Elan 25th Birthday celebrations (possibly....)

[Ian T]

In order to gauge interest please could you indicate if you might be up for a visit to Hethel on Saturday 11th October to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the launch of the M100. This is not a 'commitment to buy', but rather to see if there would be enough of us to make it worthwhile.

There will be a cost of ~£50 which includes a tour of the factory, a tour of Classic Team Lotus and a few laps of the test track (under certain conditions).

1. maz_r
2. daveiow
3. theelanman
4. lansledj
5. JohnB
6. Nicowalker1 (baby dependant)
7. rip
8. Rob P (With Passenger, Matt P)
9. lotusnut
10. Ian Till

[theelanman]

1. maz_r
2. daveiow
3. theelanman
4. lansledj
5. JohnB
6. Nicowalker1 (baby dependant)
7. rip
8. Rob P (With Passenger, Matt P)
9. lotusnut
10. Jeemy
11. Andy_J
12. Andy_J
13. Ian Till
14.
15.

[theelanman]

we appear to have been updating the list at the same time...

[maz_r]

Oh no! Another change of personnel at Lotus....

Start all over again (think this is the 4th time). This is getting a bit..err....'silly'...

[Ian T]

Looks like this initiative died, which is a real shame.

I think that Vauxhall finally woke up to the differences with Ford, who had a much closer relationship with at least the 'official' clubs and put a little more support into the support of enthusiasts.

Vauxhall has for a number of years opened its doors to things like the Heritage Centre in Luton and provided the venue free of charge each year to clubs for an annual meeting next to the factory. Granted, no factory tours, but they produce vans these days at Luton and Ellesmere Port is the place to go in the UK for cars. EP is also opening its doors more now to owners to celebrate anniversaries at the factory their cars were built.

Lots of differences between Lotus and Vauxhall though, and perfectly understandable that scale of production probably is reflected in the budgets that the PR folks have to burn on promotion of the brand to enthusiasts like us. Surely by nurturing our enthusiasm in the cheap seats, they might work up some conversions to new Lotus model ownership as well as fuelling enthusiasm in the models that earned Lotus it's name and provenance.

Is there any single body that incorporates and represents all of the various clubs to act as an interface with the factory so that perhaps that relationship can be worked on? Have a look at the VBOA www.vboa.org.uk for an example.

All that said, I thoroughly enjoyed the day out at Brands and will be up for similar opportunities to meet up elsewhere. It's not all bad.

Ian.

[ShaunM]

This initiative died for only 1 reason... the members of this forum.

If there had been enough people wanting to come together to celebrate the birthday of this car we all love then it wouldn't have mattered where it was.

Truth is there wasn't enough enthusiasm for AN event let alone agreeing on whether this location or that location was good enough.

Personally it was sad watching the parade laps of several marques at the Silverstone Classic and not being on the track in my Elan. But had a good time at the Lotus Festival with our parade of Elans and hearing more about the development of the car from Ian Doble.

After 3 seasons, am taking a year off from Triathlon next year and intend to attend more events meeting up with Elan owners all over the UK. We all have busy lives and is hard to get everyone together for the same weekend. Hopefully by attending several events, I'll catch up with you all at some point during the year.

[Ian T]

Fair comment Shaun