Lotus Elite Diamond Jubilee Wrap-Up and Photo Gallery

We enjoyed an absolutely stunning winter’s long weekend over the 12th to the 14th of August, 2017, when we celebrated the 60th birthday of the Lotus Elite.

The event was a great success, with Saturday’s CSCA sprint and commemorative dinner, Sunday’s celebrations and concours d’elegance and the Lotus-Only Track Day on Monday all very well supported.

A huge ‘THANK YOU’ to everyone involved, and a special one to Brian Caldersmith who put in countless hours of hard work over many months to make this all happen.

Please scroll on to read Brian’s thanks and report, and to enjoy some photos from the weekend.

Thanks to Brian Caldersmith

The Big LOTUS Party

Thank you to all the people that attended our 60^th celebration. Many people travelled big distances to be part of the occasion and that contributed enormously to the event. Special thanks to those from Queensland and Victoria – and to our New Zealander! And particular thanks to Don Christopher, who brought his family out from USA especially to be there. Don’t all these Lotus people get on well?

A guest from the United States, Don Christopher publishes the Club Elite Newsletter internationally and maintains a world register of the cars.

The commemorative dinner on Saturday night was well attended and enjoyed – judging by the noise level. What about the exquisite lapel pins that everybody received? The same size as the original pins that the initial buyers received with their Lotus (until Chapman found out how much they cost). Thank you Roger Morgan for that contribution.

And speaking of contributions, each Elite owner received a superb stainless steel dashboard panel engraved with their chassis number and 60^th anniversary recognition – all supplied by Terry Daly.

They provided a wonderful highlight to an evening interspersed with messages from the likes of John Frayling, Mike Kimberley, Ian Scott-Watson, Chis Barber, Clive Chapman, John Wagstaff, Warren King and others. Those messages will be published in Tom Devitt’s monthly club newsletter “Chunky’s Chatter”, or you can read them on the CLA website by clicking this link.

We had special treatment on Sunday. First, we made the programme cover, with an Elite and Seven highlighted. And then, unlike the 150 other clubs in attendance, we had our own half hour on the track which allowed a photo opportunity on the start line. Spread 5 wide, all the Lotus’ in attendance followed the Elites to create a great club memory. In fact we ran out of passes to the event and could have had a lot more cars there given enough notice.

The commemorative shirts were well in evidence and our raffle for prostate cancer research raised nearly $1000. Thank you for that support. It was appropriately won by an Elite – Julie Schmidt holding the ticket. The annual Concours d’Elegance was well supported and the full list of all the winners will be published.

Speaking of publishing, please send me any photos you like from the weekend so that we can build up a good record of the event. The slide show from the dinner will also be part of the collection.

Thanks again everybody,
Brian.