January-March Vol.4 No.1

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1 January-March 2009 Vol.4 No.1 In this issue: The Lotus Elite in Advertising Diane Webber Obituary Magazine Covers How Long Will It Take? The Driver s Side Parcel Tray Elite Model AUTOMOBILIA The Internet Quarterly Publication For Elite Owners And Enthisiasts

2 Elite Art Elite art this issue is a TOPPS trading card. Artist unknown. Dennis Ortenburger s Lotus Elite Journal Vol.4 No.1 January-March 2009 Cover Picture: Our man In Italy. Marco Martelli. Contents The Lotus Elite In Advertising Diane Webber Obituary Magazine Covers How Long Will It Take? The Driver s Side Parcel Tray Elite Model AUTOMOBILIA The Lotus Elite Journal is published quarterly by direct . Subscription is $25.00 for one year, four issues. Check or money order to Dennis Ortenburger, 1040 Warren Road, Cambria, California, or PAY PAL to lotuselitejournal@charter.net Next issue: A discussion about diff straps. If you ve got them why you need them.

3 Editor s Muse I mentioned several issues ago that I d hoped to be accepted for the Carmel Concours the week of the Monterey Historics in August last summer. Luckily I was and a prestigious event it turned out to be. Awards by Tiffany (no, I didn t win one), terrific organization and enough perks to make a politician envious starting with breakfast, lunch and dinner gratis at a restaurant in Carmel! Just to add to the festivities Bentley (a major sponsor) hosted a cocktail party for all entrants and guests. The director s chairs seen upper right were given to the entrants. Believe it or not we got them home in the Elite! I figured I d better clean and detail 1461 as good as possible so we entered a couple of other events prior to Carmel. The first meet of the summer was a European car show in San Luis Obispo. I took a third place people s choice trophy despite being placed in the midst of a lot of 356 Porsches. We also entered the Elite at a local show in Cambria as part of our village s annual Pinedorado festivities. A parade, barbecue, 5 K run and food booths galore are done every year to celebrate out town s founding fathers. Lots of hot rods in the car show but some pretty knowledgeable enthusiasts as well. It never ceases to amaze me at these shows how many people really know the Lotus Elite. Of course, every now and again someone will announce, I had one of these once. Elsewhere this issue we ve included half the pages from the Work s time schedule. This manual gave approximate times to do certain jobs on the Elite such as removing the engine, steering rack and fitting instruments. Some pretty surprising numbers. The document was a poor copy when I received it years ago so please excuse the quality of the reproduction on these pages. Meantime I hope all of you are enjoying your Elites in some fashion. Dennis Ortenburger The Lotus Elite Journal

4 The Lotus Elite In Advertising Whilst reading an issue of one of the classic car magazines that are delivered to my house I came across this advert from Ragtops & Roadsters. They used a picture of the interior of an Elite to, presumably, illustrate their expertise in interior restoration. The advert brought to mind several other companies who ve, over the years, used the Elite to highlight their ads. From self adhesive numbers to Super National gas. From plastics to wire wheel grease seals. From the latest in motoring books to instruments.

5 From wire wheel and Elite restoration to car covers. The latter coming from the Griot s Garage accessory catalogue. Several other pages used the Elite to hawk everything from polish to protective rubber bumper pads. Incidentally, Griot owned the Elite pictured for a time. Diane Webber Obituary On August 19, 2008 Diane Webber passed away. She was 76 years old. Diane needs no introduction but readers may want to refer to Vol.1 No.4 for her story and why she was a significant part of the Elite s advertising campaign in America in the 1960 s. Wouldn t we have wished to pick up the keys to the car from her? As we mentioned back in Vol.1 Diane s passion in later years was belly dancing and besides teaching the dance she also performed. She d added a few more pounds but was no less beautiful. There s no doubt she was an icon whose likes we ll not see again.

6 An Image Essay: Magazine Covers

7 More covers next issue..

8 How Long Will It Take? The early Lotus Elite dealers were often at a loss to answer this question from a customer who wanted work done on his/her Elite. In 1961 the Works at Cheshunt decided to do something about their dealer s plight. Herewith is the manual the Works came up with. There are nine pages in all and half of them are reproduced this issue. Next time we ll include the rest so that our readers will have an idea as to how long will it take when you take a spanner in hand.

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13 The Driver s Side Parcel Tray One of the most interesting pieces of optional equipment for the Elite was the driver s side parcel tray. Interesting because it was never listed on any of the Work s options list. Neither on any of the dealer s options lists. Several Elite experts swore it never existed but the black and white image clearly shows one atop the Elite in the foreground on the Cheshunt assembly line. The slot to clear the steering column identifies it as a left hand drive, driver s side parcel tray. Does your Elite have one?

14 Elite Model The Elite model in this issue was one of the Lotus staff sent to the Earls Court Motor Show of Three Elites were in the display which was a slight departure for Lotus in that they didn t show any other of their current offerings. The Elite was still new to enthusiasts and reports at the time noted questions like, these drum brakes look rather thin or, oh look, it doesn't have any back brakes at all. AUTOMOBILIA In tribute to Jim Clark s passing the Lotus badge was changed to black and silver. All production cars for about a year featured this color scheme. It appeared as a cloth patch as well. When Colin Chapman died the Works made a change again but in this instance the color went to black and gold. And again the the design appeared both as a car badge and a patch. Now, if some can explain this color scheme please let us know!