Well here we are, in December of another fine year! Another year older and wiser, with a few more miles on the car’s (or cars’) clock. It’s been a fun year in lots of lovely ways, and of course, sadly, we have farewelled a few lovely people too, both those we knew, and those we knew of.
The events this year which particularly stand out (in chronological order so as to show no favourites) were as follows.
February saw us on the excellent Beecroft to Burrawang Blast organised by Craig, and very well attended. We had a glorious day driving the fabulous roads to the southern highlands, with lunch at the well known and very enjoyable Burrawang Hotel. Slight mishaps aside (Craig as the lead car picked up a branch which fell just in front of him, damaging his brand new and very beautiful Emira, and yours truly suffered an engine mount failure, fortunately (relatively) easily replaced) a fun, sunny, most enjoyable day kicked off the festivities for the year in style.
In early March we enjoyed the wonderful gathering at Lotus 2025, based in and around Wodonga in the Victorian border country, with huge thanks to the LCV organising committee. The weekend was filled with fun driving, fun conversation, and lovely people, topped off with a memorable dinner, and a fine and memorable rendition of Nutbush City Limits.
The rest of March and April were spent over in Europe for me, and included (in addition to celebrating my lovely dad’s 90th) a wonderful visit to the Goodwood Members Meeting (the car park alone is worth the trip!) and a memorable road trip with my brother in his Elise to the Nurburgring, via an astonishing private collection of cars in Ypres, and a call in to watch historics preparing for racing at Spa. Also too much good food in Strasbourg!
June and July were spent prepping for the busy season, and getting the Peugeot 205 GTi back on the road…and one or two Cars and Coffee events.
August was fairly packed and included a fabulous visit to Winton Festival of Speed, in which the Elite acquitted itself very commendably. Apart from an involuntary stoppage caused by a blown fuse, a fine weekend was had by all. To add to the fun, there were lots of familiar faces from all over the country, so a great opportunity to catch up
Then it was the CLA CSCA sprints at SMSP. Huge thanks again to the organising committee – what a great day was had by all, and grateful thanks to our friends at SSC for coming along, sponsoring the goodie bags, and showing off their wares. The following day was the Shannons Classic supported by a glorious sunny winter’s day. This included my giving the previous custodian of my Elite, Bran Caldersmith, a trip down memory lane in the form of a (sedate) trip around the circuit at lunchtime.
Early September saw several of us head to Cootamundra for the VSCC-organised sprints. Although the weekend is ostensibly for the sprints, really it’s an excuse to get out into the countryside and enjoy fantastic roads, which we did!
Mid-September saw a great showing of cars at the All British Day at Hawkesbury Showgrounds, the not-so-new and very suitable home of this event now, made even better by being able to pop around the corner to catch up with friends at the All French Day also happening just around the corner.
October was a bit more restful, although I appear to have had some maintenance to do – clutch on the Elite, engine mount on the Elan (finally), various tasks on the Landy etc etc. The month largely comprised of Tyre Kick and Coffee, ahead of the excellent inaugural Fish and Chip run organised by Graham and Margarita Wier. This had us converging on Berowra Waters for coffee and then lunch. It was most enjoyable to have an excuse to get the Elan out, and lovely to see lots of familiar faces. As a reflection, I am so glad we are getting these events back in the calendar and they are proving so popular.
Which sees us into November, and the last of this year’s organised runs, the return of the Go for Broke run to the Hunter Valley and back. Thank you to the hard core who managed to get out of bed early enough to avoid the traffic, and welcome to the new (and returning!) faces – it was a lovely day, with sunshine, dry roads, good company, and even a winery visit to keep Mrs R happy.
With the AGM and Christmas Lunch also in the books, that’s a wrap! Thank you all for your continued friendship, company, hilarious conversation, light hearted jibes at some of my more inept mechanical efforts, and most of all for being a member of CLA. Without you all, we wouldn’t exist, wouldn’t have all that fun, and the world would be a greyer and less interesting place.
Wishing you and your families a joyful, relaxing and fun-filled Christmas holidays, and a Happy New Year when it comes around. I look forward to it all starting again in 2026.
Meantime, please keep safe, upright and mostly on the black stuff.
Pip pip,
Ashton