Reports From Hethel - How Was It For You

[theelanman]

dint he do well

[DaveT]

Thanks especially to Tigerdog for navigating on Saturday's coastal convoy. He noticed several turnings missed by some others. Typically, these were the best roads too. Many thanks to DaveT for arranging the Saturday convoy itself. 16 Elans crowded into a filling station & parading through villages turned more than a few heads!

Thanx for the kind words Rip, Kier, Neil, DaveEds etc. It was a great drive and I'm sure Stratton Motors- Main Lotus Dealer has never had that many Elans on its forecourt ever. Photos to follow.

For my part I had the enjoyment of setting up the drive and ensuring things worked well for all who joined in. That said, all this organising does not always involve such a pleasurable return on the investment. There are many already mentioned within this thread who did a lot more hard work and had far less to show for it, other than the gratitude of the rest of us. I salute you one and all.

DaveT

[paza1]

Thoroughly enjoyed the weekend. The LEC stand just gets better each year. Well done and thanks to all who put the graft in. (Thanks for the DVD, Nige, looking forward to seeing it, contribution to LEC funds made)
Lotus did us proud...great event with lots to see and do. I particularly enjoyed nosing around the factory and watching the Elises being thrashed around the track. The sight of so many different Loti parked on the old track was awesome. Very nice to meet Tigerdog (hope your journey home was ok).
I discovered a few things about my car as well. My fans work (1 3/4 hour queue to get in) and 34mpg over 525 miles
All in all, quite an experience.
Cheers
Mark

[Nige]

No problems paza1, sorry I missed you at the stand. The remaining DVDs went home with somebody other than me along with my list in the rush to pack the stand up. So I'll try and work out who now has DVDs and who hasn't when they make their way back to me, Donington 2009 probably!

[Kier]

60 photos from the weekend here, lots of Lotus and one De Lorean

http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?a ... =595515950

[Gary]

It was a good weekend. Weather was good too ! My only complaint(s) would be the traffic jams getting in (not too bad for us, but some people queued for 3 hours ! - I don't the Lotus/the plod were prepared for the volume of traffic. The guys directly people in, certainly didn't have the sense of urgency required given the queues), and the speed that people drove in the convoy run(s). When you are following some-one you always have to drive faster than them, so if the leader is doing 80, then the guy at the back probably has to do 110 to keep up !

Well done to DaveT for organising Saturday. The looks on the faces of the drivers coming the other way as they saw Elan after Elan was great. The locations he picked were super too !

The stand was the best LEC stand I've seen so far, and the DVD from Nige is fab! If you have an Elan you need that DVD!

Nice to meet some new faces too (and some old ones).

Here's to next year ?????

[Dave Eds]

For your info guys - I posted a thanks over on LEF on behalf of LEC for the work they did to make it fun for those of us that joined them at any stage of the weekend! Feel free to pop over yourselves and add whatever you wish.


http://www.lotusespritforum.com/forums/ ... =19400&hl=

[DeeAitch]

A big thanks to everyone concerned for making this such a memorable event. You should all be very proud of your efforts
What a great trip – apart from all the strange looks we got from loads of Lotus owners whilst driving West on Sunday! I guess they were trying to say “you’re going in the wrong direction” or maybe “stupid Geordies don’t know what they are missing”!
At least we left some good weather behind for you all - I think
Too big a list to mention everyone we met in person, but special thanks to the LEF folks for inviting us to share Dunston Hall with them, what a nice place it turned out to be. Not at all like the Dunston I know
We may have missed out on the main events on Sunday but the warm reception from everyone we met, including of course, the guest speakers on Saturday night, made it all worthwhile.

[John_W]

Thanks to everybody in LEC and LEF (and Lotus) who made this such a great weekend. Maggie & I both enjoyed it. It was worth the 1200 mile round-trip drive to & from Aberdeen. We got back around 7 last night, having set off just before 9 (we stopped for petrol and fish & chips, so probably 9 hours driving in all).

The car performed well, despite me not having had time to do anything to it before setting off. It didn't overheat in the 1&1/2 hour queue to get into Hethel (thanks to Clemo's manual fan switch), it hiccupped occasionally (which M100TWO has diagnosed as coils on the way out), the passenger door cracking noise which it developed on Saturday has gone away, so the only thing I'm left with is an annoying vibration above about 50 which I think is wheel bearings (wheels were balanced 2 weeks ago).

We didn't get a chance to see everybody, and although we introduced ourselves to some new friends, we certainly didn't meet everybody from LEC. I've put some photos here. It's password protected, so you'll need to use the name lotuselancentral and the password jecuk if you want to have a look.

John

[Kier]

Report on the event and some pics by msn here

http://cars.uk.msn.com/News/car_news_ar ... e-number=1

Doug, following from our conversation in the little chef where Dave & I both said the concept M250 was there and you said it wasn't (but nor Dave or I could find a photo of it (I'm sure I took one!!!)) you may be interested in picture number 40
http://cars.uk.msn.com/Photo_Gallery/Po ... -number=40

[Doug]

thanks, Kier, I wonder if they rolled it away during the day

it still looks nicer than the Evora to me; but alas I will never get a M250, but maybe an Evora instead

[Kier]

thanks, Kier, I wonder if they rolled it away during the day :smt017

it still looks nicer than the Evora to me; but alas I will never get a M250, but maybe an Evora instead

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I saw it within a minute or so of seeing you! honestly, it was there when you were

You were too busy taking pics of wall clocks!

[John_W]

There's a couple of M250 photos in the link to my photos I posted above. I think Doug's even in the background in one of them.
John
(OK I lied, he's not)

[Doug]

It's always good to have a reason to go back . . .

[tigerdog]

Hethel - How Was It For You?

Simply awesome!
Other than that, wouldn't know where to start! Except to say thanks to each and every one of all of you - current and ex Lotus, LEC, LEF, British, Scandinavian, American, Canadian, and Indian.

I'm just getting back online after a seemingly interminable trip home and a good night's sleep. I was going to write pretty much exactly what Dave Eds wrote but he beat me to the keyboard! This was a truly wonderful experience and one that I cannot duplicate in the US regardless of effort or money spent. Most important take-away for me is just what truly great people inhabit our community. My only regret is having such a short period of time to spend in your company. I'll remember this weekend fondly for many years to come. Special thanks to Rip and Tom for wonderful rides in their Elans, to Ailwyn for helping me sort out the Western World's sociopolitical challenges and especially to Specky for hauling a complete stranger around half of Britain and making making feel so completely at home. My deepest thanks to everyone!

[tigerdog]

Thanks especially to Tigerdog for navigating on Saturday's coastal convoy. He noticed several turnings missed by some others. Typically, these were the best roads too.

Thanks for the opportunity to navigate. Gave me the chance to look at the countryside instead of just the road ahead. And to imagine I was "Jenks" to Rip's "Sir Stirling" as we won the Mille Miglia! (Reginald Perrin daydreams, anyone? Where did I leave that hippopotamus footage...)

[mikeydude]

Well, what a fantastic weekend, our first trip to Hethel!! got tickets from CN's two days prior after Monty reminded me it was all going on!
We stayed at a little family run B&B. Would love to have done the Dunston hall thing , but after seeing the price and not really being able to work out what was going on we decided to do our own thing and travel down on the sat..great weather ...four stops in pubs on the way... ( thank god for Mrs mikey dude driving!).

Went out for a meal in a little village...had way too much too drink....got chating to a rugby team.....Mrs mikey dude did way too much flirting...but that's her perogative.

The B&B we stayed in was also playing host to a couple of other Hethel Goers...so we chatted to them at breakfast.

On Sunday ..we sat for half an hour ..roof down in the traffic..even that was great...how often do you get stuck in a jam with loads of lotus cars!!!! We finally got there at about 10.30...after being pelted by strange big seed things from the trees by the roadside!

Went straight to the parts sale...got four new wheels!!! for forty quid each..cheaper than having them re-conned...also got the falling pillar seals and Mrs mieky dude added a cam cover that I did not even know about for 8 quid!!! ....looks like I won't have to bother getting mine sprayed (just thought ..I remember someone over tighteneing there's and broke it...wonder if they want my old one..anyway).

Looked around the cars on the "air strip" ..looked around the factory..gots loads of info and gossip from lotus staff...caught two of the technial talks on the Evora development ...had a BLT and a sit down..chatted with Mrs Chapmen...looked at the classic lotus's got loads of info on the Tesla electric car, watched the track cars doing there stuff, Loved the Evora on the turntable....caught a glimpse of the M250, went to collect my ordered parts, got talking with the staff there as well...

to cut a long story short.....by the time we got to the Lec stand everyone was packing up!

Great effort though..well done to everyone involved....

We still don't know who everone is......In the past, We have met Sy, er..Nige, Ailwyn, Monty, Elanman, Dico... and many more in total. a couple of which were at Hethel..but i REALLY WISH PEOPLE WOULD HAVE BADGES AT THESE EVENTS. It would be so much easier to tie names to faces.

Anyway..we also met two great guys from the states that have travelled over here for the event..now there's commitment!

I am sure they are prominent LEC people...but I just don't know...!

Elanman....your new A pillar seals look good....must catchup with you and find out how easy they were to fit.

Well, that's about it....

Oh..how about a blog on the site to make event facts and news events easier to read ...I hate trawling through forums!, they have there place, but just some god old fashioned..times dates events etc that are easy to read would be nice!!! Word press is one of the best to use.

[GeoffSmith]

Superb weekend that even Caryn and Sarah enjoyed, so full marks to anyone involved in the organisation.

It was good to meet some more people and to be able to put faces to names. It was especially good to meet our colonial cousins, my cyber Geordie mate and our spiritual leader in person. As always, there just wasn't time to speak to everyone or pass over items from the boot of the car - I've still got two bags of stainless for Ailwyn but a USB to serial for Gary.

As ever, the generosity of LEC people was mindblowing. Unfortunately this time I appear to have upset the gremlin Gods pretty badly - not only was my wheel and tyre trashed in a pothole leaving home on Friday which made me miss the start of the convey by 1½ hrs (thanks to Pinky for noticing the bulging tyre wall which led me to discover the problem with the inner rim of the wheel, but at least I got to Hethel at the same time as him as we went the sensible route ) but the nearside CVJs are grumbling like mad now (thanks to Nige for pointing out that they were in the aftersales) and I boiled over ½ mile out of the factory exit on the way home. The heater valve was hanging in two and had lost all coolant, so we quickly rearranged luggage at the side of the road for Sarah and the kids to set off home, leaving me to wait for the AA. Special thanks to Phil, Rip and Al who all stopped which kept my spirits up. I eventually got home absolutely knackered at 11 o'clock driving on the space saver at 50MPH, shitting myself at coaches tailgating me and listening to the CVJs getting worse and worse by the mile. Not the most auspicious return to Hethel for the old girl, but I bet my petrol consumption is better than any other Elan on the return leg.

[markv]

What to say that hasn't been said already???

Highlights: Renewing acquaintances with many LECcers; meeting up with more LEC legends, including Doug, Blair and breakfast with Tigerdog (Doug2); track laps on Saturday in an Exige and my son's laps in an Elise; the Evora story on the Saturday night (love the car - I had some reservations from the pictures, but not now); the factory tour (amazing open house - would Ford do that? Or Ferrari? No way!); seeing the Teslas in the factory; the M250 prototype (it was in the design centre at 5pm on the Sunday, Doug - I sat in it!) and the APX 6-seater prototype done for Proton (embarrassingly, I managed to lock myself inside it and had to be rescued! ; the LEC stand and setup, which gets better and slicker every time I see it - nice to see so many Elans on display). I finally put in a donation for the CD you gave me at the Southern Meet ages ago, Nige. Also, the number of senior Lotus people willing to spend their time on a Saturday night chatting with passion about their involvement in the Evora project. I spent a good 15 minutes talking to the guy who was responsible for all the electrics from design right through to testing.

Lowlights: 2 hour queue to get in on Sunday; not having my Elan for the weekend; missing out on the Dunstan Hall talks on the Saturday (did anyone video them, or can anyone produce a summary report on any interesting snippets that came out of the talks?); just missing Algirdas as he drove off, without thanking him in person for co-ordinating the rollbars a couple of years back; no time for the parts sale (I could really do with a replacement cam cover and some wheels - does anyone know if these are still available?).

And overall, the great sense of camaraderie and community between all the LEC people (and in fact all the Lotus lovers) I met across the whole weekend.

Can't wait for the next one - hope it's not 10 years away!

[Gary]

but i REALLY WISH PEOPLE WOULD HAVE BADGES AT THESE EVENTS. It would be so much easier to tie names to faces.