[LRgeek]

Hey everybody,
Here is the announcement for the event on the 23rd of August. Please feel free to call or email of you have any questions. I hope to see every one here for the opportunity to drive as a group.

Leo

Lotus Coffee Tour Sunday 23rd August 2009

Lotus Garage, 8905 Wayzata Blvd, Golden Valley, Leo Starr’s Cell (612) 281-5985

You are invited by the Lotus garage to attend a Continental Breakfast and tour of the garage. Paul Palin our technical director will be on hand to give you a tour of the facility and to answer of your questions. Paul is very knowledgeable and will share with you his insights. We will have some of the latest DVD’s running on our TV screens showing the new Evora which we hope to have to demo sometime in October.

After breakfast and the garage tour we will have a convoy tour west of the garage taking in interesting places like Wayzata, Minnetonka, Excelsior and Delano to name but a few.

Leo Starr our cyber space chatty sales person will act as point person and Paul our shot gun, to make sure nobody gets lost. We will have 3 stops at designated coffee houses to refresh, have a single shot of true Italian Espresso to calm the nerves. Leo and Paul will be each driving a Lotus from the garage and people will be free to take a test drive between the stops.

The tour will start at 9am at the garage and end at the parking lot opposite the Calhoun Beach Club on the north end of Lake Calhoun and Lake Street, opposite the BP gas station. Estimated time of arrival will be between 12 noon and 12-30pm.


Schedule:
(1) Meet for breakfast at 8:00 am.
(2) Garage tour 8:20 am
(3) Car Photo Shoot 8:45 am
(4) Start Coffee Tour 9:00 am
(5) 3 Coffee Stops noted in the route outline below.
(6) Arrive Wheels of Italy, 12-12:30 pm


Route Instructions:
1) Lotus Garage to Delano via Hwy 12
2) Delano to St. Bonifacious via County Rd 92
4) St Boni to Maple Plain
Blackwater Coffee, 5159 Hwy 12, (763) 479-1313
5) Maple Plane to Long Lake
6) Long Lake to Excelsior
Caribou Coffee, 5663 Manitou Road, (952) 401-1067
7) Excelsior to Wayzata via Minnetonka Blvd / Cty Rd 101.
Caribou Coffee in Lunds, 1151 Wayzata Blvd, (952) 476-2222
8) Wayzata To Lake Calhoun and Wheels of Italy

 

[Esprit2]

Lotus Dealer Coffee Tour

I'll be there...

I better be, since I'm taking point on the drive. Leo Starr, John Shorrock and I just met to finalize the route. The brief directions noted in Leo's announcement loosely set the boundaries, but there are a lot of roads and miles within the box, as you'll discover during the drive. Actually, there's more drive than we have time for if we are to arrive at Wheels of Italy by noon or 12:30. Fortunately there are many escape routes and we can bail out at any point and still get to WOI in a timely manner.

NOTE:
Please understand that this is a metro drive, and not a scoot through the Wisconsin Coulee Roads. It's mostly main county roads, but still largely within various town limits, and some residential areas. Speeds will be modest, and boy-racer shenanigans will only bring us to grief. Please drive accordingly. The scenery in the area is pretty, and we will spend a minimum of time on the straightline/ grid roads.

A route map and directions will be handed out prior to departure.

On any drive, cars string out and there's always a possibility of someone getting lost. Many roads will be tree-lined with minimal long-distance visibility. Drive quickly enough to keep the car ahead of you in sight so you can see which way it goes at the next corner. If you dawdle or get lost, everyone behind you gets pushed off the end of the queue along with you. Keep up.

If you have a set of the small family channel walkie-talkies, bring them with you and plan to share. Also, bring your cell phone, and please forward your cell number in advance to:
Leo Starr: [email protected], and...
Tim Engel: [email protected]

That will help us stay together, and to find lost sheep.

The dealership will be bringing two Lotus demo cars (no Evora yet, so dream on), and drive participants will have an opportunity for a test drive. How many and for how long each will depend upon how many people show up. Be flexible. This should be obvious, but keep in mind that if you're driving the dealer car, someone else will be driving your car. Get your head around that.

This is a Lotus event, so please make your best effort to show up in a Lotus. It's more important that you "show up", but we'd like to see you in a Lotus.

The Lotus dealership is in the west metro, on the south side of I-394, just east of Hwy 169. Exit I-394 on General Mills Blvd. If you're coming from the west, exit early, west of Hwy 169. Get into the "local lane" to the right of the curbing, follow it past the 169 exits, and then take the General Mills exit. If you miss that, you'll have to go to Louisiana Ave before you can turn around and try again.

Take General Mills Blvd south one block to the south frontage road and turn right (west). Proceed west to the Jaguar/ Land Rover/ Lotus dealership. It's the second one on your right.
YahooMaps: Yahoo! Maps, Driving Directions, and Traffic

When you arrive at the dealership, please park in the far northwest (left rear) corner of the lot. Part of the plan is to pose the cars & people for a group photo, and that spot will be the best location for that purpose. If everyone goes directly there upon arrival, we'll spend less time shuffling cars into position later. Thanks.

Arrive early. Continental breakfast at 8:00 AM, facility tour, photo shoot, on the road by 9:00 AM... that's a lot to get done in a little time. Then the drive, and Wheels of Italy by noon/ 12:30 (it ends at 2:00 PM). There will be food vendors at WOI, and there are multiple dining options within one block of the site.

Arrive at the dealership with a full fuel tank. I drove about 2/3 of the course this morning, and it took over 2 hours with no coffee stops. You'll need more than just a whiff of gas in the bottom of the tank. There will be no opportunity during the drive to stop for gas, except for the coffee stops; and I have no idea if gas stations will be convenient to the coffee stops. Don't be the one voice at 9:00 AM that says, "But wait! I need to get to get gas". Okay, you do that, and catch up to us when you can. We'll be west of here.

The long range weather forecast looks great.

See you Sunday? PLEASE RSVP here or to:
Leo Starr: [email protected], and...
Tim Engel: [email protected]


Later,
Tim Engel
Lotus Owners Oftha North (LOON)

 

[MNlotus]

ill be there, we meet at the jag/rover/lotus dealership right?

 

[Esprit2]

Yes, at the Jaguar / Land Rover / Lotus dealer, south frontage road of I-394, 2nd car dealer west of General Mills Blvd. (1st exit east of Hwy 169).

See you tomorrow,
Tim

 

[Esprit2]

What a wonderful day for a drive. It was gorgeous. Thanks to everyone who came, I hope you enjoyed the trip.

15 cars showed up at the dealership (well, including the two dealer cars that went on the trip). Two folk had other plans for the day and just hung out for the social and the group photo of the cars. I'm kicking myself now, but we should have staged a second photo with all the drivers included. Nutz. Make a note for next time.

Jeremy was the guy standing on the very top of the step ladder to take the photo (it's difficult to hold your balance while concentrating through a camera). I'll hit him up for the photos and post something here.

We left with 13, and returned with 13, so overall, it was a pretty successful drive. A couple of roads that were clear when I pre-drove them yesterday morning had paving or seal-coating projects partially done when we got to them today, but just minor stretches. One did lead to a curious piece of navigating, but we found each other again.

The route was much longer than could ever be completed and still make it to Wheels of Italy by 12:00-12:30, but it's better to have more than you need. We struck noon at the end of the second of the three stages a couple of miles from Blackwater Coffee in Maple Plain, so we pulled the plug and headed into town.

Wheels of Italy had the usual parking challenges, and we got turned away at the door (at least the group of 4 I arrived with). John, I lost track of you at that point... did you split? Jeremy and I ended up finding plenty of parking in the shopping center a block north on Market Plaza. Thomas, now I wish you had followed us... parking was just a short scoot from where we parted ways.

LOON member Glenn Ciegler had his Lambo there. We met up with him in time to chat for a bit before he left. The Italian cars were dominated by Ferrari red, but there was a broad range from a nice little Topolino, Fiat Spiders and X1/9's, lotsa Panteras and the two Murci's. I had a hard time rationalizing the Bugatti as an Italian car, but it was nice to see. I really liked the Alfa 8C Competione, and it sounds as good as it looks. Top Gear dissed it's handling, ergonomics and build quality, but said they didn't care! It's soooo beautiful they love it anyway.

Thanks to Leo Starr and Paul Palin for opening the dealership on a Sunday morning... their day off. And thanks for the seat time in the Exige. I spent the rest of the day trying to find 6th gear in my 5-spd car.

Have a good week everyone,
Tim

 

[LRgeek]

Thanks to all!

Just a quick note to say thanks to all who showed up today. Big thanks to Tim for planning the route and scouting it out this past week. I was happy to see all of the cars that showed up and hope to make this an annual event. We had a nice day to try out the cars too. Stop in and say hello to Paul or myself next time you are in the area and I expect that I'll see a few of you at the next Cars and Coffee.

 

[LRgeek]

Pictures from the Coffee Run

We finally posted some pictures from the event on the dealership website. If you were there and took some pictures that you would like to share, please forward them to me if you don't mind.

Lotus Wheels Event

Thanks once again to all who came.

Leo