Oulton Park Track Day!!!

The day we had been looking forward to since picking up our lotus had arrived and it was time to set off to Oulton Park to go to the track day Christopher Neil had invited us too. It was a lovely day so we took the roof off the car and set off. It was a lovely drive through all of the country lanes to get to Oulton Park.

When we arrived we were greeted by Jeff and Steve the Christopher Neil sales guys. They had brought along two of their Lotus Exiges - both the same car but one with a hardtop and the other with the roof off. After a quick chat with Jeff we headed off to the reception area to sign in and get our wrist bands.




Once we had our wrist bands it was time to hop into the passenger seat and get out on the track. We got about 4-5 laps of the track in each car and i have to say it was absolutely brilliant. The cars were fantastic and we had a great time. The cars performace was really impressive and kept up with lots of other far more expensive cars, and they hadn't even been modified - they were just standard showroom cars.

I had wondered what the point of the foot rest on the passenger side of the car was for but I found out on the track day as you were literally lifted out of your seat when the car braked, it stopped that quickly, and I found myself pushing against the foot rest to keep my bum on the seat.

Me and Caz had a great time at the track day and really enjoyed our rides in the Lotus Exiges. After we had had our goes in both of the cars we decided to have a wander round and look at all the other cars that people had brought along like TVR's. I had not seen a Ferrari up close before and could not believe the size of the engine - it was huge!!!.

All in all we had a great day and hopefully we will be invited along to another one soon!

1st Week Niggles

During the 1st week we had the car we noticed that it had a couple of niggles - nothing too major. The passenger side window would stick if you wound it all the way down and the backlight for the LCD screen that showed you how much petrol you had left was not working. Not a problem in the day time as you could see it perfectly, but a bit of a pain at night as you had no idea how much fuel you had left.

I didn't notice this on the test drive as it was a lovely sunny day and looking back through the service history it had not worked for some time. We had been invited to a track day by Christopher Neil Lotus when we purchased the car (more of this later) so thought we would mention it to them when we went.

Popped into Christopher Neil on the way home from the track day to let the service guys have a look at the window and the LCD in the dash. Much to the annoyance of my g/f Caz who wasn't too happy spending an hour of our day off sat in a garage. The window* was fixed easily but they could not find out was was wrong with dash as it didn't appear to be a loose connection.

*The windows of the elise (as I found out later) would be one of my major DIY tasks in my attempts to get the elise water tight.

Meet my Lotus Elise!

This photo was taken on the weekend that I first got my lotus. This was the start of what can only be described as an obsession.

The car itself is an 1997 Lotus Elise in midnight blue with gray / black interior. That we got from Christopher Neil in Northwich our local lotus dealer.

I spent the first few days of ownership giving all my friends and family rides around the block much to there delight (any excuse to drive it). Luckily the weather was brilliant when we first got the car so the roof was hardly ever on it lucky really as some people can only get in and out without the roof. I have now mastered getting in and out from the drivers side many describe this as a controlled fall, although i still have trouble getting in and out of the passenger side must be due to the lack of practices as its difficult to prize me away from the drivers seat.

The picture shows the car before i started any of my DIY projects that i will go into more detail about later. The car still looks pretty much the same now as it does above except for the addition of headlight covers thanks to the M62 and a stone robbing me of my drivers side headlight one evening so thought some protection for them was in order.

So if you are a lotus freak like me or just interested then i will use this space to keep you up to date on all the lil projects i carry out on the car. I have a few things already done so need to do some catch up posts so watch this space!