Hi Roger,

I saw your three Lotus cars on a thread last week, and I am sure the Lotus Excel is mine.
I am coming out to SA early February and will be driving up to PE about the 20th.

There may be a couple of things on the car which will prove it was mine or not.

Regards,

Martin.

Hi Pints,

Sorry, my thread must be very mis-leading. It also sound as though I have invited myself to Rogers place, which I can assure him, is not the case.

I'll start again. The car in question, I purchased in 1993 (assuming it is the one in Rogers collection). In about 1995 I brought it back to South Africa importing it through the port of Durban. I was working in Canada/USA for a while, and in between was staying with friends in Empangeni. I went from there in about 1998 to Somerset West where the car was looked after by a friend of mine when I was in Canada/USA. Due to lack of use, I sold it to a Sports Car company in Cape Town. They handled Ferraris, Lamborghinis etc, so were a biggish outfit. I believe the buyer traded in a Porsche 944 for the Excel.
Approximately 18 months later, the car was back in the same showroom. That was the last time I saw it.
In the 5 years I owned it, it ran faultlessly. The only thing that ever failed was a fuse for the nearside headlamp.

I hope Roger reads this as I would love to know if it is in fact the one I imported.

Hope this clarifies things.

Cheers,

Martin.

Hello Martin. Yes it is your car. It is always nice to get some history on a classic and I have had some interesting ones.

Had a 1954 MG TD with log books from the day it left the factory through to the when the third owner imported it into South Africa. I have log books for all my classics with as much information in them as I can glean. Look forward to hearing from you and also meeting up with you on your drive through to Port Elizabeth. I will let you have another drive of it when I see you.

Roger.