I suppose I've been somewhat remiss in not reporting on LOG 42 in Knoxville before now but my excuse is that it was a mix of good and bad happenstances and the bad ones had been weighing on me.
First among them is the bad. I was not able to drive my car and I was not going to trailer it. Been there. Done that. Not doing it again. The story behind this is too involved to go into here but one factor was that I had not been able to find one of the bearings for my transaxle. A buddy and I had planned to go in my Europa and when that wasn't going to happen, we cancelled our hotel reservations and inquired about getting any refund that might be available from the LOG. The answer was we shouldn't expect any refunds. With that, my buddy and I changed our minds again and decided to go after all.
Other than the lack of financial incentives, one of the reasons I changed my mind was a good happenstance: David Hobbs was going to be the featured speaker. The featured speakers have been good at all the LOGs I've attended but David Hobbs, the famous race driver and TV racing commentator, would in my view be a cut above.
After getting our registration packet - this time in a really nice nylon zipper tool bag which was also a cut above previous LOGs - the first real event was the reception that evening. Waiting in line for a drink before the Friday night reception, we saw David Hobbs talking to a couple of people. Surely they are organizers from Lotus Ltd. or some other influential organization or business. You know, somebody worth talking to. Also while waiting in line, I happened upon our own Certified Lotus! He hadn't come with a car this year - in fact, he was out of the Lotus business at the moment but that might be temporary! We'll have to wait and see. We discussed my recent problems with my car and how he's living the good life on a lake in Georgia. When the ballroom opened for the reception, we grabbed a table and who should sit with Certified me and several others but Mr. David Hobbs himself! Over heavy hors d'oeuvres David discussed some of the politics and influence of money on Formula One today. Certified chimed in with the news that at Caesars Palace, you and a handful of your friends can watch the Formula One race in Las Vegas later this year for a mere $5M!
On Saturday morning, the formation of all the Loti for the casual concours and panoramic pictures was staged. I was disappointed at the number of cars (there seemed to be a lot fewer than at West Virginia last year) and even more disappointed in the number of Europas (I believe there were three TCs and two S2s in all). There did seem to be an outsized contingent of V8 Esprits which I thought was nice. There was one beautiful Elite (Type 14), some Elans, a couple of Sevens, and, an aluminum Lotus 6 (I think it was. Please correct me if I am wrong.). Of course, there was a large contingent of Elises, Exiges, and Evoras.
We had a nice lunch with a family who had brought their Lotus Elite (type 14) that the father had from new. Unfortunately, their fuel pump failed and the car couldn't make it to the LOG.
Later, back at the hotel, there were some "tech sessions." The one that interested me was given by David Simkin and Tony Vaccaro's son (his first name escapes me - it's hell getting old! FYI, Tony is one of the very earliest Lotus Ltd. members and has been president occasionally.). Both are Lotus employees, David in the technical side and Vaccaro Jr on the sales side. After about an hour of talk about when the new cars would be dispersed to dealers, the efforts to get new dealers, etc. the discussions about the new cars died down a bit and asked David Simkin if there was some line of supply for the cars that rely on non-Lotus parts such as Europa and Esprit transaxles (hopefully that might be helpful in finding my bearing!). He said there wasn't but when the session was over a gentleman came up to me and said I should talk to a friend who lives in Canada. He said that he was very experienced with the Renault Europa trannies and would likely be able to help. The chance of meeting such a person was another reason why I decided to go to the LOG! So that was great news!
Saturday evening brought the highlight of the LOG, the banquet which includes the results for the casual concours and silent auctions that had been held, a charity auction for a museum dedicated to a WWII bomber group that was near Hethel, David Hobbs' talk, and the announcement of the location of the next LOG. Just prior to the banquet David Hobbs was going to sign copies of his book to those who wanted to buy one. Unfortunately, David only had two with him but took contact information for those interested in his book so he could send them out later. I took the opportunity to talk with him for a bit. He was a very personable guy who had absolutely no problem talking to anybody how had anything to say to him. We briefly discussed the difference that safety and money made in Formula One and Can Am. He was a delightful gentleman.
The ballroom for the banquet opened and we headed for the food line. After some announcements and comments, it was Mr. Hobbs turn to regale us with stories about how he got into racing and other racing stories. It was clear that he loves to tell stories as he remembered some of the smallest details of them! The awards were handed out, the auction raised a fair amount of money for the museum. One of the items that was auctioned was a bottle of Andretti wine from Mario's vineyards that was autographed by Mario himself!
The last announcement of the evening was that the next LOG was going to be in Austin, Texas! With the Formula One track, Circuit of the Americas, near by and the great Texas food, that should be a great event. Unfortunately, that's several bridges too far for me so I'll just hope the next one will be nearer.
My buddy and I left after the banquet ended getting home early Sunday morning. In spite of some disappointments, it was a great weekend! We got to talk to a famous race car driver, we saw some great Loti, we ate some good food, and I might have found someone who can get me my bearing!
Post Script: While talking with David Hobbs before the banquet, he gave me his email address. While I was trying to think of something to say in an email besides just thanking him for coming to our LOG, I received an email from him saying if we were still interested in his book to reply with shipping and credit card information and any note on how to sign the book. Alternatively, he provided his phone number if we didn't want to send credit card numbers via email. Well, a couple of days went by while I tried to think of something clever and failed, I just called him anyway. We had a delightful conversation fir about ten minutes about things like Road America and Wisconsin (where he and his wife) and New Orleans (where I'm from and he had visited amd where we agreed that one should not visit during the summer!).
