Is something happening at Lands End? 3 Esprits and an Evora heading west at St Erth

[PZE]

As well as the silver Evora (AU60 I think) that passed me on the A30 in Penzance yesterday, I’ve just passed a convoy of white Esprit - graphite grey Evora - two more Esprits I think blue then grey. 
 

I’ve hardly seen an Evora in 7 years around Penzance then two turn up at once… would love to know if you’ve all come all the way from John O’Groats. 

[exeterjeep]

I think there is a group - including some various Lotus models - that do a run from Lands End, leaving later to celebrate the longest day. Think Ian @mayevora has done part of this event in the past. 

Not sure where they end up, seem to recall Clarkson doing a run in a Jag to try to beat the sunrise somewhere on the east coast.

I suppose if I keep a good look out after dark could see them on the A30 near me?

[mayevora]

Race against God.

Meet Lands End and leave after seeing the sun set on the longest day. Then beat the sun to rise at the most Easterly part of the U.K. in Norfolk.

Here is 2022 and 2023

 

[TomE]

It's been organised for a few years now via the Lotus Owners groups on Facebook and elsewhere:

https://www.facebook.com/events/645309264288400

Route planning and avoiding roadworks and sections covered by 50mph average speed cameras are as important as brisk driving and staying awake all night!

[exeterjeep]

Some pics have been posted on 

https://www.facebook.com/groups/clublotussouthwest/

eg,

Here is the text associated with the challenge post and what they did.-from Simon Freebrey..

Challenge J.Clarkson filmed for Top Gear. That challenge is to watch the Sun set at Land’s End and then race through the night as the sun rises globally with the ambition of getting to Ness Point, Lowestoft before it rises over the UK and a new day dawns. For added jeopardy, it is done on the summer solstice, the shortest night of the year!

The event started on Wednesday, RAGers from Norfolk met at Snetterton, we then decanted to Milton, Cambridge (Tescos to be precise) where we collected RAG combatants from the East of England. From Cambridge we headed west to Caffeiene & Machine at The Bowl, Bedford to collect entrants from the Midlands and the North. After lunch we headed to Cheddar Gorge for a quick blast through the pass, to collect some more participants from the South and a chance for some photos and left for our over night stop at Minehead. We took on some food and quite a lot of ale in Minehead, so unfortunately my head hurt in the morning. When we all finally awoke, we fuelled ourselves with breakfast over stories of mischief and high jinks, and then fuelled our cars and set off for Kernow!! The reason for Minehead for our overnight pit stop was the Atlantic Coastal Road down to Cornwall which was breathtaking! Bends galore, you ascend up steep inclines and then plunge down into quaint little cove towns with quaint restaurants having plenty of outside diners enjoying their food and definitely enjoying our parade. I was the last car in the procession of 16 Lotus, 1 Noble, 1 BMW, 1 Seat and an Alpine, so I could see that people had picked up their phones and were filming us as we drove past. Exactly as it should be

We arrived at Land’s End in time for some Fish n Chips and time to organise the cars for a photo opportunity. Then it was time for the main event! The starting pistol which was in our case the sunset. The second the sun dipped beneath the horizon, it was a LeMans style sprint back to the carpark (hilarious to any onlooker!!) Although probably no more than 500feet, felt like the London Marathon to me! And then it was ‘Gentlemen, start your engines!!’

I got lucky and was amongst the first 3 or 4 cars to leave!, but I had given everyone strict instruction not to leave Land’s End like it was a rally stage out of respect for the locals, who have been really supportive of us and genuinely interested and engaging about our prized possessions. We had been a convoy leading up to the event, but once you leave Land’s End, it is every RAGer for themselves but we were all still together, until we picked up the A30 where we got some stretches of duel carriageway and could stretch the cars ‘legs’ a little. God was playing dirty however, and there were major road works soon after hitting the A30 and we were diverted through small towns and villages for approximately 10miles, but we were soon on the fast roads and started to claw back some lost time.

You have two main route choices at the end of the A30, The M5 to Bristol and then M4 or the A303, but when you drive a Lotus, there really is only one option, so A303 it was! Things got interesting at Stonehenge, as the sides of the road were littered with druids!! They had been celebrating the Solstice and quite a lot of ale too I’d say, I encountered one such Druid, all in black, riding his bike with no lights as I passed, luckily I had the good sense to have slowed to about 40mph there expecting the unexpected, I do hope he made it home ok.

From the end of the A303, we chose M25 clockwise which was down to 40mph for a long stretch which was hurting our time a little, but as we pulled off to the A1M the roads were thankfully clear. We bombed through the Hatfield Tunnel with windows down for a blast of engine noise and headed towards Royston and Duxford, where we picked up the A11.

The A11 feels like an old friend at this point, but it was still very disconcerting when Waze (the navigation app I was using) started having a meltdown, as my co-pilot and I, tried to resolve issues, I missed the Norwich turnoff, so I headed for Bury St Edmunds and lucky for me, I love the A143 to Beccles, especially at in the early hours, because the mist hangs over the fields either side of the arrow straight tarmac in places, it’s quite mystical feeling. That mist however turned into some pretty fence fog and I shook my fist at God for playing dirty once more!! His attempts to thwart my progress failed, and I arrived at the most Easterly point of the UK having set of some 6.5 hours earlier from the most westerly point, at around 4am. Burt’s Girls Coffee (owned by an ex-Lotus employee) had travelled from Dereham setting off at 2am to be there and ready with hot tasty coffee for us when we arrived, which was very welcome!

Apart from the early diversion on the A30 and some tricky pea-soup fog, I had a ‘charmed’ run, every time I caught a lorry, it turned off, or the duel carriageway started, so traffic wise I hardly got held up at all, so I was fairly certain I was going to be the first back, but alas, someone had got in just a couple of minutes before me, but I still beat the Lord Almighty. This was my fourth attempt and I have managed it twice, so me and God are two all!

We waited until the last of the RAGers made it back, enjoyed the stories of wrong turns and hold ups from everyone’s personal RAG adventure and then set off home, for a much needed sleep!