When will the Esprit Club come of age?

[Kimbers]

Mark. Hear what you're saying but if you go back and read Bib's post again he states quite categorically that he believes the site should stay free. And everyone involved in the site agree's.

I think where it needs to be charged is in the discounts/rates of repair, parts prices, insurance discounts and technical advice offered here on LEF. My suggestion is that we re-negotiate these discounts ONLY if you give them a Club Esprit membership number. not a problem, I know other clubs that do it now.......look at the Dunston Hall Diamond Anniversary thread. We used a booking code and Club Esprit members got first bite at the cherry.

No Club membership no discounts. Like I said I saved

[MPx]

One other point that occurred to me in favour of LEF punching above rather than at or below our memberweight is that we may be taken more seriously by the remanufacting industry. Many of us have benefitted from the Lotus Parts sell off, but know that has come at the cost of zero stocks for future needs. This is a common sitution I find with the Carlton, and its very hard with a small user base - but with even with only just over 100 signed up LC owner/members, Autobahnstormers has had some amazing successes (Brake discs, bell housing, clutch pin, etc). By becoming known and noticed as "the" Esprit club, we will be in a good position on group buys, and Bibs may well get approached by specialists keen to sell their services. Its got to be better to appear as a big club (ie big market) to these people at the classic shows etc, and to project a reasonably high volume of enthusiast owned cars still on the road and requiring spares.

I also applaud the efforts to find funding and can see that it will be necessary long term as its untenable to expect so much to be done for us for so little for years to come. However, it does seem like we might be trying to make LEF all things to all Espritofiles. Free for the free loaders, willingly funded for the rest. This is a tall order for any government but it would be great if it could be pulled off. Building on others ideas, can we learn anything on how to achieve this from eg Linux world as lots of freeware is actually funded by its users - particularly the corporate end - despite its desciples believing that its free. Not got any personal experience of how they make it pay, but I bet someone here has.

Finally, while I support the idea of seeking some financial support from Club Lotus I would guess it would have to be done in the context of taking forward some of CL's constitutional aims (eg two of which are to "Support" and "Promote" Lotus car ownership). Not sure how Alan could square it otherwise. Therefore it might just be easier for Bibs to "sell" Club Lotus a service (eg better website/forum) - rather than just holding our hand out.

[SE Owner :-D]

Hi Bibs and All,

I recently got an email to renew my Club Esprit membership.

I also checked my forum support/paid subscription thing and realised that expired in April...tut tut.

In light of my recent advertising i have chosen to do both.

I hope this is of help to the administration and future developments of what is quite clearly an excellent portal into the Esprit Community.

Thanks,

Rog

The payment for your purchase from Lotusespritforum.com has been completed.

[oneshot]

Ok guys and gals update time

I have been investigating exhibition stands for the NEC show. The space we have is large in exhibition terms. To provide a stand similar to the TVR stand shown in the first post with 5 cars and a central "meeting" type area is going to cost in the region of

[Paul C]

You know, thinking of supercar sunday...

Lamborghini club UK come to shows without any of that,

No tents, stands or backdrops to impress the punters.

They just have plenty of nice cars.

Seems a shame as we are all in it for the cars, that we could potentially

spend five thousand pounds on something that means someone has to always

leave their Esprit at home and bring the day car instead.

I'm not up for leaving the car at home, loading up the van, and spending the

weekend in a tent, in a warehouse, just off the M42. I would not wish that on

anyone, or ask anyone to do it on my behalf. Is this really thought through?

[Gasman GT3]

Paul, I for one would be happy to stand on the stand for 3 days chatting with existing and potential owners of the car we all love so much. I do 3 or 4 trade shows at the NEC every year, and although it is very very very tiring I love it, it's all part of being a salesman. While the idea of being on the stand for 3 days might be your idea of hell, some may actually enjoy it. I couldn't stand the idea of watching a football match, but I understand that quite a few people enjoy it, horses for courses mate.

As for leaving the Esprit at home, it's not as though we could turn it into a carpark meet, I dont think for one moment that the NEC would let us have a section just for ourselves in the car park. For me a show like the NEC is about looking at well displayed cars in a warm dry environment, and chatting to people who are passionate about their cars, and maybe buying a few bits and bobs.

If I go to this type of show or a major motorshow I normally take the daily driver anyway, it's more comfortable to sit in a traffic jam with. I dont see the point of wasting 100 miles+ of my annual allowance doing 50 on the M42. There are lots of outdoor meets and events we can take our cars to. This show is surely more about promoting Lotus and Esprit ownership to a massive audience, rather than another excuse for a hoon.

While I have been typing this reply, I have just had a work email asking me to man our stand at the International Motor Show next month in London. 23rd July - 3rd August now that is a test of stamina, but I get to see the Eagle for free and hopefully out of hours when it's quiet. If anybody is going pop over to the UK LPG stand who Calor ( I work for them) will be sponsoring, our theme is "cleaner greener cheaper"

[dodgey_rog]

Is it worth asking the factory for any old display items they used for previous shows? I'm sure there's some kicking around in the store or a dusty corner somewhere, anything would be great and it would be fantastic to see them again.

Maybe someone could sweet talk Kimbers into doing a recky?

Depending on time schedule, i'm always unlucky to be overseas when the meets go on and would love to go to one of them, but there's also the possibility that the Esprit might have to be gotten rid of, it gets severe lack of use as it is due to my traveling......

Otherwise i'd be up for it.

[andydclements]

i'm always unlucky to be overseas when the meets go on

Fancy fish & chips on the 13th, just a short blip of the throttle from Colchester?.

[Tentenths]

A five hour pub session has provided a fair amount of Dutch courage so...

after all the "we'll support LEF" rhetoric I personally find it a little disappointing that despite all the work Dave has put in sourcing suppliers/costs we've yet to see anyone pledging financial support. So I'll get the ball rolling -

I'm in for

[dodgey_rog]

Fancy fish & chips on the 13th, just a short blip of the throttle from Colchester?.

Would love to matey, but i'm welded in New York til early August, I'm flying into London as i have a wedding down in Somerset, can't take the Esprit as time is rather tight to go up to Essex and collect it, take it down to Somerset, then back up again in time for a trip to Spain for a weekend break on the boat, then its off to Copenhagen for a week, back to Essex to sign some paperwork and various cheques and then back to New York til September. I don't know why i do it...............

On a sadder note, I was speaking to her in doors earlier, it seems my plans of keeping the V8 til the end of summer might have been optimistic, seems there's a nice CLK cabroilet thats taken her fancy, so needs must and all that. I managed to negotiate another Lotus for next year though, and thats a bloody promise!!! Its not all about her, plus i have someone who's breaking their arm to take it off my hands and he's talking decent money too.

[esprit350]

I have mixed views on this, I sort of agree with Paul and Ade, I may have a potential sponsor, but first question they asked was " what do I get for my money, how much space?" so some idea of what your money buys is needed please

[oneshot]

Difficult one Howard as it depends on how much they are offering!

The stand space itself is 133 square metres and the NEC expect in excess of 50,000 visitors. So that's the sort of audience.

If they were a "major" sponsor then I would envisage us putting they name/logo on the artwork and possibly other types of advertising if it was appropriate.

Bear in mind that once the artwork is produced it is ours and we can use it as many times as we like so future shows will also use the same artwork. So far this year we have done Ally Pally and a few other smaller shows so the potential audience is larger than just the NEC.

These are purely my thoughts and as always others may have different views.

[pauli]

Yep i`d be in,