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Post by rcollum on Apr 5, 2019 8:59:31 GMT -5
Once again, NoVA Lotus member Gavin has arranged for a couple of us to display our cars at the British Embassy in DC, as part of the annual embassy open house. We will be contacting members to display their cars - keep in mind, we may only have two spaces available, depending on participation by Lotus Cars USA, who has been invited. Like last year, we are trying to display a variety of Lotus models, from throughout Lotus' history. If you have an Elan, Europa, or other 1960's thru 1970's Lotus model, please contact me at robert_collum@hotmail.com. This is an all-day event, and open to the public. We found it necessary to keep a couple of people around the cars, to make sure no one was sitting on the cars.
--Bob Collum
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Post by rcollum on Apr 30, 2019 7:58:16 GMT -5
*** We have our volunteers! Mark Franke will display his Esprit, and Kevin McGovern will bring his Elite. I'm told that Lotus Cars USA will bring a new Evora or two.
If you'd like to come by, see our cars (and some new British cars - Aston, Rolls, McLaren), you can come down and tour the embassy.
This event will be held Saturday, May 11th, 2019, and runs from 10:00AM to 4:00PM. The lines to get in can be long, but it moves fairly briskly.
Below are pictures from last year's event. The embassy set a record for number of visitors in a day. That's an American Revolutionary War re-enactor, in uniform for the day. The NoVA Lotus cars on display, with the Evora that was sent from NJ by Lotus Cars USA. Tyler and Gavin, talking with the ambassador next to the Exige.
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Post by ksm on May 7, 2019 7:31:05 GMT -5
Planning to be there at least for part of the time. May go embassy hopping.
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Post by rcollum on May 8, 2019 16:48:38 GMT -5
Planning to be there at least for part of the time. May go embassy hopping. Come on down! We will have the following cars on display at the British Embassy:
1.) Mark Franke and his Esprit. 2.) Kevin McGovern and his Elite. 3.) Gavin and his Seven. 4.) Lotus Cars USA is sending an Evora.
There should also be new cars there from Aston, Jaguar, and Land Rover.
Come on down and tour the premises!
--Bob Collum
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Post by rcollum on May 11, 2019 19:32:54 GMT -5
...As it turns out, Lotus could not send an Evora to the event. We found out less than 24 hours before the start of the event. We had already arranged to have Gavin's Seven, Kevin's Elite, and Mark's Esprit be on display at the Embassy Open House. The Evora that was supposed to come in from Lotus would have given us cars from 4 eras of Lotus. As a last-minute idea, since I was already going to accompany Mark, I volunteered to bring my Elise. Gavin was able to work with Embassy Security to allow me to provide my Elise as our 4th Lotus. I was happy to note that we had 4 completely different chassis philosophies represented: the Seven (tube chassis), the Elite (monocoque), the Esprit (backbone) and the Elise (tub). It was very nice to see how much love all 4 Lotus got. The only other vehicles on display on our level were a new Jaguar and a new Land Rover, and they seemed to get far less attention.
A lot of people came by between 10AM and 4PM, and it was a polite crowd. They didn't try to sit on the cars, and many people ask really good questions. We even had a few people who are anxious to join us as Lotus owners soon.
Gavin's family was there, and they introduced us to the ambassador and his wife. The ambassador is a real petrol head, and his wife is very charming.
A special thanks to Gavin for getting us invited back to this event! We are the only British car group that has owners bringing their own cars - everything else is new car dealers! We hope to do this again, next May. Let me know if you are interested. I'd like to get some new people and cars down to represent the marque! We want to display a variety of Lotus at this event. (The amount of cars we can bring in is severely limited by the embassy.)
--Bob Collum
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Post by rcollum on May 11, 2019 20:02:38 GMT -5
….and some of Gavin's pictures...
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Post by ksm on May 15, 2019 21:39:31 GMT -5
...As it turns out, Lotus could not send an Evora to the event. We found out less than 24 hours before the start of the event. We had already arranged to have Gavin's Seven, Kevin's Elite, and Mark's Esprit be on display at the Embassy Open House. The Evora that was supposed to come in from Lotus would have given us cars from 4 eras of Lotus. As a last-minute idea, since I was already going to accompany Mark, I volunteered to bring my Elise. Gavin was able to work with Embassy Security to allow me to provide my Elise as our 4th Lotus. I was happy to note that we had 4 completely different chassis philosophies represented: the Seven (tube chassis), the Elite (monocoque), the Esprit (backbone) and the Elise (tub). It was very nice to see how much love all 4 Lotus got. The only other vehicles on display on our level were a new Jaguar and a new Land Rover, and they seemed to get far less attention.
A lot of people came by between 10AM and 4PM, and it was a polite crowd. They didn't try to sit on the cars, and many people ask really good questions. We even had a few people who are anxious to join us as Lotus owners soon.
Gavin's family was there, and they introduced us to the ambassador and his wife. The ambassador is a real petrol head, and his wife is very charming.
A special thanks to Gavin for getting us invited back to this event! We are the only British car group that has owners bringing their own cars - everything else is new car dealers! We hope to do this again, next May. Let me know if you are interested. I'd like to get some new people and cars down to represent the marque! We want to display a variety of Lotus at this event. (The amount of cars we can bring in is severely limited by the embassy.)
--Bob Collum A special thanks to Gavin, indeed. How cool! I'm interesting in bringing my car to next year's event.
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