DONNINGTON: DISPLAY PARKING

[lisalotus]

I just gotta have a say in this, okay it was bloody freezing, hardly club lotus,s fault, I cant honestly say I noticed whether the carpark was crap or not, the only thing I noticed was row upon row of supreme, shiny drop dead gorgeous sports cars . As for the esprit crowd not being friendly , you have got to be kidding, I have never come across such a welcoming bunch of guys and gals in all my life. I,ve only been on this forum for about 6 months, and I,ve only been to one other meet, but I can honestly say that I feel I,ve made some true friends . I was welcomed at Donny like I,d known them all my life. The good company far outweighed the freezing cold. I cant wait for summer, just hope my car keeps going or I,ll have to go to the meets on my horse, LOL .

Oh yeh and another thing, paul c, howard, oneshot, kato, bibs, and I,m sure many more give their time up freely just to make these events happen, why do you think they do that??????????, they do it to bring a community of esprit enthusiasts together, so we can all get together and have a bloody good laugh, talk about the one thing we all have in common, whether we choose to join in and make that happen is up to us. I think the least we can do is express our thanks to all those concerned in putting together a bloody great day out.

[snuffy]

On the days of the Yahoo Forum I used to post quite often about just how bad the event was, along the lines of "it's a lot of rusty crap in a manky old shed for 8 pound odd".

Well, reading what people have said it looks like nothing has changed. Go once and if you think it's poor then vote with your wheels and don't go again, it's that simple.

[AlanM]

I'm not quite sure what I've done to warrant such a vicious and highly personal attack from Nick Whiting on both myself and the club. No doubt I'll be enlightened.

I'm also not going to attempt a full reply to his original post as another long detailed misive is probably not what you all want to read. If I'm mistaken tell me and I'll go through it line by line.

Just a couple of points though.

'where are the owners of the earlier cars?' - actually they were with their cars inside the hall or perhaps NW missed the four classic F1 cars, the HLR display, the Essex and JPS Esprits and the two unique concept cars.

And, for the record, I'm not an accountant looking to rip Lotus enthusiasts off. I've watched Jim Clark and Graham Hill three-wheel Cortina's around Brands and Crystal Palace; I've driven, owned, cursed, raced, fixed, loved and got various scars from many Lotus over the past 30 years; I spent most of my career publishing car magazines such as CCC, Miniworld, Custom Car, Off Road and Racecar Engineering so I think I know a little about the subject.

I accept Donington is not perfect - no show has ever been perfect - but from the feedback I get it's better than it was a few years ago. Yes, it can be better and with co-operation rather than destructive and inaccurate asides it will be.

Over the past 18 months I've extended the warmest of invitations to all Lotus groups to help me improve things and LEW has joined in wholeheartedly - witness the Stoneleigh and Doninton displays. I'm certainly not above criticism and the website is crap (it's being professionally re-designed after several people have let me down) so let's work together rather than otherwise.

[Splashout]

Alan a big hand for coming on and answering so many people would of just stood and read congratulations to you and if things keep improving then i for one will be a happy bunny.

[esprit350]

Thank you for taking the time Alan to comment, you are very welcome on this forum. Please come back frequently and share your thoughts about Club Lotus.

Howard

[Paul C]

Glad to have you here Alan. I regret your first post was not one in the Newbie

section with us all welcoming you, but i'm glad you have a voice on this thread.

Note:

I want to take this moment to refer all to the forum rules on posting.

"Personal attacks or name-calling is not permitted". The statement

below...

"I can imagine what happened when he decided to purchase club Lotus,

a really good check on the accounts, a study of potential profits, probably

not even any effort to learn about the cars, history of the marque etc.

Is he an enthusiast, does he drive or has he ever driven a Lotus? I didn't

notice him stood next to his car, chatting with other owners a Donnington,

did anybody here?"

...was, i believe breaking those rules as it was a personal attack.

And as we can all see from Alans reply was also innacurate as

Alan's pedigree in both Lotus and motoring in general is without

question.

In retrospect, i should have acted on at least this part of the posts

content as soon as it appeared, and i'm sorry for any offence and

upset that i know Alan experienced in it's appearance.

Alan is happy for the original post to stay, which is the only reason

it is still here in it's original form.

Thanks

[stagowner]

Hello,

This was my first year at Donington, I came down with my son to exhibit my car (White/Red S3 Turbo) an meet as many people as possible. I found the event extremely good; meet many esprit owners and took in lots of advice (this alone was worth the expense of travelling down + the hotel for the night) on how to keep my Esprit in tip top condition.

I could not talk to you all as my son fell Ill on Sunday

[esprit350]

I hope to meet up with the North Midlands group on there meets and days out over the summer

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

you will be very welcome to come to any NMEG meet!

saw your car and it looked stunning!

Howard

[Jonathan]

Great of you to post Alan - just wondering if at any time you'd wish to attend the Oxford Esprit meet as a guest or something ? I have no doubt you'd get a warm welcome and anything you'd have to say about Club Lotus in relation to the Esprit would be greatly received.

[Paul C]

Great of you to post Alan - just wondering if at any time you'd wish to attend the Oxford Esprit meet as a guest or something ?  I have no doubt you'd get a warm welcome and anything you'd have to say about Club Lotus in relation to the Esprit would be greatly received.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I echo that.

[MPx]

Maybe enough's been said on this by now, but since I'd like to take the opportunity to thank a few people I'll ramble on to establish some more weight on the positive feedback for this show.

First thanks to Alan and the Club Lotus team for what I thought was a greatly improved show on 2005 (hall properly full this year, more trade stands, more club stands). Also thanks to all the other organisers (like paul c, howard, oneshot, kato, bibs from LEF/LEW on Sunday; and the Lotus Elan Central crew on Saturday). Setting stuff up is always a pain in the butt and hugely time consuming and I for one am really grateful to anyone willing to do it all for me to simply turn up and take advantage of. I think the car park is a big feature of the show - so please do keep up the good works in getting those line ups in place.

I've had my G car for 16 years and been to many CL events at Stonleigh and Donnington since then. For habituees they could be viewed as all a bit samey but like most things they're what you make them. It was great to meet up with the Sunbeam Lotus guys; The Autobahnstormers; some of the guys from Sinclaires and some from Paul Matty's. My wife and I wandered out for the 12oclock LEF happy snap, but (being as reserved as some others have stated here) didn't, this time, find the right opportunity to say hello to any from LEF. So what? I certainly could have, there were lots of smiling faces around us.

Anyway, I had a great time, saw some great cars, had some laughs, caught up with some old friends and contacts, picked up some spares, and got invited to two other car events (non-Lotus specific) to look forward to over the next couple of months. How good does it have to get to warrant a tank of petrol and