First I need to make sure it passes the registration inspection which is like MOT inspection. I would like to do full restoration but I have some other projects and children too, so it's not going to happen quickly. During this summer I would like to check it mechanically, steering, suspension etc, so that it'll be a good to drive. Also heating would be nice, for the engine and for passengers... We have some historic car meetings here and I think it would be nice to present this genuine eBay find there before the restoration. It's possible to register car as a historic car and get lower taxes, but they are quite strict with originality and quality of restoration so I must find out if what is required for that. I don't want to make it look like a new because it's an old car and I think it should look like it has had some history. And one of the first things is to document the car. I'm going to take many photos, maybe put up a website for this project. My garage is very small, just for keeping the car safe from weather, so I'll try to find some place to work with the car. I was going to have this as my only car, but not as a daily car since I don't drive daily, not even every week. I was even considering installing a tow bar to help my wife with gardening (like they used to have in the toy car: http://www.chezbois.com/photogallery/photo_large/1929b.JPG). There is one "minor" setback though. When I'm driving in a comfortable seat position, there is no leg room at all behind my seat! See photo below. Notice also that "neck support" is an "upper back support" and not very comfortable as such. I must evaluate if I can use this as a family car after all... We'll see about that too. Also notice I'm wearing a so called ice fishing suit while driving, as there is really no heating.

This is where we started with empty street. Now I'm finally here with my Elite: Traveling through Finland car lost power just once. I was overtaking a truck in a motorway, quite steady cruising speed, maybe 110 km/h. Before the incident 100 km without problems and then suddenly loosing power and engine died. Luckily again there were no other traffic so it was a safe stop. Didn't start right away but after some time it did. And then ran 100 km more without problem again... So it seems the fuel line was only partial solution. But I have now time to study it... I still don't have winter tires so I'll probably do Finnish registration inspection in March when it's legal to drive without winter tires. Lights probably need to be adjusted for right hand side traffic, but hopefully not much more. Well, when I drove the car in my garage, I tried to adjust side mirrors. Left one turned very nicely but right one just broke off. So that's unattached now. One interesting thing I noticed when I was browsing the papers was that the previous owner really hadn't driven much. He said he had had MOT couple of times so I obviously thought he had driven the car too. Why take the MOT inspection and not drive? But papers show mileage from last MOTs: 2011, 53003 miles 2013, 53004 miles 2015, 53007 miles And it was 53007 when I bought it. So he really hadn't driven almost at all! And now 2000 miles at once. I might have been more scared if I had known this before the trip. I will check my fuel bills maybe tomorrow. But the trip is over now and it went really well. Some troubles to not make it too boring, but nothing too serious. Almost as if it was scripted, like some television motor shows might be. There hasn't been any photo of me so far, so here I am with the car in the harbour of Helsinki:

Have you not seen the recent Patagonia special? James May drove Lotus Esprit and it turned out to be very reliable. Very solid piece of consumer advice for us who consider driving an old car for long distances, as can be seen from my trip with almost no problems. Today I drove through Sweden. I stopped only once to tank some fuel. I've had quite a many fuel stops, since the AA guy told me not to have less than half a tank of gas, so that rust and sediments don't start to move. By the way, I've also added some engine oil, total about 1 liter, in Denmark and now in Sweden. And little bit of power steering oil too. But water has been good all the way. I'll check the fuel receipts when I get back to home. Which is very near now. I decided to take a ferry from Stockholm to Helsinki, so it's not much more than 200 km driving to go. Tomorrow night is -3 degrees, but during day +2, so main roads should be good for summer tires. Next night is -10 degrees and Friday day -3 degrees, so that would have been less good. This morning in Varberg was quite slippery already, icy roads in the dock there.

Yesterday we had lot of fun with Elite, driving from Dortmund to southern Denmark where my father in law lives. Motorways here were much fun, hopping lanes, taking over slow traffic and dodging very fast German cars. No problems. I think it might have been the kink in the fuel line all the time that caused problems. I forgot it after visiting Paul, but in Dover and after that I noticed it had gone worse maybe and I straightened it. And since it has now been working without any problems. Or maybe it's just that the car gets better the more you drive. The hose before and after treatment: I'm heading soon to a ferry to Sweden. It'll be in Sweden tomorrow morning and I'll drive to Stockholm during tomorrow. At evening I take another ferry to Turku, Finland and I'll be there on Thursday morning. It seems there will be good weather, and main roads will be clear of ice. But since the engine is in the front, rear wheels can be quite slippery. Luckily they sell cheap weight near German border and I bought the trunk full of beer. Fits 2 layers nicely, 7 cases of beer and some liquor bottles.

I love this car, no trouble yesterday. I was maybe little lazy, went walking and looking places. But when I finally got to motorways, it's just ran without problems. Well, rearview mirror fell off earlier, but I taped it back, because I really need it. The side mirrors are not very good, small, shaky, and keep turning by themselves. But the rearview mirror is actually much better now. It had very frantic vibrations earlier when glued. Very nervous feeling. But now it shakes slower, feels more relaxed. And as it went dark at evening, I noticed the dashboard lights are very dim. Water temperature is completely dark, you can't see anything. I thought it's okay, since it's been so far. But then there was road work and traffic stopped completely. I got a bit worried when temperature started to rise, but then there was a loud rattle noise when fans started and temp went down again.Not sure if you can hear it but I tried to take a video: Now I'm in Dortmund. I'll continue my trip after worst morning traffic has gone. And I think it's gone already... By the way, this night I stayed in a hostel, but in Dover I slept in the car. Surprisingly convenient.

Yes, maybe I should check the ignition system. In Denmark I have father in law and his friend is a car technician, so only about 1000 km there... I think I take the coastal route so no Ardennes etc. If someone happens to live near my route and would like a visitor, send sms to +358 41 5357676. It's not really about being hot I think, because trouble started just after few miles driving after resting the night. But who knows. It seems to fix itself automatically. And most of the time she behaves very good. The AA Lotus guy really was epic (often used out of context in Internet, but not here). Very mellow guy. Didn't speak much at first. I think he was really communicating with the car, not me. Which is a good decision.

Today Paul took me to the car and the car seemed fine at first. But I got to M3, it stalled again. As earlier, it started again and I drove off the motorway. This time I was a bit worried because there was a loud bang as the engine lost it's power. This time I called ADAC road service, because roads here are so narrow and busy. I was expecting a ride to repair shop, but the AA guy was a former Lotus technician. He gave the engine quick throttle and the engine died. It doesn't always do that and when Paul did this same thing earlier, there wasn't problem. Anyway, the guy blamed the carbs and opened them and gave them a thorough cleaning. Very nice gentleman, had been working with Lotuses 20 years ago, so knew old cars. And it worked better after the treatment. But it did it again few times. Maybe 3-4 times during my trip from Southampton to Dover, where I'm at now. Luckily there was always a safe shoulder on the road. I was quite afraid when there was construction work, narrow road and concrete blocks around, no escape from the lane. Or when I had to take right lane and there were big truck on my left side... But it went fine. Everytime I had to stop, there was a safe place for me. And it started again and ran nicely. If not right away, then after some "cooling". (I don't know if it needs cooling or just few restarts...) Sometime when driving, it gives just a little nod. But when she decides so, power goes down and there is nothing to do but take a stop... But I managed to take a video after it lost power: The video doesn't run well on my computer, but it should show how rpm jumps down when I give throttle. Sound go ups, but rpm down...

Here are some photos from yesterday. Only outside photos of the car: https://plus.google.com/photos/110320522171717586738/albums/6113007090116788753?authkey=CNymj9CyzYjidg Everything went fine, but just after leaving Paul's house near Southampton, the car died on M3. It started again, but didn't run well. I managed to get out from the next junction, but then it died again. I managed to start it again and park it safely. Luckily I wasn't far away from Paul's place and he was very kind to come and see what's the problem. In the photos you can see him checking the fuel pump. There was a kink in the hose, but the main reason was probably that the distributor cap was loose, if I understood correctly. It was getting dark too, so I stayed night at Paul's place and will try again today. Thank you Paul for being super helpful with everything!

My internet data is almost full today, so no photos today. Tomorrow maybe... But I picked up the car today. Nice smell, feels like being on a boat trip, fiberglas resin and gasolin. I've driven maybe 150-200 miles now, small roads and lost in towns too... I don't know exact length, because speedometer and tripmeter stopped working after 67 miles. It's been fun to drive, although steering has a bit clumsy feeling. Maybe it's just old age? It has just passed the MOT. Also lots of rattle and road noise. But nothing that would stop driving so far.