Final Call for the 2016 Club Lotus Australia Christmas Party at Bombini!

Club Lotus Australia Christmas Party

Happy Christmas to all of Club Lotus Australia!

We’re off to Bombini just outside of Avoca this weekend, on Sunday the 4th of December, for our Club Christmas Party.

The running order is as follows. We’ll meet at the Thornleigh McDonald’s (all the most salubrious options explored here!) at 8:30AM for an 8:45 departure. From there we’ll take the scenic route along the Old Pacific Highway to Bombini planning a 10:30AM arrival.

If you’re coming from Newcastle and would like to join the LOST Fraternity on the way in, they’re meeting at 9am at the Shell service station on Thomas St. in Wallsend for a 9:15 departure.

Tea, coffee and biscotti will await us, giving us an opportunity to hang out and chat for a while before lunch. We’ll be ushered in to lunch at 11:45AM and the two-course meal, main and dessert, will be served at 12:00PM. By 2PM we’ll be well-fed and a few important speeches will have been made, and it’ll be home time!

Bombini have made the menu available to us, and we’ll include that below.

At time of writing we have over 40 people confirmed, with an upper limit of 80. So, if you are dithering, please decide now and drop me a line at ashton@clublotus.com.au. We need to provide the restaurant with our final numbers by Wednesday evening, the 30th of November.

We look forward to seeing you at McDonald’s for the road trip!

Safe travels,
Ashton.

Bombini’s Menu for the Club Lotus Australia Christmas Party 2016

Secondi – mains

Grilled kingfish fillet with braised sweet peppers & capers, green olive & pistachio pesto OR Roast Pinnacle dry-aged grass fed sirloin rib with red wine, grilled spring onions & beets, grated horseradish OR Roast Berkshire pork loin with crackling, grilled radicchio, onion marmalata & wild hops

All served with: Leaf salad with lemon and extra virgin olive oil Baked potatoes

Dolce – sweet

Amedei chocolate ganache cake OR Rhubarb & strawberry compote with jersey cream & vanilla gelato, toasted artisan panettone OR Selection of house-made Gelati & Sorbetti

Lotus Photos: LOST Fraternity Run to Caves Beach

LOST Fraternity Caves Beach

The LOST Fraternity gathered on Sunday the 20th of November for their Caves Beach ‘Favourite’ run.

They met in Belmont and cruised down to Caves Beach on the Swansea peninsula. Jack McLaughlin has kindly shared a few shots from the day, and you can enjoy them below!

Images thanks to Jack McLaughlin

Come Along to CARnivale in 2017 – Registrations Extended to the 25th

CARnivale is set to return to Parramatta Park this coming Australia Day, the 26th of January, 2017. The event’s an awesome opportunity to show off our Club, so we’d love to get involved with a commanding Club Lotus Australia contingent.

The event will celebrate the 60th anniversary of the closure of the Parramatta Park racing circuit and will feature some of the cars that raced there back in 1957. It will, as always, bring together New South Wales’ automotive clubs for a spectacular display of Australia’s motoring heritage.

Outside of the CARnivale event itself, Parramatta Park will, for you early risers, play host to a hot-air balloon display from 6AM as well as the Parramatta BBQ Festival, a family area including a concert and rides, the Hottest 100 Party in the Park, main-stage concerts and a fireworks finale at the end of the day.

So far we have Lotus classics well-represented with Evan’s Elan and Ashton’s Eleven, but we’d love to see more of you there!

Organisers have extended online registration for another week until Friday the 25th of November. Hit this link to head to the registration page.

See you on Australia Day!

Lotus Photos: November 2016 Gathering at Simply Sports Cars

November 2016 Social Gathering Paul D'Ambra

A wonderful crowd of Lotus People got together at Simply Sports Cars this Wednesday the 16th of November, to catch up over a beverage and a bite surrounded by an impressively varied collection of Lotuses.

First up, a big thank you to Lee, Paul, Richard and the crew at Simply Sports Cars for so graciously hosting us at their Artarmon showroom. The team at Simply Sports Cars are going from strength to strength, and we’re very grateful for them taking the time out of their busy schedule to hang out with us.

Thank you as well to everyone who came along to the evening! The turnout was stellar and we were pleased to catch up with so many of you. It’s a trend that we’d love to see continue into 2017 and beyond.

It would be confusing to have a big gathering of Lotus people without a corresponding gathering of Lotuses, and it was great to see the marque’s variety on full display. From the Lotus Exige Sport 350 driven by Grant Denyer and navigator Dale Moscatt at Targa High Country to Dan Bando’s Seven, a very tidy little Elan and Ashton’s Eleven we had some sixty years of Lotus history on display.

Take a few minutes to enjoy some photos of the evening thanks to Simply Sports Cars’ Paul D’Ambra, the LOST Fraternity’s Jack Mclaughlin and Seth Reinhardt. If you’d like to see more of Paul’s shots please hit this link to his Google gallery.

Thanks to Paul D’Ambra

Thanks to Jack McLaughlin

Thanks to Seth Reinhardt

Hang Out with Lotus Cars Australia at MotorWorld Sydney and Test Drive an Elise, Exige or Evora

Lotus Cars Australia MotorWorld

Lotus Cars Australia will be at Sydney’s new MotorWorld motor show from the 1st to the 4th of December and want to put you behind the wheel of an Elise, Exige or Evora at Sydney Motorsport Park.

MotorWorld is a new Sydney event to be held at Sydney Motorsport Park over a long weekend from the 1st to the 4th of December. It will allow consumers the opportunity to test-drive cars on a race track and offer both speed-limited and exclusive super sessions with unrestricted speeds.

Lotus Cars Australia have prepped the new Elise, Exige and Evora 400 for the track and will be offering them for test drives. They’ll be part of the Sports Car Super Session which will provide invited guests the opportunity to ride along in the passenger seat for a few hot laps or to jump behind the wheel under professional instruction.

The event promises a family-friendly atmosphere and plenty to see and do outside of the test drives. We’re interested in this new approach to a Sydney motor show and wish Lotus Cars Australia and MotorWorld Sydney all the best with it!

More information can be found on the MotorWorld Sydney website here.

Looking for Information about a Lotus +2S 130/5

Lotus Elan +2S 130/5

One of our members is looking for information on his Western Australia-delivered Lotus Elan +2S 130/5. Since you are such a resourceful and well-learned bunch, we thought we’d reach out to you with the story to see if anyone has any information.

Read on for what’s known about the car, thanks to Wayne Clark.

If anyone has any knowledge about the early life of what is now a dark red with black roof and black interior +2S 130/5, particularly the colour in which it was originally painted, it would be greatly appreciated.

The car was supposedly sold new in Western Australia, went to Queensland as a father/ son rolling restoration and then then to Tasmania. Chassis number 730101126L if that means anything to anyone.

Needles have been found in haystacks! Many thanks for your time and assistance.

If you have any information about the car please contact Seth at seth@clublotus.com.au and he’ll put you in touch with Wayne.

President’s Prattle: November 2016

President's Prattle

Morning all,

Apologies for the delay this month – entirely my fault as I was too busy having fun in the Eleven! So this is a short one, you’ll be pleased to find.

It’s probably timely to remind ourselves how lucky we are to have such a committed, brilliantly organised and friendly Australian Lotus importer and dealership in Simply Sports Cars. They have just pulled off two successive weekends of outstanding motorsport and highly social entertainment and I for one have had a ball and am deeply indebted to them.

A huge thank you to Lee and all his wonderful team for the Winton LOTD and then Targa High Country. We had 19 Lotus cars at Targa. Quite brilliant!

Come along on 16th to our monthly meeting at their showroom and workshops at 17 Hotham Parade, Artarmon to see the cars, the team and of course the photos.

Finally our end of year Christmas Party – I know, it can’t be true but we are nearly in December, so send me a note and transfer the funds if you’ve not done so already. We will send a separate email with instructions nearer the time but the plan is to meet at McDonald’s in Thornleigh at around 8.30 for a leisurely drive up the Old Pac Hwy to lunch

I look forward to seeing lots of you on 16th, over the following weekend at Eastern Creek, and then at our Christmas Party – in the meantime keep it safe, upright and on the black stuff.

Pip pip,
Ashton.

November 2016 Edition of Chunky’s Chatter Now Available to Download

Chunky's Chatter November 2016

Catch up on all the Club Lotus Australia news in the November 2016 edition of Chunky’s Chatter, which is now available to download from the members’ page.

Features in this month’s mag include:

  • Lots of news from Western Australia, South Australia and Tasmania
  • Peter Eppel tours some of the great circuits of Europe
  • Latest update on the Lotus Elite Diamond Jubilee
  • Part 2 of the Brian Caldersmith story
  • 2016 AGM

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!

November 2016 General Meeting at Simply Sports Cars

Join us on Wednesday the 16th of November for an evening catch-up hosted generously by our friends at Simply Sports Cars.

Simply Sports Cars have kindly invited us back to their premises for the November General Meeting. The evening will kick off from 6:30PM at Simply Sports Cars, 17 Hotham Parade in Artarmon.

The Simply Sports Cars team will be displaying the Lotus Exige Sport 350 which they will be entering in Targa Australia. It had its first shakedown run just a few days ago, with driver Grant Denyer commenting “For our first drive of the car I am really encouraged that this is going to be an exciting tarmac package. It’s got all the goods from superb handling to an amazing power to weight ratio. It felt light and impressively agile. I seriously didn’t think it would be this fun to drive.”

When we get together on the 16th, the car will be fresh from its first competitive outing at Targa High Country in Mount Buller, driven by Denyer and international rally navigator Dale Moscatt, so this will be a great opportunity to hear from the Simply Sports Cars Mechanic & Engineering Team as well as other Targa Competitors about their experiences.

As always the evening will be a relaxed social affair, and we will be providing pizzas and soft drinks. If it’s a lovely late-Spring evening, and the mood is right, we may even get the barbecue out.

Please do come along, say ‘Hi!’, enjoy a relaxed evening and support the Club and the Simply Sports Cars team.