Ashton’s President’s Prattle for June, 2023

Alvis Speed 20

Wow, June already!

When we started planning this month’s 50th Anniversary celebrations, it seemed so far into the future as to not get too worried about it.

All of a sudden, here we very nearly are! As I write this, we are three weeks from a great celebration of friendships, a shared love of our cars, and a rosy future for the brand we all love.

It would be extremely remiss of me not to mention the hard work and inspiration of the organising committee, and to thank them all for their input, involvement and drive to get to what will be a fantastic event; Brian, Mel, Tom, Greg, Neil, Seth, Elliott and Evan, you have been awesome, and we have a lot to be very grateful for, thank you all!

So for those unable to make it, we’ll take photos and share them next time round.

And once all that excitement is over, all of a sudden, we are into the second half of the year, and the middle of winter!

As I may have mentioned, I will be flying over to work from the UK for three months (as a bit of a social experiment in working Australian hours from the other side of the globe), leaving shortly after our jamboree, and in time for Goodwood FOS. Funnily enough, the other end of my visit is bookmarked by Revival, where Lord March is kindly celebrating the Lotus 75th. While it clearly won’t be as star-studded as our affair, I feel I should go along in the spirit of supporting the event 🙂 So, if anyone else is planning to be over at the same time, make sure to get in touch!

Here in Sydney, assuming the weather forecasters are right, we can start to look forward to a slightly more “normal” weather pattern as El Nino re-establishes in the Pacific, which will hopefully mean that both the Shannons Classic (Sunday August 20th) and the All British Day (Sunday September 17th) can go ahead without the risk of being washed out, as has sadly been the case of recent years. As ever, we’ll be getting tickets for the club, so please drop a line to Evan on the committee email address ([email protected]) if you are interested to come along. Shannons will be celebrating 75 years of Lotus (and as it happens also Land Rover), so we will have an extra few spots as we can have cars on pit lane as well as in the paddock; and with the promise of finer weather, the All British Day returns as our annual excuse for a picnic!

And don’t forget, our Tyre Kicks continue on the second and third Sundays of the month. In a break from tradition, the 16th July Tyre Kick will take place at Evalence’s workshops at Unit 13/12 Cecil Rd, Hornsby NSW 2077, starting at 9am. Come ready to learn how to make your car really shine! Charlie Frew’s kit is top notch, and he’ll have the coffee machine and bbq on for us.

In the motorsport world, we have round 2 of the CSCA sprints on June 17th (two weeks time!), so if you’ve not got organised, now would be a good time to do so! And then round 3 is the CLA-organised round this year, picking up the baton from the Morgan Club for the day before the Shannons Classic (Saturday 19th August). We will need plenty of flag marshal volunteers please, so even if you can’t run in the event, if you’d be kind enough to offer to serve as a flaggie, your help would be hugely appreciated. Please drop a line to the Motorsport team on [email protected] to start to organise things.

And before we know it, I’ll be back from Blighty.

But while there, a lovely friend (my navigator on Perth to Sydney last year, Nick) has offered me the use of his Alvis Speed 20 – for those needing a prompt, you can see it up above.

So if anyone has a good source of flatbeds in Europe, I am all ears.
Righto, better get this off to Tom. I really look forward to seeing so many of you in Leura in a couple of weeks, and in the meantime, keep safe, upright and mostly on the blackstuff.
Pip pip,
Ashton

Vale: Mike Basquil

Vale, Mike Basquil

It is with great sadness that I am writing to let you know that our great friend Mike Basquil passed away on Wednesday morning, May 17 2023.

Mike had been in hospital for a couple of weeks and his body was finally saying enough. His children Therese, Fred and Sarah, along with his extended family, were all at his side yesterday.

Mike’s fight for life after his lung transplant in 1997 has set new records and his help to the transplant team at St Vincents has no doubt helped save many lives. He was able to fulfil many of his dreams in his last 20 years.

Mike was not only a wonderfully warm, humorous, caring and considerate person, he was also a fierce advocate for anything he saw as right, and a staunch defender against things he felt to be wrong. He was exceptionally generous with his time and efforts for the local motor sport community and was an organiser par excellence. So good, in fact, that he was requested by and provided help to many clubs, including those he wasn’t directly involved with.

I was immensely privileged to know Mike from very early in my time in Australia, and to have spent many happy hours in his company at home, at the racetrack, and at the many Club events he so assiduously attended.

His passing will leave a huge hole in the fabric of many lives, and our thoughts go out in particular to Therese, Fred and Sarah, to the rest of his family and his many friends.

We will be in touch with details of his funeral.

Best regards,
Ashton Roskill

Entry Open for CSCA 2023 Round 2 at Pheasant Wood Circuit

Club Lotus at CSCA 2020 Round 3, Pheasant Wood Circuit

Entries are now open for CSCA Round 2 kindly hosted by MGCCN on Saturday 17th of June at Pheasant Wood Circuit. Please read the invitation letter and supplementary regulations in the link below.

CSCA Round 2 Supplementary Regulations and Invitation Letter [PDF]

Entries via Motorsport Australia Event Entry at this link. The entry cost is $175 and dorians are available for hire at $17, plus an extra $10 for a mounting bracket.

When you have entered please fill in and send the self scrutiny and Motorsport Australia disclaimer to Wayne Movigliatti at the details above.

We look forward to seeing you at Round 2

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Vale: Jack McLaughlin

Jack McLaughlin

With thanks to Allan Davies, Cathy & Ron Gibbs and the LOST Fraternity

The LOST Fraternity (Lotus Or Similar Thoroughbreds) are saddened to announce the passing of our founder, leader and friend Mr Jack McLaughlin.

Jack had many passions in the life; one such passion was his love of motoring and motor sports which led him to form The LOST Fraternity back in 2009.

Although he was an avid admirer of all things Colin Chapman, his appreciation of motor cars was extensive (for those who knew him well we can attest to nearly 100 cars during his driving history). Many joke that some of Jack’s cars never saw a second oil change before they were upgraded or replaced with something newer and shinier.

Jack’s enthusiasm and welcoming manner was contagious, resulting in many thoroughbred car owners joining the LOST Fraternity over the years. He was instrumentational in ensuring that we met on a regular basis, mostly every second weekend, and he was our own personal international correspondent at many a Goodwood Revival meets in the UK.

Numerous stories could be told about Jack that would take months to regale, but needless to say all of the LOST Fraternity members have memories of him that will last a lifetime.

Though it will be impossible to replace Jack as our leader we will continue and try to live up to his vision of what the LOST Fraternity should be to our members.

Rest in peace Jack knowing you will never be forgotten.

The LOST Fraternity

Ashton’s President’s Prattle for May, 2023

75 Years Lotus 50 Years Club Lotus Australia

Happy May, and happy autumn!

As we rush towards our increasingly fabulous joint Lotus 75th and CLA 50th Celebrations in Leura at the end of June, it would be remiss of me to fail to remind you one last time to book in! There are one or two rooms still left from our allocation at the Fairmont Resort and Spa, so book in for the event online here and you will then receive the code to get you a preferential rate for your room at the hotel. Or book in elsewhere for the nights if you prefer. Easy!

The itinerary is building out fast, with an amazing representation of the Past, Present and Future of Lotus. This includes our Guest of Honour, William Taylor, joining us from his role at Classic Team Lotus, Mike Bennett kindly bringing his gorgeous Lotus 12 (the first ever Formula 1 Lotus), Brian Caldersmith putting together a fabulous slide show of the history of the Club and the Lotus marque in Australia, and our great friends at Lotus Australia/Simply Sports Cars joining us with the Emira to represent the recent present and, importantly, the great future. If we are really lucky, there may be another surprise guest too!

The weekend kicks off on the Friday evening with registration and informal drinks, opportunities to catch up, chat to our guests and get ready for the rest of the weekend.

Saturday will see us running our own version of a show-and-shine event in the hotel carpark, followed by your choice of activities from a long list of options, or entirely up to you! There will be a few drive routes, and with the Lotus Emira present, perhaps the chance to get behind the wheel. And plenty of local sights to see, attractions to visit or you might want to simply hang out at the hotel, use the skating rink, or spoil yourselves at the spa.

Saturday night is our fabulous gala dinner, with guest speeches from William Taylor, Mike Bennett and several overseas contributors (read out by locals!), all interspersed with good food, wine and lively conversation; there may even be some prizes and such like.

Sunday morning we will have a leisurely breakfast before saying good bye to friends and heading home, hopefully via the scenic route!

So if you haven’t made up your mind to come yet, hopefully something in that itinerary gives you reason to join us – to date we have nearly 90 attendees, which is fantastic! We’d love you to be there, so please get onto it quickly as we are starting to come under pressure from the venue to confirm numbers and release any remaining rooms. It’s only seven weeks away!!

Aside from the planning that is going into that, we have the next round of the CSCA championships at Pheasants Wood on 17th June hosted by our lovely friends at the MG Car Club of Newcastle, so it would be great to see lots of us supporting that.

And of course our Tyre Kicks continue to attract a fascinating mix of the stalwarts and new members – I never fail to be surprised and enchanted by the variety and breadth of conversations held at these events. This month we will be at Carrs Creek on 14th as usual for the second Sunday of the month, and at Gough Whitlam Park for the 21st.

A date for your diary for July – we have been invited to Charlie Frew’s establishment in Hornsby for the 16th July for a morning of shining up your car using his top of the range preparation potions and polishes (my words, not his!) while supping coffee and eating bangers – full details to be published on the calendar shortly.

So if there’s nothing in there that appeals, let me know what would, and we’ll see what we can organise!

Meanwhile, keep safe upright and mostly on the blackstuff.

Pip pip,
Ashton

South Australian Lotus Torque, May 2023

The Array of Lotus Brightened Up Strathalbyn High Street

The array of Lotus  brightened up the Strathalbyn High Street. Words and Pictures courtesy of Andrew Stevens

An occasional contribution from our South Australian correspondent Andrew Stevens, catching you up on everything Club Lotus in SA this May, 2023.

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Provisional Schedule for Club Lotus Australia 50th Anniversary

Our 50th anniversary celebrations are coming up in less than two months now and we’re pleased to see a great turnout already registered for the special event. To help you plan, we wanted to share our provisional schedule for the weekend.

The 50th anniversary of Club Lotus Australia will be celebrated over the weekend of Friday the 23rd of June to Sunday the 25th of June around the Fairmont Resort and Spa in the Blue Mountains, with a gala dinner planned for Saturday the 24th. Like most things we do, it will be a fairly relaxed affair. If you haven’t registered to join us yet, please do, we’d love to see as much of the community there as possible.

Registration will be held at Fairmont Resort on Friday afternoon, after which we will retire to the bar to catch up and settle into proceedings with some casual welcome drinks. There are no firm plans for dinner, but we will provide some ideas in the local area.

Saturday morning will open with a concours d’elegance, with judging planned for around 10am. This should leave time for some adventuring during the day, with half day drives planned alongside exploring the local area or enjoying activities at the resort. Again, we will provide a road book with lots of ideas for things to do in the local area.

Early on Saturday evening we’ll meet up at the Fairmont Resort bar to relax over drinks before heading into the formal gala dinner, where we look forward to hearing guest of honour William Taylor speak as part of a wonderful celebratory dinner.

On Sunday morning we’ll wind down with a casual breakfast, with the day open to what ever exploring or adventuring takes your fancy.

If you have any questions or suggestions, please don’t hesitate to reach out via [email protected]. Please do remember to place your booking via our membership system at this link, and invite family and friends in the community. We look forward to seeing everyone there!

Lotus Photos: CLA WA’s March Early Morning Run

CLA March 2023 Early Morning Run

Thanks to Dave Finnie

Our plans for this run were nearly cancelled as the leaders at very short notice were unable to do the scheduled run, so a quick mailout was required to seek a new volunteer, and Steve Pretzel sprung into action and took over leading the run for us. Much appreciated Steve.

We gathered at Guildford and it was good to see the return of Andy and Shona who had been interstate for several months. There were several other late cancellations, however Steve and Ally led us along some excellent roads, with the usual mid point toilet stop and social chat along the way. We then headed of to a nice brunch at a small restaurant in Toodyay, where we also had a surprise visit from a local Lotus Exige owner.

A really good meal and more chatting, and then a casual drive back home. The weather was mild, so all in all a very pleasant outing.

CLA March 2023 Early Morning Run