Our Car Club of the Month: The Lotus Drivers Club

This February we’re delighted to introduce the fabulous Lotus Drivers Club.

Just one look at the terrific website of the Lotus Drivers Club and the word that immediately jumps into your mind is STYLE. Capital letters very much intended.

But if style is the overriding first impression, then hard work, entertainment, dynamism and friendliness are the watchwords that make the Lotus Drivers Club such a vibrant entity. A calendar brimming with driver events up and down the country, and any club that’s been including a fish and chip run for Lotus drivers for the past eight years, is a club to be reckoned with. Extra salt and vinegar with mine please!

“Our aim is to get everyone out and driving their Lotus at every opportunity” - says Chairman Colin Smith, and the club certainly offers every opportunity with a diary packed full of exciting events at home and abroad.

“We’re up to 1,000 members for the first time, including nine who live overseas, and one of our 2019 international runs was to go see our friend Britta Poloczek who lives in Solhde in Germany who owns a UK series 1 Elise”.

Apparently, Britta lived in England but went back to her native Germany to open the Barn Café which has become a mecca for car and bike fans. The Lotus Drivers Club toured in 2009 for the official opening of the café, returned in 2014 for the fifth anniversary and made another wonderful sojourn in 2019 for the tenth.

Covid pressures have put international tours on hold for the time being but already the club are looking to go back to Germany for a drive through the Black Forest in 2023. However, there’ll be a busy domestic schedule for this year, with weekend trips to the Wye Valley, Wessex, Mid Wales and Pembroke, with longer tours in the Yorkshire Dales and North Devon.

If you add in the track and sprint events at Curborough and Thruxton, where cars can be pushed through their paces and pushed to their limits, it’s a club that caters for Lotus enthusiasts everywhere.

“The club magazine Chicane now runs to four a year and although we’re all volunteers, the quality and information that goes into the publication is amazing” - says club Publicity Officer, Clara Waylett.

The magazine provides fantastic features, comparing Lotus models through the years in handling and sprint trials, to providing restoration advice along with insurance updates, tour reports, and information on upcoming events.

“As well as our big tours, we have drive outs and weekend tours throughout the year, and we’ll always be at the main motor shows in the calendar” says Clara. “There’s a wonderful friendship about the club even though we live all over the country, and I think during covid it’s pulled us even closer together.”

They have their own tour organiser in Jennie Wilson and during the past few years the club has been overseas to Andorra and Le Mans, with domestic drives across North Wales, Yorkshire and the North Coast 500 at the tip of Scotland to name but a few.

“We get about 40 drivers for the week and weekend tours and something like 12 abroad. The Lotus Elise is without question one the most popular amongst our members but there’s a huge variety of models including the Esprit and Elans, right through to the more modern Exige and Evora.”

So, what about the fish and chips run, that’s become so famous? The thought of a posse of sleek stylish Lotus models parked up on Weymouth Sea front with the windows down and the smell of vinegar wafting through the air from wrappers full of fish and chips conjures up a wonderful summer image.

“The fish and chip run has been going for eight years now, and to see the row of Lotus’s along the front is truly wonderful.”

So, is it possible to sum up the joy of a Lotus, what makes it such a special car to own and drive?

“I was thinking about this for a long time” says Clara, “and I could say in the words of Lotus founder Colin Chapman, ‘added lightness’, and I could say it’s for the feel and handling of the driving. But I challenge anyone to drive a Lotus and not get out of the car with a smile on your face.”

The Lotus Drivers Club. It’ll put a smile on your face!

Please contact us here, if you’d like us to feature your classic club in our special Club of the month feature.