In September, Charles pointed his Lotus Elise west and drove to Salt Lake City for the first annual Lotus United Gathering (LUG). By the time he returned home, the Elise had covered 3,128 miles.



The gathering brought Lotus owners from around the country together for several days of drives, displays, and activities. With almost 200 Lotus in attendance — yes, the plural of Lotus cars is Lotus — it was one of the largest gathering of Lotus cars ever held in the U.S.

Into the Utah mountains

Friday’s drive took the group out of Salt Lake City and into some spectacular Utah scenery. The route included the Spanish Fork Canyon/U.S. 6 area, roughly an hour west of Helper, Utah. It also included time on Sheep Creek Road, a much smaller and more entertaining road winding through the mountains.

For someone accustomed to Illinois roads, the combination of elevation changes, rock walls, sweeping turns, and long mountain views made this one of the most memorable parts of the trip.

The destination was Helper, Utah, an old railroad and mining town tucked between dramatic cliffs. The arrival of a large collection of brightly colored Lotus sports cars certainly changed the appearance of downtown for a while. There was time to walk around, look at the cars, have lunch, and enjoy the setting before heading back to Salt Lake City.

Plans change

The original itinerary called for staying through the weekend and then taking the Elise to Utah Motorsports Campus for an HPDE on Monday. That part did not happen.

By Saturday, the forecast for Monday’s track day called for rain and thunderstorms, with more of the same on the drive home. Charles decided to skip the track day and head east early. As it turned out, he encountered rain for only a few hours on the entire 21-hour drive home.



A long way home

Nobody would confuse an Elise with a conventional long-distance touring car. It is small, noisy, low to the ground, and has almost no luggage space. Getting in and out of it is an acquired skill.

The cars are so low that nobody even needed to raise the barrier leading to the Lotus area at the hotel. The entire group simply drove underneath it.



Trips like this are a good reminder that although the Elise was designed primarily as a lightweight sports car, it is also perfectly capable of taking you a very long way — provided you enjoy the spirited doing and don’t need much luggage and can put up with (or enjoy!) the road noise.



When the destination includes nearly 200 other Lotus cars and some of the best roads in Utah, that’s not a bad trade.