Lotus Festival 2018

[Bazza 907]

What a fantastic day. Huge thanks to Bibs and all those involved in making it such a brilliant day. Just got back home having stayed overnight in Suffolk.

Funniest moment with a doubt was when the F1 cars were on track mid afternoon. We saw them go off before heading back to the car which was parked in the line on the track. On the way we walked passed the Classic Team Lotus marquee. Mrs Bazza (who has owned the Elise for 16 years) stops and says "hang on a minute that jacket looks nice, let me have a quick look" Not one to say no (years of training) I agree but highlight it's all roped off/closed as the guys were all on track demoing fettling the F1 cars. Undeterred and with years of retail experience she spots a bloke and calls him over. After a brief chat he unclips the rope, lets her in and shows her the jacket. After a few minutes she say its not for her but then I hear hime explain "it had been modelled on the one my Dad used to wear".

Mrs Bazza; "Oh, who's he?"

Bloke: "Colin Chapman"....  

I desperately tried not to laugh and have to say Clive was the perfect gent, very gracious - top, top man

 

[T_Exige]

Got home 2h ago, what a fantastic event! 
Big thanks to Bibs and all the people involved to make this possible 👍
This day was crazy, so many different things, the cars, the people, the factory, driving on "THE" Lotus track etc.
(so I wasn't the only one who spotted the "next year" text 😄)

[Livy]

What a fantastic event. Well done Bibs you really pulled it out of the bag. Looking forward to future events 👍🏻

[CocoPops]

4 hours ago, TAR said:

@Bibs

I'd love to get my hands on one of the barrier covers with the 70th cars image or the Lotus 70 image. Would look great on the wall of my garage.  

Ditto.

i know many that would buy.

[Loose Cannon]

Epic.

Does anyone know if Clive Chapman and Ollie Winterbottom's brief interviews made it onto video? I heard them both on the tannoy but the official Lotus coverage on Youtube doesn't include them for some reason.

Also did Hazel say a few words, I didn't see or hear her although Clive announced she arrived midday?

[Steve V8]

JUST WOW.  !!!!

A huge thanks to Lotus cars and especially @Bibs for the massive amount of work that went into organizing this fantastic event, what an amazing few days.

Another huge thanks to @Dan E for a seat in his lovely dry sump onto the site and especially on the track parade, something ill never forget. Also to @JNW3 and @makkyh for putting up with me tagging along all day. Also to @Trevsked for help to find accommodation at Durston.

What a great bunch of people the TLF guys are, Lotus enthusiasts and owners are, it was to meet up with some more of you, and without your help and with my car currently out of action I would've missed this wonderful party. Thanks one and all for making it happen. Steve

. 

[Steve V8]

6 minutes ago, Loose Cannon said:

Also did Hazel say a few words

I dont think she spoke publicly Mark, but she seemed pleased to be reunited with her old Elite and spoke to @makkyh as he went onto the parade lap, she also gave me a little wave which made a great day even better,

[2GOOD]

We were walking back towards the cars parked on the track, somewhere near the classic display, no one else around and suddenly realise that the chap in the green shirt with the elderly lady on the electric trike walking past us are Clive & Hazel Chapman!

[Colin P]

14 hours ago, TAR said:

@Bibs

I'd love to get my hands on one of the barrier covers with the 70th cars image or the Lotus 70 image. Would look great on the wall of my garage.  

Myself and @C8RKH decided that this would make an excellent Gold FFM benefit  

[clivef38]

Or a donation to charity.

[CocoPops]

34 minutes ago, Colin P said:

Myself and @C8RKH decided that this would make an excellent Gold FFM benefit  

I'd sign up to Gold again if it included one

The Heras fence barrier ones are perfect size, complete with eyelets for screwing to the wall.

@Bibs make it so!

[Chillidoggy]

My wife wants them for curtains.

[Sparky]

Fantastic fun day in the sunshine, pretty much bumping into loads of people and chatting!  Huge apologies to @Escape and @LJR (PM me) for failing to catch up again later, but we had no choice but to route straight out after the track!  

Our journey home took over 9 hours, as we we chose a meandering route to check out some localities for our potential house move.  And we dropped in for a quick visit to the beautiful and historic Salisbury Cathedral.

Well done @Bibs for herding cats AND their kittens.

[johnpwalsh]

1 hour ago, Buddsy said:

Yes well at least Ollie's was. Did make me laugh when he was talking about his book and the review  He looks a bit of a fearsom charecter but when he started talking his passion and humor came across.

 

buddsy

We spoke with Ollie and he was a complete charmer. His anecdotes are second to none. What a gentleman. It was a privilege and pleasure to speak to him. The surprising part was when we introduced ourselves, he already knew of us and our exploits with LotusRescue. Wow, did that make me proud.

[LJR]

@Bibs Thanks for putting together a fantastic day. We both enjoyed it enormously. @JNW3 it was great to meet and chat with you. @Sparky thanks for the advice we made it home eventually. @Dan E and @makkyh good to see you again and to everyone else I chatted too thanks for giving me a chance to share my enthusiasm.

p.s. would love to get one of those Lotus 70 fence banners too.

[swiftcruiser]

Would like to add  my thanks to Bibs and team at Lotus for organising an excellent day and am sure  ok on behalf of Lotus Excel.net to thank  Bibs for co-ordinating with Angus of Lotus excel.net in enabling us to have a club pitch  

[Arregueti]

I would also like to thank and congratulate everyone involved for a fantastic celebration.

From the guy who brought the idea and inspiration to the factory (anyone's guess who that was...) to Lotus and Geely (for buying into the idea and investing heavily in making a success out of it) and to the different clubs for all the enthusiasm shown in displaying their cars and bikes. It is evident that a lot of care and attention to detail was put into organising it and it turned out pretty impressive. You all proved to be great hosts!

The standard is very high now and it obviously left us willing for more... Hopefully next year.

Funny enough, I ended up with my sons in Snetterton instead of the Norfolk show-ground after taking the wrong shuttle when leaving. That gave us some additional track time and made us effectively one of the last to leave the party.

[esp88]

What a fantastic weekend  👍

Many thanks to Bibs, It was really wonderful see  so Many Lotus cars 😅

 

 

[skiing]

Brilliant day, thank you so much to Bibs for the huge work and effort. Great to see lots of friends and to meet the team behind Lotus Rescue! I hope you all got home to Scotland in one piece... Talking of which on my way home on the A11 / M11 I spotted an Elite and S2.2 (silver one) stopped on an exit ramp - hope all way OK and you made it back? I would have stopped but was in fast lane (obviously!) and could not get across in time to pull off.

[march]

I have the same sentiments as everyone else - what a fantastic weekend and thanks to everyone involved in the organising it. It almost rivalled the foreign language lessons from John Walsh and family on the Saturday evening.

I just can't wait to see how Bibs can top this next year.

Ooo - just thought how it can be bettered - If Bibs can arrange the resurfacing and the south side of the M25 it would be appreciated - surely not too hard a task after what was achieved this year.

[LotusLeftLotusRight]

One thing I mentioned to my son whilst wandering around and watching the "one of every Lotus road car" display is that Lotus doesn't seem to have made a single dud model in all those 70 years. All of them are desirable. Compare that to  moneybags Porsche with their back catalogue including the lame 100bhp 1.6 litre 912, van-engined cheapo 924, monstrous diesel Cayenne, grotesque Panamera etc. Also all Lotus owners are true enthusiasts of the marque, as was patently obvious on Saturday. No-one buys a Lotus without having real knowledge of sports cars, which is probably why they don't sell that many!

It was great heading up and back down the A11 to see which brightly coloured shape would appear in the rear-view mirror next!

[trw999]

The A11 was almost as much fun as Hethel!

 

We passed lots of machinery as the dawn came up and played with one or two. We were in a blue Elan +2 that was capable of keeping up with the moderns, due mostly to the Zetec engine under the bonnet!

 

The sat nag, as owner Alan calls it, was indicating over 120 (kph your honour), whilst the original speedo needle bounced around between 120 and 130 + or - 5!

 

We dully arrived at 0729hrs, only to be told to go up the road and turn around, as they couldn't let us in until 0730hrs. Doh!

 

Tim

[Composite guru]

27 minutes ago, LotusLeftLotusRight said:

One thing I mentioned to my son whilst wandering around and watching the "one of every Lotus road car" display is that Lotus doesn't seem to have made a single dud model in all those 70 years. All of them are desirable. Compare that to  moneybags Porsche with their back catalogue including the lame 100bhp 1.6 litre 912, van-engined cheapo 924, monstrous diesel Cayenne, grotesque Panamera etc. Also all Lotus owners are true enthusiasts of the marque, as was patently obvious on Saturday. No-one buys a Lotus without having real knowledge of sports cars, which is probably why they don't sell that many!

It was great heading up and back down the A11 to see which brightly coloured shape would appear in the rear-view mirror next!

i fully agree with that. I have a mate that is just about to buy a Ferrari. He loves driving cars hard but just cant see Lotus as an option. I tried getting him to buy a GT430 but his reply was "It is too much money for what it is. Most buy for the badge on the front and what others think rather than what engineering is underneath.

[ChrisJ]

3 hours ago, Sparky said:

And we dropped in for a quick visit to the beautiful and historic Salisbury Cathedral

Not too much slush around I hope

 

[JerryS]

4 hours ago, 2GOOD said:

We were walking back towards the cars parked on the track, somewhere near the classic display, no one else around and suddenly realise that the chap in the green shirt with the elderly lady on the electric trike walking past us are Clive & Hazel Chapman!

I was going round thinking how could this day get any better? – Then heard Clive say on the PA that Hazel would be attending.

It was great to finally get to visit the factory. With the future looking so positive and so many key people from the past there it was all so good.

Thanks Bibs for getting SLOC along. Great to be there on such a fantastic day!