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Lotus in the Peak
28th - 30th June 2024

MLOC Classic Team Lotus Workshop Tour?


Phil S1

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I have recently been in communication with Classic Team Lotus, once again they have been most generous in supporting us with LitP.:tup: 

As part of that I was asked whether our members might be interested in a tour of their workshop. It's been a good few years since our last visit, organised by Sim@n and since then much has changed with a new workshop and display areas. For anyone who hasn't been before it is a great opportunity to get up close to some of the most iconic and ground breaking Lotus F1 cars and learn about their history from one of their expert tour guides.

When we went previously many of us travelled together and we all stopped off en-route for a pre-arranged breakfast before heading to Hethel. We had tea and coffee on arrival, followed by the tour itself, after which we had pre-booked tables for a meal at a local Lotus-themed pub (The Bird in Hand I believe) before heading home again. It's a long day but well worth it in my opinion.

As a club we would get a discounted rate as shown (normal price is £45 pp).

Further details from Classic Team Lotus below:-

For car clubs, we offer two options:

1.            ‘Open Tour’ – Maximum of 2 hours. Potentially unlimited number of guests. Cost £15+VAT per person + Tour Guide cost of £75+VAT. To start, our tour guide will give your group a brief history of Classic Team Lotus, then your group will be able to freely wander round the workshop, and upper mezzanine level, housing 20+ historic F1 race cars. The guide will be available to answer any questions your group members may have. 

2.            ‘Fully Guided Works Tour’ – Lasts 2-2.5hrs. We try to limit to 20’ish guests per tour, so everyone can comfortably gather round each car and see/hear the guide, without having to peer over someone’s shoulder. Cost £25+VAT per person + Tour Guide cost of £120+VAT. Following tea/coffee and Lotus biscuits, our tour guide will give you a fully guided and comprehensive tour of both the workshop and upper mezzanine level, where each group will learn about the history and fun facts of cars. Then at the end, each member will get to take away a monoposto poster, as a memento of their visit.

Because we are a working workshop, for health and safety reasons, tours can only be scheduled in an evening Monday-Friday, but anytime at Saturday-Sunday, subject to availability.

Some teaser photos of what's on offer below:-

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Looks well worth a visit I'm sure you'll agree.

Personally I would be inclined to go for option 2 so for that we would require around 20 people. previously we did the whole thing in a day, evening visits are also a possibility but would invariably mean a stop over.

Since I am involved with LitP again this year, if there is sufficient interest in this then I would very much appreciate it if someone else volunteered to take on any necessary arrangements, particularly so if a visit is planned before LitP in July - I trust you understand.

So, over to you...

Do we have 20 people interested and would someone be willing to take on any arrangements?

Cheers

Phil

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Looking at their website the earliest date currently would be Saturday 9th May and then various dates through to late November. There may be some benefit in avoiding their race weekends too I guess to maximise the number of cars to see.

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I would be interested in this Phil.

 I did the one Simon organised which was Friday 29th April 2016! 
A few of us stayed in the hotel where people met up on the morning for breakfast. We had a few beers and some Lotus chat in bar which was great. It would be good to maybe do that again this time too?

I don’t mind helping with the organising, in the past when I have organised sprint days and Karting days it’s the chasing of payments I struggle with because I have paid in full out of my own money. I wonder if there is a way around this ?

Mark

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Phil, this sounds like a great day out, I too was on the last MLOC CTL tour in 2016 and it was utterly brilliant, especially meeting Bob Dance who of course was an engineer when Clark, Fittipaldi, Andretti, Hill and other greats were driving for Team Lotus.

So I’m definitely interested in going back now that they are in their new premises.

I think May would be a great time to do this - long days and decent weather (hopefully) if it suits other people.

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10 hours ago, Daveb99 said:

Phil, this sounds like a great day out, I too was on the last MLOC CTL tour in 2016 and it was utterly brilliant, especially meeting Bob Dance who of course was an engineer when Clark, Fittipaldi, Andretti, Hill and other greats were driving for Team Lotus.

So I’m definitely interested in going back now that they are in their new premises.

I think May would be a great time to do this - long days and decent weather (hopefully) if it suits other people.

I agree with  May 👍

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Thanks to all who've responded thus far and especially with the offers of help. It seems like there could be a good level of interest again, I'll give them a call and see what dates are available around May time.

During the week the only times available are in the evenings, I'm not sure that would work that well for us so I would favour a Saturday rather than Sunday, it may make it easier to get a meal in the afternoon too.

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I've spoken to CTL to check on their weekend date availability for May and we have the following dates currently available:-

Sat 2nd/Sun 3rd May

Sat 16th/Sun 17th May (I can't do the Sunday)

Sun 24th May only - Saturday already booked (This is also the Spring Bank holiday weekend)

Sat 30th/Sun 31st May

Cost-wise, based on the figures quoted in my original post, it would work out at £37-20 each if we had 20 people going but if we only have 10 then that cost would increase to £44-40 each, so we ideally need more interest in order to make it work.

For me the first or last Saturday would be my favoured dates but what does everyone else think?

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