Suggestions for Donington 2009

Elan Discussions
1

Alan Morgan from Club Lotus has offered us this chance in an open forum so lets help him with constructive suggestions for Donnington 2009, we’ll see how many suggestions are incorporated into the weekend. If we don’t make the suggestions then we have only ourselves to blame.

My suggestion would be for him to log onto the US websites to view the activities conducted in the various LOG meetings that encourage entertaining participation of our cars. Perhaps some of the American/Australian/??? based contributors may like to advise their favourite activities at their meets?

It would also be worth reviewing the format & content of LOTUS 89 that was a success attracting TV coverage on “Top Gear”, (I believe it was a joint venture). Since those days it has slowly gone downhill.

For the record I am & will remain a Club Lotus member, applaud the magazine & use their association with the insurers to get a cheaper insurance. I just want a better show for owners who would like to use their pride & joy. I have had no dealings with Mr Morgan previously and apologize if he has taken offence. I have no association with ANY other club or business as has been suggested.

Let’s drive this forward (at a speed suitable for Lotus owners)!

Barney

2

I know it upset the paying inside stallholders but the “cheapo” outside stalls were excellent…

The Club stall is not managed…I left a nice book there a couple of years ago…it vanished!

John :wink:

3

I notice it is planned for April this year which might make the chances of better weather a bit more likely - hence more treasured Loti actually attending!

Now move it to June/July and out of the “old shed” and onto a nice sunny park and it would be a proper car show with all the regional clubs much more enthusiastic about mounting proper displays. As was hinted above, if you want a proper Lotus show/meeting you’ve got to go to the states.

I now duck, cower slightly and await my fate :slight_smile:

4

Hi Everyone

Please don’t forget when setting dates that not all early Lotus cars are tax exempt and are therefore not always taxed all year round. My Plus 2 and Europa aren’t and I generally buy tax discs from 1st April. I missed taking my cars to Donnington last year because nither of them were on the road at the time

Regards
Andy

5

More lotus community stuff to balance the trade stands…
How about a stand stripping and reassembling a twink over the weekend…?
general public voting for the best lotus in the car park (sectioned by decade?)
Autotest in the car park (elises vs elans!)
section the carpark by era…
tim

6

My personal complaint about last year?s Donnington was that the majority of trade stalls were clearly Elise biased.
Not surprising, I guess, as there is probably twice as many Elise variants on the road than all the other Lotus models put together.
I went with specific intentions of buying a number of parts, but bought nothing as the regular sellers of my type of parts were not there. I have to admit that I don?t remember any outside cheapo stalls ? that?s clearly where I went wrong.

And I?ve really missed Stoneleigh this year ? thank heavens for eBay and the internet.

Perhaps the April 09 date will be better ? I shall make every effort to have my car ready this year.

7

In view of the “wonderful plans for Donington”, will the venue still be standing in the form that we know it? Having read of Tom Wheatcroft’s life-long struggle with the local planning laws vs Bernie Mega Millions steam-roller, I can’t see which way it will go. :smiling_imp:

Possibly Stoneleigh might be a safer location?

8

owsabout you pay to get into the car parks, not the hall, and each Lotus admits one person free. Definitely, segregated car parks for different models and I think these 2 simple and cheap improvements would encourage more Lotuses and enough extra attendance to pay for the free entries. Id enter an autotest, and spectate, but I suspect insurance, heath and safety, etc. will prevent this. Car park “car you`d most like to take home” voted by the public, each day with results at, say, 3p.m. Encourage part restored cars, rolling chassis and so on to exhibit FREE. Fibreglass repair workshop sponsored by one of the specialists. All cheap or free extra interest.
More interest = more attendance=more trade stands = more attendance = etc.

9

Some valid points made … I’m going to sound like a stuck record but I’m sure by simply moving the event to the summer would increase attendance numbers of visitors and exhibitors.

The last time I attended, (not in my precious Elan) it was a filthy cold day, hissing with rain all day and a pretty miserable experience - I haven’t bothered since.

All through the summer other marques seem to have lovely shows on ususally sunny days with excellent attendance.

Lotus … a few hardy souls and hundreds of all year use Elise’s meet in a draughty barn in the depths of winter.

Why would all the restored classics and traders want to attend?

10

I have just been talking to Alan Morgan about the shows and I did mention I personally thought there was not much to attract my attention
(The brief moments I could leave my stand).
However when he listed the amount of different things that were at the show I did feel there was more there than I gave credit for.
The main problem for Alan is that it is the Lotus show and not just the Elan/Plus 2 show which for me means lots of Elise and Esprit specialists which are of little interest to me. In addition when the likes of Sue Miller and Tony Thompson do not attend I can be the only person there specialising purely in Elans and my small autojumble table is hardly worth driving across the country for. “Good job Paul Matty and Christopher Neil turn up.”
I have suggested to Alan about more autojumble stands and he says he has already looked into attracting more stalls for next time.
Some of my suggestions would be to try and get more specialist talkers as suggested and also try and make it a more social event.
Last year some one suggested all meeting up at a certain time by my stall.
Not the best of plans as there was only limited space and people arrived over the following 1/2 hour and missed the people they wanted to meet as they would go away and come back later.
What I think is needed is a specific meeting area with sign saying “Elan .net” etc that way you can arrange to meet people there or if passing and see someone just talk to them.
People visiting my stall always tend to ask who else I have seen or if I know that someone will be there.
I did think about getting some badges or lanyards made so that if you see someone else wearing one you would know they were a fellow owner and say hello to them.
Other shows I have been to sometimes arrange the show into various models. “The Elan Village” with everything Elan in one place. The only problem with that is people might be tempted to just visit and stay in that one particular area.
Mr Morgan is never going to be able to keep everyone happy but like Barney says if we do not come up with suggestions we only have ourselves to blame.
Clive

11

Clive

Good and cheap,some sticky labels printed Lotus.net available at your stall,with space for ones monika (pen handy)…then as we meander we can tell who’s who…

John :wink:

12

Just a few of my ideas…

Firstly, Stoneleigh will be missed by me this year. Having just re-built an early +2, it was a great source of hard-to-come-by parts. It should always be on the calendar to help keep our cars on the road.

Secondly, why not have an anual event in the grounds of an impressive country house somewhere. Donnington is good from an indoor stand point of view but not a place to spend a day socialising or take the family.

I remember years ago going to the Invasion of The Lakes when my Dad had a +2 and we would spend the whole weekend there. The parts dealers at the time where there but it was much more of a social event in great surroundings.

Other car clubs I have been involved in do similar things and seem a great success. Imagine 200 classic Lotus parked up outside Blenheim Palace etc. Better than a gravel car park next to an airport!

Alex

13

I think Alan’s done well to move the event into April. As much as I would like it to be in Summer, the calendar is just sooooooo crowded - let’s face it, you can find historic racing / (local) lotus associated events on virtually every weekend if you so desire. In addition, Donington as a venue is bound to be suffering disruption as it gears up for the GP.

The other aspect that Doningtion as venue supports is that if it is raining, at least you’re inside - I think any possible change of venue has to cater for that possibility.

Richard

14

I like the Elan Village idea, Clive, then I got to thinking who would be there.

Sue Miller only sell bits for Elans (I think), as does TTR, but Paul Matty, Chris Neil and SJ Sportscars are generalist Lotus parts (and others) suppliers, so probably wouldn?t want to brand themselves as ?Elan only? suppliers. Mustn?t forget Spyder and QED as well.

But an idea could be for you smaller niche suppliers to gang together with one larger stall. Cliveyboy, Axminster panels for the tanks etc., Len Chandler for the steering wheels and any other ?one man band? organisations, who could cover for each other in the quiet times?.and natter about what new products to bring to market, and what a load of mean sods we Elan owners are.

There is also the new Club Lotus 26 register who could join you as they are selling a few hard-to-get bits for the S1 and S2 Elan.

Alex, the sort of family day with more socialising is probably the Castle Coombe event held in June, which has the concourse event, track time etc. Folks tend to organise themselves by regional groups, or into groups of Esprit, Elise, M100, Lotus Cortina, Elite and Historic Lotus. Look what?s missing?the Elan!

Thinking this through a little, I wonder if Club Lotus need a sharper focus on the different models / eras in Lotus production? Or is this group, LotusElan.net, essentially Club Elan? It?s probably a debate for another topic, but I feel that a fair bit of the disquiet is down to the lack of visibility of or focus on the Elan at the three main Club Lotus shows, and there is probably no better group to at least help to rectify that situation than us, working with the Club Lotus guys.

Mark

15

Yes and yes would be my take on this.

As both Club Lotus and Lotus have grown in the last 20 odd years, there are now enough model specific interest groups for it to make sense for Club Lotus to look at having some form of demarcation, especially in the News magazine and at the large shows.

I too like the idea of an Elan Village and even if the generalist traders want to be elsewhere, we could still have a focus for our cars, for meeting as well as for Elan specific stalls.

Tim

16

Hi Everyone

Could some of the problems with clubs and shows, at least from our point of view, be that while they’ve moved with the times our interests haven’t.

When I used to be a member of Club Lotus, there would be loads of Elans, Plus 2s and Europas turn up at dos, but that was 20 years ago. I find it quite sobering to think that, back then, my Europa was newer than the older Elises are now. I expect that at one time you could have turned up at a Lotus event and there would have been loads of Elites and Elevens there and auto jumbles selling s/h Coventry Climex parts.

I think it’s really excellent that Lotus can still produce cars which maintain a strong following from enthusiasts (after all you’ll not see many brand new Triumphs, Jensons, MGs??? :confused: or TVRs??? :confused: etc. turning up at their club events) but then by the very nature of things, modern Lotus are bound to out number our cars many times over. I’d say we have to to begin to accecpt that, relativly speaking, our cars are now starting to become really quite rare.

“Club 1558” anyone?

Regards
Andy

17

I’ve been following the posts on this subject & I tend to agree with what Andy has written.
The amount of Elan content at the shows has decreased & IMO it will over the years continue to decrease.
Imagine being a Lotus IX or Mk14 Elite owner; how many parts can they expect to find at such shows or how many examles of their model are to be seen there.
Nevetheless the Historic Register always turn up in their numbers & put on a great display each time
The amount of new / used parts for our Elans will become more scarce & secondly the main suppliers of Elan parts are well known to all of us & they know that!
The stand costs at these shows is something they don’t have to pay in order to maintain their business & apart from that the shows involve a lot of work, disruption to normal business & turn the week into a 7 day working week.
I have also heard the argument, from the competition end of the business, that the Donington show is in fact too late in the year for them to reach competitors before the start of the season.
However the suggestion that it should take place a bit later would I think appeal to more Lotus owners, due to the fact that they would be more prepared to take their cars out into what should be expected to be better weather.
With regard to glass fiber or twincam specialists giving demonstrations on how to do the job, I think that is wishful thinking. They still want the business for themselves.
In the past Mick Miller gave interesting & entertaining talks & more recently Brian Buckland gave a series of talks at Stonliegh.
I hope that similar lectures will continue in future.
Of course they could well be aimed at Elise / Exige owners who want to get more out of their cars. But who are we to complain.
Mark also made mention of the Castle Combe track day event. Now that is a good social gathering, however the weather can play dirty tricks. There also used to be lots of little stands selling Lotus bits but there seemed to be fewer in recent years.
A thought; would it be possible to put the Stonliegh thing together with this event?
Both at Donington & Stonleigh I have tried to get LotusElan.net people together & I informed everybody on here of that.
Club Lotus were kind enough to reserve a table for us where I left a note book for messages.
Someone also very kindly & anonamously made a posh ElanNet sign, which Club Lotus (sort of) displayed.
It wasn’t very successful; perhaps a bit too half hearted on my behalf, but I was trying to do it from Germany.
As Elan owners / fans I think we have been catered for as well is possible but if we want more then we will have to put more in.
I understand that “Club Elite” arrange for their annual get together to coincide with Donington & they meet up at a Pub in the vicinity.
Is that maybe something worth considering?

Cheers
John

18

Hi John

Just for the record, I made that “posh” little sign. I’m glad you liked it.
Next time I’ll make us a bigger one & maybe we should have our own little stand as by now there must be quite a few of us out there so it should not be too much of a problem to have a good gathering at the next Donnington.

Regards

Adam

19

Hi,
Following on from points already made, as somebody who makes and supplies parts to Lotus owners I do intend to have a stand at the Donington event.
Whilst yes it is good for my business, as a “one man band” it must be said that it is also extremely hard work. I am now having to put in an extra 8 hours a week for this event which is approx 4 to 5 months away. My business is such that I need to have a good selection of products (virtually all of which is made by myself and not bought in) that can be displayed and hopefully, sold via the show.
When having stands at previous shows I’ve found that I’ve had to work approx 7 days a week for three or four weeks solid before the event just to get things ready and on the following Monday morning the phone then starts ringing and you’re then playing catch up. During the event from Fri through to Sun evening there are no quiet few minutes to escape, and, fortunately, there is almost a permanent queue of people waiting to speak and this is the same for most stands. Most events that I’ve exibited at, I have not managed to see the show for myself, usually not managing to see the stands 50 feet away! These aren’t moans because it’s beneficial to my business.
Yes I agree that it would be good to see more stands at Lotus events but to a lesser or greater degree, it almost certainly involves commitment, expense and time.
An observation would be to contact the suppliers / specialists / restorers / dealers etc etc, whose details are easily available via the web and promote the event. Does this happen to any great degree?
Anyway you’ve stopped me working!
Andy Wiltshire

20

Like the idea of a Lotuselan.net meet at a pub during the weekend…!!
(Rant mode on)
I think the whole ethos of car clubs has changed since BBSs like LotusElan.net have come into existance.
In the past these sorts of shows and perhaps monthly local meets where the only place where you could get advice and chat on your hoby (or obsession!). hence they were garunteed a good attendence and were vital for suppliers business during the year.
Now we all have the opportunity to talk 24/7
If you then add in Ebay and the ease of ordering parts on the web, then car clubs have to think again about what these events are for and how they are run.
If I were club lotus I would be aiming at the elise/exige owner as they now out number the older cars and are probably of a demographic that is more wealthy.
Many of these guys (and gals) have different interests compared to us.
e.g they want to drive the car and leave the maintainance to someone else, they are not (usually) troubled by breakdowns, they want to add shiney bits to make the car go (look) faster.
(puts on nomex)
So where does that leave us and the lotus show.
Well, it is still nice to put a name to a face, its also nice to put a car to a name to face. So perhaps organising to meet up on one of the two days is what should happen.
Hopefully putting it later in the year will bring out more of the older cars (its notable that the elise and M100 lot are always organised enough to have a single mark area in the carpark, perhaps we should try the same thing?)
In terms of club lotus, I cannot understand why they don’t separate the marks in the magazine and assign mark secretaries. This is common place in all the other car clubs I belong to, and the mark secretaries in general make a really good job at organising interesting articles and mark specific events…

Anyhow, thats my rant over!
Tim