Concours d’ Elegance 2015

Lotus Club Queensland Concours d’ Elegance held at the All British Car Day – 20th September 2015

Story by Vyvyan Black. Photos by Vyvyan Black and Shane Murphy.

This year our concours was held in conjunction with the All British Day in the St Josephs College Tennyson sports grounds. As is customary for this event the weather was gloriously warm – it’s always our first real taste of the summer to come.

The All British Day is an annual show organised by the MG Car Club of Queensland. It brings with it a wonderful opportunity to examine classic British cars, motorcycles and commercial vehicles while our Lotus are on display and being judged.

There’s always a big turnout of entries and punters, and this year a good number of Lotus – making for a great day of catching up under the marquee, which happily, was brought along for the occasion by Russell Carter and his wife Leigh, thanks guys!

Along with our teardrop flags, courtesy Shane Murphy, I thought we made a pretty good presentation; let down only by the haphazard alignment of our cars. Oh well, being Lotus owners we never get too carried away with military precision like some other marques.

Which brings me to the judging – performed by our honorary guest judge, Don Lake (roped in by Tim Moore).

Don, who has been a member of the MG club, boasts a fine judging pedigree. He has built and raced MX5’s and recently has become more involved in vintage cars. You might recall his 1929 Oakland at Tim Moore’s home on the Ploughman’s lunch days. Don has three Oaklands and he recently judged a number of categories at the RACQ Motorfest.

Thanks Tim, for putting the nuts and bolts together along with Daryl who organised the trophies.

Back to the judging… we were told that:

Judging will be focused on originality, condition and cleanliness rather than the fine detail used in some clubs.

Good, I thought. Which meant that my Elan was lucky to receive a shampoo and perfunctory polish. Meant to vacuum and a few other things but, ran out of time and energy! Early in the preceding week, Dick energized the seven owners with his provocative Facebook posts of his shiny Caterham courtesy of four tins of metal polish and, not to be outdone, Daryl and Shane responded to the challenge and got buffing – game on!

For the record, here are the results:

Class	Description	Winner	Vehicle
Class 1	Lotus Cars 1950 – 1995	Col McKay	1968 Lotus Elan S4
Class 2	Lotus Cars 1996 – 2014	Adam Kingston	2006 Lotus Elise
Class 3	Lotus 7 and Caterham	Shane Murphy	1968 Lotus Seven S2
Outright	Best in Show	George Rowe	1956 Lotus Eleven