March/April Meetings

page 1 Published by the Golden Gate Lotus Club www.gglotus.org March/April 2011 March/April Meetings Friday, March 18, 2011 – 7:30 PM Host: Pete and Noni Richen Kevin Enderby and Stefano Natoli engage in a little bench racing at the Club Auto Sport Dietsch Werks GGLC club meeting in February. Friday, April 15, 2011 – 7:30 PM Host: Rahul and Nithya Nair Alexander Komlik trains a next generation driver on one of the Trinity Racing Concepts simula- tors at Club Auto Sport. (Alex is also helping out with his finger on the “go” pedal since the driver cannot reach it!) page 2 GGLC Recruits and Parties at Club Auto Sport for February Meeting editor GGLC prez, Jen Dietsch cold and wet weather that did (with some help from Rob and little to dampen the spirits of Sebastian), organized a special the attendees. club event for the February Many of the tenants at Club meeting held at the Club Auto Auto Sport opened their doors Sport facility in San Jose. Club for the attendees to hang out Auto Sport is the new home of and swap stories. The immacu- Another special feature of the Dietsch Werks, and it provides late show and race cars on dis- evening was a chance to get a an outstanding venue for car play in the main meeting area first look at the spiffy new paint folks to gather and share experi- and at Borelli Motor Sports pre- and decals on the GGLC equip- ences. sented the perfect backdrop for ment truck. the event. One of the highlights of the evening was the chance for attendees to try out the state-of-the- art racing simu- lators being de- veloped by Jack Ulstad and Mar- The new look is bound to at- tin McKeefery at tract some positive attention dur- Trinity Racing ing the upcoming AutoX season, Concepts. They and it will serve as a great club The evening focused on intro- generously opened their doors billboard at this year‟s LOG ducing potential new members for the evening, and many event in Las Vegas. to the GGLC, and the turn out guests took advantage of the was impressive, especially con- free seat time. sidering the uncharacteristically page 3 Lotus Puts on a ing elaborate graphics and dis- extensive world-wide coverage plays along with an array of Hol- of the new car lineup. Big Show in LA editor Last year‟s LA Car Show took place November 19-28, 2010, but space limitations in earlier issues of the Chapman Report forced me to delay coverage of the spec- tacular unveiling of 5 new Lotus cars at the show. It was an amaz- Suspense builds as we wait ing event, and, with help from for the covers to come off. Dave Simkin and Carl Jackson from LCU, Kiyoshi Hamai, Ra- hul Nair and I were able to get passes to the Press Preview days held before the opening of the show to the general public. That means your exclusive GGLC re- porting team had some very spe- lywood stars to add to the glam- The atmosphere in LA was no cial up-close time with the cars our of the event. The show in LA less festive, and it was combined and the people involved. was essentially a repeat of the with a rare chance for us to see Lotus corporate and LCU put first showing of the cars at the and talk to the people behind the their best face forward showing prestigious Paris show in early off the exciting concept cars us- October 2010, which resulted in (continued on p.4) page 4 (cont’d from p. 3) cars. In particular, Rahul was able to get some exclusive one-on-one video interviews with key Lotus personnel, and the content of those interviews pro- vided some special insights as well as lots of attention when they were posted on his GGLC Chapman Report Online blog. Sharon Stone at the wheel of the new Esprit with Lotus CEO, Dany Bahar in the passenger's seat. Check out the accompanying photos to get a fla- vor of the excitement Lotus has been generating with these concept cars that will hopefully be turned into customer cars delivered to a re-vitalized dealer network in the not too distant future. Ace GGLC blogger Rahul Nair videos his interview with an enthusiastic Lotus CEO, Dany Bahar. page 5 Calendar Date Activity Location March 5 Car Club Chal- Fremont lenge (Karts) March 18 Social/Club San Francisco Meeting March 31 Track Day Thunderhill April 15 Social/Club Daly City Meeting Apr 23 AutoX Marina May 15 Marin/Sonoma Marin Concours May 17 Track Day Thunderhill See www.gglotus.org for additional information about upcoming events. wards Big Basin and Santa Cruz. GGLC’s Anti-Football Fun Run Eventually, we reached the coast and began the scenic drive north Attracts a big Crowd towards Half Moon Bay. editor Rest stops included Boulder The first fun run of the new out on the roughly 90 mile trek Creek and an especially scenic year was organized by Kiyoshi that Kiyoshi had laid out. visit to Pigeon Point. Hamai, and fortunately enough it The route first ran through the The final destination for the was scheduled for a glorious, hills while heading south to- fun run was Cameron‟s Pub in bright and clear CA day on Janu- Half Moon Bay where the par- ary 22. No matter that there were ticipants could share some sto- no major football games actually ries and find a traditional British scheduled for that day as the fish-‟n-chips lunch if that was owners of the 20+ cars that their pleasure. joined the fun run did not need an excuse to exercise their vehi- All in all, it was a great day cles on some of the best of Bay combined with a great outing to Area back roads. start off the new year of club The group gathered at Buck‟s events with style. And, as an ex- restaurant in Woodside where tra bonus, no one had to forgo early arrivals could enjoy one of their favorite football game to the classic restaurant‟s hearty enjoy the excursion! breakfast specials before setting Photo credit: Kiyoshi Hamai page 6 An Elan at Last by Royce Hong Reprinted from Motoring Con Brio (www.motoringconbrio.com) I started sketching and draw- ing cars at the tender age of five, and I have always sketched and drawn a “top 12″ list of cars that I—an industrial designer and motoring enthusiast—consider to be the best cars ever made. I am a die-hard fan of ingenious engineering wrapped in simple, sumptuous curves that give an inimitable driving experience. These attributes are the very es- sence of industrial design: genu- Elan S3 for sale on a British car are anything but perfectly engi- ine, accessible, yet highly rigor- enthusiast forum. One look at the neered. Nor are they exactly reli- ous in concept, form and per- posted photos and I‟m be- able. They have a „well, it more formance. witched. The seller is a well- or less works‟ build quality Two Lotus cars sit on my top known professional car photog- about them and ALWAYS give 12 list: the Series 1 Elise and the rapher, and the photos really you an unpredictable driving ex- original (1960s) Elan. Being a capture what it feels like to own perience. Something unexpected loving owner of a Series 1 Elise and drive the car. always happens with these in Taiwan for almost ten years I showed the pictures to my cars—be it mishap or delight— now, I have lusted over its wife, and to my absolute delight, and mine is no exception. predecessor the Elan for as long she urged, “Get it! Get as I can remember. Due to both it!” (above all else, per- work circumstances (I split my haps definitive proof that time between Taipei and the San Royce Hong is an incredi- Francisco Bay Area) and way- bly fortunate man- Ed.), ward luck, I had never crossed thereby sealing the deal paths with an Elan that ended up for me and my Elan. After going home with me. a friend checked it out for Although the Elan had eluded us in LA and came back me for a long time, I would al- with a favorable nod, we ways think how absurdly fantas- bought the Elan, sight un- tic it would be to drive a roadster seen. Lotus in Northern California. I For me, driving is about a to- The adventures started during could just imagine how the Elan tal experience formed by how delivery, before I even had a would drive down a twisty the car works, how it looks, how chance to drive it. We had the mountain road as I hear the car it sounds, and how it performs. It Elan trucked up north to an auto working with me. Honestly, is about the injection or superim- shop in the Bay Area as we what could be a purer driving position of personality, story, wanted to have the car properly experience? and poetry into a precisely engi- looked at. On the day of the As luck would have it, late neered performance machine. scheduled arrival, a severe win- last year I finally met my Elan. Unlike the various Porsches ter storm broke out. Worried that I‟ve owned, British cars— the car might be caught in the An old college friend from LA shot over a link to a blue ‟67 especially older British cars— storm, we asked the trucking page 7 company for an update on their with the track-prepped Miata on business trip in Asia, so I headed truck‟s whereabouts but were Skyline‟s numerous curves.

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