Help! Single-axle Car Trailer Stolen

Single Axle Car Trailer

This single-axle trailer has been stolen from Erskine Park and any help in retrieving it would be greatly appreciated!

The black lightweight single-axle car trailer was stolen from Erskine Park on the 23rd of March. It is a unique, one-off, trailer suited only to light cars (under 1000 kilograms). It should stand out as almost all car trailers are tandem axle.

It has a clutched dual directional 1400kg winch, white rims and a spare mounted at the winch end. The last 800mm of the checker plate tread is beavered with an 80mm fall. This will make it easy to spot as it is a rare inclusion allowing clearance for low cars to be driven on and off.

Ramps are removable and stored up front by the winch. This trailer was brand new and in perfect glossy condition.

Rego is TA 14 KK, although it is highly likely that this has been replaced. The last four digits of the VIN are KL007.

The owner is more than happy to pass the refunded excess on with no questions asked to the wonderful person who finds this hopefully unmolested.

Please call (02) 9836 2699 or send us an email here if you have any information.

March 2015 Edition of Lotus Notes Available for Download

Lotus Notes March

A short February means one very important thing – less time between editions of Lotus Notes! The team has completed the March edition of Lotus Notes and it’s now available to download from our members’ page.

The month’s features include:

  • The LOST Weekend
  • A DeLorean Adventure
  • EMR to Chateau Tahbilk
  • Liqui-Moly Bathurst 12-Hour Endurance Race

And a whole lot more!

The newsletter is a membership benefit of Club Lotus Australia, 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!

President’s Prattle: March

President's Prattle

Please read this!

This might seem like a statement of the obvious, but I have had numerous complaints from members not knowing about what’s going on when details have been clearly provided in the newsletter and on the website. We can’t do more than that I’m afraid.

We’ve been a busy Club. Work’s kicked off the year a bit silly, but also most importantly from a Club perspective, 2015 has kicked off with a bang.

The first weekend in February saw a large group of us head north from Sydney to meet the LOST contingent (Lotus and Other Similar Thoroughbreds) just south of Newcastle. The trip up was a hoot (I took the Elan for a breath of fresh air) and the run back was even funnier (chasing rather startled motorcyclists up the Old Pacific Highway – they weren’t expecting to get the chivvy on from a 50-year-old sports car). And in between a convivial and delicious breakfast with the LOST crew – lovely to see you all.

Top of the Class comes the winning Lotus Exige V6 at the Bathurst 12hr over the second weekend of February. This is fast becoming (or perhaps has become) the best weekend of accessible high-class motorsport on the calendar, and this year almost 30 CLA members made the trek out there. Many congratulations to Lee Knappett and the team at Simply Sports Cars for the record-breaking preparation of the car (the chassis was only delivered four weeks before the race), and to Tony Allford, Mark O’Connor and Peter Leemhuis for successfully piloting it home in one piece and at the front of their class.

Congratulations also to both John Tarran and Jake Hobbs for taking on the mountain in the Formula Ford support class.

Our General Meeting and first Committee meeting of the year combined at the Woolwich Pier Hotel (probably the last time we try that – the screaming kids put my hair on end more than once) and the minutes are available on the website in the member’s section. There’s lots planned, so please make sure to keep up to date with the calendar on the website as this is the only place it is now published.

The first of those dates is the 6-8th March, with a run to the Snowy Mountains, staying in Thredbo on the Friday and Saturday nights, enjoying the delights of the road around Mt Kosciuszko on Saturday and home on the Sunday. If you haven’t registered, drop James a line on [email protected].

Our March General Meeting on the 10th is going to be at Ashton’s Shed. Bring your hard hat to avoid headaches – have a laugh at my expense.

March also sees the first round of the CSCA sprints, with the CLA round on Sunday 22nd March – entries are looking great already (www.motorevententry.org), with most of the usual suspects present, and some new faces joining the fray. Thanks to all of you who support this event – the usual dinner is likely to be at the Astor pub on Saturday night.

Also on 22nd, for those not joining in the fun in Goulburn, there is the opportunity for a Cars & Coffee event up in Kurrajong in the Blue Mountains – 8am in the village – catch up with the local crowd – there are several CLA members likely to be present.

And finally the 29th March will see the sale of a collection of Lotus cars and parts – see the website here for full details, photos and what you need to do to be there if you have a hankering for a restoration project.

Elsewhere you may have read of the relaunch of the Lotus Evora, with a distinctly Lamborghini front end – from the comments I have seen, it will be very much a matter of personal taste, but it is Jean-Marc Gale’s first statement of intent, and based on the build quality, I think it bodes well for Lotus. And it’s lighter and more powerful than its predecessor, which indicates an understanding of the less-is-more ethos so close to ACBCs heart.

I think that’s enough for now – I look forward to seeing you out and about in the car soon.

In the meantime, keep safe, right side up and on the black stuff!

Pip pip,
Ashton

Help to Make the LOTUS 2015 Charity Auction a Huge Success

Lotus 2015

LOTUS 2015 will hold an auction to raise funds for the Country Fire Foundation during the event later this year, and they’re looking for our help to make it an even bigger success!

They’re looking for interesting, high quality items that we can donate to the auction. If you or any of your family, friends or colleagues have products, services or experiences that you would like to donate, please get in touch.

Proceeds from your donation will go towards the Country Fire Foundation, which provides support services to volunteer fire fighters and their families. This is a very worthy cause and we are pleased to be able to support it in any way that we can.

The auction will be conducted by a celebrity auctioneer on Saturday evening on the 3rd of October, 2015, after the Concours d’Elegance. Donations will be acknowledged on the website and in the auction notes.

We’re thrilled to support this great cause, and appreciate your support as well!

 

Lotus Photos: Bathurst 12-Hour

2015 Bathurst 12-Hour

Each year we get together and head out to the Bathurst 12-Hour for a brilliant high-octane weekend spent with good friends and surrounded by magic motoring machinery.

This year our group was made up of some thirty Club Lotus Australia members, including our good friend Martin Duursma, who was armed with his camera and has kindly shared the results of his efforts here.

Read More

Lotus Photos: LOST Fraternity February Run

LOST Fraternity February Run

Kicking off a year of Lotus adventures in style, the Newcastle LOST fraternity held their first run of 2015 this past weekend in the form of a cruise to Awaba House Restaurant. Read on for the tale of the day, thanks to Ashton Roskill.

We found them! The LOST fraternity that is… they live in and around Newcastle, and, contrary to popular belief, it’s not that hard to get there – in fact we had a blast doing so to meet them for breakfast on Sunday.

The Sydney group massed at the McDonalds in Thornleigh (along with some Mustangs heading for Cars and Coffee), and promptly at 7.30 headed for the Old Pac Highway north.

Apart from the inevitable push-bikes, it was a fun run, popping us out onto the freeway (that bit’s not so much fun in the Elan I must admit) before meeting the LOST (Lotus and Similar Thoroughbreds) contingent at the Morriset junction. We were led through the backroads to Awaba restaurant on the shores of Lake Macquarie, and enjoyed a very fine breakfast, good coffee and exceptional company.

Many thanks to James Chan and Jack McLaughlan for organising each end! And thank you to all who joined in. As you can see from the photos, we enjoyed a tremendous showing. Thanks too to Mark Alexander and Simon Kalis for the photos – of course I forgot my camera – again!

Ashton Roskill

Read More

February 2015 Edition of Lotus Notes Available for Download!

Lotus Notes February

Lotus Notes is back for its first outing of 2015, thanks to the efforts of its dedicated crew, and it’s now available to download from our members’ page.

The month’s features include:

  • Skid Pan Day you say?
  • CARnivale Australia Day 2015
  • Life among the Lotii
  • LCV AGM and Awards Presentation Night
  • Lotus Elites No 5

And a whole lot more!

The newsletter is a membership benefit of Club Lotus Australia, 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!

President’s Prattle February 2015

President's Prattle

Happy 2015 everyone!

A big thank you to all those who turned up to the Christmas Party in early December, making it the largest we have had to date, I think – and certainly putting the acid on us to find a bigger location for this year.

And just before Christmas, Lee and the team at Simply Sports Cars held the first joint Lotus Only Coffee Break (name still to be confirmed!) with CLA, which was enormously enjoyable – lots of friends chewing the fat over decent coffee and very conveniently located in Artarmon – so watch out for the next one!

I hope you all had a relaxing and enjoyable break, and are back with lots of achievable resolutions for the New Year. I say achievable with some trepidation, as I have several, including trying to get the Eleven running in time for the Nationals in October. As you will see elsewhere, progress is slow, but steady.

Last year was one of significant change in a number of areas, not least our communications with you, and I hope you have all found your way to the website (let’s face it, you aren’t likely to be reading this if not!) and our new Facebook page.

As everyone gets busier we are trying to become as responsive as possible, and that means adopting modern communications techniques where we can. So you will see much more emphasis on the use of the website and Facebook page for communications to you. If you are still having any issues, or know of anyone who is, please put them in touch and we will sort it out.

And the New Year means about 160 of you (we now have over 300 full members plus associates I am pleased to report) are due to renew your dues. You should have received an email from Elliott asking you to renew – please, can we ask you to do so promptly (like NOW!) as I would hate for it to get forgotten, and for you not to receive correspondence for the rest of this year, the next calendar or EOI for overalls, or whatever we have in mind for this year! Remember we are still offering a three-year membership deal for $100, which makes CLA one of the (if not the) most cost-effective car clubs to be a member of, and I hope you feel you get good value from it – so go to the website fill in the Membership form, direct deposit your dues (details on the form) and email the form to Elliott.

A warm welcome to all of the new members who have joined over the last year – we are well represented nationally now, with members in all states and most territories, and I would like to take this chance to ask that, if you have any photographs to share, or even better, an article to go with it, please make sure to send it either via your local State rep, or direct to Tom (Editor) and Seth (Webmaster) – they will ensure it is published with your name in lights. Contact details are here on our website (is that a recurring theme I hear?).

And so we plunge headlong into the fun for 2015 – in fact we will have already had the first two by the time you read this – CARnivale is the annual motorfest on Macquarie St, on Australia Day. This year for the first time in a long time (possibly ever?) Club Lotus had a presence – albeit a relatively small one (see the photos and a note elsewhere) but I hope it is the beginnings of something bigger.

Next year I would love to have at least ten cars there, so all those with a car over 30 years old, please look out for the notification in about September and come along – the atmosphere is very convivial, and there’s plenty to see and chat about.

This weekend just gone (1st Feb) James Chan has organised our first run up the coast to catch up with our friends in Newcastle – photos on the website I hope. While you are there, have a look at the calendar, where we are trying to keep as up-to-date as possible with all the events across Australia that might interest you.

February’s General Meeting will kick off the batting at the Woolwich Pier Hotel so please come along and have a steak and catch up on plans for the year. This includes the more advanced stages of planning for Lotus 2015 in the Barossa Valley – by the time you read this the booking website will be up and running at www.lotus2015.com.au so head over and get yourself booked in for the fun. And contrary to popular opinion, there are still rooms available at the Barossa Motor Lodge (not the Weintal, which is full) – contact details through the website BUT you MUST mention Lotus 2015, otherwise you will be told it is full.

We are also looking into the possibility of flat-bed transport for cars to and from Adelaide, so if you are thinking of driving one and taking another, get in touch and I will add you to the list of potentials.

I think that’s enough of my rabbit. I’m off to get the seats in the Elan reupholstered so they don’t wreck my back again…

See you out there on the road soon I hope, and in the meantime, keep safe, upright and on the blackstuff,

Pip pip,
Ashton

Lotus 2015 Website Live and Taking Bookings

Lotus 2015

Lotus 2015, celebrating 20 years of Elise, is set for the 2nd to the 5th of October, 2015, in the beautiful Barossa Valley. Their very shiny and exciting new website is now up and running, and taking bookings for the event!

Head to lotus2015.com.au to check it all out, book your spot and catch up on everything you need to know about the bi-annual Lotus extravaganza.

The website is taking bookings, with an earlybird offer for bookings made before the 31st of March providing entry to the Lotus 2015 Trackday at a discounted price of $200 per entrant.

When making a booking please make sure to click on ‘Participant and Vehicle Information’ after reaching the Event Checkout and provide your details to complete the booking. You will then receive a confirmation email with your booking reference number, and a second email with details of your booking.

Launching a website can be a tricky thing, so Lotus 2015 organisers are looking forward to your feedback and appreciate your patience with any teething problems you encounter. This is something we can sympathise with!

We can’t wait for Lotus 2015, and hope to see it become a great success!

www.lotus2015.com.au