My babies - Fiat and Lotus.

[greg.harvey]

Some of the valuation pics for Club Lotus. I always laugh at the "surprised" look the later +2's have when you first take the cover off, on account of the way Lotus made the vacuum operated headlamps fail up. (They lose vacuum if stood for more than a day or two because the vacuum pump is powered by the engine and of course the units aren't perfectly air tight. Old ones used to fail down, but that made them an MOT fail if the chamber was breeched.)

[LotusLocost]

Thanks for the new picks greg.
I can see your +2 is in great condition..
Beutiful
And when you place the fiat next to the Elan you can realy see how small that fiat is!!!

[McReis]

I really love those two cars...

[greg.harvey]

Thanks guys!

[Radoman]

Wow, that interior looks spotless, and somewhat inviting! Good show!

[greg.harvey]

Thanks!
I need to "Egg Nog" it...

[spi-ti-tout]

Originally Posted by greg.harvey

As promised ... together! (The silver-haired clown is my father ... )

I know this sounds somewhat girly but that Fiat is just adorable

[greg.harvey]

One of the best things about the Fiat is the cabin. It's so basic! Attached is a sample (not ours - a shot I found in Google).

You can see there are three switches - one for the little lamp which illuminates the speedometer, one for the headlamps and one for the wipers.

The washer pump is manual - you have a little squeezy pump of the kind you might expect to find behind a clown's carnation to operate it.

The floor is covered in extremely practical pop-out rubber matting. The seats are plastic and don't tilt. There is no radio, door pockets, or any other such luxuries.

There's no ventilation, except for the windows and the roof of course. The heating system is either hot (vent open) or off (vent closed) and you have to play with the vent levers and quarter-lights to balance the cabin temperature in winter.

I love it!!


Off Topic:

Found this website while looking for the dash pic by a guy who picked up a 500 on eBay.

http://www.singlewheel.com/58-Fiat-500.htm

Poor misguided fool. He's picked up an original Nuovo 500, and it is completely destroyed. They're extermely rare these days and they are not the same as the F (like ours) and L models, in spite of appearance. This means (bearing in mind he's bought a rolling wreck and thinks he's found a bargain) parts are impossible to get hold of and if you find them, they're really expensive. No restoration project will ever make you a rich man, and I guarantee in this instance it would've been cheaper to pay what the tow yard owner wanted for the other 500 he mentions than attempt to restore a an original from the late '50s.

Sadly I suspect he probably found this out the hard way got rid of it. Hopefully to someone who really knows what they're doing and wanted a restoration job to keep them busy. It would be a nice project.

LOL @ "Notice the engine is in the car and the original radio." That rusting hulk will require most of it's sparsely available parts replacing and the Fiat 500 didn't come with a radio until the early 1970s so there's no way it can be "original"!

[Revo]

Originally Posted by greg.harvey

The heating system is either hot (vent open) or off (vent closed) and you have to play with the vent levers and quarter-lights to balance the cabin temperature in winter

LOL!
Sounds exactly like my Fiat

Except it is somewhat more modern....

[NuclearCrap]

I love those Euro classics, a lotta history and fun.

[Alfasudcrazy]

Wow Greg - nice to see someone who knows what it means to own classics and it must be great as your Gf is in to them too - rather than some who constantly nags about the cost & 'uselessness' of them.

Nice blog too and am looking forward to reading about your trip from Milan in the Fiat - must have been some trip (I drove a 1991 Polo with 110,000 miles on the clock to Spain once and it really hated those high mountains.)
I have always liked the look of the Elan but never thought about them as an affordable classic before - so now I must look closer - thanks.

[greg.harvey]

Thanks! Glad you like the blog.
And thanks for reminding me about the trip! I must move that over.

Cheers,

G

Ps - I still haven't done the ownership challenge guys - sorry - I'm hopeless! We had the Fiat out yesterday as well. I just keep forgetting until I've put the car away in the garage for the day. I will do the Fiat ASAP and I'm going to my folks for the first w/e in December so I'll "Egg Nog" the Lotus then.

[greg.harvey]

I've added the trip from Milan to London to the blog now!

http://classicmotoring.blogspot.com/...g_archive.html
(Start at the bottom and read up, as usual ... )

[henk4]

nice story, and to trust an Italian car salesman to supply you a car in good order for such a trip

Next tip for going through French cities: Always follow: Toutes directions, or altenatively: Autre directions. It will at least take you out of the city centre again....

[greg.harvey]

LOL!
Thanks - and thanks for the tip. I'll use that come the summer. We're driving down for the Le Mans 24 hour for my dad's 60th birthday.

(NOT in the Fiat - I'll take the Lotus I think ...)