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
mtmee-banner

Mt Mee Day Run – July 2017

Civilised, definitely civilised

By Clive Wade, photos by Gloria Wade.

8:00am for 8:30am start on a sunny Sunday morning in dear old civilised South East Queensland. Middle of winter, blue sky, roof off… and NO HOTTIE.

Not like the last Lotus Day Run which Gloria and I attended, an LCV EMR no less. Here I was, taking in the lovely blue sky of Melbourne before our departure in the Murray’s front garden when I was presented a hottie by the Australian Expert on Hotties, no other than Jeanne Murray.

Now Jeanne knows all about the necessity of hotties in Lotus Elites, and in miserable Melbourne I can understand her need, and subsequent utterances, in regard to her norm of chilly weather combined with a lack of heater. And Peter naturally presuming all windows should be removed for the real experience of motoring in a 1957 Lotus Elite. But here in SE Qld there is NO NEED for such apparel, not in our perfect winter weather. And so we arrived at the start location of Eatons Hill, hottieless and roofless, snugly warm, the heater wafting warm air over our toes and knees to help cope with the outside temperature of 15 degrees… quite civilised really.*

Digressed a little didn’t I? Well we did have a civilised start at a civilised location at a civilised time. And only 10 minutes (or so) late our entourage of 9 cars pottered off towards morning coffee at the Pitstop Café, Mt Mee. This entailed a quick tour of an outer Brisbane suburb and on to country roads of less restricted speeds. Yes, we were off and enthusiastically following our new member Justin when the phone rang. “Did we miss a turn?” asked Norma Upham. “Yes”, answered Gloria, it would appear the boys at the wheels were having far too much fun on this winding road to notice the planned turn off to Clear Mountain and, after all, coffee did beckon. Actually, it felt like an LCV Gold Fields Tour – all members so easily lost, like lemmings to the slaughter.

Touring the Sunshine Coast We were soon on the Samford to Dayboro Rd when the first sign of trouble appeared, though it didn’t live up to the famed Lotus acronym, it wasn’t serious. Johann’s newly acquired supercharged Elise decided it had plenty of power using just 3 cylinders rather than the usual 4, the ECU disagreed, and Johann parked the argument at the side of the road. Being good Samaritans, and having a sense of presidential responsibility, Gloria and I parked up to offer my enormously minimal technical help… alt/control/delete came to mind. Johann was ahead of me, but was looking rather disappointed with the result. No worries said I, let it sulk for another minute or so and try again! Success! We were soon on the road.

Now of course, starting on a nice open road in first gear is the perfect opportunity to show off to the loving spouse the joys of having a vigorous Honda in the boot… some blokes are just plain dumb, you’ll never guess where the next conversation went, and after nearly 42 years of accumulating knowledge in wedded bliss I realized all my actions were totally defenceless. Apparently 0-100 in 4 seconds just isn’t impressive.

We soon caught up with the Lotus entourage who had slowed for our benefit, pottered through Dayboro and then whizzed up to coffee, and for some, bacon and eggs at Pitstop. An enjoyable Lotus road up the hill only hindered by speed limits. We enjoyed it as the speed limit is mostly unattainable anyway with all the hairpin bends, so a good time was had by all, and the coffee fully enjoyed.

Next stage plan was over Mt Mee, down one of the best hill descents known to man, quick right turn onto the d’Agular Highway for a few kilometres, turn right into a nice winding back road to the top of Mt Mee, left at Dayboro and onto Old Petrie Town for lunch.

Ahhhh ha, ha… the best laid plans of mice and men… whoever would have thought we might find an impeccably driven Mercedes S Class would come into view 100 metres into the famed descent? And going our way no less! None of us! But just as sure as eggs are eggs, the said Merc appeared just as we passed the last place we could safely stop without hindering traffic. And so we all took in the delightful scenery of the d’Agular Range, as we safely stormed down the mountain at a cracking 30kmh. Though it must be said, none of us had realised there is a view on that part of the road. After that, we had a delightful drive around the remainder of said route, fully enjoying the last of the Lotus roads through to Dayboro and Old Petrie Town.

Old Petrie Town is always worth a stop for the mechanically minded. The girls can disappear into the markets whilst the lads disappear into working steam engine displays and the like. And we did. Directly after lunch at the quaint “The Emporium” Café we divided into the historically successful division of entertainment and did what each gender does best… shopped or workshopped.

A great day out and a big thanks to new member Justin! Membership only 6 weeks old and he has his hand up to organise a really successful day. Great to see such enthusiastic new blood.

*Footnote: For anyone confused, read the magazine July Issue “Invitation EMR Article”, page 28. Also, Victorians call any Day Run starting in the morning an EMR, where as in Qld EMR means EARLY Morning Run.

Gathering-at-Eaton-Hills-gw Meeting-at-Eaton-Hill-gw Arrival-at-the-Pitstop-Cafe-gw Coffee-at-the-Pitstop-Cafe-gw Enjoying-morning-coffee-gw Clive-and-run-organiser-Justin-gw Mike-Maggie-Daryl-gw Morning-socialising-gw Stephen-Clive-gw View-from-the-Pitstop-Cafe-gw Lunch-venue-gw Lunch-at-Old-Petrie-Town-gw Heading-for-Mt-Mee-gw On-route-to-Mt Mee-gw Peter-and-Norma-gw Touring-the-Sunshine-Coast-gw Travelling-through-Sunshine-Coast-gw
[Show thumbnails]
Member Profile – James Driscoll The McGarry’s in Monaco

Related Posts

mp-banner

Events, Gallery 2022, Homepage, Racing

Morgan Park Sprints R4

kevs-banner

EMRs, Gallery 2022, Homepage

Kev’s Big Day Out

gold-rush-banner

Events, Gallery 2022, Homepage, Racing

Gold Rush Hill Sprint – 2022

Random images

121_2129_IMG MG_8961 MG_8857 Class_Winner IMG_0043 123_2371_IMG IMG_4843 IMG_4822 122_2205_IMG MG_9138 IMG_4381 IMG_6883 IMG_4910 image_242 lot_015 IMG_6227 IMG_5063 IMG_0940 Jenny, Moira, Chris and Jon 20220220_093834 DSC_0260 gw_Lotuses being let out of the gate Andrew-Martin _MG_9164 as Smart Object-1 Clive chasing Martin Main street car display Kens broken nose P6210147 dtc-14 dtc-13 Dick and presenter Ken Wybes-Elite 2-Winding-mountain-road-1 MG_6591 2.Mick-Rob-Clive-John Joe IMG_8449 GIC3a Mar-main-110 Mar-main-23 Jan-main-6 Tim-Moore The-treetop-walk Christmas-at-the-New-Farm-Deli- Assembly_point IMG_0032 2006_08_27_Gympie_Skid_Pan0051 IMG_8918 Boel_Lola_30 IMG_0036 IMG_0370 IMG_0339 image_036 IMG_7416 IMG_3721 36_MG_2600 IMG_7846 P1060553 P1060531 163_163 John_Lungren_main_straight IMG_3171 IMG_0932 IMG_8475 image_195 IMG_5176 IMG_8057 IMG_6312 Jason-McGarry IMG_8194 Baby-James image0-1 IMG_0900 Martin and Rob - Pie Time DSC_0226 1-DrewDundas Morning_Tea_at_Angies_Cafe Johns-Exige new-exedy-clutch The Bleachers IMG_0055 All-Elises-in-a-row Martins Nose 3 photo-17 Lotus-Plus2-3 Steve & Clive_gw Jones-Winery-Wine-Tasting Boy talk IMGP8600 Steve-Lennox-Europa-S-1 alex-tracey-john-penny IMGP8283 jaguar-e-type-2 IMG_9110 Honda Traction BEST EDITED GROUP SHOT main-49 Steve and Paul triumphant main-68

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