Lotus Lines - Evergreen Lotus Car Club

Lotus Lines
Newsletter for the Evergreen Lotus Car Club - Jan/Feb 2010
It’s ELCC Membership renewal time, have you returned your renewal?
Go online to Out WWW.ELCC.ORG for the calendar of events and photo journals
of previous happenings. Don’t forget to respond, even if you are uncertain, to the
Socializer email invitationss that you get, it matters. Don’t do the email or web thing,
let us know and we’ll look to get more details back in to Lotus Lines.......
Events DETAILS AND Calendar
LOTUS F1 RETURN
Since the announcement that the Lotus
name was returning to Formula One, there
has been some debate as to the legitimacy
of the venture to follow in the Team Lotus
tradition. We’ll chronicle their progress
through out the year, and continue
the discussion. Regardless of
your point of view, the new
F1 car launches February 12th. It
promises to be interesting as F1
veterans Jarno Trulli and Heikki
Kovalainen will lead the charge
for the team backed by the
Malaysian owners of Group
Lotus, Proton. The new Lotus F1
factory is based the old Racing
Technology Norfolk facility and it is being
used as an interim factory until they get the
factory in Malaysia going. Below are the
first pictures we’ve found of the new car in
traditional livery.
ELCC Survey Summary
By Don Christopher
The ELCC membership participated in an
on-line survey of the Club and Lotus Lines
newsletter during November 2009. The
57 members who participated represented
more than 50% of the total membership.
The survey results are summarized below.
The ELCC membership feels strongly that
the Club must have a newsletter. Over 92%
of the members replied that Lotus Lines is
very (41%) or somewhat (51%) important
to them. Members read every issue coverto-cover (77%) or look through every issue
and read articles of interest to them (18%).
Their favorite articles are those relating
to Lotus news, technical, track, etc (57%)
with a secondary interest tied between the
Chairman Ramblings (16%) and Upcoming
Events (16%).
Even with access to Lotus news on the
internet and ELCC Google Group email
newslist, members still want Lotus news
and ELCC event articles in Lotus Lines,
even if it is duplicate information. Members
like the current frequency of 10 issues per
year (43%) but would not be against a
slightly smaller number (32%). Most Club
members prefer a paper newsletter (64%)
because it gives them something real and
tangible for their membership and it is easy
to take with them and read on a plane or
read while sitting in their favorite chair. But
a sizeable number (25%) expressed interest
in receiving an electronic pdf version. In
both cases, there is a general realization that
they are more likely to skim the electronic
version than actually read it cover-to-cover.
The membership acknowledges that we
have a problem with lack of membership
contribution to the Lotus Lines and the
writing/editing/layout/printing falling on
the heads of only one or two people. The
main reasons are not having time to write
(29%), not liking writing (14%), or having
nothing to write about (29%). Roughly
15% are waiting to be asked or have
something to write about but are unsure if
the membership is interested.
The Google Group newslist is seen as a realtime compliment to the monthly newsletter
with 59% considering the newslist excellent
continued inside
From the Chairman’s Desktop
What was it?
In about 1965, Team Lotus introduced a pair
of Ford Thames transporters aimed to primarily
carry the Lotus Ford Cortinas. They would
serve the team into the early 1970o’s. Our own
Mark Sterner wrote an article (at the time
called Loti Ramblings), before becoming ELCC
chair, for the July 2007 issue on the history of
Lotus transporters.
Lotus Lines is the official newsletter of the evergreen lotus
car club. opinions expressed in Lotus Lines are those of the
author and do not necessarily represent those of the elcc or
its officers. Use all techni-cal information at your own risk.
Please submit all articles, art work, and photographs to the
Editor. All other official business should be directed to the
chairman. Other Lotus clubs are welcome to use the material printed in Lotus Lines, provided that the ELCC, Lotus
Lines and the author are duly credited. The ELCC is not affiliated with and does not represent Lotus Cars Ltd., Group
Lotus, Team Lotus, or any Lotus related organization.
Membership in the ELCC is $20/year, with the membership year starting in January, and is prorated in three month
increments. Membership includes a club roster and a
subscription to Lotus Lines.
Contact the Editor for business ads rates in Lotus Lines.
Contact ELCC at:
Evergreen Lotus Car Club
P.O. Box 40481
Bellevue, WA 98015-4481
http://www.elcc.org
The ELCC Officers are elected bi-annually and currently
those officers are:
Chairman:
Doug Jackson (206)282-6182
chair@elcc.org
Treasurer: Andy Keck (206)390-3870
andykeck@mac.com
Advertising:
Sean Lane (206)686-7326
classifieds@elcc.org
Membership: Alan Perry (206)855-9464
alanp@snowmoose.com
Editor: Robert Vets (206)669-8444
editor@elcc.org
Printed By K&H Printers
Layout by Jessica Vets Design - jvets15@mac.com
As the newly elected Chairman of the Evergreen Lotus Car
Club (ELCC) and with the beginning of a new year, I’d like to
wish you all a Happy New Year! And, I also welcome all of you
who are reading this newsletter to another year of interest and
activities centered around a car club whose main focus are the
unique cars and engineering that have been the work of the
Lotus Engineering Ltd. since Antony Colin Bruce Chapman
and his wife-to-be
Hazel Williams put
it together in 1952.
As many of you
know, the ELCC
has been around for
quite a few years and
its strength and level
of interest is only as
strong as the strength
and interest of its
members, so I’m
hoping that you are
all looking forward
to this new year.
Our car club has a
dedicated group of
volunteer officers and other people who help “run” the club in
an administrative way, but there wouldn’t be any reason for us
to do this if it wasn’t for a fairly large number of very interested
general members... that’d be all of you!
Some of you might like to know that the ELCC Officers held
their first official meeting on Thursday, January 14th to discuss
the state-of-the-club, hash out some of the administrative
issues of running a non-profit corporation as well as to discuss,
in some detail, many of the activities which we’d like to see the
club involved in during this year.
While we’ve started this year off a little slowly (what with
the cold and rainy weather) with just one of our typical and
continuing “First Thursday” casual gatherings at the Elysian
Fields restaurant/pub in the Pioneer Square area and the
evening meeting held on January 14th, you can rest assured
that we’ve scheduled quite a few ELCC-exclusive events, as
well as opportunities to be involved with other British car
activities for the next eleven months... you’re going to have
many chances to stretch your legs and put as many miles on
your cars as you’d like to.
We’ll be having another “First Thursday” gathering in February
at the Elysian Fields
restaurant/pub
(which is very nice,
by the way and not
too expensive!), so
look for a “Socializer”
notice about this in a
few weeks.
One of the first
opportunities to get
together and “kick
a few tires” will be
at ELCC member
Michael Feuell’s 3rd
Annual “Lotus &
Donuts” gathering
on Sunday, February
7th, beginning at 10:00AM at the Krispy Kreme in Issaquah.
There may be an opportunity to take a drive out into the
“country” after this activity, so you might like to watch for
a “Socializer” or a Googlegroup e-mail message about this a
little bit ahead of time.
We may also be having one of our traditional ELCC Movie
Night events during February (possibly on Saturday the 20th),
but you’ll definitely receive more of a formal announcement
for this activity before it happens.
So yeah, we’ve officially started the year thinking and talking
about Lotus cars and the many fun things you can do while
in or near them, so I look forward to seeing a bunch of you
several times this year.
—Doug Jackson, ELCC Chair
for more details see all about events online at ELCC.org
Survey continued from the cover
or very good. Few considered it poor (5%) but 22% are not
aware that it exists, which is odd since the Officers have
added all members to the newslist at least twice in the
past. Most agreed that the email newslist compliments the
newsletter and will not replace it. Several of the members
who rated the newslist poor cited their main complaints to be
non-Lotus or non-ELCC-related postings, or just too many
emails in general.
The ELCC Web Page was rated as very good (41%) or average
(41%) with the main benefits being a historical record for
the Club or a means to attract new members, which happen
to be the main reasons for creating the web page in the first
place. But a sizeable number (12%) did not know we have
a Club web page or thought it was too difficult to find (5%).
Very few current members seem to go to the web page on a
regular basis.
A huge number of members (80%) do not know we have a
Facebook page for attracting new members.
If ‘yes’ means ‘maybe’, ‘maybe’ means ‘no’, and no reply also
means ‘no’, then the Socializr meeting planning tool results
can be interpreted as 29% read the invitations and might
reply and attend, 71% read the invitations and consider noreply to be an indication of no-attend. 7% do not know what
Socializr is.
Member Profile
The typical ELCC member is 40-60 years of age (56%).
He/she may also be over 60 years old (32%) but is unlikely to
be 20-40 (12%) and definitely not under 20 (0%). He/she has
been a member for 2-5 years (37%) but may be a Club veteran
of over 10 years (33%).
He/she attends 1-4 events in person each year (55%) and
either absolutely (46%) or mostly (42%) enjoys being a
member, mostly because of the club events, connecting with
other Lotus enthusiasts, the Lotus Lines newsletter, and
keeping up with Lotus news. He/she does not like missing
Club events and meetings or other members missing Club
events. His/her interests are somewhat splintered between
‘old Lotus car’ owners who like to go to shop tours and ‘new
Lotus car’ owners who want to go on drives and attend track
days. Even though most find the Club events enjoyable, he/
she is only 23% likely to consider becoming a Club officer
or hosting an event themselves, which explains the anecdotal
evidence that event coordination is mostly on the shoulders of
the Chairman.
He/she feels strongly that the Club must have a newsletter
and may even consider it to be the glue between the
membership as well as historical archive for the Club. He/
she considers the Lotus Lines newsletter to be very (41%)
or somewhat (51%) important to them and reads every issue
cover-to-cover (77%). His/her favorite articles are those
relating to Lotus news, technical, track, etc (57%) with a
secondary interest tied between the Chairman Ramblings
(16%) and Upcoming Events (16%).
Lotus Evora Cup Car
At the end of 2009, we got to finally see the new Lotus Evora –
ELCC visited the debut at ParkPlace Ltd and will have feature
article in an upcoming Lotus Lines to highlight the technical
details. The Lotus Evora is a highly acclaimed road car with
a mid-engine layout, high-tech,
super-stiff extruded and bonded
aluminum chassis and double
wishbone suspension all round.
These elements mean that it
is a relatively easy progression
from the production car to a
competitive race car and now
the Evora Cup race car has been
developed by Lotus Motorsport
to be competitive in GT4 racing.
The race car will be eligible to
compete in a number series, with
options for endurance racing and sprint racing.
At the heart of the Evora Cup racecar is a new 4 litre V6 race
engine with a dry sump mated to a Cima six speed sequential
paddle shift gearbox, designed for international motor sport.
The body has received a Dallara developed aero package,
which includes a number of updated carbon fibre parts, giving
greater downforce and improved cooling. Following the Lotus
philosophy, the Evora Cup race car weight has been pared down
to less than 1200 kg, more than
200 kgs less than the production
car by using high performance
parts and materials and deleting
parts not required for motor sport
The Evora Cup racecar comes
with adjustable motor sport
dampers and six piston front
brake calipers, with two piece
aluminum belled brake discs. The
car has an electrical cut off, fire
extinguisher, traction control and
is designed to have all the relevant
FIA compatible motor sport equipment to race.
The
final
design
and
specifications
will
be
presented at the Geneva Motorshow in March 2010 and sell
for roughly $200,000.
Areas for ELCC to Focus on in 2010
By Don Christopher
The ELCC survey results suggest that the Club work on the
following in 2010:
Have a disconnect between ‘old car’ and ‘new car’ members,
both of which think the other is not interested in what they
bring to the Club. The Officers suspect that most members
like all things Lotus, including old and new cars. We should
focus on bridging the gap.
Bring more visibility to the Officers’ roles and demystify the
inner workings of the Club by holding four Officer’s meetings
per year, instead of just one, and making them more attractive
for members to attend and participate in setting the Club
events. This includes drawing in members who are not in the
immediate Seattle and Eastside areas.
Maintain the Lotus Lines newsletter in its paper version
and 10 issues per year. The newsletter content should focus
on the articles that the membership is most interested in Lotus news, technical, track, as well as Chairman Ramblings,
and Upcoming Events. The Editor will be buffered with
additional content owners who will encourage and help the
membership with content submission. We should experiment
with electronic pdf editions.
Create an “Introduction to ELCC Google Group Newslist”
to clarify its purpose, subscribing/unsubscribing FAQs, and
content guidelines.
No substantial changes in the ELCC web page, Socializr tool,
or Facebook page, other than to make the membership more
aware of them and keeping them up to date.
Recruit some younger members while maintaining our
current members.
Happenings in HetheL
of its engineering. I look forward to building on this
tremendous success with the team and delivering
the exciting next generation of products we have planned. These
will continue to demonstrate Lotus’ world leading attributes of
performance and dynamics through light weight and take the
Lotus brand into more segments of the sports car market.”
Dany Bahar commented, “This year will see some very exciting
developments to the Lotus product line-up and I have set the
Lotus workforce quite a challenge! The success of the changes
that I and my executive team look to make relies upon their
support and I thank them for their dedication and commitment
in joining us on this journey.”
New Contracts, New Directors of Lotus Engineering and
Product Engineering for Lotus Cars
Major projects with three Chinese clients start 2010 for Lotus
Engineering, the automotive consultancy and technology
division of Lotus Cars Limited. These projects make for
a fourth consecutive year of growth in new orders for Lotus
Engineering’s global third party consultancy work.
Dr Robert Hentschel joins Lotus as Director of Lotus
Engineering reporting to Dany Bahar, CEO of Group Lotus
plc.. Dr Hentschel will lead the expansion of Lotus Engineering’s
third party consultancy work and
further its position of leadership
in lightweight architectures,
driving
dynamics,
efficient
performance, and electrical/
electronics. Dr Hentschel came
from Engineering+Design AG.
Meanwhile, Paul Newsome,
previously the Managing Director
of Lotus Engineering, becomes
Director of Product Engineering
for Lotus Cars responsible for
the engineering behind all future
Lotus cars and for ensuring that
they drive and perform in the way
that only a Lotus can. On taking the challenge, Paul
Newsome said, “Lotus has,
through its launch of the all
new
multi-award
winning
Lotus
Evora,
again
demonstrated the capability
Event Details
3rd Annual Lotus and Doughnuts
Saturday, February 7, 10AM
Host: Michael Feuell
Issaquah Krispy Kreme
One of ELCC’s newer members, Michael Feuell, has
invited us to his Third Annual “Lotus & Donuts” event
at the Krispy Kreme outlet in Issaquah (located at 6210
East Lake Sammamish Parkway S.E.) beginning at
10:00AM on Sunday, February 7th. This is meant to
be a casual get together and tire kicking activity.
After enjoying the Lotuses, like-minded conversation
and the donuts and coffee for an hour or so, there’ll be
an option to take a short drive out through Preston and
Fall City to Carnation where (with the help of Don
Christopher) we have been invited to take a tour of the very
interesting Giordano’s Vintage Cars sales facility (located
at 4501 Tolt Avenue) which is only open on Sundays
by appointment. We’ll be there at about 12:00 noon.
After touring Giordano’s, you’ll have the option of having
lunch in one of the friendly restaurants in Carnation, then
Don has laid out a fun back-roads drive to Snohomish for
all those interested This is rain or shine, and of course, it’d
be great if everybody drove (or rode in) a Lotus to these
various places, but it is not a hard and fast requirement.
Event Details
Classified advertisements are free for ELCC members, and pricing
for non-members is available on request. For adding or removing
advertisements, please send them via email to classifieds@elcc.
org or by calling (206) 686-7326 by the 10th of each month.
--
1999 Esprit V8. Silver exterior, black interior. 57k miles.
Has only 2 options that were available: glass sunroof
& OZ racing wheels. New rear tires. $28,000. Call
James at 206-229-0383 or jamesochs@comcast.net.
-1995 Esprit S4. BRG exterior, magnolia interior w/
piping, 29K miles. No issues and well cared for. Stock
except for Quicksilver exhaust. Last year of the 4-cyl,
very reliable, 2nd owner. $29,500. Contact Sean Lane
@ lotustype82@yahoo.com or (206) 817-7326.
-Looking for a Lotus car or parts? The below ads have been spotted
in various sources. Note: The below ads have no known affiliation
with, nor are endorsed by, the ELCC. This info is being provided to
assist members in their search for cars and parts. -2005 Elise, 33K miles (Kirkland). Storm titanium exterior, red
touring pack interior. Stock except for stainless 8” Larini exhaust.
$25,000 OBO. Contact Patrick at kimber.1911@hotmail.com
-1990 Esprit SE (Coeur d’Alene. Same owner last 7 years.
Many items new. $15,000. Call (206) 898-8163.
--
It’s ELCC Membership renewal time, have you returned your form yet?
2010 Movie Night
Pacific Grand Prix Lapping Day
Saturday, February 20, 5PM to ?
Host: Patti and Andy Keck
1206 25th Avenue East, Seattle
Wednesday, March 17th
Host: Trevor Cobb
Pacific Raceways, Kent
Come out and join the club in an annual
celebration of Lotus (and any other car you
find interesting) on the video screen.
Bring your favorite DVD of your coolest, funniest,
or otherwise favorite moments and force us to
view them. The club will provide all the food
and sodas, you bring the beer and wine.
This is also your chance to see what I’ve been
up to in the garage the last couple of years with
relatively little danger of losing a finger. Email me at
andykeck@mac.com or call me at 206 390 3870.
Classified
Advertisements
Our club is attempting to arrange an exclusive-to-ourclub track Lapping Day at the PacificGP karting track
at Pacific Raceways in Kent on Wednesday, March 17th.
Details are still being finalized, but you can expect that
registration will begin at 8:00AM with a courtesy inspection
and Driver’s Meeting to follow. It will be an all-day event
with an opportunity to drive your car in several sessions.
The cost will be approximately $100.00 for each driver and
$25.00 for passengers. There will be an insurance waiver
fee of another $10.00 for ELCC members. Contact Trevor
Cobb at cobb.trevor@gmail.com for more information.
Contribute to Lotus Lines
Submit articles by the 10th of the month to get them into that month’s issue. Submit often, let us know what
you’re up to with your ride. Remember, Lotus has spanned the automotive world in many ways, you don’t need
a supercharged Exige, an historic seven, or an elegant Elan to be part of the Lotus world.
Evergreen Lotus Car Club
P.O. Box 40481
Bellevue, WA 98015-4481
What is it?