June 2018 Edition of Lotus Notes Available for Download

Lotus Notes June 2018

Jeff Morton & Steve Fisher’s Lotus Exige Sport 350 – winners of Targa Tasmania Rookie GT.

Image: Emma Morley – Events Manager, Lotus Cars Australia.

Simon Messenger and the Lotus & Clubman Notes team have recently published a bumper edition of Lotus & Clubman Notes for June, 2018, and have kindly made the digital copy available for download on the members page.

This month’s magazine is a Targa Tasmania special edition and features:

  • Lotus Dominates at Targa Tasmania 2018
  • MYELIS – The little car that could
  • Lotus Melbourne heads to Targa Tasmania
  • Targa Great Barrier Reef 2018
  • APC Round 1 Sandown – An Exciting Debut for the Lotus Exige Sport 350

And a whole lot more!

Lotus & Clubman Notes is the official magazine of Lotus Club Victoria and Lotus Club Queensland, and includes contributions from the other branches of Club Lotus Australia as well.

The newsletter is kindly provided to Club Lotus Australia by Lotus Club Victoria in its digital form, and will as such require you to be logged in to your members account. Download it from our ‘Members‘ page.

If you’re not a member yet, hit this link to find out more about the club and why you should become one! To learn more about Lotus Club Victoria, hit this link to their website and consider catching up with them when you’re in the state.

June 2018 Edition of Chunky’s Chatter Available for Download

Chunky's Chatter June 2018

A line up of Lotus 16s at this year’s Monaco Historique (Grand Prix). Photo courtesy of Anne Blackwood, who just happened to be there!!

After our first truly wintery week of the year, warm up with Tom Devitt’s latest Chunky’s Chatter and catch up on everything going on in the club.

The June magazine features:

  • Anne Blackwood’s fabulous Monaco trip
  • Who remembers Paul Hawkins? Myths and Legends recollects his career
  • A great day out for the NSW club to the Gosford Motor Museum
  • All the news from SA and WA

And much more! Enjoy Chunky’s lighthearted and sometimes irreverent monthly look at the world of Lotus.

Head to the members’ page to download your copy. And if you’re not a member already, have a browse around the site and hit up our membership page here to find out why you should be!

Ashton’s President’s Prattle for June, 2018

President's Prattle

Hello! Winter seemed to arrive a couple of weeks ago, and with it a general reluctance to go into the garage to face the music – in my case the need to replace the starter motor on the Elan. This situation is aggravated by the need to spend a few weekends up on the Gold Coast finishing Gidget, the Austin Healey 100/4 we are preparing for the Peking to Paris rally – which starts in 363 days as I write this – GULP!

We are preparing for our next Club Night (well, strictly speaking our first of the year!) on 25th July, when we are visiting Carbonix, an innovative carbon fibre production facility run by one of our members, Dario Valenza. The eagle eyes will recognise the address as it is where Simply Sports Cars were located prior to their current home.

Speaking of whom, the next SSC LOTD is taking place next month on 14th July and if you’ve never been to one of their events you should! Have a look here.

We are fast approaching the busy time of the year, so I hope all your plans to fettle and finish off projects are well underway. I just dropped the sump off the Elite to freshen up the big end bearings – there’s a bit of wear there but nothing untoward. As mentioned, the Elan needs some love in the electrics department. And the Eleven is due back from Suspension Concepts soon having had the ruler run over all the suspension components. I’m  looking forward to getting her back to the track soon.

Looking out a bit further August will see us at SMSP for both the Morgan round of the CSCA and the following day the Shannons Day – 10 places are available – first in best dressed – drop a line to Evan Jones (contact details on the second page) for yours.  August will also see Giles and me in Alice Springs with Gidget for her inaugural rally – the Central Outback Trial – I’ll be interested to see how we go. Then in September we’ll have the AGM and (hopefully!) Eggs B.

On a different note, it’s good to see a significant increase in the number of transactions in Lotus cars, whether old or newer, and whether through Simply Sports Cars, our website, Carsales or Aussie Elises. All the signs point to something of a resurgence in the brand’s fortunes here which is most encouraging – and in no small part due to SSC’s unstinting efforts. By the way, if you are in Melbourne pop into the new showrooms in Southbank – very smart!

Right, better get this to Tom, so keep safe, upright and on the black stuff and I hope to see you soon!

Pip pip,
Ashton

Let’s do Lunch! July’s Lotus Lunch will be at Butcher and the Farmer

Butcher and the Farmer

The old Harold Park tram depot has recently been converted into a kaleidoscope of eateries and food shops. For our next Lotus Lunch on Saturday the 28th of July, we have picked the restaurant everyone is talking about, the Butcher and the Farmer.

Chefs Will and Steve, known as ‘The Gourmet Pommies’ have curated a menu from scratch “We want to encourage diners to enjoy the new dishes that are designed to share. We invite our customers to experience a number of dishes that are wholesome, moreish and layered with well thought out flavours and textures.”

The food we serve in our restaurant is simple, honest and delicious with all ingredients soured with care. Seasonality is what drives and inspires the menu, consisting of what is available at the time. We source directly from farmers and providores, knowing how they grow and prepare foods. Well, you cant go wrong with that, can you!!

Booking essential. Call Tom Devitt on 0417 295 549 or email t.devitt@bigpond.com

Tramsheds Harold Park, 7/1 Dalgal Way, Forest Lodge NSW 2037. Plenty of parking both on site and nearby. To check out the restaurant, head to their website here.

Join Us for ‘From Water to Air’, a Social Evening at Carbonix

Carbonix Evening

Carbonix founder and CLA member Dario Valenza has very kindly offered to host the club at the Caronix premises in Artarmon for a social evening on Wednesday the 25th of July. There, he will show us their composite processes and drone integration works.

Carbonix produces complete drone solutions for commercial, industrial and military applications. Founded in 2011 as CarbonicBoats, the business started out designing and producing racing yachts and components in advanced composite materials. With success in international competition came opportunities to apply this know-how to other fields, including automotive and aeronautical projects.

In 2014 Carbonix won a bid to supply UAV airframes to an overseas customer. Following successful delivery of that contract the business increasingly specialised in drones.

Since then, Carbonix has added increasing capabilities in electronics integration, developing proprietary autopilot and avionics systems.

Today it offers two ranges of off-the-shelf long-endurance VTOL fixed wing drones and is constantly working on upgrades, improvements and next-generation models. Learn more about them here.

Their address is 59 Whiting St. Artarmon, and if that sounds familiar, it is because they moved into the old Simply Sports Cars digs. One of those interesting coincidences.

May 2018 Edition of Chunky’s Chatter Available for Download

Chunky's Chatter May 2018

Image: The Lotus FT S430 launch in Melbourne last month, thanks to Bill Hucker

All too fresh from a date with the polar vortex, we have the latest edition of Chunky’s Chatter available to download from the members’ page of the website. Grab a copy, and enjoy!

The May edition of Chunky’s Chatter includes:

  • Jim Clark weekends both here and in Scotland
  • Australians Ron Uffindell and Derek Jolly – did they keep the fledgling Lotus company alive?
  • Alastair Browne returns with this year’s ‘Fly the Flag’ rally
  • Tons of news from Western Australia

And much more! Enjoy Chunky’s lighthearted and sometimes irreverent monthly look at the world of Lotus.

Head to the members’ page to download your copy. And if you’re not a member already, have a browse around the site and hit up our membership page here to find out why you should be!