Announcement: TLF International Lotus Day 2018

[tim_marra]

If the day is to involve track time, better to get that arranged with a TDO, say BookaTrack (who are based at Donny), or of course LoT.

Donny is a good shout, with decent hotels and a great curry house in the local village. A short taxi ride in fact...

[The Pits]

Truly great circuit and they also do unlimited noise days too so loud Evora and Exige owners can let rip.

However I think the cost to hire Donington Park is more like £30k. Fine, 100 cars at £300 each will break even but someone has to stump up the £30k and take the risk.

Then you have people dropping out for whatever reason and it's so easy to end up losing a lot. It would have to be non-refundable to make it work and even then only go ahead once sufficient numbers had been reached.

Would be quite a sight and sound though. I can't think of a much better day for a Lotus owner. One of the best tracks in the UK. Imagine what we could do if the factory got involved, got some cars to test drive (on road and track) plus a few engineers there to help with suspension set up and demo drives.

There's so much Lotus could be doing at Hethel too and remains a mystery why they don't do more to get people into the current range.

[CocoPops]

Equally, what would a dealer pay to attend? £500? £1000? Contribution from Lotus etc?

You’re right, it’s too much to stump as a private person, but this is why the vx gang use Lotus On Track to host the day.

[Vipers]

Hi Guys,

Obviously gutted that there is no Brooklands meet this year, especially being such a big anniversary year for Lotus.

Just a thought, hope you don't mind Bibs? but we are having our Boys Toys day on May 26th and we always get a great Lotus turnout, unfortunately we haven't got as much space as Brooklands but if anyone fancies coming along please feel free, I'll be brining along my Cup 380 and S1 Elise + we'll have a free BBQ running all day + a sim setup and a chance to win hospitality to our Radical SR1 race at Silverstone, oh yeah and some great HiFi blasting out some tunes.

Basically just a relaxed day for fellow petrolheads to meet up and chill so if anyone fancies a drive over please feel free 

more info below -

Cheers,

Paul.

 

[nigeninja]

As someone has said Gaydon would be good ,plenty of space and museum is always worth a look, oh and nice and central  

 

[top-plumber]

On 25/04/2018 at 20:17, Barrykearley said:

How bigs the carpark at spearmint rhino ??

There isn’t one Barry, but Tottenham Court Road tube station is just over the road and open late, also there is a cash point machine just opposite the entrance and the..........I’m gonna stop right there... 😎✌️🤪

[Andyww]

The strange thing is why there has not already been a Lotus day at Brooklands every year, organised by them. It has to be the only British marque which does not have an annual day there.

The Italian Car day (yesterday) is organised by Auto Italia magazine so they are not averse to outside organisations partnering though. Whatever brings in the numbers. The place is utterly dead even on a weekend with good weather if there is no event on that weekend. I try to keep up interest by parking the Esprit in front of the clubhouse as often as possible.

[MARTIN_S]

I booked Snetterton and Rockingham previously for the annual VX220 event. All it involved was ringing them up, getting a date and everyone then paid direct to them.

No deposit, once they understood we were a genuine group and we were able to show we had booked tracks for many years previously.

Typical cost was £200 and at Rockingham we also had the skid pan for free all day for anyone including non trackers.

Biggest problem was getting a date agreed via voting, so best thing to do is  just see what Saturdays are going.

Typically you need around 45 cars on track to fill the event.

Martin S

 

[C8RKH]

@MARTIN_S wins the prize for the best post in this thread.

Cheers bud.

[MARTIN_S]

Unsure of my prize but thanks.

Just making suggestions based on experience but  for ease of effort in arranging a gathering, do what the VX group have done this year and just base their annual event around a Lotus on Track trackday.

Do I get an even better prize now or shall I just get my coat.

Martin S

 

[Bibs]

We have between 300 & 400 cars turn up to this event, and over 1,000 people. It takes a few phone calls to organise, plus the hotel/meal etc. 

FYI I also usually start organising the Lotus Festival in Dec the year before, that takes around 9/10 months of (admittedly part time) organising. 

[MARTIN_S]

Hadn't heard of the event until on this site very recently, so I hadn't realised it was such a big event, I hadn't meant in any way to demean what you had done previously.

Martin S

 

[Bibs]

Not at all mate. The festival is a lot to organise, well over 1,000 cars and up to 10,000 people usually over a weekend. 

I'll get the ILD back up an running next year and I've no problem at all hearing all suggestions

[deanb]

On 16/04/2018 at 21:58, Bibs said:

@scotty435, as with Malcolm's event, this is an MLOC event and I'm happy to help them with marketing on here and our social but won't gate crash with our event.

As I posted above, I'm looking for an alternative venue for next year and have some good leads of where to go

Bibs I have only just seen this thread. As you know i lead the Lotus in the Peak organising team and we would love for as many TLF members as possible to come along this year.  Although MLOC is the organising club we very much see it as an event for all Lotus owners, not just MLOC members.

It's a shame the meet at MB World won't be on this year but it will come back stronger next year I'm sure. For what it's worth my opinion is that owners don't mind paying a modest fee to attend events of this kind - they recognise the hard work that goes in to them and after all, a fiver or a tenner or whatever is cheap for a day's entertainment that includes being up close and personal with 150 plus Lotuses.

[deanb]

Having read through the whole of the thread now I notice there were rather a lot of posts about holding the ILD somewhere more central, but none of those involved in that particular discussion seemed to know of Lotus in the Peak, which suggests my marketing and promotional efforts are below par!  Never mind ... 😊

Bibs you are being very modest - attracting 200 or so Lotuses to a single event requires a lot more than a few phone calls.  

BTW I think Brooklands would be better than MB world anyway.

[Cads]

Hi @deanb - Lotus in the Peak looks awesome, I'd not seen it either but I might try to join you if you don't mind. Those roads are awesome up there.

How does it work, would I need to register on MLOC? 

 

 

 

[Bibs]

 

 

[deanb]

2 hours ago, Cads said:

Hi @deanb - Lotus in the Peak looks awesome, I'd not seen it either but I might try to join you if you don't mind. Those roads are awesome up there.

How does it work, would I need to register on MLOC? 

 

 

 

Cads yes just go to midlandslotus.co.uk and register on the forum (it's free) then navigate your way to the mloc online store and order the event.  It costs a tenner, to cover the cost of putting on the event with a contribution towards the upkeep of the mloc website and anything on top to go to charity.

[Cads]

7 hours ago, Bibs said:

 

 

 Thanks Bibs! I didn’t see that... 

6 hours ago, deanb said:

Cads yes just go to midlandslotus.co.uk and register on the forum (it's free) then navigate your way to the mloc online store and order the event.  It costs a tenner, to cover the cost of putting on the event with a contribution towards the upkeep of the mloc website and anything on top to go to charity.

Great - leave that with me and I’ll get on it! 👍

[johnpwalsh]

On 27/05/2018 at 10:10, Bibs said:

We have between 300 & 400 cars turn up to this event, and over 1,000 people. It takes a few phone calls to organise, plus the hotel/meal etc. 

FYI I also usually start organising the Lotus Festival in Dec the year before, that takes around 9/10 months of (admittedly part time) organising. 

Most people dont know how much effort goes into organising an event. Wendy, my wife, starts organising our calander in October for the following year. Usually about 50 Club Lotus NEScotland events. It takes a huge amount of time and effort. This year being the 10th anniversary of our club we are organising a special at Glamis. Doesn't sound much when you say 40+ cars on show, (2400 cars in total on site) but thats over 2 days with accommodation, meals etc to be sorted out. Entrance tickets to be booked, paid and forwarded. Months of work. Well done Bibs for the past events. We have never made MBW as the 12 hour drive each way is a bit much for a 1 day event so for us and many more up North a more central location would be great. Previously we took 7 or 8 cars to Donington for the weekend.