Last week my Lotus Elite failed its MoT. Again.
Now, I am the first to admit that i have not been what you would call a good owner of this car, but in my defence, its purchase proved a classic too far.
The addition of the Elite to the Elliott fleet, through little or no fault of its own, simply meant that I had more classics than I could afford to keep on top of (financially or time-wise).
And the one that suffered most because of that was the Elite itself.
Yet somehow I could never bring myself to let it go.
Perhaps this was recognition of the fact that the Lotus was actually not the one with the biggest issues, but just that like a newborn it never seemed to be quite satisfied so the less needy children with bigger but less frequent problems took priority.
Perhaps it was some other factors such as how much I adore the idea (if not the reality) of that particular car, how much I love Elites when they are on song, how beholden I feel to the people who found it for me given the circumstances, or how conscious I am of the fact that the unfailingly supportive club and specialists (and all the Lotus Elite/Eclat/Excels out there) deserve a far better representative in the media than I had proven to be.
Someone to champion their cause – because they are brilliant driver's cars – rather then tarnish their reputation through his botched ownership.
So, after its first MoT failure the wedge was pushed out of sight and neglected.