Join the ARDC on April 17th for a Private Practice Day

April Private Practice Day at Sydney Motorsport Park

Due to the cancellation of Top Gear, the ARDC have decided to put on a private practice day on Friday the 17th of April, 2015.

Sessions for L2S CAMS licenses will be provided along with sessions for faster groups to suit the cars that turn up on the day. It looks like a brilliant opportunity to enjoy the cool Autumn air and get the Lotus out for a nice high speed run!

Garages and carports are free and will be allocated on a first in best dressed basis. All you need to do to get involved is turn up and book in on the day in suite 9 from 7am. Gates open at 6am. A minimum PC CAMS licence or higher competition licence is required for cars.

More information can be found on the ARDC’s private practice page here.

Come along, tell your friends and let’s make use of the track time recent events have freed up!

Lotus News: Lotus On Top on Mount Alma

Lotus Hillclimb Mount Alma

Hot on the heels of the SSC Donut King Exige success at Mt Panorama, comes news that Andrew Stevens has won his class at the annual Mt Alma Mile Hillclimb in the Inman Valley, South Australia.

The 1.6km Hillclimb soars up the steep Fleurieu Peninsula hillside before opening out into a series of high speed swoops, and attracts a huge variety of cars. Last year’s trophy resides at the McLaren factory courtesy of Rob Black’s time in his MP-12C.

Lotus Hillclimb Mount Alma

Provisional results have Andrew Steven’s 2004 Elise quickest Under 2L Road Registered and 3rd overall in the Road Registered category behind a couple of big capacity vehicles, on a climb that rewards horsepower and bites if you get it wrong.

Andrew’s standard K Series powered car is driven to and from events, and his efforts show just how capable our cars are. While he lost time in the run to the 1st corner and the steep climb that follows, he blitzed the high speed section taking as much as 4 seconds off the opposition. Taking the 1st corner flat, might not be as quick as The Chase, but nor does it have the runoff area!

Andrew’s looking forward to seeing you all at Lotus2015.

Photos courtesy Ashley Trott and Andrew Stevens

Lotus Photos: 2015 Bathurst 12-Hour

2015 Bathurst 12-Hour

Get another perspective on the Club Lotus Australia action at this year’s Bathurst 12-Hour thanks to these photographs from the weekend by Ashton Roskill.

Make sure to keep an eye out for John Tarren’s Lotus 51 on full noise across the top of Skyline, some more of the Donut King Exige V6 and the inevitable gazelles in the paddock!

And if you’re looking for more photos and a report on the weekend’s adventures, hit this link!

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Lotus Stories: Geoff Winder

Geoff Winder

Club Lotus Australia is full of interesting people doing interesting things with interesting cars.

We want to tell their stories, and through this develop and preserve a written history of the club, its members and their cars. So once a month we’re going to share one person’s story with you right here on the Club website!

Geoff Winder found his way to Club Lotus Australia like many of us did – searching for likeminded individuals with whom to talk Lotuses.

Finding himself as one of the few Lotus Esprit owners in the club at the time working on his own car, he became the Esprit Registrar to help others. Since the day he joined Geoff’s been an invaluable asset to the club and developed his knowledge of Esprits to an impressive degree. And since 2015 will see the 40th anniversary of the Lotus Esprit, when it came to writing our first Lotus Story, we knew exactly who to turn to!

Take a few minutes of your day to relax and enjoy our first Lotus Story, with Geoff Winder.

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Help! Single-axle Car Trailer Stolen

Single Axle Car Trailer

This single-axle trailer has been stolen from Erskine Park and any help in retrieving it would be greatly appreciated!

The black lightweight single-axle car trailer was stolen from Erskine Park on the 23rd of March. It is a unique, one-off, trailer suited only to light cars (under 1000 kilograms). It should stand out as almost all car trailers are tandem axle.

It has a clutched dual directional 1400kg winch, white rims and a spare mounted at the winch end. The last 800mm of the checker plate tread is beavered with an 80mm fall. This will make it easy to spot as it is a rare inclusion allowing clearance for low cars to be driven on and off.

Ramps are removable and stored up front by the winch. This trailer was brand new and in perfect glossy condition.

Rego is TA 14 KK, although it is highly likely that this has been replaced. The last four digits of the VIN are KL007.

The owner is more than happy to pass the refunded excess on with no questions asked to the wonderful person who finds this hopefully unmolested.

Please call (02) 9836 2699 or send us an email here if you have any information.

March 2015 Edition of Lotus Notes Available for Download

Lotus Notes March

A short February means one very important thing – less time between editions of Lotus Notes! The team has completed the March edition of Lotus Notes and it’s now available to download from our members’ page.

The month’s features include:

  • The LOST Weekend
  • A DeLorean Adventure
  • EMR to Chateau Tahbilk
  • Liqui-Moly Bathurst 12-Hour Endurance Race

And a whole lot more!

The newsletter is a membership benefit of Club Lotus Australia, and will as such require you to be logged in to your members account. Download it from our ‘Members‘ page.

If you’re not a member yet, hit this link to find out more about the club and why you should become one!