Ramblings of a soon to be 340 Owner
Posted: Mon May 21, 2007 8:09 pm
As you know, Karen and I are trading the orange 111R in for the 340R at MMC. All being well we should get the new car some sime over the next week or so.
This particular quest started some 2 years ago. I was at Bedford for a corporate day on the Clio Cups, FPA's Palmer Jaguars, Caterhams, 350Z's etc. Great fun. In the evening, I arranged to meet Nick Duce; one of the SELOC guys who had bought the cat pipe from my old S2 at Merritts Lotus in Amersham, just off the M25.
Did the deal and spotted a cracking 340R in the showroom. Got chatting to Nick about the car and it's owner, who had just bought a 111R. So, back in my car, mind working in overdrive and called Karen. To cut a long story short, she arranged the 6am first flight from Edinburgh to Luton, where I picked her up, and we drove down to Amersham again to look at the car, getting there just as they opened at 9am.
Having convinced the sales man that we hadn't taken leave of our senses, and were serious, the car was wheeled out of the garage and fired up. After one of the best test drives ever, we got back in to do a deal. Unfortunatley, I was offered a comedy trade-in value, and couldn't reach agreement, and there followed a long, silent drive north.
However, the 340R bug continued to eat away at us both. When this one was at MMC last year, the timing was all wrong. We had just got the orange car a few short months before, and Karen her BMW a few weeks before. We were thinking that the chance of a good one was running away from us, until a couple of weeks ago, when through the powers of SE we discovered this car.
After seeing that almost everyone was interested in the car, we kept a low profile, not wanting to fall for the car, only to find out it was sold. After a couple of weeks, and with the car still available, we went along last weekend.
Graeme and Iain were as helpfull as ever, and I think Mr Robertson knew the score as soon as he saw Karen in the showroom. She has never gone in without having a signed purchase order in her hand, and after a couple of seconds crunching the numbers, we went away to think about it (Aye right!).
Graeme called on Tuesday morning (while he was on holiday!) to confirm the figures and having dug under the sofa, we found enough coppers in the jar - the deal was done.
Now I'm waiting on a couple of bits and pieces at this end, Graeme is back and the car is getting MoT'd etc, and we should collect in a couple of days.
Despite having 3 Loti in the past 3 years, this is as far as I am concerned the last Lotus I ever need to buy. Notice I did not say the last Lotus I ever will buy! Even writing this I can't shift the idiotic smile from my face.
This only leaves 2 problems. Firstly, it now looks lke we'll take the 330 cabrio to Le Mans; you just cant fit a 340R with all the gubbins a girl needs to take on holiday. Not sure if I can fit all the stickers I'd ordered a few weeks before though. But the plus side is we can bring back much more wine.
Second problem is the lack of roof. Since I'd chosen the cash option in lieu of the company car in January, when my Saab went back, I'd been using the Elise for running to airport and train stations. Come forward Tom Paine Esq. A couple of calls later, and I'd bought my second car of the week - a VW Polo 1.4L of about 1998 vintage. A perfect foil to the 340R. It's cheap to run, but keep it topped up with oil and water and will go for ever. All being well I'll pick it up from Tom over the next few days.
This tale would not have been possible without my ever understanding wife Karen, the good work of Graeme and Iain at MMC and Ed and Tom for sorting me out with the Polo.
All that remains is the perfect feeling of anticipation until the keys are in our hand, and pressing the 'start' button before taking the longest, twistiest route possible from Edinburgh to Kirkcaldy.
This particular quest started some 2 years ago. I was at Bedford for a corporate day on the Clio Cups, FPA's Palmer Jaguars, Caterhams, 350Z's etc. Great fun. In the evening, I arranged to meet Nick Duce; one of the SELOC guys who had bought the cat pipe from my old S2 at Merritts Lotus in Amersham, just off the M25.
Did the deal and spotted a cracking 340R in the showroom. Got chatting to Nick about the car and it's owner, who had just bought a 111R. So, back in my car, mind working in overdrive and called Karen. To cut a long story short, she arranged the 6am first flight from Edinburgh to Luton, where I picked her up, and we drove down to Amersham again to look at the car, getting there just as they opened at 9am.
Having convinced the sales man that we hadn't taken leave of our senses, and were serious, the car was wheeled out of the garage and fired up. After one of the best test drives ever, we got back in to do a deal. Unfortunatley, I was offered a comedy trade-in value, and couldn't reach agreement, and there followed a long, silent drive north.
However, the 340R bug continued to eat away at us both. When this one was at MMC last year, the timing was all wrong. We had just got the orange car a few short months before, and Karen her BMW a few weeks before. We were thinking that the chance of a good one was running away from us, until a couple of weeks ago, when through the powers of SE we discovered this car.
After seeing that almost everyone was interested in the car, we kept a low profile, not wanting to fall for the car, only to find out it was sold. After a couple of weeks, and with the car still available, we went along last weekend.
Graeme and Iain were as helpfull as ever, and I think Mr Robertson knew the score as soon as he saw Karen in the showroom. She has never gone in without having a signed purchase order in her hand, and after a couple of seconds crunching the numbers, we went away to think about it (Aye right!).
Graeme called on Tuesday morning (while he was on holiday!) to confirm the figures and having dug under the sofa, we found enough coppers in the jar - the deal was done.
Now I'm waiting on a couple of bits and pieces at this end, Graeme is back and the car is getting MoT'd etc, and we should collect in a couple of days.
Despite having 3 Loti in the past 3 years, this is as far as I am concerned the last Lotus I ever need to buy. Notice I did not say the last Lotus I ever will buy! Even writing this I can't shift the idiotic smile from my face.
This only leaves 2 problems. Firstly, it now looks lke we'll take the 330 cabrio to Le Mans; you just cant fit a 340R with all the gubbins a girl needs to take on holiday. Not sure if I can fit all the stickers I'd ordered a few weeks before though. But the plus side is we can bring back much more wine.
Second problem is the lack of roof. Since I'd chosen the cash option in lieu of the company car in January, when my Saab went back, I'd been using the Elise for running to airport and train stations. Come forward Tom Paine Esq. A couple of calls later, and I'd bought my second car of the week - a VW Polo 1.4L of about 1998 vintage. A perfect foil to the 340R. It's cheap to run, but keep it topped up with oil and water and will go for ever. All being well I'll pick it up from Tom over the next few days.
This tale would not have been possible without my ever understanding wife Karen, the good work of Graeme and Iain at MMC and Ed and Tom for sorting me out with the Polo.
All that remains is the perfect feeling of anticipation until the keys are in our hand, and pressing the 'start' button before taking the longest, twistiest route possible from Edinburgh to Kirkcaldy.
......
Made me sad to reverse it in to the drive, however I've had a shot of the orange thing and it's time to move on to colder, wetter and less sophisticated cars! 
Yikes, what have we done????