by Dave Hutchison

Sunday May 31st was a beautiful morning- a good day to drive a classic British car. Joe Marchione and his wife Pat drove their 1959 Lotus Elite to the Concours show grounds at Northampton Community College from our shop in Perkasie. Their 1959 Series 1 Elite had been invited to attend the U. S. Eastern Concours this year. The drive was good and the 20th Anniversary Celebration of the Concours was in full swing when they arrived. After parking with all of the other sport cars in their class Joe cleaned up the car to get ready for the Concours judging. All too soon the Judges arrived and Joe was at hand to answer any questions. After our luncheon a red ribbon appeared on the windscreen. You guessed it! First Place in the Closed Sports Car Class. The class had consisted of 6 closed cars, an E-Type Coupe, 2 Porsches, a Bricklin and a Ferrari. Quite an honor to bring home a First Place Trophy. After a victorious drive home plans were being fine tuned for the next event. .

This Elite was also scheduled to appear at the Greenwich Concours on June 7th. This time it was loaded on our trailer and we arrived at 8:45 AM on Sunday, the European Car show day at this 3-day event. Now parked with about sixteen cars, a beautiful MGTD, MGTC, a prewar MGPA, an MGA, a Triumph GT6, an Austin Healey 3000, a Jaguar E-Type, and a Lotus Elan. Several other Italian sports cars were parked among our British iron. Good company indeed as all were nicely prepared cars. As the car paraded through the awards tent, organizer, Bruce Wennerstrom reiterated the comment made by David E. Davis years ago when asked to give his impressions of the then new Lotus Elite. He said "When using the heater on a Lotus Elite, it is like having your grandmother blow her hot breath on your ankle!" After a chuckle or two Pat and Joe were awarded First Place in the Best British Car Class for the Concours!

What an enjoyable week with a pair of great awards. You will see more of this Lotus Elite at several upcoming British Car shows and a couple more Concours Shows through the fall of 2009.

The car was featured in Hemmings Sports & Exotic magazine in September 2008. You can find the article here.