These days, video of car club meets, autocross events, drift races, and even Cars and Coffees can show up on YouTube just minutes after they happen. Things were a little different in the 1980s.
That's what makes this barn find of a VHS tape so special. Sent to us by reader Neil Schultz, it's footage of meetings of the Lotus LTD Car Club in New Jersey and Vermont back in 1981, 1983 and 1984. These are from Lotus LTD's first yearly meets, which are called Lotus Owner Gatherings, or LOG, for short.
If you think some classic Lotus porn could make your day, look no further. I'll let Neil break down exactly what we're seeing here:
I am bred of Lotus owners. My parents were involved with the Lotus LTD. car club back in the day and received a member-made VHS cassette containing footage of some of them between 1981 and 1984. I doubt that many people outside the 30-50 club members at the time are aware of the tape at all, and It's been kicking around various storage containers in my parents house for almost 30 years.
It was obviously intended to just be fun piece of memorabilia for the members at that time, however for anyone not jaded by a lifetime of classic Lotus ownership it's actually kind of an interesting piece of automotive history and nostalgia, especially for fans of Colin Chapman's work. I enlisted the help of a friend to digitize and upload the footage and have completed the task as of today.
So kick back and watch all the Elans, Europas, Sevens and more as they come out and play.
Do you know any of the people in this video, or who put it together? Feel free to sound off in the comments.