Now this is what we actually came to England for....The big gathering at the Donnington Exposition center. Right next to Donnignton race track. Adjacent to the Donnington Car Museum. We arrived early, about 8:00. The Show wasn't supposed to open until 10:00, but we were there early anyway to see all the cars come rolling in. As it turned out, getting there early worked out great. There were only a few cars parked outside when we parked the van in the non-Lotus lot. Most of the activity was happening at the side entrances of the hall where the vendors and those bringing their cars in to the show were lining up and rolling in. The main entrance was closed, so we weren't supposed to get in until it opened at 10. Did you ever see those old cartoons where the kids try to sneak into the circus tent by walking in backwards? Well, that's basically what we did. We spread out so as not to draw attention and then Rich, Paul, Jack and myself slid inside "nonchalantly". Rich and Paul walked in with some vendors. I walked up in front of a Sunbeam Talbot that was having a hard time keeping the engine running. I walked backwards into the hall as I waved him in. Like I really had to guide in a 5 foot wide car through a 30 foot wide door! Somehow Jack got in also, however it worked, we were in!!! 1 ½ hours before opening!
Picture the Rosemont convention center FULL of Lotus cars, vendors, suppliers and Flea market stuff. Not any Flea market stuff - Lotus parts! Twin cam engines, heads, transmissions, steering wheels, front body clips, suspension pieces, boxes of New old stock stuff. Tons and tons of stuff! We were all so overwhelmed, we all got glassy eyed and started wandering all over the place. The vendors like Dave Bean, Paul Matty and Christopher Neil all had large displays with plenty of parts to look through. There were vendors selling Lotus T-shirts, sweat shirts, polo shirts, jackets, hats, pants, pens, cups... you name it. Even refrigerator magnets! But most of the vendors had plenty of supplies and would be there for the whole weekend. We needed to start combing the flea market or as they call it in England, the Auto-jumble. I immediately spotted my prize - a Lotus Cortina steering wheel. A nice leather, thick, smaller diameter wheel from a Mk2. Not proper for my car, but really nice on the road compared to the 15 inch thin rim that came in 1965. A little grungy, but a little elbow grease and she'll be as good as new. I snatched it up for £30 pounds. So I packed up my £30 wheel into my backpack and continued on. Mark Plecachty and Jim Cowen had arrived and somehow had managed to get vendor passes so they could get in early, somewhat legally. Jim was trying to borrow enough cash off of people he knew so he could pick up a Weber head pretty cheap. Mark was buying Lotus paraphernalia. I found Rich coming back in the hall from the other side entrance. He had been buying so much stuff that he had been making trips back out to the van to dump the stuff so he wouldn't have to carry it around. On one trip, the guard actually helped him carry some stuff out and let him back in. Keep in mind, we didn't have tickets and the place still wasn't open! One of the pieces he bought was almost unbelievable. A Climax block/boat anchor! Yes, this Coventry Climax engine block had been used as a boat anchor. It was very corroded and it had a welded up hole in it's side. But it was a Climax block and everything is repairable if it is rare enough and for £20, how could you pass it up?
The front doors opened up and the crowds came. Soon you couldn't move for all the people milling about. I would guess about 200 Loti on the inside of the hall. Many, many of them beautiful. Some just OK. There was a very nice replica of the Mk1 Lotus. There was a Mk 4 Lotus that we all had our picture taken in front of for some Classic Car weekly magazine. (Never did get to see if we made it into the magazine) The Lotus historic register had a very nice display with two Lotus 6s. One absolutely perfect done in dark green, the other a little tatty in original aluminum skins. All the Lotus models were well represented in the hall. There were even a couple of beautiful Sport 300 Esprits. One yellow. One in this deep, deep dark burgundy metal flake. Quite nice.
It was time to go unload my backpack. The group of us had gathered back together and went out to the parking lot. WOW! Probably 400-500 Loti in the Lotus lot. Tons and tons of Elans, Sevens, Europa, New Elans, Esprits, Eclats, Excels, Lotus Cartons and of course Elises by the score. Maybe 50 Elises in all the different body and top colours you could think of. I saw an S2 Elan station wagon. (they call them shooting brakes in England, I don't know why). Someone had chopped the top off an 1983 Esprit. I was told that car thieves in England take the cars out for joy rides and then destroy them for fun. Consequently, I saw a lot of "Clubs" adorning the steering wheels of Elans, Sevens and Esprits. Several sevens had large U-shaped bicycle locks looped through their front wheels around the front suspension. Kind of like the Denver boot. This must be the Donnington boot. You ain't going no where, chap!
We took a few minutes out of our busy ogling and shopping spree to have a snack at the hall restaurant. Feature of the day: Burger on a Bap with a salad £3.79. A Bap as it turns out, is a bun. OK, I can handle that. But the salad is actually just the lettuce and Tomato slice that goes between the burger and the Bap. Tasted just as bad as it would in the Rosemont Convention Center back home.
Back to the Autojumble. I picked up some new badges. (not stinking badges, Lotus badges) some shirts, a scarf for Sue, some books and a matchbox model car of the last F1 Lotus (a real one was on display next to it). The boys were picking up deals galore as well. Rich got a 4.11 gear set for £20. Paul got a Lotus 6 tachometer, some big valves and springs for a Weber head. Jim scrounged enough money to pick up the Weber head for £600. Jack just missed picking up a set of Sport 300 wheels for $1200. Rich picked up a couple of Europa brake boosters. A bunch of brake shoes, some water pumps, magazines and a partridge in a pear tree. Man we had a lot of stuff.
We packed up the van and headed back to the hotel for a few pints before the Lotus banquet. The banquet was held in a banquet hall that was a converted pig barn! But the conversion was not over done, as the pig troughs were still in place. The tables and chairs were arranged in neat rows within the pig troughs. We hung out at the pub adjacent to the pig rooms until the dinner bell rang (literally). All Americans know how bad American banquet food can be. OK, so now imagine how bad the bad banquet food would be. YUCK! We should have eaten before we came to the banquet!
We all sat down in the Pig troughs and waited for our table number to be called to get in line for the buffet style dinner. Since we were in pig sty, it must have been a pig sty style buffet. Since we were actually squeezed into the banquet as a favor, we were the last table. Even though we were the last table, there was still plenty of food left. Usually at family style American banquets, you run out of something. One of the favorites. But I guess, there were no favorites, hence plenty of food left. Didn't see very many people going back for seconds either! So what kind of food is this? Some sort of Chicken. At least it looks and tastes like Chicken. (Never did see any Pigeons in England). The sausage was just like the breakfast sausage - full of cereal and without flavor. The last choice of meat was called gameon. Some sort of thin sliced greasy fried ham. There were also about a dozen different kinds of cold pasta plates to choose from. I would only take a tiny little spoonful of most of the items. Still had a lot left on my plate when I was done eating. It's OK, I like being hungry.
At about 10:00 Graham Arnold finally started things going. He welcomed everyone including all the Yanks, and started making some English jokes. He said you Yanks probably wouldn't get the jokes and he was right. The locals were rolling in the isles, and we were sitting there in amazement that we hadn't a clue as to what he was talking about. We supposedly speak the same language, but he could have been speaking Chinese and we wouldn't have understood the jokes any less. Recall our choices for breakfast. He started joking about how when he visited America he was awestruck with all the choices. He said he went to breakfast. He said he told the waitress that he would like some breakfast. She asked him what he would like. WHAT A GREAT CONCEPT - YOU HAVE CHOICES! The English were rolling in the Pig aisles again.
Graham sat down and turned over the floor to Ron Hickman. Ron designed the original Elan. It was now 10:40. By 10:45, there were many Americans with sore foreheads from falling asleep and smacking their heads against the table! Talk about dry. I tried to hold my eyes open with little pieces of gaineon, but it was no use, I was fading fast. I did catch a few interesting bits in between sawing ZZZ's. He held up the original drawing of the Elan. Nice 60's style drawing. The woman driver looked like Beaver Cleaver's Mother. Ron said that he could draw cars pretty good, but he couldn't draw people. So the significant part of his drawing was that the Mrs. Cleaver figure was actually cut out of an ad for a washing machine! He cut her out and glued her into the Elan. And to think, later in life this car would hold our attention with another woman inside. We would be all drool whenever Emma Peel exited her Elan in her leathers! Pant-Pant.
Thankfully, the pain was ended quickly. The speakers stopped talking, the applause woke up the Yanks and we crawled back into the van. Rich kept one eye open long enough for us to get us back to the hotel without veering off into oncoming traffic.
Next - Day 4, Back to Donnington
