rcollum

A pretty good turnout on Father's Day - Bob Scates and I made sure Lotus was represented. Mike D. was there in his Porsche Cabriolet, and Paul M. was enjoying his '32 Ford Roadster, 'Henry'. Dino had his Lambo, and Bob Williams drove his just-purchased Porsche Turbo. A really nice bunch of people. --Bob Collum

Well, finally - perfect weather on a Saturday morning! That means a lot of cars & people at Katie's. Chuck Stone parked next to me in his Westfield Seven. As it turns out, Craig Chima was involved in Chuck's Westfield, and in my Caterham! Michael D. came by, and we talked for a while. We had another Dodge Demon there today. My friend Pete and his son drove their Beck Porsche replicas. The Stanley Steamer is a crowd-pleaser. Check out the rearview mirror hang-tag on the Cobra... --Bob Collum

A good turnout - 3 Lotus, driven by 3 NoVA Lotus members. Dino had his 512BB there, too. --Bob Collum

4 Lotus at Katie's today! Also, several cars there I had never seen before... (I'm a little surprised I had the only Seven there today.) --Bob Collum

I had the only Lotus I saw at Katie's today. (Mark Franke was there, but his Esprit is in the shop.) There was an amazing showing of TVRs - 11 of them, while I was there. Quite a sight! This inspires me - what would it take to get a bunch of the local Sevens to show up someplace? I attend two events, pretty much every week - Katie's on Saturday (very early start time) and Fairfax Circle on Sundays, starting at a more-reasonable 8:00AM. We could also arrange to get together someplace for a lunch. I know the various track and autocross events mean a large number of weekends will not work for a fair number of us. Is there a day/time that would work for a handful of us, or more? --Bob Collum

A very big turnout, even as early as we get there... Chuck Stone, who I know from the Jaguar club, has bought a Westfield 7. He drove his Westfield to Katie's today. A lot of nice cars there, today. --Bob Collum

It was a quick visit to Cameron's for me today, since our local Lotus club had a meet scheduled for 11:00AM out in Leesburg, VA. Actually, the turnout today at Cameron's (on the first non-rain-day in a week) was about as large as Katie's was yesterday, in the rain. It was still wet, with puddles in my neighborhood, so I left the Seven at home. --Bob Collum

It rained today. It's rained for what seems like a week! A small turnout for a Saturday at Katie's, but still, a dedicated, enthusiastic bunch! The guys I usually have breakfast with on Saturdays were there, and we made the best of it. I got there early. Michael D was there this morning, mourning the Seven he sold last year. --Bob Collum

We were approached by a friend who works at the embassy, a couple of months ago. He mentioned the possibility of being able maybe display some cars at the open house - something that had not happened in a while. As we approached the date, we were advised we could bring as few as two, and as many as four of our cars. Since Lotus Cars USA had agreed to supply two new Evoras (and this event is really all about promoting British exports), we figured we'd be able to have maybe two or three of our cars on display. We wanted to display an array of cars from all eras, my Elise was out - too 'ordinary'. Our contact was displaying his Seven, so I couldn't bring mine. We ended up with really nice examples of an Elan and an Exige, to show that Lotus is not just the Elise, or even the Evora. It was a really nice day, very well run. Over 10,000 people came thru to see the cars, have some British food - food trucks with English Breakfast and, later, fish & chips '- and everyone toured the 'official' residence - where they have formal dinners and meetings. I was very happy to have been invited, and look forward to working with the embassy in the future! --Bob Collum

We had a great time at the British Embassy Open House today. They had Revolutionary War re-enactors, several Bobbies in uniform, and over 10,000 visitors! Some seemingly strange additional guests were Philadelphia Eagles cheerleaders and drumline. Later, I found out that the tie-in is, the Eagles will be playing a pre-season game in London, later this year. --Bob Collum

British Embassy Open House – Saturday 12 May 2018 from 10:00AM to 4:00PM – Showcasing Lotus & Caterham! Every year the British Embassy opens their doors to the public. Last year, the British Embassy was once again the most popular Embassy, greeting nearly 8,000 members of the public. Access to the Embassy allows visitors to tour the impressive Residence, perfectly manicured gardens and indulge in some British food, art, fashion and music. But of course there’ll also be some impressive cars on display with the likes of McLaren, Rolls Royce, Bentley, Jaguar Landrover and LOTUS! Yes Lotus shall be there with a planned 2 Evoras being showcased by Lotus North America, an Elan courtesy of the NOVA Lotus Club, as well as a member's Caterham Seven. So if you’re in the DC area and wish to attend, please come armed with camera, water and sun screen (fingers crossed we get the weather). Please note that the gates open at 10:00AM and close promptly at 4:00PM. Entrance lines form quickly, so to minimize wait time please arrive early. Photos from previous year’s Open House can be seen at bit.ly/1AcVw7n. The Embassy address is: · 3100 Massachusetts Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20008. For travel options please note that there is no parking at the Embassy so you will need to find a nearby car park / on street parking or travel in using the Metro. You might find parking in the vicinity of Wisconsin and Massachusetts Avenues. If you find parking there, beware of parking restrictions. It is NOT recommended you bring your 'good' car to this event! It's a 1.7 mile walk from the Farragut West Metro stop. (The Woodley Park Zoo Metro stop is closer, but will be VERY BUSY on a Saturday morning.) If you park near Wisconsin and Massachusetts Avenues, it's about a .8 mile walk. Hopefully we will see you there! Let's support Lotus, and this great event at the British Embassy! Bob Collum, NOVA Lotus

I've been away from this C & C for a while; I met up with a friend today, before heading off to the annual Deutsche Marque German car show. --Bob Collum

Since it was raining lightly when I left my house, I drove the (gasp) Subaru this morning. I had really wanted to drive the Seven, but didn't want to deal with the rain. Luckily, some people braved the weather, which turned out to be a largely dry by the time we got to Great Falls. There were three Evoras there, but I never got a picture of Mickey's car. Keep an eye the NoVA Lotus website's calendar; we are planning several events for Northern Virginia in the new few weeks - DC British Embassy Open House: novalotusclub.freeforums.net/thread/375/british-embassy-open-house-Saturday Jefferson 500 - Kevin McGovern Invitation: novalotusclub.freeforums.net/thread/363/invitation-kevin-mcgovern-jefferson-500 GYLO 15: novalotusclub.freeforums.net/thread/372/gylo-15-20th-2018-00am Memorial Day Weekend Drive: novalotusclub.freeforums.net/thread/377/memorial-day-weekend-drive-sat --Bob Collum

A very good show, as always. We had 13 Lotus, in two classes - essentially, 'old' Lotus, and Elises. New NoVA Lotus member Shannon Way won 1st place with his CO Elise. For 'classic' Lotus category, it was - 1st - Mark Whitaker, blue Elan S4 (another new NoVA Lotus member) 2nd - Bob Collum, Caterham 7 (obviously, he cheated!) 3rd - Tim & Jenn Glahn, white Elan We had a really nice day together - 13 total Lotus on the field, Interesting to note - we had 6 Esprits, only 4 Elises, and no Exiges or Evoras... --Bob Collum

A good turnout this morning! --Bob Collum

Without a doubt, this was the largest day ever at Katie's. Cars were parked all the way around the Great Falls Village shopping center. While I am glad Katie's remains popular, the fact that we had overflow cars parking across Walker Road on the Safeway parking lot, and also parked unsafely along the side of Georgetown Pike. This will generate a lot of complaints, if this is not just a blip in attendance for the first gorgeous-weather day of the year. That MGB is a newly-manufactured car from a firm called British Motor Heritage in England. It runs Mazda MX-5 running gear. --Bob Collum

We didn't think it was very funny; there are lots of deer on the roads around Katie's, and we've had accidents involving cars and deer. This looked like the aftermath...

We had been getting dire predictions of a big snow all week. That changed late this week to a snow/rain mix. The reality was, a very sparse, slight mist. While the turnout at Katie's was a bit light, we had some interesting stuff... I was the first car there! --Bob Collum

The guy who owns this Kaiser Darrin is the guy who created this cars & coffee event. He used to have two nearly-identical Kaiser Darrins, but sold the second one over a year ago. --Bob Collum

Today was the last Saturday in March, it wasn't too cold, and FINALLY, the salt on the roads has been washed away! A good turnout of Lotus! Michael D is dealing with Seven withdrawal, and had his BMW there today. --Bob Collum

A couple of regulars were out of town, but we still had an interesting group of people (and cars). Bob Scates is a semi-regular with his Esprit. Come on out at 8:00AM on a Sunday! --Bob Collum

This event, which is held every Sunday at the parking lot on 29, near Fairfax Circle, has turned out to be a nice event. It's not big, but everyone is friendly, and the variety of cars is very good. Today, we had two Lotus, two Jaguars, two Porsches, a Corvette, a '32 Ford Roadster and a Fiero replicar. Bob Scates and his Esprit S1 are pretty regularly there. --Bob Collum

A special day at Katies; first, it's St. Patrick's Day, and that really means something at a place called The Old Brogue. Second, the many regulars who missed last week because they were at the Amelia Island Concours in Florida returned, with great stories of cars and car people. Of course, there are ALWAYS great cars at Katie's. My favorites this week - the beautiful Mercedes Gullwing replica, built on a newer MB chassis, with a modern AMG engine. Bob Morris' unbelievable, fresh-from-restoration Allard. As beautiful a new car as there is: the Aston Martin DB11. Another all-time favorite of mine: the Alfa Montreal. --Bob Collum

A small turnout at Cameron's today, but it's always good to get together with friends, and make new ones. (Several of our regulars are at the Amelia Island car show this weekend.) --Bob Collum

Every year, the Philadelphia Areas Lotus Society (PALS) has an end-of-winter get together. Debbie and I have been members of that group (along with NoVA Lotus) since the mid-90's. Kyle Kaulback holds the event at the 'barn' he built to house his Lotus collection. We go up to see old friends, and see what they are doing for the upcoming year. Here are some vehicles of interest we saw there... The red S4 Seven was one built under license in Argentina. --Bob Collum