RE: Lotus Sixtieth Anniversary Open Day

[marshalla]

clanger said:

marshalla said:

Excels will be there en-masse and in uniform - pop over and say hello.

Any Beaujolais left or will I have to bring my own?

Oh - lots, but only for the right people

[clanger]

I'll bring a glass then

[ThunderSpook]

Worth a 400 mile round trip to go to this?

[John_W]

ThunderSpook said:

Worth a 400 mile round trip to go to this?

Dunno...
I'm doing a 1111.5 mile round trip to go.
J

Edited after checking mileage on Multimap

Edited by John_W on Monday 1st September 20:10

[Blipi]

Hotel can be hard to find and expensive. A few Elaners will be at the Dunston Hall.

Can go camping like some of us others:

This is about 5 minutes from Hethel (1.7miles)
and 14 minutes to Dunston Hall (5.5 miles)

Wreningham - Claggan Caravan & Camping Site
Church Road
Wreningham
Norwich
Norfolk
NR16 1BA
Phone: 01508 481798
Site Owner/s: Mrs J C McDaid

http://www.siteseeker.co.uk/aspx/detail ... arSearch=N

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This is there main site and allow non members at an extra charge

This is about 17 minutes from hethel (10.5 miles)
and 9 minutes to Dunston Hall (4.9 miles)

Norwich Camping and Caravanning Club Site
Martineau Lane
Norwich
Norfolk
NR1 2HX
01603 620060 .

http://www.siteseeker.co.uk/aspx/detail ... arSearch=N

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Wymondham(Norfolk) - Milestone Farm
Milestone Lane
Wicklewood
Wymondham, Norwich
Norfolk
NR18 9QL
Phone: 01953 607350

http://www.siteseeker.co.uk/aspx/detail ... arSearch=N

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Banham - Brickyard Farm
Grove Road
Banham
Norfolk
NR16 2HQ
Phone: 01953 887223

http://www.siteseeker.co.uk/aspx/detail ... arSearch=N

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Hingham - Rectory Farm
Watton Road
Hingham
Norfolk
NR9 4NN
Phone: 01953 850596
Fax: [phone]
Email: [e-mail]

http://www.siteseeker.co.uk/aspx/detail ... arSearch=N

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More sites can be found here
http://www.siteseeker.co.uk/aspx/ukMap. ... rentPage=2


Or for a 'unique' experience there is this site!

http://www.broadlandsun.co.uk/

Hee hee!

There are people travelling the Globe to attend this event, so a few UK miles shouldn't be too much effort!

[RichardR]

ThunderSpook said:

Worth a 400 mile round trip to go to this?

Doing the 320 mile round trip tomorrow with my son. Looking forward to a good day out...

[RichardR]

Currently sitting in the long, long queue to get to the venue! Bit of a pain to have done about 1 mile in the last half hour after a clear 3 hour journey to get here!

[westmoorfarm]

Gave up, went home - 2 hours to go 1 mile, with 3 miles left to go. Someone got their traffic management plans wrong....

[paulg390]

westmoorfarm said:

Gave up, went home - 2 hours to go 1 mile, with 3 miles left to go. Someone got their traffic management plans wrong....

I must admit I gave up too, was too nice a day to waste it away stuck in a stationary jam for hours..
I tried two ways in - first off A11 at 09:45... got stuck about 2 miles from site, 30 mins and we had moved about 200 yds, so I took off down a lane and came in from the east... same story spent another 20 mins stationary, by now it was nearly 11... gave up, 3 point turn in narrow land and went back to hotel and thought I'd try later (or just head home )...
At about 11:30 came down A11 from Norwich and now the queue had stacked so far back the A11 was now at a standstill 1 mile from Hethel turn.. so decided to call it a day and head home. Very sad !
The queue on the A11 coming north was not as bad but wasnt looking too good.
All the way down the A11 I kept seen Loti (I was in Black esprit) heading North into what must have been at least a 2 hour queue.... wish I could have warned them ..

Any other horror stories ?

[simonrockman]

Wow. That's far worse than I had it. The last mile took about 40 mins at about 1:30. I missed all the Evora tech talks which was a shame. I went to the alternative power one.

Simon

[Gavola]

Arrived at noon and moved aprox 300 yards in 20 minutes....car overheated and coolant on road.....small independant garage about half mile form HQ had aprox a dozen Lotus in it's parking lot all over heating.....thank goodness for the kind garage owner who allowed all of us who had overheated to park there......QUESTION: Lotus Elise S2: When cold what level do you have your coolant at? I'm aware it expands when hot but mine is on minimum when cold......Do any of you have yours below minimum when cold?

[Foolish Dave]

Wow, glad we ended up not being able to make it!

I hope everybody who did get in had a good time.

[Tuna]

Loads of fun, great to see around the factory (again), great to see the Evora in various states, the kids loved the fair, the bacon sarnies were delicious and the car park was packed with interesting machinery.

The queue there was a pain, but I have to say that the Excel didn't miss a beat. Temperature stayed bang on, air-con kept us comfortable and the kids quite happily sat in their child seats and played games whilst we waited. We got a few funny looks from others in the queue as we played hide and seek in a car though.

The biggest frustration of the day was that two successive petrol stations heading north towards Hethel had out-of-order toilets. Shouldn't have had that big cup of tea before setting off.

[beez]

T'was a great day and the weather was good much better than at the Hethel 40th event! Though it was ashame there wasn't any action on the track except for the passenger rides in the Elise.

Luckly we remebered the entry q's from the 40th event so we got there at about 9.45am and was in the car park by about 10:15am.

[456lbft]

Having spent 2 hours getting in my 5 year old son and I enjoyed the tours and opportunity to see behind the scenes. I would have loved to stay longer but decided to leave at around 3.00 to avoid similar queues getting out. Especially as my wife and daughter were turned away at 2.00ish. We were all back in Banbury for 6.00. How was it for those that stayed later? Or are you still there! I hope in future they make it ticket only, the queues from Norwich were enormous, and apparently the rest of Norfolk was deserted.

[simonrockman]

I left at about 5:15 and the road past the factory was nose-to-tail but after that it was fine.
I thought it a bit weak on the F1 stuff (no Gold Leaf or Camel cars), and they need to learn the Disney trick of trying to sell to you when you come out of a tour. There were no salesmen with clipboards and brochures unless you went looking. Indeed an Evora brochure doesn't seem to exist. I did get to sit in an Evora (the type approval one) and bought an Evora model so was happy.

The Tesla was much more in evidence than the Europa, which gives me a bad feeling about the Europa.

And what was great, really, really good, was being able to talk to the people who work on the cars and know everything. Fantastic, smart people.

When I was a kid my parents took me to factories which made the products they sold and I always perfered that to theme parks - plastic fish on the Disneyland submarine ride struck me as particularly pointless - a factory is real.

Simon.

[RichardR]

456lbft said:

How was it for those that stayed later? Or are you still there!

It was certainly less painful getting out... we got to the car at about 17:00 and, apart from a queue down Potash Lane past the factory, it was all clear other than crap traffic on the M11. With a pre-planned stopover for dinner in Bishops Stortford we were home at 22:00.

[neilr]

We were one of those who gave up due to the horredous traffic situation. I have to say that for Lotus to sell so many tickets knowing (and they must know) that the infrastruture can't cope is very bad form to say the least.

I had a wander up the queue to see what was going on and many many people asked what was happening, would it have taken so much effort on Lotus' part to send someone down the queue so we knew it was just a case of then selling too many tickets and causing untold grief getting in? No of course it wouldn't, but they didn't. To be honest it shows a lack of any care whatsoever for paying customers and in many cases, myself iincluded, potential Lotus customers.

I dread to think how you are treated once they've got even more of your cash for a car. If theres one thing I can't stand its the 'get the cash off them at all costs' attitude from motor manufactures. I excpect it from large corporates, but a small operation like Lotus simply can't afford to treat its existing and potential customers with such contempt.

Don't misunderstand me, we didn't expect to drive straight in without a hitch, they're small roads and a lot of people using them, Lotus oversold the tickets IMO knowing full well that it would cuse this kind of chaos. Poor planning.

[simonrockman]

How many people pre-bought their tickets? I didn't. I got mine on the door.

I have bought my ticket for Goodwood revival because that's the only option.

[Gallandro]

got there at 1pm - after queing for 40 mins oustide.

At one point a marshall was walking down and told us that unless
we had a pre-booked ticket we wouldnt get in and the police would
also turn us away anyway at the road leading into the site.......
sod that i thought we had come 150 miles.

Anyway the police ignored us we drove straight in parked the cars.

Seemed a fair few people milling around walked up to the ticket entrance
a someone leaving bunged us three adult tickets...so was all good.

Great day - but agree things could have been slicker seemed a bit to
chaotic and mixed up....the factory tour and the Engineering/design
bit were top notch though...