This is the story of Esprit S2 owner and TLF member Paul Baxter and the new Mrs Baxter who honeymooned to the SW of France in their (no longer just 'his' of course!) Esprit.

I replaced the front discs and pads as well as all the calliper seals. The car stops fine now but it still squeals to a halt, so instead of people admiring the car for its looks I often get rather concerned glances from bystanders wondering if I’m going to stop at all! Never mind.

The idea of driving the Lotus 340r to Brescia in Northern Italy in May 2010 to see the famous Mille Miglia road race grew from a vague aspiration into a personal challenge around Christmas 2009.

This was combined with a plan to remove the bodyshell for repainting and therefore taking advantage of the improved access to replace various components including the radiator, clutch, battery, water pump, changing all hoses and completing a cambelt service. The mechanical work was entrusted to Lotus specialists Maidstone Sports Cars, with Haynes of Maidstone handling the colour change. The finished car was ready just in time for a 400-mile shakedown trip to the Club Lotus Fair at Great Malvern where we were able to meet up with some other 340r’s for a rare get together. Nothing fell off or boiled over, so off to Italy we set for 17 uninterrupted days in the fabulous but somewhat impractical stripped out Lotus, armed with mountaineering clothes and lightweight waterproof camping bags for luggage. And a large Lotus umbrella.

22 year old Jack Lamburn from Barnstaple in Devon has a burning ambition – to join the Lotus design team in shaping the future of their cars. To this end he is currently studying Transportation Design at the University of Northumbria, and due to graduate this coming June. So what prompted this choice of career?

“Well my dad owns a garage so I’ve been surrounded by cars all my life, and I loved the more sporting ones. At first I thought I could be a Formula 1 driver, but it soon became obvious that wasn’t going to happen! So I thought I would like to design cars instead”. We would hazard a guess that in the eyes of most car enthusiasts this particular ambition is not too much of a comedown!

Formula 1 fans, and Lotus fans in particular, will remember Martin Donnelly as one of a long list of gifted racing drivers whose promising careers were cut short by tragedies. Mercifully though, Martin was one of a more select list of survivors, overcoming adversity with presumably the same competitive spirit that propelled him to the forefront of motorsport in the first place. We caught up with Martin to ask him about his time in motorsport, with Lotus, and his continued links with Norfolk’s finest.

A visitor to classic Lotus events over the past few may have been intrigued to see an unusual Lotus Elite, slightly different from those around it. The eagle eyed may have recognised the colour scheme as one of Lotus' long list of Formula One sponsors. But this wasn't a home brewed homage by a enthusiastic owner, this car once bathed in the glamorous aura of the F1 circus and rubbed shoulders with the great and the good, including it's creator Colin Chapman.

Since emerging from the shadows a decade ago the amount of interest at shows and in the classic motoring press are testiment not only to the newfound appreciation for the model, but also renewed interest in Lotus’ brief, but dramatic, flirtation with the Essex brand which produced some of the most eye catching road and competition cars ever seen. We'll let the Elite's owner, Leigh Greenham, take up the story of it's discovery and restoration...