On Memorial Day weekend, the Champaign, Illinois British Car club hold it's car show weekend. This year (2000), Carl, Luann and I were the only Lotus Corps members in attendance. It seems that some of our fellow members must think that their cars are made of cotton candy, and might melt if they get wet in the rain. It might have been raining in Chicago-land, but it only sprinkled once for a very short time in Champaign that Sunday.
On
Thursday, August 24, 2000, we had a very special membership meeting at our local
Lotus dealer, Fox Valley Motorcars
. They graciously allowed us to use their facilities for this meeting that
featured special guest speaker Graham Arnold.
We had nearly 40 people turn out for this event, which also featured a pizza buffet, and a look around Fox Valley's nice facility. How many Lotus fanatics get to see a view of an Elise like the one below? Only a few of the Lotuses attending are pictured below, but a real nice sampling to choose from.
Graham
entertained, amused, and educated us with many stories of his time with Lotus
Cars, and Colin himself.
Many, many thanks to all the fine people who made this event a possibility..... Fox Valley, the 'most wanted man in England', Bob Herzog, Lotus Corps for the dinner, Graham Arnold, and even Graham's wife for listening to his stories one more time for our sake.
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On Wednesday, August 16th, several Lotus owners were traveling through our area, on a pilgrimage to this years Lotus Owners Gathering in Canada. By the use of e-mail, and the Lotus internet mailing list, Sanjaya, and I thought it would be nice to have a little dinner meet up with some of these fine people. Sanj had originally intended to set off with them after dinner, but a back problem had him change his mind. Colorado resident Bob Metz stopped at my house in Moline, and we caravanned up to Rocky's house. My own Lotus developed a badly sticking caliper, so I rode to the restaurant with Rocky, whilst Bob followed. Once we arrived at the Greek Islands restaurant, we joined with Texas residents, and fellow Lotus listers, Steve Brightman, and Professor Andrew Barron. The Professor recently had an interesting story in the Lotus ReMarque telling of his adventures driving his Super 7 in the 2000 Classic Monte Carlo Rally. Quite an adventure. Several Lotus Corps members joined in as well. Mark Plechaty stopped by after a day of fun with his Sport Elise at Gingerman Racetrack. Thanks to everybody for this great evening. There is only one thing better than owning a Lotus...... knowing the great people that own them! |
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