A friend's crazy accident in a Lotus tribute car - on the street!

dang

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I get a message from a friend here local in Sacramento on Saturday afternoon, he says, "I was almost killed in my Lotus a little while ago!". He has a Lotus tribute car that's street legal and he drives it occasionally. He said he was driving down a four lane street at about 50mph and a lifted truck towing a car trailer with a Jeep changed lanes behind him and accelerated all the way up onto the back of his car! He said the truck's tire got within a foot of his head. Crazy scary stuff.

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Ohmess

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The first thing I told my son when teaching him to drive is there is no excuse for hitting something right in front of your vehicle. You don't crash into light poles walking down a sidewalk, don't hit things with your front bumper.
 

dave v. in nc

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Glad your friend is relatively ok....Sort of our worst fears confirmed. Halfway recently saw a 2002 with the back glass frame at the front headrests; same issue as with the FauxLotus. We all complained/complain about the Government regs put in place back in the day; bumper heights and durability, headlight parameters, tailight visibility, and seatbelts...and those horrible padded dashes. All there for a reason, some good, some stupid. Semi's with no front lower bumper used to (and still do) scare me. You don't have to be in a sixties "little car" to fear BIGFOOT pick-ups nowadays. Part of the inferred intention, perhaps. In this current "I'll do anything that I want to" atmosphere, there will not be any regs to stop the Mad Max madness. Cant wait for the new Ford F457 with optional armament hidden discretely within the grille. I'm sure they are already out there somewhere.... I wont get into LOUD today or the lack of inspections in our state...There. My rant for the day.
No Ford owners were intentionally harmed in the creation of this rant.
 

Nicad

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I've got a Lotus 7 clone and it's pretty nerve wracking getting to and from the back roads on the hwys. I think a fair amount of the drivers today forget they are actually behind the wheel of a vehicle!
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That is a beautiful photo. God California is blessed when it comes to trees and light....Ok , I noticed that litter...not perfect.
 

Drew Gregg

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The lifted truck driver probably didn't see the Lotus. The April 2021 "Car & Driver" magazine has an article on page 18 about this called "Flying Blind". A graph shows a typical full sized pickup has 31 ft in front of their front bumper the driver can't see. That's why I installed an LED 3rd brake light in the rear window of my Coupe.
 

dang

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The lifted truck driver probably didn't see the Lotus. The April 2021 "Car & Driver" magazine has an article on page 18 about this called "Flying Blind". A graph shows a typical full sized pickup has 31 ft in front of their front bumper the driver can't see. That's why I installed an LED 3rd brake light in the rear window of my Coupe.
This is what I thought but my friend said the truck changed lanes behind him and then accelerated until he hit him. Just a weird deal all around.
 

dang

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I found out more about the car. It's a Lotus 11 built on a 1971 Elan Plus 2 chassis so it's slightly larger. So it's more of a modified Lotus than a tribute car.
 

tferrer

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Nice tree repair!

It's running a 2.3L Ford (Lima) turbo motor. Like a early 90s Mustang SVO or Merkur motor with an adjustable waste gate. Super fun with the waste gate chuffing away.
 
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Norm!

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The lifted truck driver probably didn't see the Lotus. The April 2021 "Car & Driver" magazine has an article on page 18 about this called "Flying Blind". A graph shows a typical full sized pickup has 31 ft in front of their front bumper the driver can't see. That's why I installed an LED 3rd brake light in the rear window of my Coupe.
The lifted ones are far worse than 31 feet. Unless you are driving an SUV, these guys look right over you and follow at five to ten feet as if you aren’t there. I get out of the way as soon as I can. It used to be really scary when I had a Boxster.
 

JFENG

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Looks a lot like a Westfield. Interesting to hack an Elan as a donor chassis when a Westfield is so cheap. I drive my Westfield all over the place because it’s a classic that you don’t get anal about. I drive it like cyclists ride (assume nobody sees you).
Glad your fried had the roll bar. Maybe the truck couldn’t stop in time? Even with trailer brakes stopping distancessste greatly increased when towing
 

adawil2002

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The original story is craziness. Situational awareness on the road is paramount. So many distracted drivers to count nowadays. Driving anywhere now is mentally exhausting.

I always pretend I'm invisible in our 2007 Z4 Coupe, 1968 1600 Cabriolet, 1973 2002Tii & 1973 CSi Coupe. Haven't been hit yet. Did get tapped by an inattentive driver in the 1988 M5 at a stop light, no visible damage to the car yet our Husky Leo found himself in the passenger side footwell & we were not happy about it.
 

bill

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Don't even mention cell-phone distraction...my wife and I were in our Miata making a left turn, watching a pick-up approaching from behind at 50 mph, talking on his cell-phone, saw us at the last second and swerved to avoid us. He actually glared at me like it was my fault. No more left/right turns in traffic for me in a Miata.
 

Nicad

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Got it hit with Dog and Son in car making a left off the highway last August. Lady in a Volvo SUV gave us a good whack and must have been heavy on the brakes to have not wiped us out. Car was written off, Rear door wouldn't open. I wonder what the dog went through, as she wasn't strapped in and didn't want to talk about it afterwards. Ended up buying the car off the insurance company for $375 fixing it for $1300 and it and the dog live on. We are all getting creaky though.
 

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craterface

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Lifted trucks bother me a lot, and here in Fort Myers they are often the rudest/worst drivers. Often times drivers seem as if they are compensating for something. They love to mash the throttle and spew diesel smoke over other drivers, and they love to push the limits of their top heavy monsters with poor braking capability.
Of course their bumper heights are totally unsafe. And generally at the level of my head as I drive. Can’t believe they are legal.
The only thing that will solve the problem is higher fuel prices, since legislators are unlikely to do anything.
 
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