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The standard caveats on this before I get started.... I’m not affiliated with or have any financial interest in any of the following groups. I just thought some of you might be interested in learning a little more about your (upcoming) Elises and the history of Lotus – and here’s a great way to do it!
A couple of years ago the US Lotus club - Lotus LTD - was sponsoring Lotus themed tours to England. There were a couple of them – I was on the first, kind of a test run with about 8 people, but the next one had about 30 people on it. They tried running a few more, but they fizzled out due to a lack of interest - it looks like they're trying to resurrect the tours again for 2004.
It was a great trip though – and the guy that ran it, Richard Parramint, couldn’t be a better host. He used to work at the factory, runs a public speaking training company now, and has a lot of contact with people that were famous in the history of Lotus.
The trips included:
A tour of the factory – at the time seeing both the Elise and Esprit production lines
A day of driver training on the Lotus factory test track – in Elises
A tour of Classic Team Lotus (the restoration shop for old Lotus F1 cars), led by Clive Chapman – the son of Lotus founder Colin Chapman
Dinner talks with people important to Lotus history – in our case Jim Endruweit, chief mechanic of the 60’s Lotus F1 teams and Indy winning efforts, and Alistair McQueen, Lotus’ chief test driver from the 60s thru 90s.
And then depending on when you went -
The UK Club Lotus Donnington meet - more Lotuses and parts than I've ever seen in one place in my life
A tour through the Donnington F1 museum – again room upon room of F1 cars from the 50s on to modern days
Side trips to Goodwood, etc.
In talking to Richard lately, he’s trying to set up more of these trips for 2004 if enough people are interested – I may even end up going again just to see my Elise being built...
If you’re interested - check out Richard's website: http://www.lotours.com/ and/or his email is [email protected]
A couple of years ago the US Lotus club - Lotus LTD - was sponsoring Lotus themed tours to England. There were a couple of them – I was on the first, kind of a test run with about 8 people, but the next one had about 30 people on it. They tried running a few more, but they fizzled out due to a lack of interest - it looks like they're trying to resurrect the tours again for 2004.
It was a great trip though – and the guy that ran it, Richard Parramint, couldn’t be a better host. He used to work at the factory, runs a public speaking training company now, and has a lot of contact with people that were famous in the history of Lotus.
The trips included:
A tour of the factory – at the time seeing both the Elise and Esprit production lines
A day of driver training on the Lotus factory test track – in Elises
A tour of Classic Team Lotus (the restoration shop for old Lotus F1 cars), led by Clive Chapman – the son of Lotus founder Colin Chapman
Dinner talks with people important to Lotus history – in our case Jim Endruweit, chief mechanic of the 60’s Lotus F1 teams and Indy winning efforts, and Alistair McQueen, Lotus’ chief test driver from the 60s thru 90s.
And then depending on when you went -
The UK Club Lotus Donnington meet - more Lotuses and parts than I've ever seen in one place in my life
A tour through the Donnington F1 museum – again room upon room of F1 cars from the 50s on to modern days
Side trips to Goodwood, etc.
In talking to Richard lately, he’s trying to set up more of these trips for 2004 if enough people are interested – I may even end up going again just to see my Elise being built...
If you’re interested - check out Richard's website: http://www.lotours.com/ and/or his email is [email protected]
