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

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kenny
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Re: Are track days all you do in your Lotus then?

Post by kenny » Wed Feb 19, 2020 11:25 pm

I miss those days Shuggles and D.

also burning petrol for fun is a hate crime now

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Kinger
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Re: Are track days all you do in your Lotus then?

Post by Kinger » Thu Feb 20, 2020 12:02 am

alicrozier wrote:
Wed Feb 19, 2020 1:49 pm
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! ;)
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(New F1 modified Zandvoort just booked for the way back from #DN24)
Ali, are you doing Zolder as well as Zandvoort?, afraid I’m out for DN24 ( my balls not big enough) 😂

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robin
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Re: Are track days all you do in your Lotus then?

Post by robin » Thu Feb 20, 2020 12:16 am

Just Zandvoort I think, Señor pequeño cojones

Your best bet for a non-track event is a Campaganza ... because individually people can have fun getting there and getting back without a mental 10 car smokey attracting breaker-breaker-got-your-ears-on-big-buddy convoy!

But somewhere warm please, with working showers, and a nearby hotel for the glampers.
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Kinger
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Re: Are track days all you do in your Lotus then?

Post by Kinger » Thu Feb 20, 2020 8:56 am

robin wrote:
Thu Feb 20, 2020 12:16 am
Just Zandvoort I think, Señor pequeño cojones
🤣🤣

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campbell
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Re: Are track days all you do in your Lotus then?

Post by campbell » Thu Feb 20, 2020 11:34 am

robin wrote: But somewhere warm please, with working showers, and a nearby hotel for the glampers.
Clachtoll is decent. And they now have some luxury pods nearby. Seriously nice actually.

Big Sands, Gairloch.

Camusdarach by Arisaig.

What about Mull. Or Skye.
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Scotty C
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Re: Are track days all you do in your Lotus then?

Post by Scotty C » Thu Feb 20, 2020 11:46 am

Shug wrote:
Wed Feb 19, 2020 4:45 pm
Yer an erse John, but you know that :thumbsup

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 ( :cheers ), 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.
well said Shug.
"Here for a good time not a long time"

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Are track days all you do in your Lotus then?

Post by Jam_s160 » Thu Feb 20, 2020 12:27 pm

Still doing road runs, still doing track days, still on Seloc, still on here, still have a lotus (just ), still joining breakfast meets, still join camping meets & enthusiasm is as normal as it was 18yrs ago. All be it doing around the kids & family time. As you you were


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Re: Are track days all you do in your Lotus then?

Post by campbell » Thu Feb 20, 2020 2:28 pm

How da fcuk do you manage it James
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C7Steve
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Re: Are track days all you do in your Lotus then?

Post by C7Steve » Fri Feb 21, 2020 12:30 am

Jam_s160 wrote:
Thu Feb 20, 2020 12:27 pm
Still doing road runs, still doing track days, still on Seloc, still on here, still have a lotus (just Image), still joining breakfast meets, still join camping meets & enthusiasm is as normal as it was 18yrs ago. All be it doing around the kids & family time. As you you were Image


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Along with curry nights, Christmas night out, pub supper nights, SE hotel weekends away, cycling meets, summer bbqs, New Year house party nights and forging great friendships.

I agree that things have changed, but so have pretty much all of our lives in the last 10-15 years. The forum is less used now, but it looks like most people are just looking on it instead of using it unless a particular subject happens to be posted, then suddenly it looks busier again. With the passing of Tut and Campbell being very busy, their contribution and input are sadly missed as they were the two people who posted up comments every day to this forum since I had joined around 2010.

SE is still very much alive and if you want to embrace and enjoy any of it, then move up to Aberdeenshire. The Force is still strong here.

Looking forward to meeting up with you all in 2020.

Perfect place to start is here; viewtopic.php?f=8&t=44655&p=529025#p529025

Also here;
viewtopic.php?f=8&t=44397

Make a little effort and the rewards are there to enjoy.

Life is too short. #bemoretut


Steve.

Ps. Nail on the head Mr Shug. :D

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Re: Are track days all you do in your Lotus then?

Post by fd » Sat Feb 22, 2020 3:13 am

Each to their own, but track days were from the 2000's, for me driving pointlessly round in circles is boring unless there is a fairly sharp point to it. Road driving these days is not like it was 20 years ago, so many a$$hole nimbys about, so any driving needs to be on the QT, stealthy, catch them at pace, pass them ruthlessly, and disappear before their low grade chicken nugget filled brains even realise you are there . . . that doesn't work with a queue of N cars . . .

I can use my elise as much as I want, I have no actual limits on time or cost, but I'd rather be off in the hills on the bike, or bivvying up a mountain, or packrafting to some remote island with some pals. Road driving is and will increasingly be antisocial/unpleasant . . . I do 10x the milage in my sprinter . . . but won't sell the Elise . . . mainly because it represents an era which will not be repeated . . . and it's still awesome . . .

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ed
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Re: Are track days all you do in your Lotus then?

Post by ed » Tue Feb 25, 2020 10:38 am

For me, its not all about the tracks. The whole trip is something to look forward to be it beers, food and time away with family (Tom et al) and friends is the appeal for me. It's something in the diary that I can look forward to. (along with other holidays)

With two young kids its difficult to get time away. As they get a bit older I am hoping they can get more involved. As above road runs aren't what they used to be with all the dash cams and overtake haters.

As I no longer live in Edinburgh its harder to organise Edinbeers/ curries and I have no desire to waste my money or spend a weekend hungover in bed like the good old days. I would much rather have one big trip a year to enjoy. Going forward I hope to make more trips / European jaunts when time and funds allow.

Am I (/ are we) getting more sensible with age? ..... probably! :lol:

I really value the friends I have made on here and although its a bit quieter I will continue to be involved and contribute where I can. :cheers
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Re: Are track days all you do in your Lotus then?

Post by mxvx » Tue Feb 25, 2020 7:12 pm

fd wrote:
Sat Feb 22, 2020 3:13 am
Each to their own, but track days were from the 2000's, for me driving pointlessly round in circles is boring unless there is a fairly sharp point to it. Road driving these days is not like it was 20 years ago, so many a$$hole nimbys about, so any driving needs to be on the QT, stealthy, catch them at pace, pass them ruthlessly, and disappear before their low grade chicken nugget filled brains even realise you are there . . . that doesn't work with a queue of N cars . . .

I can use my elise as much as I want, I have no actual limits on time or cost, but I'd rather be off in the hills on the bike, or bivvying up a mountain, or packrafting to some remote island with some pals. Road driving is and will increasingly be antisocial/unpleasant . . . I do 10x the milage in my sprinter . . . but won't sell the Elise . . . mainly because it represents an era which will not be repeated . . . and it's still awesome . . .
You haven't been on the right tracks if you've only done circles... :wink: - what do you mean by 'fairly sharp point'? Racing?

Glad you're keeping the elise and agree with others, my desire to go out on road trips in dwindling to next to nothing and we live in one of the best areas in the UK for driving.

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Re: Are track days all you do in your Lotus then?

Post by a4drk » Sun Mar 01, 2020 8:02 pm

and remember.... the most frequent user on SE is no longer with us .......... he kept it going........
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robin
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Re: Are track days all you do in your Lotus then?

Post by robin » Mon Mar 02, 2020 9:29 am

I am not sure that Tut is a significant factor in the overall trend of reducing traffic on this forum. Nor really in the amount of road driving that happens - the tide had turned long before tut hung up his tracky bottoms.

People prefer Facebook/Whatsapp like messaging over this type of forum. Much the same thing happened when this forum was created; only the dinosaurs kept using the previous email format, etc.

Probably somebody should have started a facebook/instagram/twitter SE thing and migrated us all onto that, but nobody did.

In terms of actual driving I suspect there are many factors - people shifting to other brands, Lotus don't make anything new = nothing to get excited about, people have kids and mortgages to worry about (which was ever so) but no young people join because what would they be buying and why would they join here. And of course even Scotland's roads are not so welcoming as they once were, though I still think that's the least of it.

I stopped doing road runs with more than one other car years ago - the larger convoys seemed dangerous to me and there was always at least one driver being dragged into driving outside of their comfort zone/having an accident. I love the social side of it, but not the road runs themselves.

So that leaves trackdays for me (I am never going to want to spend the money to race) and I am lucky enough to be able to afford to do them a few times a year comfortably. The rest of the time, the car sits in the garage.
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campbell
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Re: Are track days all you do in your Lotus then?

Post by campbell » Tue Mar 03, 2020 8:58 pm

There were valiant attempts to establish a Facebook group.

Luddites like me refused to join
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