Castle Coombe today

[Alan Paterson]

It was great to see so many well known faces at CC today.

I got some cracking footage of cars on the track, the highlight being

a black Elsie spinning off on a corner. Loads of blue smoke.

I was about 400 yds away and could clearly smell the burning rubber.

I was fooled by the weather into not wearing a hat and am now looking

radioactive. I've been slapping on the After Burn. Best of all was

putting an Ice Lolly on my head.

On the way home, my Esprit broke down. It had the good taste to wait

until I was about 2 miles from home, but I still had to call out the

AA as I couldn't get it to start. Their help desk said I would have to

wait an hour and a half but the AA van turned up in 10 mins. I think

the fact that it was an Esprit helped. Apparently several AA men had

volunteered to answer the call, but the guy who got there first won it.

He diagnosed a faulty fuel cutoff switch and bridged it to get me home.

He recognised it as a Rover part, so he thought I'd be best to try my

local Rover garage first before trying Lotus for price.

Great service.

Alan

[S4S280]

Result Alan, lucky one though

Our little 3 car MLOC group came down and back (thankfully) without event.

Look forward to the next Esprit event after the old girl has been to le Mans and back.

Now who's worried about breaking down

Bob

[pitstoppete]

It was great to see so many well known faces at CC today.

I got some cracking footage of cars on the track, the highlight being

a black Elsie spinning off on a corner. Loads of blue smoke.

I was about 400 yds away and could clearly smell the burning rubber.

I was fooled by the weather into not wearing a hat and am now looking

radioactive. I've been slapping on the After Burn. Best of all was

putting an Ice Lolly on my head.

On the way home, my Esprit broke down. It had the good taste to wait

until I was about 2 miles from home, but I still had to call out the

AA as I couldn't get it to start. Their help desk said I would have to

wait an hour and a half but the AA van turned up in 10 mins. I think

the fact that it was an Esprit helped. Apparently several AA men had

volunteered to answer the call, but the guy who got there first won it.

He diagnosed a faulty fuel cutoff switch and bridged it to get me home.

He recognised it as a Rover part, so he thought I'd be best to try my

local Rover garage first before trying Lotus for price.

Great service.

Alan

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

o no mate, wot a nightmare! she was going so well in the morning! that sounds like a fairly simple fix.

agree with a good day out, many nice cars to view, and the M4 was almost empty on the way back. only passed gareth in the blue SE on the way back, albeit at twice the limit, allegedly.

after advice from the Dermotmeister (good to finally meet you MadModder), I reset my ecu in the car park and "relearnt" the settings with air con on now it works on the cruise back, and low and behold, theres still a hideous stumble at 2800-3000 rpm, after ecu learning has taken place. also the block learning multiplier in the ecu is still tending towards a rich 160ish a reading, meaning there is still an unresolved fuelling/air problem holding it back some what, but good god does it go well when its right.

[S4S280]

And I thought the Tivver was a sod for ECU resets !

[pitstoppete]

And I thought the Tivver was a sod for ECU resets !

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

tis a frigging mare. need a remote IR blipper to reset ecu for every journey

[Paul C]

Good to meet some more people for the first time.

New owner Gareth's Pacific SE was a stunner.

Myself, i am kinda lobstered today, the cool breeze across

the flats of castle combe masked the sun somewhat...

My fave three pics here, and a link to my album of the day is below B)

These SE's were so obviously the best cars there,

so good that i fainted taking this shot, hence the angle...

El Tel

And:

http://uk.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/clarkycat...t2000/my_photos

[WayneB]

Thanks for taking some great photos Paul Could you do me a favour and post one of that yellow S2 (for us rabid Giugiaro fans) Please?

[Jussi]

Thanks for good photos Paul B) I wish I would been there, must been fabulous day.

[scoule]

This was one impressive talbot estate ... yep, it closed up on the Chargecooled Esprit SE Turbo!

[Paul C]

Thanks for taking some great photos Paul   Could you do me a favour and post one of that yellow S2 (for us rabid Giugiaro fans) Please?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

This is the Yellow Esprit that appeared in UK TV Series 'Minder' in the 80's.

"A professional footballer car, who's rear window is shot out by a girls father".

That estate was a rally support car and had a 16v 900 series lotus engine

that i've seen before somewhere, escapes me for now, but i'll think hard...

[lrg_machine]

That estate was a rally support car and had a 16v 900 series lotus engine

that i've seen before somewhere, escapes me for now, but i'll think hard...

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Paul

We saw that one at Donnington, it's the one Pete (pitstop) was drooling over, it was parked near the really fab Elites in the middel of the hall.

Have trouble remembering where I live sometimes, but crap like this, I'm yer man.

[pitstoppete]

Paul

We saw that one at Donnington, it's the one Pete (pitstop) was drooling over, it was parked near the really fab Elites in the middel of the hall.

Have trouble remembering where I live sometimes, but crap like this, I'm yer man.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

ex talbot chase/recce car from the works team. drool...

[MPx]

It was indeed a fanstastic day (as usual - must be my 12th!).

the highlight being a black Elsie spinning off on a corner. Loads of blue smoke.

The Black Elise was a 160 driven by Barry Ely - Lotus specialist dealer in Leyton - who looks after my S3 turbo and Sunbeam. He's an ex-racer - and pretty successful when he can keep his driving brain in gear so no surprise that he was getting the Elise round in 1'26" on stock tyres.

On my first session a light blue +2 lost it at the Esses chicane and a dark blue one right beside me as I was going passed on the back straight - scary!

This was one impressive talbot estate ... yep, it closed up on the Chargecooled Esprit SE Turbo!

The Avenger estate belongs to Graeme Lawton - chairman of the Sunbeam Lotus owners club and also owner of one of the original world championship Sunbeam Lotus rally cars. This was the original support vehicle for the Talbot Sunbeam Lotus rally team when they took 1, 3, and 4th in the RAC. He's just got it back into shape after a multi-year rebuild so it was great to see it in good form....but only managed to get around in about 1'40".

Spirited drive of the day for me though goes to Dave Merlene in his early Elan S2 (the red one with Silver hardtop). I've never seen Camp corner taken better - full chat and all four wheels drifting - nailed it every time, but finally lost it at Quarry! Posted plenty of 1'33" laps before then tho - a second quicker than my best in the Esprit!

A day with about 300 Lotus - incl about 50 Esprit's - and access to a track - that has got to be THE best way to spend a Saturday.

[ukrocketcar]

hi, thank you for pics: the best way for overseas Esprit driver to understand this Lotus events so typical English. As the red wagoon car the fantastic "security car" as on F1 race.

cordialement.

Patrick

[Mark Blanchard]

Hi All,

here are some pics from Saturdays Castle Combe Track day .

http://www.lotusespritturbo.com/Castle_Com...ck_Day_2005.htm

[WayneB]

Mark,nice to see a line up of Elites and Eclats in great shape.

[Mark Blanchard]

Yea,

very rare to see these days, most are scrapped. This was the Elite / Eclat register. Quite a few more cars turned up after this picture was taken.

The green one is the Eclat M50 concept car from 1972, or Elite Special. You can't see the back from the picture, but it has a few unusual design details (look at the side mirrors) and it's 1 inches lower.

The blue Elite, next to it, was Colin Chapman's own car.

http://www.lotusespritturbo.com/Castle_Com...ck_Day_2005.htm

Edited June 1, 2005 by Mark Blanchard

[CAM79]

Love the photo's, I didn't get that many as I tried to film a lot, another meeting that I need to edit!

There was a great turn out of cars, although I've seen better years there, the weather was pretty funny which may have explained it. My S3 had a water leak the night before which I was gutted about but went up in the my old man's black SE that I drove back for 2 hours, what a car, bit too quiet for me though!