The Formation of ?Club Lotus Elan Section"
Posted: Tue Jul 05, 2011 2:36 pm
A small team of us Elan enthusiasts have come together to form Club Lotus? first model-specific section, the Club Lotus Elan Section (CLES).
CLES will cover Elan types S1, S2, 26R, S3, S4, Sprint, +2, Plus 2 (Types 26, 36, 45 & 50). It will build on the wonderful legacy of the late Tim Mees and Charles Giles with the Type 26 Register, as well as my Sprint site and Trevor Sparrow?s +2 Register, bringing them together within one entity.
The aim is to bring together owners and enthusiasts of the original Lotus Elan and +2 worldwide, to encourage the preservation, restoration and running of all Elans, to gather and record appropriate archive material, to maintain registers and to organise social and sporting gatherings. An announcement to the wider Lotus community will be posted in the July edition of Club Lotus News. We wanted to give our friends in lotuselan.net an early heads-up.
So why do this with Club Lotus? Well, as I?m sure you will realise, setting up an organisation like this takes a good deal of time and effort. Our initial thoughts of doing so independently concentrated mostly on the framework of the organisation, rather than what we were trying to achieve. In speaking with Alan Morgan at Club Lotus, it became clear that he could provide that framework as well as the freedom for us to do what we were most interested in doing. It is also obvious to many of us that as time goes on Club Lotus will need to address the particular needs of each Lotus heritage model. CLES will blaze a trail as the first such model-specific section.
The organisation of CLES will be kept simple and virtual, with a web presence via the Club Lotus site and a dedicated page in each issue of Club Lotus News. Under Tim Wilkes (trw999) and Mark Kempson (Elanintheforest), the team includes Alex Black (alexblack13), Brian Buckland (elanman), Charles Giles, Jonathan Rawlinson, Norman Lupton, Norman Sheasby and Trevor Sparrow. Between us we have good knowledge of each Elan type, though we all acknowledge there is always something new to learn about these exquisite British sports cars!
Membership of CLES will be open to existing and future Club Lotus members, free of charge. You will be able to join via the new page (coming soon) on the Club Lotus web site. This will give access to a large and growing range of information and help, as well as a direct link to the forum here, courtesy of the resourceful Jeff. We hope all Elan owners and enthusiasts will join the CLES to help further its aims for present and future generations.
The team are taking things steadily to begin with and building the web site is the current priority. We will continue compiling a full register of all Elans and gathering archive materiel which will be accessible via the web site to members. We want to build evidence of originality and to investigate having hard to find parts made up if necessary. In time it is planned to organise CLES specific meetings, such as track days, socials and UK and European ?raids?, as well as having a presence at the annual Club Lotus Festival, of course. In fact the CLES will be co-located next to the Club Lotus stand at Donington this year, with a tribute to Ron Hickman. Then of course the planning is underway to find suitable ways in which to celebrate the Elan?s 50th anniversary next year.
We are excited to be able to benefit Elan enthusiasts with the formation of this new Section and hope that it is something you will all feel worthy of support. If you have your own ideas about what we can do, please feel free to let us know.
Tim
CLES will cover Elan types S1, S2, 26R, S3, S4, Sprint, +2, Plus 2 (Types 26, 36, 45 & 50). It will build on the wonderful legacy of the late Tim Mees and Charles Giles with the Type 26 Register, as well as my Sprint site and Trevor Sparrow?s +2 Register, bringing them together within one entity.
The aim is to bring together owners and enthusiasts of the original Lotus Elan and +2 worldwide, to encourage the preservation, restoration and running of all Elans, to gather and record appropriate archive material, to maintain registers and to organise social and sporting gatherings. An announcement to the wider Lotus community will be posted in the July edition of Club Lotus News. We wanted to give our friends in lotuselan.net an early heads-up.
So why do this with Club Lotus? Well, as I?m sure you will realise, setting up an organisation like this takes a good deal of time and effort. Our initial thoughts of doing so independently concentrated mostly on the framework of the organisation, rather than what we were trying to achieve. In speaking with Alan Morgan at Club Lotus, it became clear that he could provide that framework as well as the freedom for us to do what we were most interested in doing. It is also obvious to many of us that as time goes on Club Lotus will need to address the particular needs of each Lotus heritage model. CLES will blaze a trail as the first such model-specific section.
The organisation of CLES will be kept simple and virtual, with a web presence via the Club Lotus site and a dedicated page in each issue of Club Lotus News. Under Tim Wilkes (trw999) and Mark Kempson (Elanintheforest), the team includes Alex Black (alexblack13), Brian Buckland (elanman), Charles Giles, Jonathan Rawlinson, Norman Lupton, Norman Sheasby and Trevor Sparrow. Between us we have good knowledge of each Elan type, though we all acknowledge there is always something new to learn about these exquisite British sports cars!
Membership of CLES will be open to existing and future Club Lotus members, free of charge. You will be able to join via the new page (coming soon) on the Club Lotus web site. This will give access to a large and growing range of information and help, as well as a direct link to the forum here, courtesy of the resourceful Jeff. We hope all Elan owners and enthusiasts will join the CLES to help further its aims for present and future generations.
The team are taking things steadily to begin with and building the web site is the current priority. We will continue compiling a full register of all Elans and gathering archive materiel which will be accessible via the web site to members. We want to build evidence of originality and to investigate having hard to find parts made up if necessary. In time it is planned to organise CLES specific meetings, such as track days, socials and UK and European ?raids?, as well as having a presence at the annual Club Lotus Festival, of course. In fact the CLES will be co-located next to the Club Lotus stand at Donington this year, with a tribute to Ron Hickman. Then of course the planning is underway to find suitable ways in which to celebrate the Elan?s 50th anniversary next year.
We are excited to be able to benefit Elan enthusiasts with the formation of this new Section and hope that it is something you will all feel worthy of support. If you have your own ideas about what we can do, please feel free to let us know.
Tim