Dad! The MoT on the Elise is due. Can you

[MGJohn]

.... get it tested for me? I'm at work all week.

That's what Dads are for ... So, arranged a while you wait MoT appointment and arrived five minutes before that time with a fully warmed up motor :~



Always an unknown quantity and worrying time on an older car are the emissions. The car is twelve years old now and when the screen first lit up with lots of RED "fails", I was concerned. Then within seconds as things settled only one red reading but still a fail :~



A few seconds later .... that's more like it. The K-Series has close to 90,000 miles showing :~



So far so good. Then the brakes were tested on the rollers :~



What about handbrake :~



Then up on the hoist for key suspension and steering components check :~



First time I had a close look at the underside of this car. Not much to see here. Very smooth unlike most other cars :~



I'm six foot and an overweight sixteen stone so getting in and out of the car is a form or art for me. The tester being slightly smaller in stature also had amusing approaches to accessing the car ...



Anyway, the little car passed so lives on for another year. Interesting to observe other road users whilst driving this car.

What a joy to to drive this nearest thing to a four wheeled sports motorcycle. Very spartan but, a real joy because it does exactly what it says on the tin ... complete with "they all do that" Rover's finest K-Series. Only our K-Series do NOT do that. Yes, pure luck.

Brought it back home along a stretch of the M5. Big Fat BMW 5-Series firmly planted in the 'his' outside lane and so I shaped up my intention to pass. No flashing lights. Simple road positioning after being patient for at least a mile. Guess what. He then actually moved over to allow me to pass which I did using the full power of the little K-series.

I also found that many other road users "shape up" to you in that little car. Even white-van-man and X-trail drivers did so yesterday.. My son believes it's probably because they want the driver to demonstrate how the car can go. On several occasions yesterday I obliged them. Boy can it go.

Mind you getting my sixteen stone six foot self in and out of that car with the hood in place is a real giggle for those observing the process.. I have perfected the process with the minimum of effort now. Fifty years ago I was a skinny eleven stone and getting in and out of very low cars was a doddle. By the way, the little Lotus passed the MoT without much trouble. As it has done during the three years it's been in the family.

Driving the Elise, like driving any Lotus, it's immediately apparent that the winner of numerous Grand Prix still know what they are on about with input for their road cars. Mind you, having all that "BL" K-Series heritage means they must be crap. Even so, if Colin Chapman was still around I bet he would approve.