Lotus events?

[wildoliver]

Are there any good lotus events coming up? More interested in autojumbles / motor sport than anything else.

A good autojumble would be most welcome!!!!

[Si_130/5]

Hello Wildoliver,
The Club Lotus Parts Fair/autojumble will take place on Sunday November 13th at the Stoneleigh Agricultural Showground.

Hope this helps,

Si

[nebogipfel]

Just an opinion but if last year was typical of the event I wouldn't travel all the way from Yorkshire for it.


Bet this provokes a response!

[Si_130/5]

AND THE RESPONSE IS......yup, you could be right.

[Hamish Coutts]

Stoneleigh is not alone in this.

Last Saturday I drove for a couple of hours to get to the Selkirk classic/vintage car show in the Scottish borders. (40 miles South of Edinburgh) Only to be told that the show wasn't open to the public on Saturday - some mumbo jumbo about health and safety!! Why advertise it as a two $%??"!ng day event then!!!

So I went down again on Sunday and wished I hadn't bothered. Biggest car boot sale in Europe.
Never seen so many rusty spanners, nuts, bolts and nails in my life.... and the prices!! (I found an old tin of rusty, mixed 6" and 4" nails priced at ?10) Come to think of it why are rusty nails being sold at a classic car event?
Going on that the 'junk' in my garage is worth a fortune.

Best stall was a guy selling various new nuts & bolts where I found what I was looking for and also discovered that he lived 5 miles away from my home!

I won't bother with Selkirk again but the Border roads are pure Lotus country. Winding and in many places quiet. Perfect playground!

Hamish.

[elansprint71]

The Club Lotus show at Donnington was a shadow of its' former self too. The traders stayed away because of the very high increase in fees for their stands. I wrote a scathing report for Classic and Sportscar Magazine, which had to be toned down by the editorial team.
I shall not be going to either of their events again, when a "club" is run as a for-profit business, owned by an individual, I suppose it is easy to become greedy, especially if you have only just bought that business from someone who ran it for a long time.


Cheers,
Pete.

[mark030358]

Pete,
I may be a bit green but is "club lotus" in private hands. I know there is a new editor... did he buy it or is it owned someone else?

cheers
Mark

[nebogipfel]

I didn't like to sound too negative but I agree Donnington is pretty much a waste of time too.

I don't know anything about the workings of Club Lotus (not a member) but I know Graham Arnold is sadly no longer with us.

I think one of the problems with both events is that they are held at the wrong time of year. A nice summer Lotus show preferably outdoor with an autojumble would doubtless be more successful and far better attended by classic Lotus models.

Just an afterthought ........

The "Normous Newark" autojumbles are quite good, as with most things these days the admission fee is too high but it is at least large and varied.

Not a Lotus event of course

[nebogipfel]

Just an afterthought ........

The "Normous Newark" autojumbles are quite good, as with most things these days the admission fee is too high but it is at least large and varied.

Not a Lotus event of course

Sorry for the repeat - the forum refused to post the message and then posted it anyway??

[M100]

Club Lotus has been run as a profit making organisation for the past two decades at least so the change of ownership probably makes little difference. I always had the distinct impression it was a VERY profitable operation for some

Do the basic maths, at new membership fees of 25-30 quid a year for around 30000 members and you can see where i'm coming from - ok a lot of members were on frozen membership rates and you needed to run an office of 2 or 3 and produce a magazine 4 times a year... but it was hardly a glossy sunday supplement publication although the catering budget was probably huge

I was involved in a commercial project that was considering exhibiting 3 or 4 years ago but the costs of a stand at Donington and at Stoneleigh were so prohibitive it made a similar stand at the NEC Autosport show seem an absolute bargain although I guess Club Lotus just pass the Donington prices straight on with a standard markup.

My Sprint has made it to Donington precisely once and has never been to Stoneleigh as, like a few others I guess, I refuse to put the car on the road when there are still heaps of road salt around. Usual transport therefore has been the Elise or more usually the M100 as the boot is a bit bigger for the "bargains" Having said that these past few years I've only gone for one day and this year I was on my way home before 1pm.

A month or two later for Donington might make a difference for the less hardy but without the chance of track time there the event is still a bit dead as far as i'm concerned. If I wasn't paying 12 quid a year I'd not be joining Club Lotus, but as it is, its mildly tolerable for the adverts and the odd technical article but like a lot of people on here I guess we learn and know much more by being online.

[theelanman]

I agree with all those who arent impressed with CL or its events......dint make donnington this year and am only going to go to stoneleigh as I get in free with the m100.......as for the mag...it was worse than the exchange and mart......
hence leaving CL.....they claimed to have terms and conditions with some insurers...again you could be a memebr of any club and they'd automatically give you a 10% discount......anyway...I'm going to stoneleigh this year...anyone else?
cheers
G
(in the m100)

[types26/36]

[quote="theelanman"]as I get in free with the m100...I'm going to stoneleigh this year...anyone else?
cheers G quote]

I might go but depends on the weather particually if I go in the Elan,do all Lotus get in free? I've only been befor in a modern car.
Brian.

[steveww]

I will be going to Stoneleigh this year. I agree the Donnington show was not up to much and is really held at the wrong time of year. As for the club fees they are less expensive than Porche Club GB which is also a profit making organisation.

Rather than just complaining about it on the forum, why not write a letter to Club Lotus with some constructive criticism?

[elansprint]

Graham Arnold also ran a BMW club from the same Dereham premises so must have done quite nicely not sure if CL has 30,000 members though

[M100]

There was also a Vauxhall/Opel club - all run (certainly in the mid 80's) from one telphone number which sometimes caused long periods of painful silence as the person at the other end tried to second guess what car you had

I think CL passed the 30000 mark a few years ago, after the Elise launch but before Lotus tried to get their own setup off the ground. There was mention of it in the magazine but maybe its shrunk a bit since. I'm around member 7000 from 1982 ish.