Lotus 70th Anniversary Photos

[Spyder fan]

Here's the factory boys hooning on the circuit in front of the grandstand

Click this link for the video https://www.dropbox.com/s/0eoxsw64e4idl ... 5.mp4?dl=0

Mr Wilkes & 70th Poster theme

Mr Wilkes & 70th Poster theme

Yours for ?20

[gjz30075]

That's the poster we're looking for Glen! Hopefully it'll be reproduced.

[Spyder fan]

That's the poster we're looking for Glen! Hopefully it'll be reproduced.

It certainly was produced, I bought 2 yesterday........ quite small A3 size, that?s all that was available.

I?m framing it along with my ticket and official program, will post another photo tomorrow when I have it all together.

[david.g.chapman]

See attached for 3 more pics.

We had a great day and a good journey there and back. I managed to keep up with some elises on the A11 coming. They would get away on the roundabouts and I would then claw back by the next one.

I overhead at the end that the record of most cars on track was not broken - hope I am wrong.

Dave Chapman.

[CBUEB1771]

The only reason I?m including this picture on an Elan site is because the bodywork was absolutely flawless

You are completely forgiven! Odd that with such good body work the fuel filler cap is rotated 90 degrees from the proper position.

[Coupe]

Enjoyable day at Hethel although parade laps were a bit of a pain. Pleased I took the Elise and not the Elan. Certainly looks like at long last Lotus have some funding to move forward.

[RonR]

A few more.....

They even got the doors to stick out!


Alan's Plus 2

[Spyder fan]

The parade laps were actually a Guinness World Record attempt for the most amount of people being asphyxiated by exhaust fumes coming from Lotus cars in a traffic jam. I?m not sure of the outcome of this attempt as we managed to peel off from the circuit after 3 or 4 torturous laps and head for the exit and the trip home at around 4:30pm

I wouldn?t be surprised if people were still going around at 5pm, it was the only downer on an otherwise perfect day.

[richardcox_lotus]

Looks like I?m in the pictures even if my car isn?t. I?m the gent with the surprisingly large rucksack looking into the well used Silver-ish Elan.

We left Dartford at 6:00 in a convoy of 9. Mine was the only Elan though, and amongst 3 Elise?s and 2 M100s, we were the only ones to run roof down in 6 degrees C.

Envigorating !!

Here?s a cheeky pick of my Sprint which ran really well. As we were parked in the Club parking, we didn?t have to join the parade nonsense, and got away about 4:30.

Regards
Richard

[wotsisname]

I spoke with one of the Lotus crew at the end and she said the record attempt had failed. She didn't say why. An Esprit had parked after two corners and a few others later on. My Elise was running 97C and usually runs at 87-90C.... So was amazed so many kept going.... A great event despite this. Spoke with a few from this forum and a few of the well known Lotus people (Clive Chapman, Mike Kimberly, Bob Dance).

[pereirac]

The parade laps were actually a Guinness World Record attempt for the most amount of people being asphyxiated by exhaust fumes coming from Lotus cars in a traffic jam. I?m not sure of the outcome of this attempt as we managed to peel off from the circuit after 3 or 4 torturous laps and head for the exit and the trip home at around 4:30pm

I wouldn?t be surprised if people were still going around at 5pm, it was the only downer on an otherwise perfect day.

Hi Alan,
Great to catch up with you and Tim yesterday. The 'parade' lap was a bit strange, I was initially unaware they were trying ro achieve a record, I just though it was an excuse for us to drive round the track? Most of my time was spent watching my temperature gauge to see if the engine was going to overheat. There was a really nice Europa in front of us which seemed to be puffing out a lot of white smoke by the time we stopped going round ...

Carl

[Spyder fan]

Hi Carl,
Great to catch up with you too. The parade laps were actually quite fun for the first lap and a half, but I did feel a bit anxious for those cars that had marginal cooling capacity. Tim got a really good picture of the queue of cars behind on the back straight. I think that Adam (Pasta Pesto on here) probably struggled with his Sprint as he was complaining of temperature issues on the way in to the parking area, so that slow slog round was probably a bit exciting especially as his heater fan didn't want to play thereby losing a potential extra cooling method.

I had a quick search for Guinness World Records attempts for the most vehicles on a track or display or whatever and found the following http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/new ... rov-530663 it explains the successful attempt by Jaguar Landrover for more than 600 cars.

The vehicles had to stay a maximum of two cars' length away from the vehicle in front in order for their participation to qualify as a valid attempt.

Any gaps that were longer than the length of two cars meant the car following was disqualified from the total number.

The vehicles had one practice run before the official record attempt, which lasted just under one hour..

If this was the case for Lotus attempt, then I think it should have been clearly explained because quite a few people were slowing down deliberately to make a gap so they could do a quick blast

[wotsisname]

We were handed a notice, either on the way in or when we had parked up..I suspect most didn't read it, My better half was in charge of Navigation...so I tried my best to comply.. in the end though I was dropping back and then closing the gap to try and cool the car and that's in a modern.

[Spyder fan]

We arrived before they had opened Potash Lane, once through we were just directed to the circuit and left to our own devices, our tickets were not checked or asked for and I certainly don't remember seeing the explanatory notice. We stood chatting to other drivers for a good 20 minutes before finding our way to the catering area for coffee.

In all it's a very minor gripe about the organisation of the parade on an otherwise fantastic day.

[trw99]

As Alan wrote, the parade laps were tortuous. By lap two the backs of our throats were beginning to get sore, by lap three we were nodding off; classic carbon monoxide poisoning symptoms!

The parade laps failed to make the record attempt to have most cars on a track at one time. Apparently the reason for the failure was that the gaps between cars was, in some instances, too much. They had to be a maximum two cars length apart for the record to be valid. I put this down to lack of communication by the organisers, but it was not for the want of trying, just that lots of owners never got the right message about what the record attempt required to be achieved.

Geely are clearly putting a good deal of investment into Lotus. There was evidence of much new building work and even a small stand detailing what the plans are. See the photos below.

I caught a glimpse of Hazel Chapman, accompanied by son Clive, in an electric wheelchair close to the track cars entrance.

Tim