LEW Oxford Meet
@ Heythrop Park, Oxford
www.heythroppark.co.uk
13th May 2007

The Lotus Esprit World Oxford Meeting took place on 13th May 2007. Lotus Esprit World (“LEW”) have run these meeting for the last few years and they’ve been getting more popular every year.

9am Meet at Peartree Services

  

The first meeting point was at Peartree Services on the A34 near Oxford! LEW was there first, closely followed by Brian & Geoff in the Lotus Engineering's V8. A wet horrible day greeted us, but Esprits continued to roll in and by 10am we had around 30 Esprits!

  

Leaving a little later than planned we all headed off to Heythrop Park at about 10.15am

Off to Heythrop Park

   

A 20 min drive to Hethrop from Peartree was uneventful! Which is good considering the weather! A great line up of Esprit queuing up to line up in front of the main house at Heythrop! Everything went without a hitch, other than we all got a little wet!

  

Spirits were still high as people parked up and enjoyed the sight of so many Esprits. Familar faces and some new owners joining us for the first time! We had a good ranage of cars with Paul Godfrey's S1 up to Glyn H's 2002 V8. We also managed both a Sport 350 from Mike Ring and a Sport 300 from Ken Baird.

Away from the Rain

With the run looking likely to be cancelled due to the weather, we were lucky to have a great conference room to continue the meeting in. Everyone was issued with name badges and supplied Tea and Coffee before we got into the talks.

   

Philippe Adams started of the entertainment with a talk on his experiences as an F1 driver with Team Lotus in the mid-nineties. Philippe spoke about how he got into F1 and how his races went. He also gave us an insight into what it's like to drive an F1 car. A very interesting and at times funny speech! Half-way through Philippe's talk, the building lost all power! Philippe continued in the dark! A true professional!

Philippe also took questions at the end and was very approachable all day! Philippe drove over from Belgium for the day and we thank him for attending in his 1988 Esprit NA.

With Dinner delayed due to the power cut. Brian Angus from Lotus Engineering department took over after a short break and spoke about what's happening at the factory and told some great stories from his years at the Factory.

   

Once dinner was ready, we retired to the Oxford Suite for private dinning! As the staff had started to prepare a buffet due to the power cut, we got both a roast and cold buffet! Plenty of food for the 46 people who sat down to enjoy the company of fellow Esprit owners. The food was very good, with Pork, Beef, Chicken and Samon available! Desert was also very nice! Water was supplied, so no drinking and driving!

  

After the meal and a short break it was confirmed that the run was cancelled due to the continuing bad weather. Safety first, especially with 33 beautiful cars sitting outside. So it was on with the talks. Brian and the now retired Geoff took the stage. Geoff spoke about the safety regulations and the crash testing done on the Esprit. Plus a few other great stories from his days at Lotus. The floor was then opened up for a Q&A session. Some great questions and some interesting answers. Including the future for Lotus and the New Esprit, which is still a work in progress at the factory.

End of a Good 'Wet' Day

   

After the talking was done, it was back out to the front to check out the cars. Mat and Pete swapped wheels to see if Pete could find out where his vibration problem was coming from! Great to see owners helping each other out!

Brian had brought down the V8 with the Cross Plane Crank in it, which was great to hear!

  

The day ended with plenty of chatting and lots of checking out of each others Esprit! considering the weather it was a great day which everyone enjoyed! Great location, great company, great food, great guests and great people!

LEW would like to thank Philippe Adams for giving a great talk on his experiences and as ever Brian and Geoff from Lotus who give the meets a really Lotus feel. And of course the people who make it all possible. Dermot, Rob Ellis, Andy Betts and Paul Chandler.

Oxford 2007 Team

See you next time.