Welcome everyone to November. How did that happen, you might ask. As indeed I recall doing so last year, and the one before that prolly.

Well, while you are busy preparing for the festivities of Christmas and the New Year, we very much hope you can join us for the AGM and Christmas Party at the Hydro Majestic on Saturday 10th December. Apart form the usual shenanigans around our AGM, we’d love to take the opportunity to open up the floor to conversations about what we need to be thinking about in the upcoming year(s), and how we can best leverage and possibly activate members on important issues.

An excellent example has been the remarkable response to the Wakefield Park petition, which has successfully exceeded the 20,000 signatures required to get it debated in parliament. Even better would be for the Government to make a conscious decision to support Goulburn and the local community, but for that we’ll have to wait and see.

The future of the EV in Australia continues to be an interesting topic of debate and discussion, and I recently attended a presentation by a well known motoring journalist who posited (privately, hence no names, no pack drill) that the EV still has some way to go both technically and economically before it will fully replace all the functions of the ICE.

And a big thank you to the HSRCA and Wayne Wilson, HSRCA’s President, for leading the charge with the Australian Motor Heritage Foundation to conduct a survey similar to the one run by HERO in the UK to establish the value to the local community of the classic and vintage car market. Early estimates are around $10bn per annum, making it a very significant contribution to the economy. That revenue, if it were a corporation, would place it in the ASX200, for context. Expect to hear more on this.

So we very much look forward to catching up on 10th December – if you haven’t yet bought your tickets, they are available at this link.

Aside from all that, there are all the macro-economic and geo-political goings-on to consider, including what they will mean for Australia, and our beloved car community. In no particular order, the current landscape is quite busy – Liz Truss following Kwasi Kwarteng down the gurgler of UK politics, the war in Ukraine, the possibility of nuclear escalation (never underestimate a madman with a gun), and of course the economic impacts of inflationary pressures on costs of living. I suspect the classic car market is headed for a more turbulent time as interest rates increase and money finds new homes with greater growth potential. So all in all, as someone much wiser than me is alleged to have said, may you live in interesting times!

Nearer to home, it’d be lovely to see anyone who fancies making the trip to the William Inglis Hotel in Warwick Farm on Sunday 6th November for the finish of the Perth to Sydney Marathon rally. We expect to start arriving around lunchtime (12.30 onwards). Or even, if you’ve never been to the Motorfest in Cooma, come and see us there on the previous day, Saturday 5th, when we will be part of festivities I gather.

It should of course be noted that this weekend marks the 60th birthday of the Lotus Elan, one of many amazing milestone cars that Colin created (not, it must be said, without significant assistance from many great designers and engineers), so in that context, above is a lovely shot of my Elan taken by Gino recently – thanks so much Gino!

We expect to be getting you more details of next year’s 50th anniversary celebrations of Club Lotus Australia’s formation. It will take place over the weekend of Friday 23rd – Sunday 25th June, and we will be based in the Blue Mountains. Block it out in the diary, and we very much look forward to celebrating this significant milestone in style!

Meanwhile, I’ll leave you to go and find the Christmas decorations, book your holidays, and generally start to prepare for the chaos of the year-end!

See you on 10th December I hope, and meanwhile, keep safe, upright and mainly on the blackstuff.

Pip pip,
Ashton