Esprit 2003

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To celebrate the rebirth of my Esprit in 2002, it seemed only fitting to visit a Quad-City landmark building..... The Velie mansion.   Enjoy these pictures, and take a moment to read about the history of the building and family who built it via the links below.

Story about the history of the building: http://www.qconline.com/progress98/places/237.htm

Velie auto history here: http://www.angelfire.com/mt/velie/

A story about a current local owner of  a Velie car: http://www.qconline.com/progress99/4cars.shtml

A story about Monocoupe Velie airplanes: http://www.qconline.com/progress99/4airplan.shtml

Since our lovely suspension bridge over the Mississippi River is living on borrowed time, what better backdrop for my car in 2003 than it?  The suspension bridge is the I-74 link between Iowa and Illinois, and the original (Iowa bound) span was built in 1935.  The Illinois bound span (closest to the car) was built in 1959.  The images are 1024x768...

To promote our local event, the Quad City British Autofest, the Quad City Times did an article.. this year, my 1988 Esprit and I were chosen to be the subject!

My local British car club does an annual car show and I got picked to be interviewed! Quad City Times http://www.qctimes.com/articles/2007/08/10/features/weekend/doc46bcde43a2848891327766.txt British sports cars on display in Village By John Willard Ed Young drives a legendary British sports car of the type featured in two James Bond movies, but the pleasure he gets from the high-performance head-turner has nothing to do with its silver screen stardom. “I measure my satisfaction in the number of smiles it has given me,” he says. Young, a retired 55-year-old welder from Moline, has smiled a lot since he first got behind the wheel of his 1988 Lotus Esprit back in 1990 when he became its second owner. He plans to display the speedster at the 20th annual Heartland British Autofest from noon to 4 p.m. Sunday in the Village of East Davenport. Organizers of the free show, sponsored by the Quad-City British Auto Club, expect that as many as 90 British automobiles and motorcycles owned by people from throughout the Midwest will be on view in the picturesque historic district overlooking the Mississippi River. In addition to Young’s Lotus, cars on display likely will include such marques as the Jaguar, M.G., Triumph, Rolls-Royce and Jensen Healey. Young’s car is expected to be the only representative of Group Lotus, which traces its beginnings to race car designer Colin Chapman. His rear-engine Lotus racers dominated the Grand Prix circuit in the 1960s and later won victories at the Indianapolis 500, ending the reign of old front-engine roadsters at the famed Brickyard.  Lotus, now owned by the Malaysian car company Proton, continues to make a sports car known as the Lotus Elise at its manufacturing facilities on a former World War II B-24 bomber base near the English village of Hethel in Norfolk County. Young is a longtime member of the Quad-City British Auto Club and its Web master. He has been a Lotus enthusiast since 1973 when he bought a new Lotus Europa. He was attracted to the car because of its fiberglass body. Impressed with its performance and drivability, he moved up to his present Lotus Esprit. With its mid-mounted, turbo-charged, 2.2-liter, four-cylinder engine, his Esprit generates 210 horsepower and can hit speeds of 159 mph. Produced from 1976 to 2004, the Esprit was noted for its rakish good looks that appealed to filmmakers. In the 1977 James Bond film, “The Spy Who Loved Me,” Roger Moore drove a Lotus Esprit that turned into a submarine during one action scene. A Lotus Esprit, complete with a security system that blew up the car when triggered, was also the vehicle of choice for Moore when he played Bond in the 1981 movie “For Your Eyes Only.” Young’s adventures in his own Esprit have been more sedate, but he has driven the car more than 85,000 miles, including cross-country trips, and won numerous trophies at shows. Collecting such hardware is not important to Young, who would rather have his car’s admirers know that it is affordable. While Lotus Esprits of his car’s vintage cost about $65,000 new, he said, they can be had today for less than $15,000.  “I like sharing it. A trophy is not a big thing,’’ he said. “I get pleasure out of driving it and showing people that anybody can own a car like this.” If you go What: Heartland British Autofest, sponsored by the Quad-City British Auto Club Information:  visit them on the Web

 

Here is my bug covered Esprit in October 2007 at the Holy Hill Shrine in Wisconsin.  The Lotus Corps group did a fun fall colors tour and stopped at this interesting place.  It sits way on top of a big hill and can be seen for miles.  It's quite impressive.