Lotus Festival 2018

[Kimbers]

Wowsa. I said to many of you that I could easily have spent the whole day just on the track. All of the (our) cars were amazing. And OMG what a noise some of them make. Walking the full length of the track I was thinking "I need to sell my kids and build a large air con'ed barn for all those cars I want to buy!! 

Bibbo, you never ever disappoint. have a great night tonight and have one for me. To everyone I saw it was awesome to see you all, I never feel more at home than when I am with you all and I have so many friends from Denmark to Germany, Belgium to Netherlands and all over the UK! Big Love!!

My favourite moment.....well 2 actually. I was watching MJK on the big screen being interviewed and there was a guy standing there watching the screen avidly. He looked at me and said "I worked with him in India when he was working for Tata". I said "Thats my dad and I'm sure he would love to see you again". he said "He won't remember me"......."I bet he would" I said. So we walked over to MJK and just before we got there a totally different guy with a walking stick and 2 sons helping him walked over. My dads face lit up and he called him by name (can't remember now....Mike maybe). Dad gave him a big hug and the guy burst into tears. He said "You don't know how much this means to me!" and there was a long conversation and much hugging. the guy had had a stroke and just wanted to talk to his old mate again. He choked up again when they parted. It was amazing to see what dad meant to someone.

So my man from Tata steps up and I say to dad, someone wants to say hi. Dad looked puzzled and the guy said "You probably don't remember me, it was 17 years ago....." and my dad said "In Pune, you were working in the office when I came in and I can still see your face and you saying "What are you doing here". The guy was amazed.

I know he's my dad but for someone to have touched so many people and still remember a guy working in an Office at Tata who he met briefly for 3 days of coming and going is amazing and humbling. 

[Mrs_L]

As everyone’s said, absolutely brilliant day all round, anyone know how many cars were parked on the track? I’d originally heard 500 but it looked way more than that!

[sailorbob]

A big thanks to Bibs and everyone else who helped organise and make it such a fantastic day. Great to meet some of the forum regulars too.

Thanks too to chassis and structures designer Andy who was on his way home from Hethel when he saw us broken down after we travelled only 11 miles of the 113 mile journey and stopped to see if he could help. He took me back to his house to lend me some tools, then back to the car and finally came back a bit later to see if we had gotten the car fixed. Brilliant solidarity the brand brings out in people

[Dan E]

10 minutes ago, sailorbob said:

A big thanks to Bibs and everyone else who helped organise and make it such a fantastic day. Great to meet some of the forum regulars too.

Thanks too to chassis and structures designer Andy who was on his way home from Hethel when he saw us broken down after we travelled only 11 miles of the 113 mile journey and stopped to see if he could help. He took me back to his house to lend me some tools, then back to the car and finally came back a bit later to see if we had gotten the car fixed. Brilliant solidarity the brand brings out in people

Yep had that on a Porsche day..... oh hold on never owned a Porsche. 

[LotusLeftLotusRight]

BEST LOTUS DAY EVER!

Congratulations to everyone involved. I noticed there was a “see you all next year” banner on departure! Really Lotus 71? I’m up for it!

[KennyN]

34 minutes ago, Mrs_L said:

As everyone’s said, absolutely brilliant day all round, anyone know how many cars were parked on the track? I’d originally heard 500 but it looked way more than that!

According to a FB post from Lotus there were 700 apparently!

 

[Steve A]

😎Super day !

Many thanks to Bibs for all your hard work to make this day so special 👏

[chrisroy]

Great weather, great cars, great event overall, what more could you ask for - a huge congrats and well done to all involved in the organising 😀😎😍🤗

[london_v]

Great event and nice to meet some of the forum familia. I must say our club stand was head & shoulders above the rest - well done boys. Here’s a few from the day.

 

 

 

[hedgerley]

What an awesome day. Huge thanks to Bibs for getting this thing off the ground and working so hard to make it such a success. And to Geely for writing the cheque. A huge step up from the 60th and with Friday's announcement a sign of good things to come.

And extra thanks for sorting the weather and inviting me into the inner red badge sanctum Bibs. I thought our parade lap would be the usual follow the lead car, don't exceed 15mph, no overtaking and so on. Bloke with the flag said "4 Laps mate, go for it". Made my day even more awesome 😊

And now I find myself quoted in the EDP! It's not quite what I said, but hey, I'm in the local paper 😁

http://www.edp24.co.uk/news/lotus-celebrates-70th-birthday-1-5716360

[ramjet]

The weather looked brilliant. Fantastic to hear all the good stories. Wish I could have been there to meet a lot of you as well.

Maybe for the 71? Who knows?

[2GOOD]

12 hours ago, CocoPops said:

Fantastic day.

Great to meet people and put names to faces. Met Neil Turner of customer service game, what a thoroughly nice guy, clearly cares about Lotus and customers.

Looking forward to next year!!

Would love to see the drone pics too!

Did look out for you & @PaulCP all day, saw both of your cars but too many people...

[Barrykearley]

Superb day - many thanks to Lotus and @Bibsfor the opportunity to nosey round the factory.

great to put some faces to names - it’s amazing how many folks you speak to over the phone but haven’t met before

[Escape]

What a great day! I do hope the record attempt was successful, it was an amazing sight seeing so many Lotus bumper to bumper. 😲

Thanks to all for making this possible (Bibs but also Geely). My only regret is I didn't recognize many other forum members...

I also loved the banner with 'see you next year', hopefully many more great events to come.

Greetz,

Filip

[a7esk]

Fantastic day well done all #Bibs 

[Barrykearley]

5 minutes ago, Escape said:

I also loved the banner with 'see you next year', hopefully many more great events to come

Never spotted that one 👍

sign of things to come maybe?

[rizla603104]

Fantastic event. Well done to Bibs and all those involved with organising it.

And some more

[nigelsd]

Fantastic day with so many memories to take away including the world record attempt with cars on track - hope that gets in the books.  Reminded me of the M25 on a Friday afternoon - but with all the cars you want around you!

Well done to Bibs who worked like a trojan all day and all the days before that too.  Thanks to Lotus and Geely for getting it on at last and I hope the enthusiasm of all Lotus owners and fans at the event left a lasting impression on them all for next time - next year maybe as the banner said!   

Great to bump into my Absolute Lotus photoshoot friends and Mrs L again.  Also to meet Scott Walker by my car on the Club Lotus stand.

[PascalM]

A very big thank you @Bibs !!

It was wonderful.

Great atmosphere, great weather, great display, great teack events... I could go on and on. I miss it already.

[PaulCP]

2 hours ago, 2GOOD said:

Did look out for you & @PaulCP all day, saw both of your cars but too many people...

Same here Steve, we should have made prior arrangements to meet up. 

Came across a few I knew and Sue told me that someone said “Hi” as I walked past and I ignored him. Apologies to whoever it was 🙏, I was in a dream world, didn’t hear you and was walking towards the sun which was a bit blinding at times. ☀️

[MPx]

What a fantastic event.  Thanks for doing so much to make it happen Bibbo.  Thanks to Lotus for hosting so well and putting on a great day.  Thanks to everyone for turning up in some glorious machinery.  Well....just thanks really!  Was great seeing so many to say hello to and amazing how many more we missed!  

[Tex]

It all sounds like an absolutely fantastic day and i was very sorry to not have made it due to another commitment. 

Perhaps not universally interesting to all but yesterday at the Vmax 200 I managed to wring out over 183mph in a stock Exige, lack of weight being more important than outright power.

So while I am sure Geely will bring us exceptional new models let’s hope they still remain light weight and still be track orientated.

[ramjet]

I watched the video of 'All Lotus Cars Produced'. I must have been asleep as I didn't see an SE, S4, S4S, Sport 300 or a V8. Just me?

I was happy to see a photo above where I finally saw an S4. Palacio Purple possibly? in @rizla603104 post.

[rizla603104]

28 minutes ago, ramjet said:

I watched the video of 'All Lotus Cars Produced'. I must have been asleep as I didn't see an SE, S4, S4S, Sport 300 or a V8. Just me?

I was happy to see a photo above where I finally saw an S4. Palacio Purple possibly? in @rizla603104 post.

It was indeed the purple nasty - in Palacio Purple. I was pleased to be fortunate enough to be behind a palacio purple M100

[trevorB]

Had a fantastic day yesterday and a GOOD job done by all involved in this excellent event and hope it continues into next year.

Well done everyone involved in the organisation. Thank you Bibs.

The M100 clan thoroughly enjoyed it. A few of us in the queue to get into Hethel.