My friend John Lacey?s lovely little 1967 Lotus Elan was burning gas beautifully right up until it wasn?t. At the notoriously clogged interchange of L.A.?s 405 and 101 freeways, which actually has its own Yelp rating (amazingly, 2.5 stars), the purring little blue-bonneted four-cylinder went ?brrrrr­dup!? and the tach needle fell limp. We managed to coast up the very off-ramp we were heading for on our way to the annual Queen?s English car show in Van Nuys and then downhill into a fuel plaza offering blessed shade. I was optimistic. In my experience, which includes two cantankerous Lamborghini Espadas, the more sudden and calamitous the failure, the easier it is to fix. And it wasn?t as if we?d thrown a rod; the engine just went ?dup!? The tank had vacuum-locked, a wire had fallen off?something would be obvious and easily fixed with a car key, which, after a brief search of the Elan?s teensy trunk, proved to be the only tool on hand. READ MORE ??
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