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largest-lotus-convoy-raises-5-000-for-charity
largest-lotus-convoy-raises-5-000-for-charity
largest-lotus-convoy-raises-5-000-for-charity
largest-lotus-convoy-raises-5-000-for-charity
At MotorTorque, we´re always impressed by people going the ´extra mile´ for charity, so when we saw this story about the largest ever Lotus convoy, set to raise £5,000, we thought it deserved a mention. So read Andy ´Bib´s´ Bett´s account of their fun day out, with a serious purpose.
After days, weeks – no, months of meticulous planning by Andy Betts (owner of Lotus Esprit Forum) and Tony Kimberley (son of Mike Kimberley, CEO of Lotus Cars), 66 Lotus Esprits from LEF and a couple of “Star Wars – Stormtroopers" were welcomed into the Norfolk sunshine for a lovely day of fundraising in Great Yarmouth, to raise nearly £5,000 in aid of Macmillan Cancer Care and NACCPO (the National Alliance of Childhood Cancer Parents’ Organisations). This seafront event, coupled with an evening Auction of Promises at the Wensum Valley Hotel, raised £3,300 of the total from some very generous donations from Lotus Cars Ltd to add to the gifts from members of the LEF fraternity. Mike Kimberley (CEO, Lotus Cars Ltd) attended the evening event and offered his signature to many prizes.
The Monday morning saw the rest of the Esprit group’s attendees join us for a 95 Esprit convoy along the A11 on to the Factory itself. Welcomed into a special area within the test track, the Lotus staff looked on at the impressive sight of a mile long convoy which took over 45 minutes to stream through the factory gates!
Lotus were the perfect hosts: offering owners a factory tour showing the production of the Elise/Exige, from parts to presentation to the customer; technical forums presented to owners by Lotus’s own Esprit encyclopaedias, Brian Angus and Geoff Davidson; a visit to the shop and a chance to drive the new Europa S around the roads of Hethel. The service bays were also on hand to check over and service owners cars at discounted rates and the Exige GT3 race car was on display with a detailed talk on it’s background and future. The day was rounded off by a chance for owners to take their Esprits on the Lotus Test Track for a photo opportunity behind the new Lotus “Circuit Car", which was acting as pace car. Roger Becker – a true hero in the Esprit, Lotus and motoring world most famous for his amazing driving of the submersible Esprit in ‘The Spy Who Loved Me’, Mike Kimberley and Clive Dopson (Managing Director of Lotus Cars) also attended throughout the day and Classic Team Lotus supplied a Lotus Type 86 Formula One car in “Essex" livery for the members to “drool over".
With LEF members travelling from Canada, USA, Denmark, Finland, Switzerland, Germany and Belgium, and Esprits ranging from the 1976 first ever production car, through to some 2003 registered V8’s, the owners drove somewhere in the region of 40,000 collective miles and no serious mechanical problems!
Both organisers were each lent a new Europa S to drive by Lotus and were extremely pleased with the way the event went. "What started as a web discussion took on a life of it´s own" said Tony (Kimbers) Kimberley, "It is like all of the cars coming home" said Andy (Bibs) Betts.
Andy Betts
For more information, please visit www.lotusespritforum.com