Elise and Esprit cover 2000 miles to attend the West Coast Lotus Meet

[i]by Simpson Balaclava / Sweaty Helmet Racing, Club Lotus Northwest[/i]
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During the Saturday evening dinner at the 2006 West Coast Lotus Meet in Morro Bay, Kiyoshi Hamai, while presenting awards, mentioned that there used to be the day when you dare not drive your Lotus any further than you were willing to walk back home. This was amusing to most of us, but with over 140 people at the meet, many people driving hundreds of miles to attend, it was obvious we were a group of drivers and those old days were gone.
In my first years of Lotus ownership (a 1984 Turbo Esprit bought in 1991), I was always anxious of something failing and being left stranded. Over the years my philosophy has changed with the realization that the more you drive the car, the better it gets. Not only does driving the car keep it in shape, but you find and fix the weak spots and the car gets better. Plus, you have the pleasure of driving it. In the months prior to this meet, I had driven the car regularly, taken the car on several hundred-mile trips, and had numerous things fixed. So it was that I was ready to take my 22 year old Giugiaro styled Turbo Esprit on its longest trip since I’d owned it.

The 2006 WCLM consisted of an optional track day on Thursday, May 18th at Buttonwillow, California (just west of Bakersfield), then Friday through Sunday would be the meet proper at Morro Bay and would include local tours. Club Lotus Northwest would be represented by myself and Mark Velky. Mark and I arranged to meet at a rest stop south of Wilsonville at 10am Wednesday and then began the drive down together; Mark in his green 2005 Elise and me in the Esprit. Also, I had brought a couple FRS radios for us to keep in contact throughout the drive.

For the first day’s driving, our plan was to arrive somewhere south of Redding. The motivating factor to go as far south as possible on the first day was that we wanted to arrive at Buttonwillow raceway early in the afternoon Thursday to watch some racing, see the cars, and talk to people. The trip down I-5 through Oregon gave us our first exposure to a phenomenon that would become commonplace for the entire trip: the lookers. Since Mark and I both like to cruise in the right lane and keep pace with traffic there, what would happen is that faster traffic in the left lane would come up on one of us, wonder “what is that?!”, start pacing and looking from the 7 o’clock position, realize “oh! there’s another one!”, then scoot ahead to pace and look at the other car. Nothing quite gets people’s attention than a Lotus on the road – except [b]two[/b] Lotuses on the road! The reaction we got from people was completely positive and often getting a “thumbs up”. I wouldn’t be surprised if our cars were the subject of many cellphone cameras. Our first fuel stop, in Medford, was also our first exposure to the Standard Gas Station Question which would also become commonplace for the entire trip: “how fast does it go?” “about 150” “what about the other car?” “about 150”.

We got to the Siskiyous by late afternoon. Although I’ve driven the winding, climbing, and descending ribbon of I-5 through these mountains dozens of times, doing it in a Lotus was just effortless and smooth, like a knife through soft butter. Perhaps the highlight of the first day was seeing and going past Mt. Shasta. Here we were, cruising along at speed on a warm sunny spring day in two exotic cars and before us was this awesome landscape. I just had to take a photo of this moment. Entering Shasta county also made me realize just how far we’d come and the day was far from over.

Mark and I had dinner in Red Bluff and, with maps out, made a decision that we needed to be south of Sacramento by the end of the day. The reasoning is that we didn’t want to have to go through Sacramento at rush-hour because that would certainly delay our arrival at the Buttonwillow track. So it was that we continued into the night, the air of central California still warm. Nearing midnight, the traffic just north of Sacramento was heavy. I-5 there is about six lanes wide and all lanes were full, so it was definitely smart to get through here at night. But where to stay for the night? Good fortune was with us and Mark found a Best Western motel in Lodi, about 34 miles south of Sacramento. It was relatively isolated, so there wouldn’t be a lot of late-night arrivals, and to our surprise the motel had a parking garage! We couldn’t’ve found a better place for our cars.

Thursday dawned bright and hot and we were quickly on our way. Going through California’s central valley we got a lot of people looking at our cars, not only because it’s unusual to see two Lotuses in this part of the country, but also because of our out-of-state plates (Mark’s is Oregon, mine is Washington). One funny thing is that in the two days of driving, it seemed to me that half the cars on the road were Nissan Altimas. I started counting them at first, but then gave up. Lunch was in Coalinga, home to the famous Harris Ranch although we didn’t eat there. Being in Coalinga with my Lotus was almost an eerie experience for me. In the 1990’s, I’d frequently drive down to Coalinga to participate in the regional 1000 yard .50 BMG shooting matches there. In those days I felt far from home and would’ve been astonished to know someday I’d drive my Esprit down there.

As we got into the early afternoon the temperature was easily over 100; the sun shining directly into our windscreens gave us a tan that still exists as I write this. Fortunately, Buttonwillow was about an hour away and the track was very easy to find, essentially right off I-5. At the track Lotuses were everywhere: Elans, Europas, Esprits, Elises, and Exiges. Two Exiges in particular stood out: the Cup Car with supercharger (a few lucky people got a ride in this car) and one Exige with blue and orange Gulf livery that captured everyone’s attention. My favorite was an all-silver Exige (the wing and side scoops had been sprayed silver to match). I have a photo of this Exige which is simply surreal: it looks like a 1930’s racing poster and the Exige looks like a weapon built by the Luftwaffe. If I ever get an Exige, it’s going to be all silver like that! Later in the evening our large group of assembled Lotus enthusiasts had a great dinner at a steak house and made plans for Friday’s trip to Morro Bay.

On Friday, those going on the wine tour left Buttonwillow at 7am. Mark and I opted for the back-road run to Morro Bay with Matt, Jenny, Craig, and John, all of Club111 and driving Elises. This drive went through absolutely beautiful scenery along highway 58 towards our lunch stop in Paso Robles. I can attest that in the 22 years between building my Turbo Esprit and these new Elises, Lotus has come a long way. Although I could match the pace of the Elises on the straights and sweepers, on the tight 15-mph turns the heavier and longer Esprit just didn’t have the brakes nor the nimbleness to stay with them. I wonder if anything short of a sport bike can stay with an Elise in the truly twisty stuff.

Just after lunch in Paso Robles we were zipping along towards Nacimiento Lake when I heard a distinct “pop” from my right rear, followed quickly thereafter by a flapping noise. I radioed to the group that I had a tire problem and a few moments later we’d pulled into a turnout to inspect the tire. What I saw was a deflated right rear tire and the sidewall torn completely away. Later I was to learn that a very sharp piece of debris had completely punctured the central tread area of the tire, which deflated it immediately. Fortunately I had my spare tire, but just to make life interesting, we couldn’t get one of the lug nuts off and in the process broke two 17mm sockets. So, we had to call AAA (thank you again, John) to have them come out and remove the wheel. In the meantime, standing by the side of the road, I’d managed to contact Smith Lotus in San Luis Obispo, who referred me to The Tire Store to get the tires needed for my car. I decided to buy four nice new Michelins at a good price rather than have a mismatched set. After this delay of about 45 minutes, I was on my way back to Paso Robles on the spare and the rest of the group continued on their tour. Getting the tires changed took about 90 minutes and, amusingly, I arrived at the Morro Bay Inn just minutes before the group did.

The Morro Bay Inn on Friday afternoon became a Lotus paradise. The Inn is already quite picturesque, being on the bay with a view of moored boats and Morro Rock, surrounded by Eucalyptus and Cypress trees, and being next to a bird sanctuary. It was fun to stand outside the main lobby while sipping a drink, talking to recent arrivals, and watching new arrivals show up in their Lotuses. At the reception, we received a goody bag that was just stuffed with wonderful items such as a car towel, a WCLM mug, T-shirt, pen, and even chocolates! By early evening it was very clear this was a big event and the few guests there that weren’t part of the WCLM were quite surprised at all the Lotus cars in their midst. Going into the reception room, we had time to snack, socialize, and speculate on new Lotus developments. There were also tables set up for selling aftermarket items (primarily for the Elise), Lotus watches, DVD’s, posters, books, and apparel.

Saturday was a day for touring. It was also our first opportunity to inspect the “gifts” received from the neighboring bird sanctuary. I’m not an expert on avian acquisition and targeting methods, but pparently yellow is a favorite color. After the yellow and white polka-dot cars had been washed, we headed north along the coast on 101 and stopped for lunch in Cambria, a nice little town with great places to eat. After lunch, many of us headed north to the Hearst Castle visitor center, assembling a very colorful display of Lotuses in the parking lot. The Hearst Castle tour was far more impressive and interesting than I ever thought it would be; I simply cannot describe this landmark in any manner that would do it justice. If you are ever near San Simeon and have the opportunity to go on one of the Hearst Castle tours (there are several), take it.

After touring all day Saturday, we had the evening banquet to look forward to. From England we had Simon Croft from Lotus and Malcolm Barnett from Lotus Sport and also Colin Price from Lotus Cars USA. There was a great deal of speculation at the banquet about the “Esprit replacement” but, obviously, no one who knew about it could say anything. In addition to the presentation and question-and-answer session, there was an awards ceremony and then a gift drawing – with some surprisingly nice gifts. For the awards ceremony I was hoping to win the long-distance award. Not including the tours, my distance from Vancouver to Buttonwillow and then to Morro Bay was about 964 miles. However, an Elise driver beat that with 1050 miles.

Sunday the 21st brought us cloudy and rainy weather which dampened the concourse event we had at Avila beach, just south of Morro Bay. Most people stayed inside the heated tents, occasionally straying outside to look at the assembled cars. After a lunch at noon, the WCLM for 2006 was officially over and we said goodbye to our new acquaintances. For Mark and me, we headed back north on 101 and this time we had the company of Larry and Joy in a white Elise for as far as San Jose.

One of the most amusing things of the trip (at least from my perspective) happened as the four of us were getting off 101 for a break at Gilroy. Larry and Joy had picked out a Starbucks Coffee shop and, as I was following them through the parking lot, I noticed a red car which had been behind me on the highway and followed me off. After we’d gotten parked, it so happened that the driver of the red car was a cute young woman and she drove over to Mark to ask questions about Lotuses. She says to Mark that she “likes Lotuses, but not your car”. Instead, she liked the older Esprit! So, for 10 minutes we chatted with her, telling her where she could get information on the web and also to how to contact the Golden Gate club. This was very cool. It is also the first time in my 15 years of ownership that I’ve ever known a woman to notice my car.

Mark and I continued northward past Sacramento in the early evening and the weather steadily got worse. We encountered heavy rains (the weather report later that day stated one inch in six hours) and we had to stop under an overpass as the rain was so intense our wipers wouldn’t clear the rain off fast enough to see the road. Around 9pm we stopped in Dunnigan, both to get rooms at a motel and for dinner at Bill & Kathy’s restaurant. Over the last 10 years I’ve been to Bill & Kathy’s dozens of times; on this night it was a welcome sight and the spaghetti dinner was especially good.

Monday morning dawned with a bright blue sunny sky and we left Dunnigan about 10am for the long trip home. At Redding we joined up with, at least in spirit, a beautiful silver BMW M3 whose driver waved at us and which kept us company through the Siskiyous. Mark and I also took advantage of this segment of the trip to take photos of each others cars; that always makes a nice souvenir. We finished the day with a dinner in Corvallis and then parted in Portland; Mark taking I-5 into town and me taking I-205 to Vancouver. It felt good to bring the Esprit back home after such an adventure. In retrospect, I would encourage anyone to make the effort to get their Lotus ready for a trip like this; it is worth it and I would certainly look forward to going on a road trip like this again.

To Club111, the Golden Gate Lotus Club, and all those who made this event possible, I sincerely thank you for making this a wonderful and memorable event.