Ragtops & Roadsters Open House

[2766R]

What an outstanding day (well most of it; more later): perfect weather, plenty of vintage cars (mostly British) and (4) Europas!  First stop was R. D. Enterprises to pick up a couple of things.  Even though they're closed on the weekends Ray said I could stop by as I was going to be in the area.  I was even able to get a few shots of Ray’s Elan.  Doesn't look like much longer to being back on the road.
Ragtops & Roadsters open house was fantastic.  So much eye candy.  Great bunch of people.  And, like I mentioned, (4) Europas.  Unfortunately, I missed taking any pictures of another yellow one built exactly (1) year after mine.  Ragtops has it and the blue one for sale; see:

 http://ragtops.com/gallery/main.php?g2_itemId=18491
 
and:

http://ragtops.com/gallery/main.php?g2_itemId=18551

For all the photos I took see:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/Fpn8PbtpaqzZEvJ47

Did I mention an outstanding day?!  Coming from Long Beach, Long Island, it took me 2.5 hours to get to R. D. Ent. And another 15 minutes to Ragtops.  I left Ragtops at 2pm.  Made the Goethals Bridge in 1.5 hours.  It took another 2+ hours to go 45 miles back to Long Beach.  Yikes!  Stop and go (more stop than go) traffic.  At least I've proved to myself that my Europa is up to the challenge.  No overheating (ambient was only 75 degrees, indicated was between 90 and just under 100 degrees Celsius).  Total mileage for the day was 277.  I'm feeling more confident about taking the Europa to LOG39!
A Preview of some photos:

[Bainford]

Sounds like an excellent day out in the Lotus. Lots of great stuff to see there. You weathered the heavy traffic well, well done. When I first bought my Europa in 2010 I was limiting myself to 100-150 mile day trips, but after a couple of months I was gaining confidence in its reliability. I think I was originally influenced by so many stories online about dreadful unreliability. However I quickly gained confidence in the car, and was soon doing 400-500 mile weekend trips, and some 1000 mile week long trips. In 2013 I drove 2725 miles round trip to LOG33 in Watkins Glen, never missed a beat the entire distance. The longer trips are the ones I enjoy the most, now.

I have since come to find that most stories of unreliability are from owners back in the day, when the cars were new. I think the enthusiast owners who drive them now as vintage cars have a different attitude towards maintenance than owners who drove them when they were newer cars, or perhaps worse, owners who bought their Europas as cheap used cars 8-10 years old.

I'm glad to hear you are gaining confidence in your Europa also. If you haven't been to a LOG, I hope you do make it to LOG39. It's a great weekend of comradery and lots of great Lotus stuff to feast on. There were 13 Europas at LOG33, which was great to see, and it was great to talk to other Europa owners face to face for the first time.