Happy Holidays, MMP, and the Lotus Evora

[Jeff Greenland]

Hi everyone!  First of all, just wanted to say Happy Holidays and Season's Greetings and all that.  Ok, now that that's out of the way...  :)

 

Hope everyone is doing well.  It's been a busy year for me and I haven't had much time for driving.  I've been wanting to go on a drive or out to MMP or something, so hopefully this next year will work out better for me.  Hope you all have had some time to enjoy your cars!

 

As far as some track time goes, I've just received an email from the corporate sales manager at MMP asking if we'd be interested in any open track days.  I'd guess it's just more or less fishing for business, but nevertheless I replied and said that I'm sure lots of us would like to go out there and to provide me back with some details on pricing, dates, etc.  I'm guessing he didn't mean "next week - and bring snow tires!", but I'm hopeful to finally get a car out there and drive around.  Anyone have thoughts or comments about some track time?

 

Next, I've been anxiously awaiting the arrival of the Evora at Steve Harris Imports so I can finally see one in person.  My wife and I bought tickets, airfare, and hotels to the LA Auto Show last year in November when the Evora debuted, but had to cancel the morning of.  I'm expecting that it will be at the Utah Auto Expo in a few months and should be at the local dealership as well.  At least I'd assume that Steve Harris would be included in the 44-city tour (http://www.ibtimes.com/contents/20091127/lotus-announcess-price-tour-evora.htm).

 

On the topic of the Evora, I have a general question for those more "in-the-know" of the appropriate industries.  As some of you know, I have a Lotus Elan +2, Lotus' first 2+2 car from the late 60's.  Mine is still all original and isn't in terrible condition, especially considering it is 40 years old now.  Now that Lotus is releasing their new 2+2 model which is supposedly unmatched in the industry, I've been curious about seeing if Steve Harris would be willing to do a photo shoot or news story or something with the two models which are 40 years apart.  I saw a local news story 4 or 5 years ago about the Esprit when it was put to rest and figured "why not?" when considering the automotive history and significance of Lotus and these two models.  I thought it would be some great publicity for Lotus, the Lotus dealership here, and perhaps our little Lotus Club.

 

But that being said, I have no idea what to do next.  That is IF it's even a possibility in the first place.

 

As for me, I actually mostly have my cars running at the moment, after a pretty bad year of bad things happening to them.  There's always something to be done of course, but at least I've been able to drive them around finally!

 

Here's to hoping for a good 2010!

 

Jeff

[Rich Sheya]

I’d be up for a morning or afternoon on the track. 

 

Rich Sheya

 

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From: utahlo...@googlegroups.com [mailto:utahlo...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Jeff Greenland
Sent: Tuesday, December 15, 2009 4:29 PM
To: utahlo...@googlegroups.com
Subject: [UtahLotusClub] Happy Holidays, MMP, and the Lotus Evora

[Zach Sharples]

I would be up for some track time.  I usually do the Lapping Days program out there and will typically go 3-4 times in the year.  It's good instruction and lots of fun.

Zachary Sharples

Principle Creative

Think Tank Creative Consortium

www.thinktankcc.com

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[Jeff]

Response from MMP, just FYI.

Jeff,

Great to hear from you. Cost is usually the biggest part of getting
these track days put together. You can do a half track rental on a
weekday (Monday – Thursday) for around $8,300. If you can round up 25
cars to participate, that makes the cost per person about $330. A
normal public open track day runs $275 per person…renting the track
gives you private use of the track with a lot more run time than you
would normally get on a standard public track day. If you move this
to a weekend (Friday – Sunday) you add $2,750 to the total track fee.
If you are interested in full track the rates are weekday - $14,225
and $19,725 for a weekend. These costs include corner workers,
ambulance, wreckers and Emergency Vehicles. I’d love to help you put
something together for your club. As far as dates, the best thing to
do is send out some feelers to your club and see when people would
most likely be interested in doing it and then we will look at
specific dates from there. One last thing…we really want clubs to
come out and enjoy our facilities this coming year. As part of this,
we would like to sponsor a $1000 lunch for your group if you choose to
rent the track from us. During the lunch we would address the group
on the history of MMP and how your members can enjoy it in the
future. Let me know if you are interested in this and we can talk
more. Thank you again for your response and I look forward to hearing
from you soon. Have a great day.

[Jeff]

I think that sounds pretty exciting myself. Getting 25 participants
might be a challenge if we keep it to just the Lotus guys, but I think
I can get 2 or 3 non-Lotus friends/family to join us. I wouldn't at
all be opposed to inviting other with whom you might have connections,
such as the Porsche club or Corvette club or whatever. Maybe even
some BMCU members would be interested.

Jeff

[Zach Sharples]

I have crashed a couple other car club parties at the track. Groups like the BMW club are always running and they have always been pretty cool about letting me mix it up with them.  Getting the 25 has been the challenge whenever I have looked into it.  I think the best we could hope for from out little group would be 5-6 to be honest.  So I agree, we would need to get some other folks interested.  I have many friends with cars and I might be able to put together another 5-6 myself. It would mean running with the likes of the following:

Corvette

Camarro

Mini Cooper S

Shelby Cobra

Shelby Mustang

BMW

The Corvette, Cammaro, and the Shelbys are all high horse power cars and they will totally maul us smaller cars in the straights but we obviously shine in the turns.  ;)   So as long as everyone understands that point-by's only on the big straights are allowed and as long as we give the big cars room to open it up, it could be a blast!  But all of what I just said is standard operating procedure for open track day rules anyway.

Zachary Sharples

Principle Creative

Think Tank Creative Consortium

www.thinktankcc.com

[Jeff]

That sounds about like what I was thinking - maybe we could get 5 or
so. I'm all about having others there and think it would be great
fun. As far as the others I could maybe get to come, they'd be of the
Honda / Acura variety and would just be coming to have fun too. I am
not expecting a "race" out at the track and am perfectly fine with the
idea that others (probably everyone, given my skill level of zero)
will be taking me out to the cleaners. I just wanna have fun. :)

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[Rich Sheya]

I've run with a couple of different car clubs out there and it's all good.
Gotta watch out for the guys in the Porsches though...;-)

Rich Sheya

-----Original Message-----
From: utahlo...@googlegroups.com [mailto:utahlo...@googlegroups.com]
On Behalf Of Jeff