Connecticut HRM Drive

August 14, 2005

Connecticut Drive hosted by Hunting Ridge Motors

When:	Sunday August 14th, 2005   9:00AM - 10:00AM
Where:	Mark Starr (914-939-7200) - markstarr@huntingridgemotors.com
Info:	Again this year, our friends and supporters at Hunting Ridge Motors (now the biggest volume Lotus dealers in the USA) had organized a drive in Connecticut. It started at the Lotus of Greenwich showroom, 249 Railroad Ave, Greenwich, only a mile or so from CT Interstate 95, Exit 3. Last year's event was a pleasure and it's sure to be just as good this year. All the new Esprit and Elise owners from Lotus of Greenwich are invited to join! RSVP to Mark Starr at markstarr@huntingridgemotors.com or (914) 939-7200 by August 9th
Trip Report by Michael Colavito:	On Sunday, August 14, 2005, Hunting Ridge Motors of Greenwich, Connecticut organized a great day of Lotus socializing, touring and lunching. The only thing they couldn’t organize for the otherwise very enjoyable morning was the weather. It was a sizzling hot day. One of those days when the humidity and the temperature try to out do each other. Despite that, there was a great turnout for the event. Approximately 35 cars showed up for the start of the drive. These consisted of a V-8 Esprit, an M100 Elan, a Porsche Carrera Turbo, our ’72 Europa TC and 31 Elises. I believe the only LEO regulars were myself, my son Craig and Bob Hart in the M100. Mark Starr of HRM arranged the details of the morning, which started out with bagels, doughnuts, coffee and a lot of Elise ogling in the future showrooms of HRM on Railroad Avenue Greenwich, Ct. Mark is a genuine car guy. I ran into him several nights before the event in our local Borders book store where he was reading a classic cars magazine. There were 6 awesome Elises in the showroom in a range of colors and options. Did I mention the showroom was air conditioned? It was great to see so many cars. We filled the small front parking lot, the side one and both sides of the street in front of HRM. There were some interesting modifications to some of the Elises that showed up. One had a fiberglass T-Roof with removable panels over the driver and passenger. Another had a very impressive looking custom exhaust system. Still another had replaced the standard battery with an Odyssey, which was very small and laid over on it’s side with a custom hold down. And still another had the yellow Lotus stripes added to his BRG Elise, beautiful. I spoke with at least two of the Elise owners who said that they frequently use their cars for track days. Nice to see Lotuses getting driven and driven hard. After breakfast and socializing, Mark led us all off on the drive. We started out with a lap around downtown Greenwich, then headed north out of town. We next took the Merritt Parkway a few exits north and exited for Route 7. Just about everyone passed us while we were on the parkway, but it was great to see their acceleration and they all waited up for us at the exit. Mark then took up the rear position again (not to lose me?) as we headed north. It was so warm in the greenhouse that is a Europa’s passenger compartment, that when we stopped at lights, I’d open the door to get some cooler air. Aerodynamics are such on Europas that even with windows in the full down position, very little air comes through them. Unfortunately, cruising up Route 7 coming to an intersection, I got the light red. From the side street came a police car and promptly set after the Elise in front of me and pulled him over. Mark Nyman, general manager of HRM and also an attorney (!) stopped his Esprit to help plead the drivers case, while the rest of us waited on the side of the road a bit further up from the “crime scene”! This gave us all the chance to socialize a bit more. At this point Mark Starr informed us that since it was only slightly out of our way, that we would make a detour to Dan Wetuk’s house to see his Aston Martin Vanquish and 1965 Alfa Romeo GTA Corsa factory racecar. We were all up for that. Mark Nyman and the poor wayward Elise driver showed up we heard that the officer was obliging and reduced the speeding offense to that of a lesser violation. I’m sure the Elise owner was grateful to Mark for his assistance. On the move again, after a short bit more our TC experienced something that I can only diagnose as vapor lock. Car stuttered with my son Craig at the wheel, engine died and we rolled into an empty parking lot, as a result found ourselves dead last again. A few attempts as restarting, brought now results so I got out to investigate, but could find nothing obviously wrong. After a bit of looking and head scratching, I decided to try to start it again, whereupon the car promptly started up and after a bit of rough running, it didn’t give us any more trouble. So we followed for some distance, the route directions which Mark had given us all at the start, but as we didn’t catch up with the rest of the group again we assumed they all had made the detour to Dan’s house to see his cars and we didn’t have directions to there. As the plan included a stop at, Ward Pound Ridge Reservation, a Westchester County parkland in Pound Ridge, New York, Craig and I decided the best choice for us at this point was to drive there and wait for the others to show up. We only had to wait about 45 minutes during which time we visited the small museum there and learned of the construction of the park’s facilities by the CCC in the 1930’s. Had a chance to cool off in the shade too. When the group of Loti arrived we assembled in a vacant parking lot for a group photo. By this time quite a few cars had left the tour and we were reduced to maybe half the original number. The tour continued again, heading south down Route 123 to Route 22. At the turn off for the road that would take us all back to Greenwich, Craig and I had to Say goodbye to the group as I had a previous engagement I had to make. All in all, counting the miles we drove to HRM’s showroom, we covered a bit over 100 miles. Mark informed me that he had a great catered lunch waiting for the group back at the showroom. Mark said that they feasted on “chicken wings, gourmet sandwiches, mozzarella and tomatoes, pasta and new potato salad all made by Park Delicatessen who makes some of the tastiest homemade Italian food in New York”. All in all a great Lotus morning was had by all and Mark promised me cooler weather for next year!