Rohan Hodge enjoys Historic Winton in his beautiful little Elan in these photos from the 2014 event.
Club Lotus New Zealand Edition 54 Available for Download
Our friends from Club Lotus New Zealand have recently kicked their newsletter back into gear, and we’re happy to share the latest edition with you right here!
This edition includes a look at all the news in the world of Lotus before checking in with CLNZ’s members, scoping out the Classic Trials, getting to know the Westfield Eleven and Flintstone Lotus 23 and a whole lot more.
Download it from the following link, and enjoy!
Club Lotus New Zealand Edition 54 [PDF]
Please also make sure to head to their official website here, their Facebook page here, and their YouTube channel here to keep in touch with everything they’re up to.
Lotus Photos: October 2014 Early Morning Run Western Australia
In which our friends from Western Australia take their Lotuses for a run through the Perth hills to Jarrahdale and on to explore the wonders of the West Australian Racing Museum.
November 2014 Edition of Lotus Notes Available for Download!
Our quality contributors from the combined Lotus Clubs of Australia have once again produced an excellent edition of Lotus Notes, and this is the place to download your digital edition!
This month’s features include:
- South Australia Lotus Talk
- A Run to the Queensland Auto Museum in Hampton
- The McKellar Ridge Winery Trip
- Morgan Park Sprints Round 4
- I Think I Need a Lathe
And much 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.
PRESIDENT’S PRATTLE: November
Goodness me, it seems only a moment since I was writing the last month’s missive – mind you, I have just spent a week over in Atlanta for work, so that has completely stuffed my sense of time! (Not to mention my back too!)
By the time you read this we will, unbelievably, be into the last two months of the year, but also therefore properly into Summer! We are also only a month away from the Christmas Party, so please make sure, if you are planning to come, that you confirm how many will be there and which car you will be entering in the Concours d’Elegance – full details of how and what elsewhere in here but suffice to say if you don’t register by 23rd November, you will go hungry if you turn up unannounced!
November also sees the return of the Simply Sports Cars Lotus On Track Days, this time hosted by Winton. These events have rightly earned their place on the calendar for being a fantastic combination of social entertainment and varied motorsport, with everyone catered for, from first timers right through to veterans of GT Championships. If you haven’t been to one, you owe it to yourself to contact PJ at SSC and get along!
Also slightly alarmingly, the Australia Day 2015 CARnivale celebrations are already being planned, and we have been in discussion with John Flowers to get a space, so I am hoping that we, as a Club, can muster a decent representation of cars for the event – cars have to have been built before December 1984 (or be a direct model run-on), so if you would like to join in the fun with your car, please head to this link and register to be parked with the Club.
Otherwise, the last month saw the launch of our brand new fancy website, which I hope you have had a chance to have a look at. If you are encountering any difficulties with the registration process in order to access the Members area, use the Contact form to drop a line to Seth, our webmaster, and he will be in touch with you directly to help set things up.
We have also been running a photo competition on both the website and our new Facebook page, asking you to help choose the photos for our inaugural CLA Calendar – not so much Pirelli, more Classic Car, but we hope it will be the start of a more regular annual event. If you would like your car to be the star, make sure Tom receives high quality shots of your car in time for next year’s competition!
The aim of both these media is to provide an easy and enjoyable approach to our club, in keeping with current social media trends of currency and interesting information. Please feel free to comment on either, and we look forward to hearing your thoughts! And the calendars should be in the post to all full members in time for Christmas!
Looking a little further afield, the Bathurst 12 hour is shaping up to be a weekend of top motorsport, with Tony Alford and Mark O’Connor once again campaigning the Donut King Exige V6 in Class C. Up at the pointy end, I gather Audi and Bentley have joined in the fray, so it really will be an event to see. The Club is organising a display area right outside the main grandstand, so keep an eye open for details, and get yourself booked in sharpish! And if you haven’t already done so, book your accommodation, as it goes faster than an Exige down Conrod.
Right, that’s enough from me – you have Christmas shopping to do for one thing, and an email to write to Elliott to confirm your attendance at the Christmas party for another! And the rest of the magazine to read too…
I look forward to catching lots of you at Bruce Mansell’s shed on 11th for a great evening.
In the meantime keep it safe, upright and on the black stuff.
Pip pip,
Ashton
Join us for the CLA Members’ Christmas Party and Concours d’Elegance
Our annual Club Lotus Australia Christmas Party, now including the 2014 Concours d’Elegance, is set for this Sunday the 7th of December, and we have details for everyone!
As mentioned, the event will be held from 10AM on Sunday the 7th of December. We’ll be enjoying a summertime picnic at Tunks Hill in the Lane Cove National Park and will be providing catering.
The event is free to Club Lotus Australia members and their immediate family!
Due to the earlier cancellation of this year’s All British Day we will also be holding our annual, and highly prestigious, Concours d’Elegance during the day.
Registration for the event is required (so that we know how many of you are coming hungry!) Please register your intention to attend by contacting Elliott our Club Secretary through the contact page here. Please do so before Sunday the 23rd of November, and include the following details:
Name:
Number in the party (max 5):
Car details:
Model:
Year:
Colour:
Registration plate:
Thank you! We can’t wait to catch up with everyone and enjoy the picnic and concours!
Map to Tunks Hill (take Riverside Drive off Lane Cove Road, and take the first RIGHT up the hill:
Cast your Votes on our 2015 Calendar [CONCLUDED]
UPDATE: We’ve now closed voting, and are hard at work putting the calendar together. Stay tuned!
Your votes count! We’re putting together a calendar for 2015, and we need your help choosing the photos!
Please comment on this post with the file numbers of your favourites from the photos of our cars taken by our members below and the most popular will be published in hard copy shortly. And if you have a shot which you’d like to include for consideration, drop it in an email to [email protected].
Andy Middlehurst, John Bowers’ Type 25 R4 and Team Classic Lotus on Autosport Cover
Congratulations to Team Classic Lotus, John Bowers and Andy Middlehurst, who have made the front page of Autosport featuring a brilliant shot of John’s lovely ex-Jim Clark (that means it’s royalty) Type 25 R4 Lotus driven by Andy. All it took was 35 years of hard work (and fun)!
Head to your local purveyor of the printed word and pick a copy up for the full story!
Image thanks to Autosport
October 2014 Edition of Lotus Notes Available for Download!
Our talented team from the combined Lotus Clubs of Australia have been hard at work on the latest Lotus Notes, and have a delightful edition ready for download!
This month’s features include:
- The August Day Run to Springbrook
- LCV Club Night at the Elfin Heritage Centre
- LCV Club Early Morning Run from Coldstream to Tonimbuk via Noojee
- A Somewhat Forgotten Wedding Anniversary
- Len Terry 1923 – 2014
Along with much, much 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.
PRESIDENT’S PRATTLE: OCTOBER
Well hello everyone!
Thank you to all of you who attended the AGM recently at Shannons and for your continued support for your Committee and Club – I am delighted that we have the go-ahead to continue much as we were before, with the notable exception that Alastair Brown has decided to stand down as CMC delegate, after many years of close involvement with the Club, so our very grateful thanks go to him for all he has done in many capacities over the years.
Evan Jones will continue his good work to maintain our presence with the Council of Motor Clubs. I’m sorry I wasn’t able to be present on the night due to work commitments in WA, so I would also like to take the opportunity to thank your Committee publicly for all the hard work which goes on behind the scenes and which most of you never see! Without their time and effort, you wouldn’t have the vibrant and enjoyable club events, motorsport or technical support which makes owning a Lotus such a joy.
I particularly want to thank the CLA Chapter representatives in WA (Eddie Lankhorst), ACT (David Leaney), Tasmania (John Barrass) and South Australia (Andrew Stevens) for re-establishing the Club in their respective states, and for the hard work they are all putting into giving local members such a wide variety of activities and opportunity to enjoy their cars – thank you all!
Financially the Club is in good shape, and grateful thanks, as ever, to Kris for keeping the books balanced. The combined newsletter goes from strength to strength, entirely thanks to Tom’s patience and commitment, so thank you Tom! Elliott continues to keep you all informed of what is going on, in spite of his significant workload, so my grateful thanks Elliott.
Thank you to our VP Anne, and to Maurice for representing the Club as our Public officer, and for keeping the Club Plates register legal and above board. Mike Basquil continues, swan-like as ever, to keep the water calm in the motorsport world, for which we are all most grateful. Mike Donnan is keeping eyes on you all and your attendance at events, thank you Mike! Keith has now got the Concours planning and execution so slick you would hardly begin to know how much effort goes into it, so thank you Keith! And our General Members Geoff, James, Rob and Barry continue to support all the social activity to ensure we have an active and varied calendar – thanks gents! Importantly, we also have a new Webmaster, Seth Reinhardt, who has taken on the task of developing and running our website, so welcome to Seth!
On which subject, by the time you read this the NEW Club Lotus Australia website will be live, and you will have received an email from Elliott with your authentication code to allow you to set up your personal account; this in turn allows you access to the Members section, where in future the Newsletter and other member-only materials will be posted. Other than this section, the rest of the site is intended to become a more active public face of the club, and to represent all we do. So please do send our webmaster, Seth, any and all material you would like posted up – that can be photos you took on a run with a few friends, anything you want to put up for sale, or events you would like in the calendar (particularly, it would be great to include interstate events on the calendar so members in all states can see what is going on).
For those of you that use Facebook as your way of keeping abreast of happenings, we have also established a page (search for Club Lotus Australia and it should come up!) and we will be cross-posting any news and current affairs to there (but probably NOT “for sale” items!)
This year’s wet winter weather has played havoc with social events, and for the first time since I can remember, the All British Day at Kings School had to be postponed, and then cancelled. This is a great shame, as it has historically been a central event in the calendar, but plans are already afoot to conduct our Concours d’Elegance at the Christmas Party on December 7th instead. Following the success of the location last year we will be going back to Tunks Park in Lane Cove National Park, so block out the diary for Sunday 7th December, and we very much look forward to seeing you there.
However, as I write this, the sun is finally shining for the second consecutive day, so I am quietly hopeful that we might be over the worst and into the Spring weather. I had the Elan out for a run yesterday and am delighted to report that she seems to have weathered the dull winter months in remarkably good form! The same sadly can’t be said for a number of barn-find cars which have come to light in recent months, but at least they are appearing, and hopefully will find new lives with new owners willing to put in the substantial effort to resurrect them. If anyone is after a Plus 2 project car, I know of one in central Sydney that needs a significant investment of time to bring her back to life!
October sees us visiting Grahame Burton’s Shed – Grahame has recently taken on the distributorship for AVO shocks, and will have his shock dynamometer (I hope that’s how it’s spelt!) operating on the night so we can understand a little more about the technicalities of shocks and corner weighting. His shed is at the rear of 97 Crinan St, Hurlstone Park; enter via Wallace Lane and, as there is no parking in the lane, park in the side streets.
October also has us at the next round of the CSCA sprints down at Wakefield on 26th, preceded by the Triumph Owners Club Driver Training Day on 25th. For anyone thinking of sprinting next year, or just interested to find out more, this is a great event to attend, as it gives you access to the track and lots of helpful types willing to share advice on car set up, preparation and all that comes with sprinting. I would encourage you to try it, and stay for the Sunday too, to join in the fun – last time I looked we already had 14 of the first 19 entrants in the field, so it should be a great weekend.
And please note in your diaries that for our General Meeting on 11th November we have been invited back to Bruce Mansell’s shed in Chatswood so I am looking forward to catching up with lots of you then too!
I think that’s enough from me – with the finer weather coming, you really want to be out in your car rather than reading about it!
Have fun, take care and keep it upright and on the black stuff.
Pip pip,
Ashton