For the third year running, The Lotus Forums had a sizeable presence at the UK’s largest Classic Car Show at the NEC. Reports suggest that over 125,000 fans of classic and performance cars walked through the doors over the 3 days of the show making it one of the most successful to date and making it perhaps an alternative day out for petrolheads looking for a fix following the demise of the Motor Show at London’s Excel Centre in the Docklands.
Situated in the most prestigious of halls alongside the Ferrari, Maserati and Porsche owners clubs we offered the public the chance to see up close the evolution of the Esprit over it’s 28 year lifecycle via the medium of pure white cars! With an early S1 representing the 70’s car, an S3 Turbo for the 80’s, an S4s for the 90’s and late edition V8 for the 00’s visitors could see exactly how the car had changed, and how it was still the same throughout the 4 decades in which the car was produced. The most stunning display had the S1 nose-to-nose with the V8, grandad with youngster yet still the grandad looked good, looked fit and lithe and looked ready to have some fun! It would have been a delight to see both cars in action, one day I’m sure!
We met many forum members who made the trip to Birmingham, it’s great to meet up with so many people we often only see and hear from online and also had literally hundreds, if not thousands of enquiries as to availabilities, prices, ownership and maintenance. Many people who visit the show are the same people who had a picture of a white Esprit on their bedroom wall as a child (some in fact still do I’m sure!) and to see the cars in such good condition and more significantly, how well they’ve stood the test of time only serves to reignite interest and add some buoyancy to the market as interest piques.
We were on hand to answer all of these enquiries so thanks to our volunteers who help man the stand and thanks to the guys whose cars are the stars of the event. We’ve already submitted our application for 2011 and next year will be going back in force with more of a variety of Lotus cars on display so make sure you head up again next year.
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