Lotus Club Queensland
Dedicated to the promotion and enhancement of the Lotus experience
Login
Register
  • Home
  • About Us
  • Membership
    • Member Login
  • Events
    • Calendar
  • Motorsport
    • Lakeside DTC Timed Laps
    • LAKESIDE DTC RESULTS
  • Magazine
  • For Sale
    • Merchandise
    • Classifieds
  • Posts
  • Galleries
  • Directory
    • Suppliers & Parts
    • Advertisers
  • Archives
Lotus2015

Lotus 2015 – a Queensland perspective

It started back in 2013 when I signed Blanche and I up for the Lotus 2015 event.

We had an idea of what the SA team was in for, having been committee members for the Lotus 2013 event, and I was not envious of their upcoming workload.

Well, two years flew by – we moved house six times and interstate thrice! As the time flew by we learned of the various activities awaiting us; building the anticipation of a track day at Mallala, great food, a little wine (!?), a fun-packed Ladies Day and of course, catching up with good friends.

With the event due to start on Friday I stuffed the car (forever amazing myself with new and interesting places to pack things into the car) with all the required garb; helmet, race suit etc. and departed on Wednesday morning.

Leaving the Sunshine Coast around 8am and a fun drive through MaMa Creek I made my way into Toowoomba consuming some much needed but sub-optimal coffee (how can an order for a double ristretto flat white turn into a long black?) then onwards to Goondiwindi. I had a spot of lunch and met up with Martin (Scrubby) in his not so inconspicuous chrome orange Elise S3. From there we ensured we had hotels booked and headed off to our first overnight stay in Dubbo – hotels required booking as it was school holidays and Dubbo has a zoo, most hotels were booked out!

It was a fairly uneventful drive right up until a ‘roo decided it wanted to dart across the road and give the side of Martin’s car a Glasgow kiss – we stopped and inspected some minor fibreglass damage, peeled a bit of fur off, slapped on some race tape and continued onwards. We trundled into Dubbo slightly weary, a little bruised and hit the town for a well-deserved steak. 950km traveled.

Day two saw a bright and early start with some great coffee and breakfast at ‘Press Coffee’ and a slightly shorter drive ahead – luckily it wasn’t as eventful as yesterday’s drive. We cruised through Cobar stopping for a quick lunch and on-boarding of yet more fuel. Slightly interesting to note that the 3.5L Supercharged V6 in the Exige is quite frugal when cruising, returning around 8.8L/100k.

cobar-2

We arrived in Broken Hill in the afternoon and went about finding a motel for the evening – we happened across Colin & Robyn from the Gold Coast with a beautiful British racing green and yellow striped Elan S4 in tow – I stopped for a quick chat before heading to the motel and inspecting the many thousands of bugs now adorning the front of my car.

It’s the first time I have visited Broken Hill and I was surprised to find quite a large scree pile so close to the town. BHP have used this to erect a memorial to miners who lost their lives, it was surprising to see so many back to the early days of the ‘Broken Hill Proprietary’ company. Day’s kilometres: 750.

The final days drive to Tanunda promised to be mercifully short and we took the opportunity to make a slight detour through Clare. En route we had a quick bite to eat in Jamestown and a short dirt road trip through undulating fields of wheat that appeared to be sprouting wind turbines!

Our arrival into the Weintel Resort was met with a hearty welcome from friends, new and old. The car was unpacked (again, surprising myself how much I managed to pack in) and I did something I’ve never done at a Lotus event since I bought my first Lotus in 2007. I washed it! I’m sure Colin Chapman would have been proud with the amount of weight I was able to shed in accumulated bugs!

The festivities kicked off with a few drinks with old mates while I waited for Blanche to arrive. Thanks go to Randal H. for transporting my better half from Adelaide to Lotus HQ. The evening saw us wafting off a few mosquitoes while dining outside with a bunch of good mates.

On Saturday Syd, Ashton, Caroline, Hartley (all from NSW) Blanche and I took a spirited drive through rolling hills, long straights and tight twisties to arrive at the Birdwood National Motor Museum for the Concours d’Elegance.

Lotus-12-View-1

The museum was quite a pleasing collection of motor vehicles – some terrible British cars through to some quite tasty examples from all over the world … of course the display outside looked fantastic, and somewhat like a box of smarties had been upended! It was great to see so many fine examples of the Lotus marque, from the immaculate Type 12 through to the newest Type 112.

Following the concours we added Rob and Suzie to our merry band and headed out to Smith & Shaw then Rockford tasting a few local grape juices along with afternoon tea at Maggie Beer, then heading back to the hotel to prepare for the evening – the charity auction!

It was great fun; seeing friends bid against each other in order to win out on the most desirable goodies while knowing the takings were going to a great cause, the Country Fire Service Foundation.

I ended up with a Team Classic Lotus umbrella, some quirky hand drawn prints from the Lotus print shop, courtesy of Richard Parramint (more stuff to try and fit into the car) and Blanche won a wine rack – thankfully the wine rack will be posted!

We were careful not to be over exuberant as on Sunday we were heading off to Mallala for the track day, while those not wishing to deplete the oil reserves a little more were heading to a much more congenial ‘magical mystery tour’. I can only regale you of the track activities leaving my better half to the latter activity.

It has been said that enjoying a super-sprint is 20% ‘on-track’ fun and 80% hanging out in the pits with your mates, talking cars, watching cars race and generally having a ball – to which this event didn’t disappoint despite the 34 deg C heat and flies that just wouldn’t quit trying to lick your eyeballs!

It turns out Mallala is quite a fun track, some very tricky sections to get right and of course I didn’t master them but I laid down an extremely satisfying 1:17.9! To say I was very pleased at this result could be a slight understatement.

The day wasn’t fun for all though, Martin buzzed his engine leading to a need of a trailer ride back to HQ and Joe (Honda Elise) also needing his trailer with a suspected melted piston. Ashton, Syd, Martin and I rallied around and found a trailer (thanks Winno) and after a little to and fro, got his car back to HQ where it remained until it could get shipped up to Sydney for further diagnosis – fingers crossed it’s not terminal.

The evening then saw the girls get sparkly and the boys kitted out in their most dapper wear, for the gala dinner. We were hustled onto coaches and promptly arrived at Yalumba vineyard for canapés and sparkling pop while we regaled each other with the days of fun we’d had. We promptly escaped the mosquitoes (is this normal for this time of year?) into the grand dining room, perfectly laid out and looking splendid, to claim our seats while extremely tasty food, prepared by Ellie Beer, was served with equally tasty matching wines from the Yalumba cellars.

Richard Parramint, ex Lotus employee and guest of honour, treated us to tales of mischief from his time working with Colin Chapman, and more recently with Danny Bahahahahhar (typo? 😉 and Team Classic Lotus. For the trophy-giving I was a little pensive; I knew I’d set a fairly good time in my class but didn’t know if it would be good enough to take a place – unfortunately a few non-Lotus 2015 attendees were included in the timing so it wasn’t to be … ah well, next time. We wiled away the evening chatting with friends and generally having a ball before being whisked back to the hotel – I must admit to being somewhat squiffy from overindulgence of ‘adult cordial!’

The following morning saw many depart early for the long drive back home, I found even more new and interesting places to stow things into the car now I had a passenger, and we bid our farewells to friends new and old.

We visited a few vineyards (how could we not!) and started our long trip back to the Sunshine Coast. By the time we got home (4960 kilometres total trip) the car was covered in so many bugs it was starting to smell a bit fetid, a liberal application of ‘Bug Off’ was applied to the radiators, and I once again lost a few kilos!

So it’s now up to Club Lotus Victoria to put their best foot forward in 2017 and organise us a fun filled weekend. Of course, organising the event is only part of the equation, the friends and families who attend is what makes a successful, fun-packed event and Lotus 2015 was no exception – roll on 2017!

concours-7
concours-6
concours-5
concours-4
concours-3
concours-2
concours-1
cobar-2
Clive-stocking-up-on-Rockford-wines
Clive-inspecting-Lotus-12
broken-hill

[Show slideshow]
◄ 1 2
Super Sprints B Series Round 4 – Oct 2015 HSCCQ Motorkhana – ICC 2015

Related Posts

mp-banner

Events, Gallery 2022, Homepage, Racing

Morgan Park Sprints R4

duratec-banner

Articles, Homepage, Technical

Duratec Elise – better late than never

gold-rush-banner

Events, Gallery 2022, Homepage, Racing

Gold Rush Hill Sprint – 2022

Random images

btiu-12 20160514_124024 _MG_5012 as Smart Object-1 Dick and presenter Ken Matt Plowman - Special award 3444 Alex-chewing-the-cud Elan-owners-Vyvyan-and-Greg 15-Martin.jpg Lotii-surrounded-by-Holdens Daryl,-Peter,-Richard,-Clive-Rob 13. Cr Geoff McDonald congratulating Clive MG_9105 MG_8933 MG_8804 IMGP1268 IMG_8982 Group_Shot 122_2204_IMG IMG_4422 Daryl-Morton's-Mini-1 IMG_5588 07252021-copy3 unnamed-8 Mitch-and-Darryl-braving-the-wet IMG_0471-0 Mike-Goodfellow-getting-into-it-photo-by-Trapnell-Creations George vb-GTR XU1 IMG_0338 Dick _MG_0563 as Smart Object-1 europas-1 Andrew, Susan, Nigel, Alison IMG-0167 Brisbane City Council Steam Roller Shane in Period Jeff and Co P9180024c1 IMG_6365 IMG_6332 IMG_6319 IMG_8044 IMG_8043 IMG_8517 IMG_0011 IMG_3630 IMG_6336 main-6 main-3 main-35 Mar-main-75 IMG_5143 IMG_5117 IMG_8486 main-1 PICT7283 IMG_6550 IMG_3339 IMG_3338 IMG_3334 IMG_5320 112_1295_IMG IMG_3647 img_1115 Mike Packing_up P1060270 P1060244 Club_Lotus_Dec_08_029 Club_Lotus_Dec_08_027 P8310150 IMG_3128 IMG_4419 speed-&-comfort Cris-Johansen-doing-it-in-style-whilst-the-S1-is-down-south-by-Bridie-Moran Beechams 2 vyv-photo-3 Lotus-Elan1H IMG_20210710_110413 Jenson Button Judges-nitpicking-for-Concours-d’Elegance IMG_8191 P1030542 Volvo-P1800 as driven by Roger Moore as Simon Templar in The Saint IMG_6150 winner-russell-carter-carlton IMG_6176 Visualising The Eagle Rock Cafe in Laidley alex-photo-3 blasts from the past IMG_9115 jaguar-e-type-4 Transport-Museum-MGA view from the bridge morris-minor-engine-bay Trophy time main-64 IMAG6016 IMAG5959

Recent Articles

  • Morgan Park Sprints R4
  • Kev’s Big Day Out
  • Duratec Elise – better late than never
  • Gold Rush Hill Sprint – 2022
  • Marburg Pub Run – 4 Sept 2022
  • Unique +2 Road Trip to Brisbane
  • Leyburn 2022
  • August 2022 DTC

Latest Gallery Images

20220220_093834 20220220_093818 20220220_093827 20220220_093743 20220220_093812 20220220_093730

Search articles by category

Archived articles

Lotus Club Queensland
© Lotus Club Queensland   |   Site by Black Eye Studios