Lotus Festival 2018 (date now announced 29 Sept at Hethel)

[alan e]

Trevor someone on the Facebook M100 owners is after some tickets.

[chris.t]

Does anyone know if there is food available on site?

[Steve A]

Does anyone know if there is food available on site?

Yes loads

[Rice crispy]

Good to see everyone today. Great to see the LEC mechanics in action in the car park windows fixed problems diagnosed and cars to be low loaded home. Seeing everyone over the last couple of days for a . It has renewed my enthusiasm to get back out to the meets, roll on Castle Coombe.

After seeing Clemo and Pinky doing the window fix it might even brave the outer door seals on mine this winter.

Steve A hope you get/got home ok and sort the issue

[Rice crispy]

Also did anyone pickup a LEC wooly hat? Mine was on my passenger seat and I didn't realise till I got home it's gone

[Peterehill]

Thanks to all at LEC, especially Dave and Trevor, for sorting out tickets. Had a great time and was good to see so many M100s. I was also lucky enough to win a "hot lap" in a Driving Academy Elise with a professional driver.

[Steve A]

Well I had a.......... lets call it a dramatic day

After owning my car for over ten years, it picked this mornings drive to the factory to very nearly let me down.
It all started with spluttering and the engine light flickering, then changed to engine light on constantly and now without the ability to idle, not what you really want when joining a long line of cars

But as more and more Elans turned up so did the help and expertise I needed to help me diagnose what the problem was.
As it turned out it was my ECU, many thanks to Dave (Rice crispy) for lending me his to prove the point, and Simon W fresh from "Neils school of ECU diagnostics" (see Neil even in your absence your helping! ).
Thanks to everybody today for helping me out, what a great team of people we had today fixing various faults on many cars, great work
And after what turned out to be a great day I still managed to get home although somewhat gingerly.

I don't think I ever saw Dave's boot shut all day long and he didn't work on his own car.


The funny thing was as I left for home I was followed out by Chris t who promptly told me I was running very rich yep just a bit
This was after my 2 hr journey home and half a tank of fuel

[Rice crispy]

Steve glad you made it, did wonder how much fuel you would use

[Steve A]

Steve glad you made it, did wonder how much fuel you would use

It wasn't so much as a limp home I had her up to 85 at one point but I had to do it carefully

[Dave Eds]

Should have borrowed Merv's ECU Steve, I doubt he had much need for it on his journey home

[Rice crispy]

Steve glad you made it, did wonder how much fuel you would use

It wasn't so much as a limp home I had her up to 85 at one point but I had to do it carefully

Wondered why I didn't see you assumed you made it or pulled off somewhere for a rescue

[TrevorB]

Thoroughly enjoyed the day yesterday, it was good to see some faces that I hadn't met before and those that I had. Hope everyone
else made their way home safely. See you ALL next year ?

Trevor

[JusNoGood]

Prior to Thursday 10pm I hadn't even considered going - busy life at the moment. After a gentle nudge from Kathryn I started talking to Trevor about tickets. So for me it was all a bit last minute. Normally I wouldn't have bothered making the effort, especially with a 3 hrs drive between me and fun. But the welcome, help and enthusiasm you guys have showed me really motivated me.

The day was great fun for me in so many different ways. A few brief highlights for me...

Arriving at Dunston Hall and wondering into the room for the BBQ and not knowing anyone I was soon talking to a few guys from a Scottish arm of Club Lotus, Brian and Alan. Then Mike Kimberly and his son wondered in and sat at my table. Very nice to sit and say hello and shake Mikes hand

The next day I arrived at Hethel and parked up, only to be met by the son of the guy who bought my car from the factory! He introduced me to his dad and we had a chat about the car, we identified all the bits were not on it when he picked it up 5 parking spaces away from where I had parked! Dave, the original owner, is/was a Lotus Engine Designer/Engineer. He has three warehouses of Lotus cars - that he's more than happy to show us. So I think I'll need to find Stuart on this site and organise that!

Parking up in the "one of every lotus" area and representing the M100 was very cool. I met lots of very nice people, most M100 owners but a number of non-Lotus owners I hope I helped convince its worth a purchase.

It was very uplifting to be around Pinky and Clemo's positivity and enthusiasm for most of Friday and Saturday too. Watching them help Phillipe get his window working for his trip back to Belgium was great. I hope he bought you more than one drink

Chatting to all the LEC members.

If anyone is sitting on the sidelines thinking the social stuff isn't for me I'd suggest giving it a go

[RonR]

It was great to meet you guys yesterday, and thanks to whoever pointed out my elan's incontinence.
That's the second leak I've had since ordering a set of Samcos, only another 4 weeks until they arrive, so fingers crossed!
I've put up a few photos in the Gallery Here:

Answers to a few questions asked:

1. Yes I do have letter 'H' stamped onto my original boot key
2. The steering wheel restoration kit I used (No connection, etc) is from the Leather Repair Company Here. It might even restore your worn leather gear knob.

I even got to try my key in Clemo's Boot lock!

[TrevorB]

Below is an email received today from Bibs of TLF

____________________________________________________________________________________________

Hi

A very big thank you to you and your club for helping make this Saturday such an amazing day at Lotus, what a party! Feedback from the event has been excellent and it was great to see our club area so packed with so many varied cars, all presented in such excellent condition. I hope that you personally enjoyed the day and all of your members had a great time at the factory, rest assured that the event was all the better for your attendance so thanks again for all of your efforts.

Of course, any feedback both good and bad is welcome so please feel free to email your thoughts if you find the time.

Finally, please see below for a message from Marcus Blake, Commercial Director, Group Lotus.

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Dear All,

On behalf of Group Lotus, I would like to thank you all for your support and participation in the Lotus 70th celebrations. It was a genuine pleasure to meet so many of you, and to bring so many iconic cars together to the home of Lotus at Hethel. Having read through several of the forums now, I am pleased to see that the event has been well received by those that attended or watched over the live streams. There are many elements involved in turning a design and production facility into a showground for the day, and we are grateful to so many of you to help us make this happen.

Please look out for a few more videos of the event that we will put out on social media over the coming days, and please do continue to post and share using #lotus70.

Best Regards

Marcus



Marcus Blake

Commercial Director

GROUP LOTUS PLC

Part of the GEELY HOLDING GROUP

Hethel, Norwich, Norfolk, NR14 8EZ, England


Kind regards,

Bibs

Lotus70.com

T: 0845 094 6195

E: info@lotus70.com

[Kathryn]

It was a fantastic day! Thanks to all for helping make the day so good.

I didn’t intend to disappear for so long at the end of the day, I intended to return before most of you went home! I went to look at the cars parked on track, realised I wouldn’t have time to walk the full length of them so decided to wait and watch them drive past. However I was invited into a passenger seat and ended up experiencing the whole thing in an Elan Sprint - really topped off a fab day!

Thanks RonR for the link to the steering wheel restorer, I think I’ll give it a try. And thanks to GiniW for showing me the Esprit chin spoiler. I still want it, but it really is too expensive, especially given as I damaged my rubber lip on the way to Hethel!

I’ll post some photos in the Gallery section. EDIT It won’t let me! I’ve shared them to the Lotus M100 Owners And Enthusiasts Page on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/groups/1376617 ... 8385233808

Looking forward to the next one already!

[Giniw]

(What is the price for the steering wheel restoration? On TLF someone pointed me a steering wheel refurbisher (=new leather) and apparently it's about 150€ (or £?) including UK postage, and the result seems very, very good. I will have to find the link though!)

[Kathryn]

(What is the price for the steering wheel restoration? On TLF someone pointed me a steering wheel refurbisher (=new leather) and apparently it's about 150€ (or £?) including UK postage, and the result seems very, very good. I will have to find the link though!)

Ron posted a link above for a do-it-yourself kit for £29.50. More a leather restorer than a full restoration.

[Giniw]

OK, thanks =)
As for the upholstery DIY option, I do love that guy's channel (although it's not directly related to the restoration process or RonR link, but just upholstery):
https://www.youtube.com/user/Cechaflo/videos
Steering wheel:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PcAmaou3F2g
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ODcGWn9yhpE
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=P ... wEfco6fqtg

[Tuga2112]

Ron posted a link above for a do-it-yourself kit for £29.50. More a leather restorer than a full restoration.

Kathryn, can you tell me where is this ?

i would like to investigate this in more detail. my other car steering wheel is very worn, i would hope its still in a restorable state, this may be something i could use as well.