Suggestions for Donington 2009

[andyelan]

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????? or TVRs????? 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

[GrUmPyBoDgEr]

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

[Pastapesto]

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

[Andy Wiltshire]

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

[tdafforn]

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

[CBUEB1771]

Anyway you've stopped me working!
Andy Wiltshire

Andy,
Well at least you finished the fuel tank for my Elite before we interrupted! Next up will be a tank for my +2. This what you get for doing good work.

[steveww]

As an ex Porsche Club GB member who attended a number of their big shows I think we can nick some ideas from them.

Parking area just for Lotus by model, other marques in a separate area further away from the exhibits. Parking marshals and signs to direct Lotus models to the correct parking area. This is encourage people to bring their pride and joy. It also put people with similar interests close to each other.

Support from the factory by bringing new and rare old cars for display.

Plenty of trade stands for spares and accessories. A good workshop tool stand would be excellent, I can always be tempted by a new set of spanners etc. (may be that's just me then )

Demonstrations of some type of work is always interesting. Engine rebuild, fibreglass layup, fitting of bling to an Elise

Holding the event later in the year once the weather has improved and the salt has been washed away from the roads will improve turn out of Lotus cars.

[mikealdren]

Steve,
I think the tool stand is a dreadful idea - they had one at Donnington last time I went - cost me a fortune and I thought I already had all the tools I could possibly need!

Mike

[GrUmPyBoDgEr]

The parking area at Donington is not that big & I think it's good to wander around all of the cars & enjoy the mixture.
A separate area for "LotusElan.net would certainly be do-able but it would have to be self initiated, as happens at Castle Combe.
I wouldn't expect the organisers to employ another body to do the job.
With reference to the Pub meet up; that would also need to be organised otherwise people would just turn up if & when they feel like it; meeting up would be purely coincidental.
I think that "Club Elite" do some sort of gathering along with a meal "together".
LDC did once time their AGM to coincide with Donington & used a room in the Wheatcroft museum. I assume that it didn't work because I don't think they ever repeated it.
Basically it's necessary to pin people down to a time, date & location in order to get together.
Something that my half hearted attempts in the past did not achieve.

Just as a footnote: The Donington format can't be that far from wrong if you consider the efforts some of the visitors make to get there.
There is laways a strong contingent of Dutch, German, French & even Japanese there every year.
Maybe we Brits are a bit spoiled by the number of similar events that we can attend each year & perhaps expect a bit too much?

Cheers
John

[john.p.clegg]

Steve

Tool stand......that's fine by me,it's the soft furnishings and toffee stalls that get my goat...

John

[Elanintheforest]

I quite like the toffee, and the pink suger shrimp things

Mark

[elansprint71]

Steve

Tool stand......that's fine by me,it's the soft furnishings and toffee stalls that get my goat...

John

Cleggie, maybe you could get your butcher to come along from Royston Vasey with his "special meats"?

[Andy Wiltshire]

When I was at Stoneleigh last year, the stand next to mine consisted of this bloke constantly cutting pages from books (whose contents ranged from the odd car to pop and film stars) and he would then glue these pictures to cardboard sheets and try to sell them!!!! That was the whole of his stand.
He was also at Donington this year. It wasn't funny any more!
Andy

[GrUmPyBoDgEr]

Cutting up books for the Pic's is IMHO criminal, depending on th book, he can do what he likes with "Playboy"; what a w---ker

Hey Mark,
keep munching the sweeties & when your girth prevents entry into your Mk14 give me a bell

Cheers
John

[AlanM]

Thanks to everybody who's contributed so far - keep your views coming, I am reading them and taking note.

As this topic is still very much live I'll not comment in detail just yet save to say that I want to make the 2009 show more practical with live tech demos and advice. As has been suggested, we've already been talking to several people/companies over the past few weeks regarding a live rebuild of a twin-cam during the show. Although nobody's actually said 'yes' so far, I'm confident this will happen. We also want to have a similar demo with a 900 series engine.

One thing already in place will be tech talks and advice about fibreglass repairs and spraying techniques given by an expert company. Unfortunately Health and Safety rules prevent us actually doing live demos of laminating or spraying.

We're also speaking to the traders regarding them bringing more spares to the show like they used to. Spares have been gradually dwindling over the years and although it's labour intensive for the traders to bring lots of relatively small value items the response I've had from them so far has been very positive. If you all let them know you're coming and want to buy spares it can't do any harm either!

Thanks again for the input.

Alan