Club Lotus Track Day Castle Combe 29th May (pictures 1-6)

[Spyder fan]

Had a great day at castle Combe on Saturday despite the gloomy weather.

My brother (Fast Freddy) and I had a great time picking off the Elise's and Exige's one by one or even two at a time! All you need to do this is to get kitted with with a spyder chasis, full suspension setup and at least 160bhp..... a twincam will do the look of shock and disbelief on the modern car drivers faces is well worth the cost.

The pictures are courtesy of my Cousin Leigh and his wife Jayne who joined us for the day from their home nearby in Llantwit Fardre (Wales). Leigh came out as a passenger and had a hoot, although comments regarding the tan leather beng a good choice of colour were heard on occasion. I even managed to persuade my wife to come out for a fast run when the track dried off, the look of fear in her eyes is apparent in the photo as well as the look of glee in mine

[Spyder fan]

next 6 pictures

[Spyder fan]

as always at Club Lotus meets it was a very relaxed atmosphere and an opportunity to chat away with other enthusiasts as well as being able to see a wide variety of Lotus cars from the very beginning righ up to the latest Evora. Notice that I was parked next to Gordon Lund's 'RHUBARB' and parked next to him was 'CUSTARD' that now is Tony's excellent BDG engined Elan, resurrected from the total write off of CUSTARD from an incident in Belgium. Rhubarb and Custard are featured in Gordon's excellent book 'Lotus Elan, A Restoration Guide' which is available for a very reasonable price at all specialist book sellers (Can I have the tenner now please Gordon )

[GrUmPyBoDgEr]

Thanks for the Photos Alan,

what a shame about the bad Weather, which does seem to be a Castle Combe Track Day feature.
How many "ordinary" Elans did manage to nail

Nice to see that Owner has at last got the "Brasso" to that Williams & Prichard special bodied 7; that's got to be worth a few bob

Cheers
John

[Spyder fan]

Hi John,

picture 7 gives photographic evidence of at least 1 elan lined up for the final corner into the start finish straight (overtake on the right at CC). The blue and white +2 was nearly lapped by Fast Freddy not that it was a slow car or driver, I actually followed him in another session for 3 laps to get my wife used to the track, (nice lines and good speed) before pressing on a bit harder to shame the Elise's, including a silver elise with roll cage and they shall not pass mentality, who studiously ignored the fact I was faster for 2 whole laps... I had to nail him with a race manouvre by holding back on the final chicane before going for the apex at the final corner into the start finish straight and carrying at least 15mph more speed than he could do holding a tight line to the right for the overtake into the right hand kink (not a braking zone) and going at least 2 corners ahead by the next lap..... total muppet.

My car and it's handling was a credit to Wiggy (Andy Widnall) and Yokohama

[GrUmPyBoDgEr]

Hi John,

picture 7 gives photographic evidence of at least 1 elan lined up for the final corner into the start finish straight (overtake on the right at CC). The blue and white +2 was nearly lapped by Fast Freddy not that it was a slow car or driver, I actually followed him in another session for 3 laps to get my wife used to the track, (nice lines and good speed) before pressing on a bit harder to shame the Elise's, including a silver elise with roll cage and they shall not pass mentality, who studiously ignored the fact I was faster for 2 whole laps... I had to nail him with a race manouvre by holding back on the final chicane before going for the apex at the final corner into the start finish straight and carrying at least 15mph more speed than he could do holding a tight line to the right for the overtake into the right hand kink (not a braking zone) and going at least 2 corners ahead by the next lap..... total muppet.

My car and it's handling was a credit to Wiggy (Andy Widnall) and Yokohama

Good to hear that you still appreciate your Wife.
Ya gotta luv em, my favourite is Caterhams being driven with the Driver & Passenger wearing full Face Helmets with darkened Visors; dead 'ard
Anyway it sounds like you thoroughly enjoyed yourselves!

I'm going to have to make another search for some "Yoko's" difficult to find in 175/60x14
Unfortunately the 185's just won't fit in my S4