David Nolan recaps the first Western Australia early morning run of 2017, with photos thanks to Elinor Hamilton.

By David Nolan, photos by Elinor Hamilton

The first early morning run of 2017. We met, as always, at Guildford station car park and lined up our trusty steeds for inspection before departure.

There was the usual variety of colours, years and models to represent Hethel’s finest export, along with drivers, co-pilots, a dog and even a potential new Elise owner in Olivia who popped along to meet our motley crew and gather some information ahead of a potential Elise purchase. Jarred and I stopped talking about our broken boot handles to tell her what a great choice she was making.

Sadly Ed, our commander in chief, couldn’t join us as he had whisked Vicky off on holiday, but not before planning a route which he left in the very diligent and capable hands of Les.

Route shared, our convoy of seven cars headed out in search of WA’s finest serpentine roads. Les and Marilyn led the way, goosebumps distributed to anyone lucky enough to hear the banshee wail of the Exige’s V6 on cam with John in his S2 Exige at the rear and five Elises in harmony in between.

We were making progress en route to the beautiful Mundaring Weir, my plucky little 1.6 keeping pace with the larger engines and superchargers. Given our planned route was a little shorter than usual it afforded us a longer break and the chance to admire the view from the weir. Sadly the gate across was closed but I took the opportunity to fly my drone over the water and capture some footage and photos.

It wasn’t long before we were back on the road and I was enjoying panoramic S3 Elise views with Mike & Ellie’s red S ahead and Jarred and Gen’s orange one aft. 1030 saw our arrival in Mundaring itself, via the scenic route, naturally, and we all parked up, gazing back and congratulating ourselves on our great taste in cars!

Great chat and witty banter over brunch at the charming Patch of Country Tea Shoppe made for the perfect end to another successful EMR.

Or so we thought.. Saying goodbye to the rest of the gang those of us with some spare time on our hands formed a splinter group of three cars for the return journey and headed off to a road I only know as “the roller coaster”. Despite all of us having driven it before, the novelty had most certainly not worn off. There were hoots of delight as we plunged from crest to valley followed by groans as we left our stomachs at the bottom on the way back up the far side. What a ride!

We pulled up to compare notes and laugh deliriously until our sides hurt. What next? Turn around and do it again – obviously!

This time we had a few driver changes with first time visitor, Dave, hopping into the Hamilton hot seat and Ellie taking over my car. I fired up the drone to capture the event. The first run was a practice one for me to find a nice shot but the second, oh this was the one. Beautifully framed, well lit, expertly flown, deftly manoeuvred, the entire Top Gear / Grand Tour production team could not have bettered what I had just filmed. It was nothing short of a masterpiece. If only I had hit record…