rcollum

Great weather (for the first time in what seems like months) and a holiday weekend made for a huge day at Katie's. The front lot was mostly full shortly after 6:00AM, and parking anywhere in the complex was essentially non-existent by 7:00AM. A fairly good showing of Lotus - hopefully, in preparation for a big turnout on Sunday, May 29th for GYLO! --Bob Collum

GYLO: Our appropriately-named "Get Your Lotus Out" event (also known as GYLO) will be held on Sunday, May 29th, at Katie's Coffee lower parking lot, in Great Falls Village, VA. If you have a Lotus, or any Se7en, bring it. If you are 'between Lotus', or temporarily without your Lotus, come on out and see old friends, make new friends, and ogle beautiful cars. GYLO will run from 9:00AM to 11:00AM on Sunday, 5/29/16. Afterwards, we are driving to Quattro Goomba's winery & brewery in Aldie, VA. You are welcome to join us - we will have a special Lotus area for parking. You can bring your own food, or you can buy pizza and pub food at Quattro Goomba's. --Bob Collum

It was a rainy Saturday. That's nothing new; May 2016 has been pretty much a complete washout. It has rained every single weekend, and even caused our first-ever GYLO postponement. Well, it can't beat us! Even when it rains, we have several people who show up to talk cars. Our friend Chuck brought his week-old Macan S. Everybody spent pretty much the whole time talking inside Katie's. There were still some interesting vehicles on the lot, though. --Bob Collum

A friend I made when I was a Jaguar owner has a picnic every spring, and invites his car friends. It's an amazing mix of cars and people. He does some E-Type restoration work, so he had (by my count) 13 E-Types on the lawn, and 3 more in his shop. He also had three of the new Mustang GT 350's, and a rare Alfa 8C. Also in attendance was a car claimed to be one of the 'Ferris Bueller' cars, a Mustang chassis and V8, with an impressively-done Ferrari California Spyder-replica body. --Bob Collum

I did not make it out to Dulles Landing on Sunday, but I did show up at the later-starting Fairfax Circle cars & coffee. It was chilly and windy, but some hardy souls made it out. --Bob Collum

Don't forget - the Get Your Lotus Out event (GYLO) will be held Sunday, May 29th, from 9:00AM - 11:00AM at the Katie's lower parking lot, in Great Falls, VA. As always, we will hold a popular-vote 'Favorite Lotus' contest, with prizes. (My broad definition of Lotus includes all Seven versions.) Afterwards, we will drive to Aldi, VA for lunch at Quattro Goomba's winery & brewery. Bring your own food, or buy food there. This is a great opportunity to see some really nice cars, and equally great people. We hope to see you there! Thanks, Bob Collum

This morning, I realized that this year, we are not so much car enthusiasts, as much as sun worshippers. The few times this spring that we see clear skies, the crowds and great cars come out. It sure happened at Katie's this morning! Lots of Lotus there today - Vic and his Europa, an Exige, and at least 5 Elises, including the CO Elise that Schuyler & Ivy brought last week. Welcome! --Bob Collum

GYLO Rescheduled: Sunday, May 29th, 2016 - 9:00AM - 11:00AM. Katie's lower parking lot, Great Falls Village, VA. We hold Get Your Lotus Out, also known as GYLO, twice a year. This is our 6th year, and the 11th time we have held the event. GYLO is an informal, SHORT, one-marque car show. We have a popular vote for the best Lotus, and we give out some prizes. I like to think of it as most of the fun of a British car show, without standing around all day. GYLO 11 will be held at the Katie's Coffee lower parking lot. Since we hold the event on a Sunday, we don't have to complete with the throng of people and cars that would be at Katie's every Saturday. Although this is primarily a 'Lotus' event, all types of Sevens are welcome! After GYLO, we will go over to Quattro Goomba's winery & brewery, about 27 miles away, in Aldie, VA. All GYLO attendees are welcome. You can bring your own food to eat there, and they sell wine, beer, soft drinks, pizza and some new 'brewery kitchen' foods on-site. Quattro Goomba’s is at 22860 Monroe-Madison Memorial Hwy, in Aldie, VA. From Katie’s, it’s a quick drive out 7 towards Leesburg, to 15 South to Aldie, VA. We should be at the winery by about 11:30AM. We will have our own parking area, and can choose to eat outside or inside. (We will have maps available at GYLO.) --Bob Collum

I have not attended any Sunday morning cars & coffee since the first week of April, since the weather has been very bad in Northern Virginia this spring. It was nice to get out on a nice Sunday morning, which just happened to also be Mother's Day. I drove out to Dulles Landing, the large shopping center near the junction of 50 (Lee Jackson Memorial Highway) and 606. That cars & coffee event starts around 7:00AM, centered around the Dunkin Donuts. At about 8:30AM, myself and several friends drive back in 50 towards 66, and drive to Fairfax Circle, where another cars & coffee takes place. At this location, we grab coffee and baked goods at Cameron's Coffee. Nice people and cars at both locations. This morning, at Dulles Landing, I first noticed a detail on my Caterham. (How have I missed this?) I have parked in the exact same parking place, every time I have attended, since mid-August last year. Today, the sun was in the exact position for me to see the word 'Caterham' embossed on the lower leading edge of the nose. I had not noticed that before. At Dulles Landing, Dino brought out the Baldwin-Motion Corvette he just bought. Baldwin Chevrolet was a dealership in New York, and they did what has to be described as extreme customization and tuning of Chevy products. Their customized Chevies were called Baldwin-Motion Corvettes and Camaros, with mechanical tuning done by local shop Motion Performance. What Baldwin did was similar to other dealers, like Yenko Chevrolet. Baldwin-Motion produced cars from 1967 thru 1974. --Bob Collum

We've had 10 straight days of rain. It rained all day and most of the night Friday. What do we have to do to get a decent weekend? When I left the house, the roads were wet, but we lucked out, and it did not rain at Katie's. The overcast and the wet roads made lots of folks hesitate, but most still showed up, but an hour or so later than usual. An impressive showing, all things considered. My wife made her first trip out to Katie's this morning. Since she arrived much later than I did, and the weather looked better, she brought the Seven, and gave some rides to friends. Last picture - hey, who is that?? (LotusMan1951.) --Bob Collum

I was told the silver MGA had been sent back to England at some point for a full restoration, where they added very subtle fender flares, and made the body perfect. It looked really good. By comparison, the black one was a nice 'survivor'. --Bob

An overcast morning, which meant a slow start, but we ended up with a good turnout, overall. It turns out the rain will be happening Sunday, forcing us to postpone our Get Your Lotus Out event, originally scheduled for Sunday, May 1st. --Bob Collum

Sorry to say, we have our first-ever GYLO postponement. The Sunday, May 1st forecast is now for thunderstorms, all day. As much fun as it is to get together, we feel it will be better to reschedule for a later date. We are also cancelling the cookout at the Glahns', which was scheduled to immediately follow GYLO. We need to work on logistics - make sure the GYLO venue is available for our group, and arrange for a possible meal afterwards. Once that is taken care of, we will notify you all about the new date and arrangements. We are looking at Sunday, May 29th (Memorial Day Weekend) as a possible GYLO date. Let me know if you have strong feelings about that date, one way or another. As always, keep your eye on our website for future developments - NoVALotus.club. Thanks! Bob Collum Mark Franke NoVA Lotus

Lots of interesting cars - including 15 Lotus (and one M100 in the parking lot). A great day... My Caterham was the only Seven there. --Bob Collum

http://britishspeed.com/forum/images/icons/icon1.png Get Your Lotus Out - GYLO 11 This coming Sunday, May 1st, we will hold our GYLO (Get Your Lotus Out) event. NOTE: RE-SCHEDULED to 05/29/16!! The Venue – Katie’s Coffee lower parking lot, in Great Falls, VA. The address for Katie’s Coffee is 760 Walker Road, Great Falls, VA. This is in a shopping center called Great Falls Village, a large square block accessible from either Georgetown Pike (193) or Walker Road. From Georgetown Pike, the road in to Great Falls Village runs between the Great Falls Post Office and the BB & T Bank, directly across from the fire department. From Walker Road, the entrance to Great Falls Village is the street next to the Wells Fargo Bank, across Walker Road from the Safeway Shopping Center. I will set up early, so if you drive all the way around the block in Great Falls Village, you won’t be able to miss our setup. The Schedule – Sunday, May 1st, 2016, from 9:00AM to 11:30AM. We will issue a placard with an assigned number for each Lotus to put in the windshield, and a ballot to vote for your favorite Lotus. Between 10:30 and 11:00AM, we will tally the votes, and award some prizes. GYLO is a shorter-duration event than a full-blown car show, organized just for Lotus cars. We typically have between 25 and 40 cars show up, in a variety of Lotus models – it’s quite a sight! (We had three Sevens in attendance last year!) We’d love you to bring your Lotus, but we also understand that our cars are not always ready to drive – come on out, with or without your Lotus. This event is both for Lotus owners, and Lotus lovers! The NoVA Lotus Cookout afterwards – Jenn & Tim Glahn have offered to hold a cookout starting at noon at their house in Burke, VA – not a bad drive from Katie’s. We did this at the last GYLO, last September, and we had a GREAT time! The Glahns are providing burgers and hot dogs, soft drinks and beer, and desserts. If you would like to attend this event with your fellow Lotusphiles, you are welcome to come. We ask that, for food planning purposes, you RSVP your headcount for the cookout to me on this thread as soon as possible. If you like, you can bring a side dish to share at the cookout. We hope to see you at GYLO! Bob Collum

What happens at Katie's when it suddenly starts raining? Well, those of us in open cars... run away! Today's cars & coffee was doing well, until... it started raining around 7:20AM. A quick exit for all the roadsters. A nice turnout while it lasted, though! --Bob Collum P.S.: I hope everyone can make it to Britain on the Green on 4/24/16... They PROMISE good weather! See the thread below for details: http://www.usa7s.net/vb/showthread.php?11099-Britain-on-the-Green-Sunday-04-24-16

Don't forget! Britain on the Green, the first big British car show of the year, will be held this Sunday, 4/24/16. Show field opens at 9:30AM, awards presentation 2:30PM - 3:00PM. It's as much a social event as anything. We would like to get a large contingent of Lotus (including, of course, Sevens) at this year's event, as a way of kicking off our season. The link to the site is below. Show car registration will be $35 at the gate. Spectator admission is $10 for adults, and children 6-18 years old $5.Children under 6 are admitted free. Visitors can bring the whole family (2adults, 3 children) for $25. Bring your chairs! www.capitaltriumphregister.com/bog/ We will have a tailgate party set up in our area, so please let us know if you will attend, so we can gauge how much food to bring! --Bob Collum

I searched, and didn't see "LeMay" listed anywhere on the site. Here are some cars of interest I saw while visiting the Lemay Museum. I'm visiting a friend in Seattle. The current feature is American muscle, but we managed to find these cars there. I had heard this was a pretty good collection, and I was happy we went. --Bob Collum

A combination of good weather and lots of car events later today brought out the crowds! A good turnout of Lotus (I hope) means a good showing next week at Britain on the Green, and on Sunday, May 1st, for Get Your Lotus Out... (Sorry to Vic, I didn't get a proper picture of his red Europa Twincam - the corner of it is barely visible in the last picture.) --Bob Collum

It was wet when I left for Katie's, early this morning. It was a bit cold for early spring - 42 degrees. No rain at all on the way in, though. Looks like that was enough to discourage a lot of people, but not all of us! --Bob Collum

The first Katie's of April. Temperature was not bad - low 50's early morning, but it started raining lightly, just before 6:00AM. Did it keep some people away? Yes. Did it mean no interesting vehicles? Absolutely not! The first picture is of the Katie's front lot, at 7:40AM. (I drove my Elise, since I knew rain was likely.) That last picture - a Lotus cousin! --Bob Collum

Today was Easter Sunday, so Cameron's at Fairfax Corner was closed. Dulles Landing had a pretty good turnout, though - only one Lotus there today, mine. Alas, no Sevens there today. We did have a brand-new, flat-plane-crank V8 Mustang GT 350, and several other interesting vehicles. --Bob Collum

A cool, mostly-clear morning at Katie's, Easter weekend. A big turnout, and a good showing of Lotus! Mark Franke's Esprit is back from its vacation. (No Sevens today, though...) --Bob Collum

Glad to contribute what I can! --Bob Collum

Oh... Most Saturdays I'm inside, having breakfast with friends until there's enough light to take pictures. We are at the table nearest the coffee counter. Now that it's Daylight Savings Time, I'm probably outside around 7:45 or 8:00AM. --Bob