Hello, and welcome to our winter catch-up as we head into the mid-point of the year. As this year continues to roll forwards inexorably it has been an interesting exercise in observation at several levels.

Obviously there is fun to be had in observing the train smash that is the White House Oval Office, and in particular the currently strained relationship between Musk and Trump. On a less flippant note, I hope none of you is adversely affected by the Trump tarrifs. It will be another fascinating (and possibly economically destructive) show to watch as the tooing and froing continues; there was an interesting article written some months ago about Trump’s distributive bargaining negotiation methodology, and watching it play out on the world stage is quite enlightening.

More specifically to our area of interest, it is encouraging to note that there is a dawning realisation that the virtue-signalling element of EVs is rapidly on the wane, and that the real use-cases for EVs (last five mile distribution, small economical inner city transport, automated taxis etc) continue to thrive, while the major manufacturers are reassessing their headlong plunge into bigger, heavier and environmentally destructive 2+ tonne vehicles. Anyone would think I had a strong view on this matter!

Good news for Lotus is that they have also realised that that approach was alienating their historically valuable customer base (perhaps they learned from the chaos of the recent Jaguar debacle?) and with rumours circulating about the future ICE powerplants and even possible new models which might re-center back on lightweight sports cars, there may be light at the end of the tunnel. We can hope.

Nearer to home, following the very successful second round of the CSCA Supersprints at One Raceway last weekend, this weekend the HSRCA are out at SMSP for the Sydney Classic. I’ll be heading out to catch up with a few familiar faces I hope.

On Sunday we have Tyre Kick at Carss Park – with a bit of luck it might be a bit quieter after last month’s clash with Mother’s Day. Next weekend, I am reliably informed by our spies that the Cooks River Titans FC will have their mobile canteen up and running for the season, so we can hope for coffee and possibly more at Gough Whitlam Park.

I much look forward to seeing you out and about, and in the meantime, stay safe and keep it (mostly) on the blackstuff.

Pip pip,
Ashton