Thank you K.H. for sharing your excellent account in such detail of the event, almost like being there - great stuff, job well done!
Only two type 62's. With that in mind, I offer this story:
I have, by and large, lived in Oklahoma all my life. I have a couple of buddies that live in So-Cal, one in Southbay and one in the Valley. From 1983 thru '93 I made countless road trips and spent thousands of hours exploring the greater L.A. area on a Kawasaki ZX600R. I'd wear out a front tire in 2 or 3 days carving up the canyon roads north of Malibu. What great fun it was.
The one remaining item on my list of "things to do before time runs out" is to complete the restoration (35 years and counting) of my '69 S-2 and drive it on those roads.
So one day as I was cruising around I saw what I thought was a Europa body on a rollaround frame being prepared to paint. I meandered up the street for a closer look and said to myself "that's not a Europa, so what is it?" from a building a young man (Kevin Bollinger) appeared. I asked if I could come up and check out his car. "Sure" he replied, "come on up".
After introducing ourselves, and my telling him a little about my S-2, I had twenty questions about his car, and he had all the answers. A few minutes later his parents, Barbara and Alex, came out to join us, and I declare - never have I met a family as nice and friendly, gracious and polite...as the Bollingers. They gave me the grand tour of their shop and informed me in great detail of their other cars. I was there over an hour and as I saddled up to leave, I offered my apologies for killing their time. "No-no" they responded, "we enjoyed having you as our guest, come by anytime".
Well, about a year or so ago, I called the Bollingers and Barbara answered. I said "hello, this is Loy Piatt from Oklahoma. I was riding a motorcycle and stumbled across you guys about 16 or 17 years ago as the Lotus 62 was being restored." She responded "oh yes, I remember you". We chatted for a few minutes, I asked about Kevin and Alex, the 62, etc., and she said Alex would be home soon and she would have him call me. He called and we talked a bit, he brought me up to date on the 62 and other cars, etc..... so the question remains - what are the odds of an Okie Lotus boy being at that location - at that moment in time?
