Donington 20-21 April 2013

[RayD]

it would soon become a nightmare to keep track of organisation if that lot were all bundled together.

I understand Neil,

Ray

[GeoffSmith]

I understand Neil

You're the only one who does Ray...

[lotusnut]

Slight amendment to list:

Friday Curry
1. Geoff
2. Lansledj
3. Mini me
4. Pinky
5. Nick
6. Kim
7. alan e
8. G UK
9 & 10. Big Erch & Josh
11 & 12. WayneP & Elaine
13. Fredjohn
14 & 15. Pete & Maureen
16, 17 & 18. Enright, Elright and Benright
19 & 20 John & Wendy (Elise, Esprit, Eclat)
21 & 22 Scott & Brian (Esprit, Elan+2)

Friday Travelodge
1. Geoff
2. Lansledj
3. Mini me
4. Pinky
5. Nick
6. Kim
7. alan e
8. G UK
9. Big Erch & Josh (+ Arran Single Malt Cask Strength)
10. WayneP & Elaine
11. Paul F & Oliver F
12. Pete & Maureen
13. John & Wendy (Elise, Esprit, Eclat)
14. Scott & Brian (Esprit, Elan+2)
15. Fredjohn

Saturday convoy
1. Geoff
2. Lansledj & Mini me
3. Pinky
4. Nick & Kim
5. alan e
6. inkitin
7. G UK
8. Paulous
9. Stef
10. Big Erch & Josh
11. Paul F & Oliver F
12. DavidEJM - if I can avoid being at work
13. Fredjohn
14. Jim (jHamshaw) (probably - and if car not sold by then!)
15. Pete & Maureen
16. Lotusnut


Saturday evening dinner-dance
1. Geoff
2. Pinky
3. Nick
4. Kim
5. G UK
6. Stef - once I now what this is all about!!
7 & 8. Big Erch & Josh
9 & 10. WayneP & Elaine
11. Fredjohn
12, 13 & 14. Enright, Elright and Benright (tentative)
15 & 16. John & Wendy (Elise, Esprit, Eclat)
17 & 18. Scott & Brian (Esprit, Elan+2)


Saturday Travelodge
1. Geoff
2. Pinky
3. Nick
4. Kim
5. G UK
6. Big Erch & Josh (+ Arran Single Malt Cask Strength)
7. WayneP & Elaine
8. DavidEJM
9. John & Wendy (Elise, Esprit, Eclat)
10. Scott & Brian (Esprit, Elan+2)

Friday Travelodge still at £19, Sat at £24 as at 2nd March!

[paulsmithmk]

Great day, shame we had to leave during afternoon drive some photos:

[TrevorB]

A great day at Donington today, it was good to meet some old faces and new. And there were two 'silk reds'

[Rob P]

Great day out today with the LEC crew, met many fantastic people and even enjoyed a spirited little trip to Melton Mowbray for a Pork Pie Lunch, thanks for making me and Matt feel so welcome, plus the car behaved itself, well except for a sticking Electric window which will need to have a bit of fettling

Even the Sun made a welcome return

Some pictures courtesy of Matt
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set= ... f19da221c5

[Steve A]

A nice sunny day, good to meet so many face to face for a change



Not a bad turn out, it's never going to be what it was


There was a few new faces


And some old ones


Plenty of tyres to kick


A very well organised drive to take part in (even though I didn't take part, my drive home was enough for me)But I appreciate to effort that went into it.


All in all a good day out

[Rice crispy]

Great to see lots of people again today, thanks to the organisers on Led for the curry/transport/etc etc enjoyed the curry even though we were an hour late

[lotusnut]

Good day out after initial hiccup with car, good afternoon drive, I left at Melton Mowbray to come home. Had chats with old mates and met some new ones. And the weather was brilliant!

[rip]

When you think back to how much rain we had last April...we got really lucky with the weather.
The show itself was no different to previous years except the lack of an LEC stand.
This was more than made up for by the afternoon drive. Thanks to Dave & Neil for organising this.

[paulsmithmk]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i8aZiGTacqQ

[Stef]

Excellent to meet up with familiar faces and new! Thanks to everyone for making the event extra special!

Hi to the new guy with Paul's Yellow Elan. Great to see it with enthusiastic new ownership, welcome to LEC and Elan love!

Thinks the organisers need to receive a barrage of complaints for allowing non-Lotus into the car park, exceptionally poor show that. And hopefully, after a couple of years of non-event, better promoting and publicity will grow it up a bit again.

Took the opportunity to see the Grand Prix collection again. Brilliant gem of a place

Massive top marks to Mother Nature too. Even had first BBQ of the year!

Looking forward to seeing more of you again at the Silverstone Classics and Brands Hatch Lotus Festival!

[maz_r]

Really enjoyable meet up and great to see Elaners old and new. Here are some thanks and thoughts on the weekend:

Drive up: thanks to dapinky and Geoff for calling in to pick me up on the way (and for getting my bonnet open ) even if they were more than fashionably late......

Friday curry: Excellent, well done & thanks to Enright and GUK - top stuff

Pre-convoy gathering: nice to see many Elans in one place, though a bit short on numbers, I thought. Thanks to muley for all the bits and thanks to dapinky (and Wayne) for the sill plates

Convoy: got a bit disjointed once we set off due to other cars getting in the way! 'Twas bound to happen. At least we didn't have the 'shall we go in colour order' discussion!

Donny Parking: Absolute bl**dy shambles (not down to us, I should add). Next to no parking close to the exhibition centre and, as ably demonstrated by TrevorB's piccy above, the 'Exclusive Lotus Parking' was awash with vans, trailers, Peugeots, Fiats, Vauxhalls etc etc. Someone should have a word.

Exhibition/Show: not much of interest for us; no useful auto-jumble, not many trade/dealer stands. No LEC stand However, thanks to SyV for pointing out a copy of 'the bible' and to AlanE for pointing out PNM Engineering were doing replacement outer rain strips; none available at the show but I've ordered some at the show price of £68 delivered. Will report back when they arrive.

Car Park: not sure Chris who turned up in his newly acquired Elan quite knew what hit him. Asked for an ElanScan cable and ended up having parts ripped out of his car; he was grateful though esp. if the CO pot does turn out to be the culprit. There's a chance he may turn out to be our new best friend too....... Incidentally, when he started the car (after everyone left for the Sat. drive), his engine management light came on; hope this is purely to do with the removed CO pot and that he got home ok without it going into limp mode...

Weather: couldn't have been better!

All in all a thoroughly enjoyable time; thanks to all.

[GeoffSmith]

There was a few new faces

Cheeky bugger - it was just a new haircut.

Not sure what time you managed to get to Donington this morning (sorry I couldn't hang about) with the BTCC traffic stacked up back onto the M1. I was going to follow Erch and Scott but decided to go straight onto the A42 (sorry Archie, I should have told you to follow me and it was clear as a bell at the A42 junction) and was home drinking coffee at 11:00.

Thanks once again to everyone who organised the events and everyone who turned up, especially the boss man.

[HJ2]

Who is the lady with the shopping cart, bumping into the yellow Elan?
Looks like a fun day!

[GeoffSmith]

And the photograph chosen for this years LEC caption competition is....

[Fredjohn]

What a fabulous weekend for me on my first LEC gathering! A big thanks to everyone that did any organising (except the non-LECer who was car park attendant ), but especially a thank you to all the members that gave me and other newbies a truly friendly and generous welcome.
I was immediately made to feel part of a very warm group with no sense of cliquey-ness or exclusivity.

As Dave P commented above, it's as much about the people as the cars, and that feeling amongst the membership was obvious from the minute I arrived. I think it is a trait amongst Lotus owners in general, as I have discovered during 28 years of old Elan ownership: maybe it's something to do with the "Lots of trouble etc" that binds us into a "need to help each other in a crisis" mode accompanied by a typical British sense of humour.

Enough philosophy! I came away feeling part of a friendly group and looking forward to the next meet in Ypres in a couple of weeks time with Dave Steve and Trevor who were all at Donington and HJ2, Chris, Paul and Ovi (who weren't ).

All it needs now is for the slumbering giant of the Midland area to awaken from it's winter hibernation to hold the regional monthly get together, to which the M100 owners of Gloucestershire and Weston-on-the-Mud (now both officially part of the Midlands) are invited

Thanks guys

[BigErch]

Thanks to all the organisers this weekend, the food and the transport was perfect, much appreciated!
Great weekend!

[paulous]

M1 Convoy...


Donninton Services...

[nchase]

And the photograph chosen for this years LEC caption competition is....

given it's been years since I posted or even driven the Elan - Neil "My god how you have aged - nice to see you with your son"