Contrary to how it may seem, I don’t just get a kick out of exploring forgotten buildings. Besides a love of everything overgrown, there’s few things more exciting than stumbling across a car half covered in ivy with its registration visible, allowing you to delve into its mysterious past. Every now and then you’ll unexpectedly come across a herd of them, usually left behind by an enthusiast or out-of-control hoarder delusional about how many future projects they could handle. I was actually wandering here originally to see what was left behind from some old google earth images of a farmyard and farmhouses that hadn’t changed in years. I soon realised that the owners had somewhat vanished. Whilst researching the crooked history behind the business registered to this address, it's clear to see that the owners had almost certainly been imprisoned as a result of dodgy business ventures, with significant amounts of money owed, and the houses left to the elements in their absence. Luckily, I chose the perfect time to visit, and nature had truly taken ownership of this place. The only discomforting thing is not knowing how long for, and whether or not they'll return. I for one didn’t want to be there when that happened, so I never ended up going back. Upon checking google maps recently, it looks as though they’re all now gone, and the yard cleared out. There are legal charge documents online from a year or two after my visit suggesting the land was passed on, so who knows where all of the cars ended up? Either way, it just goes to show that sitting and waiting a while before plastering finds like this online can pay off, as there's every chance some have managed to find restoration instead of getting trashed via the internet. For the record, there was no access to the farmhouses, so this album is dedicated solely to the unveiling of the cars left behind to be retaken by nature.
We start beneath the overgrowth, stumbling on a beautiful 1967 Lotus Elan Coupe, last sold 1983, and unused since 1993. The Elan isn’t necessarily considered one of the more memorable Lotus’s through the years, but it was the first to use a steel backbone chassis with a fibreglass body, which became the style of construction that was to be repeated in subsequent Lotus models for nearly three decades.
Gordon Murray, designer of the McLaren F1 supercar, reportedly said that his only disappointment with the McLaren F1 was that he could not give it the perfect steering of the Lotus Elan. It was designed as a roadster convertible, but in 1965 the Type 36, a fixed head coupé version of the car, was introduced, and that’s what we have here. Well and truly worthy of restoration this one.
Next, we find a Range Rover P38 2.5 DSE 1997 last sold 2012, unused since 2007. This was the second generation of Range Rover, originally a single vehicle in the Land Rover range rather than the selection of Chelsea tractors available today. It marked the transition into the mainstream SUV market for the brand, with the first generation having been produced more simply as a larger off-road utility vehicle.
Sitting alongside it is a 1991 Honda CRX, last used 2010, and last sold in 2012, it appears to have been moved here and never driven. It was essentially designed as a coupe-sport version of the more domestic Civic family car.
In fact, the CRX was originally under the Civic brand, as you can see in the rather more overgrown 1989 red model here that has the civic badge on it. The CRX was eventually given its own standalone title in certain markets, but was shortly after replaced by the woeful Honda Del Sol that most can agree is largely undeserving of the CRX badge and which we’ll try not to remember.
