Is sitting at home dreaming about trackdays all you do in your Lotus then?

[Victor Meldrew]

Not much happening on SE recently... Forum has been a little quiet of late.

Is it just the lucky few with significant disposable income that can throw their car on track every other weekend. Plan Euro trips on a whim without financial consequence. Is that what SE has turned into?

What happened to the old style road run? Meet near a random (Shell V Power supplying) petrol station and then go for a run, meeting up at a pub for lunch, or God forbid actually drive some roads that have pot holes in them.

Has SE turned into a BMW owners club?

The last SE event that I can recall happening was the Aviemore event last year. Has anyone else other than Steve even bothered their arse to lift a finger to organise a get together that involved driving on the public road?

In my mind, turning up to a track day that someone else has organised, whether it is John with the Subaru club or any other club does not constitute an SE event.




What a real shame. Steve, keep doing what you do or SE will cease to exist.




Tell me I'm wrong. Get angry and tell me I'm an arse, but step up and do something.


The closest I have found to what the old SE was like is the Lotus Drivers Club which meets on the third Sunday of the month at the Inchyra Hotel in Grangemouth. At least they get together on a regular basis which is more than can be said for SE.

[C7Steve]

Thanks John and hopefully we can get out together again in the spring.


Steve.

[campbell]

Really busy, John. Home life demographic very different to 10 or 20 yrs ago.

Am lucky still to have an Elise at all.

But just not able to use it like I used to.

Hats off to you and others who continue to organise stuff and shake things up

I have set one goal for 2020 though. More Campaganzas!! Once the weather turns, the mind will turn to those again I’m sure.

[graeme]

You're an arse!

Still feel the SE spirit alive and kicking, and totally agree Steve can be thanked largely for that. As Campbell says, life is very different these days, but would hate to lose touch completely. Which reminds me, it's my turn to organise Abz curry...

[C7Steve]

You're an arse!

Still feel the SE spirit alive and kicking, and totally agree Steve can be thanked largely for that. As Campbell says, life is very different these days, but would hate to lose touch completely. Which reminds me, it's my turn to organise Abz curry...

Thanks Graeme and looking forward to the next curry night.

We were at an Authentic Indian Cooking Class last week here; https://www.namastedelhi.co.uk/

So if you are looking for somewhere that we haven’t been too, but if you have somewhere else in mind, then I will organise here for another time.


Steve.

[graeme]

That looks great! I won't steal your idea though. How about somewhere out west. We haven't been to Echt Tandoori for a while?

[Andy G]

Hi John

311 away at Hoffmans on SOR, and struggling for time to be honest to do any road runs - too much other stuff going on. (although Ultimate Roadtrips has me doing some in other cars!)

Got to say that the 311 is sublime on the track but borderline too quick for the road (or my driving license) , and I can't be arsed taking it out at this time of year even if it was here!

The track trips are pretty much the only time it gets an outing in truth, but then that's what it was built for!

Hopefully Ive got a few good road runs coming up with McLaren though. Isle of Man in April, and then Ireland in September. Slight different gig to the SE road runs of old.

Pleased to hear there are some old school SE warriors fighting the fight! Keep it going!

Hoping to get the Atom 4 out for a few road runs, 6am stylee once it arrives and once the summer starts

[Tim S]

It's not all track days for me - Elise use this month has totaled one trip to B&Q and two to collect my daughter from guides

Up for road runs if I can get out. Weekday evenings probably easiest for me and good when the days are longer. Borders evening runs used to be good

Cheers

Tim

[alicrozier]

I think the days when you could hoon around the Scottish back roads all day with a bunch of your mates are sadly gone. The dashcam equipped 'muggles' trundle about with the cops on speed dial should you have the impunity to overtake.
Also as Andy said the cars have got so fast that 'do not pass go' speeds are just an ankle flex away.

For me it's stealth mode, alone and the quietest of times.

Anyway, off to examine the financial implications of the next Euro trip!
https://www.lotus-on-track.com/lotshop/ ... mber-2020/
(New F1 modified Zandvoort just booked for the way back from #DN24)

[scott_e]

Track days not my thing really , but will be back in a Lotus tail end of the year start of next. Suspect my posting content will increase with lot of "help i broke something / how to it get it fixed" threads SE will always be a part of my day would not be without it. Always happy to read post and grateful for the people I have met and known on this forum for 16 years

[Victor Meldrew]

So what we need maybe is less of the Hoon and more of the Tour mentality when we are out for runs.

[Shug]

Yer an erse John, but you know that

IMO, we've got a more fundamental issue. What Ali says is bob-on for starters. When we were doing road runs regularly, it was a different time - and remember, most people aren't running about in circa 120-150bhp Elises any more - which you could leather a bit without being so far over the limit it wasn't funny. There are a LOT of 350+BHP lotuses out there now - the V6 cars are a different planet for performance, which simply isn't that fun to keep a lid on, on the road - so yeah, a lot of them get used for track only.

I'm aware that's a massive generalisation, plenty of guys (Steve for starters) have V6 cars for purely road use, etc, etc - but we're talking the numbers game. Even your boggo Elise these days is a 220bhp car (remember when N1 TUT's grenade K was a missile with 190?) and they're only realistically a max 150kg(?) heavier than the later S1...

Secondly - the magic time for SE that you remember was around FIFTEEN years ago. All the lads that had plenty of spare time to go for days out around the country have wives and kids now - yes, there were plenty back then that had families and still did the road runs, but the majority of the numbers on them (if you think back) were either young guys with no family ties ( ), or lads on shift work that had other time to spend with families, or retired guys - the majority of the old school road-runners just don't have time these days and there hasn't been much of a new blood invasion (with the changing perspectives on social norms with driving in the last 15 years)

Fact is mate - the golden days of getting a bunch of guys together to hoon about in cars is a thing of the past - yes, as you say, you can still get groups together to do driving tour style events, but the very nature of those mean they're a more planned and less spur of the moment sort of thing - the old SE runs that we fondly remember did happen a lot on short notice.

Also - simply traffic through the site. When the SE forum was at it's height - things like Facebook didn't exist. THIS was our social media. So there was lots of ongoing chat and traffic and run plans and ideas just propagated out of that. It doesn't happen so much on Facebook and the like as it's such a dilute medium - this was focused (well, kind of...). But you can't wind back the clock - the genie is out of the bottle.

IMO, all we can do is enjoy our cars, try to organise things that we'd do alone (if we have time) and hope others want to come along. But the days of being able to jump onto SE and find a run happening in a fortnight are long gone - that's just a fact of the changing nature of things, not a fault of anyone or anything in particular.

[Mikie711]

what he said
And yes it is sad that's the way it's gone but people move on and time change. My Elise has hardly left the garage but time is my enemy, more jobs than days at the moment.
Do miss the old runs in the S1 though

[rawsco]

Group road runs don’t do it for me, not a massive fan of driving in convoy at 125mph trying to keep up with others who have taken many brave pills. Not really a fan of meets where people just stand around and chat/look at cars, Defo think more beers/curry nights are in order. I’ve been to a couple of nights and enjoyed the chat but that seems to have died off now or is arranged via other channels.

Whatsapp seems to be where it’s at, I’m a member of a few groups that are very busy and the banter is good, always lots going on, track days, road runs meet-ups, polishing show and shine etc etc plenty to get involved in if you want to but tend not too. Track days are where it’s at for me, I’ve missed that a lot having sold both my lotus and discovering that the M4 use case just won’t fit the track car bill despite how good a road car it is, that’s a problem I’ve potentially solved, (more on that later). So hopefully be back on track days regular again this year.

The whole community has, IMO, sprinkled itself over multiple outlets FB, WA, etc etc and that’s diluted things here.

[BigD]

Yer an erse John, but you know that

IMO, we've got a more fundamental issue. What Ali says is bob-on for starters. When we were doing road runs regularly, it was a different time - and remember, most people aren't running about in circa 120-150bhp Elises any more - which you could leather a bit without being so far over the limit it wasn't funny. There are a LOT of 350+BHP lotuses out there now - the V6 cars are a different planet for performance, which simply isn't that fun to keep a lid on, on the road - so yeah, a lot of them get used for track only.

I'm aware that's a massive generalisation, plenty of guys (Steve for starters) have V6 cars for purely road use, etc, etc - but we're talking the numbers game. Even your boggo Elise these days is a 220bhp car (remember when N1 TUT's grenade K was a missile with 190?) and they're only realistically a max 150kg(?) heavier than the later S1...

Secondly - the magic time for SE that you remember was around FIFTEEN years ago. All the lads that had plenty of spare time to go for days out around the country have wives and kids now - yes, there were plenty back then that had families and still did the road runs, but the majority of the numbers on them (if you think back) were either young guys with no family ties ( ), or lads on shift work that had other time to spend with families, or retired guys - the majority of the old school road-runners just don't have time these days and there hasn't been much of a new blood invasion (with the changing perspectives on social norms with driving in the last 15 years)

Fact is mate - the golden days of getting a bunch of guys together to hoon about in cars is a thing of the past - yes, as you say, you can still get groups together to do driving tour style events, but the very nature of those mean they're a more planned and less spur of the moment sort of thing - the old SE runs that we fondly remember did happen a lot on short notice.

Also - simply traffic through the site. When the SE forum was at it's height - things like Facebook didn't exist. THIS was our social media. So there was lots of ongoing chat and traffic and run plans and ideas just propagated out of that. It doesn't happen so much on Facebook and the like as it's such a dilute medium - this was focused (well, kind of...). But you can't wind back the clock - the genie is out of the bottle.

IMO, all we can do is enjoy our cars, try to organise things that we'd do alone (if we have time) and hope others want to come along. But the days of being able to jump onto SE and find a run happening in a fortnight are long gone - that's just a fact of the changing nature of things, not a fault of anyone or anything in particular.

Spot on Shug.

Times change and you’ll never recreate the days of old no matter how hard you try as everyone has changed too. Never go back as even if you could it wouldn’t be like it was.