Registration is now open for our event at Thunderhill East on the Classic 3 mile layout. Enter early to get the nice discount.
$205 for GGLC members and $225 for non-members. You can join the club for $25 when you sign up and take the $20 discount immediately.
Additional $20 off if you register by March 31. Yes that’s right, total price is only $185 for members who sign up quickly.
Cancellations with full refund are allowed before April 30.
All brands of cars are welcome.
Each group is scheduled for 7 twenty minute sessions.
We have a few spots open for beginners who have never driven on a racetrack before. We will pair you with a personnal coach.
Novice and Intermediate groups will have open passing on the long straights and pointbys required on the short straights and in turns.
Advanced group is open passing.
Open wheel cars are allowed in the Advanced Group only.
The Golden Gate Lotus Club has been running open track events for over 20 years. We are a non-profit group and our goal is to provide low-hassle open track days for minimum cost with maximum track time.
All brands of cars are welcome at our events. Typical events are about 20% Lotus and 80% other cars. Lemons-type race cars are allowed if they are in excellent mechanical condition (Lemons cars will receive a special safety inspection at the track). Open top cars must have a roll bar with rear braces or factory installed roll-over protection (pop-up bars or similar). Roll bars in open cars must pass the broomstick test. (top of drivers helment must not be above the top off the roll bar and windscreen.
The GGLC has just secured a single run group at Sonoma Raceway on Sunday April 10, 2022. We are sharing the day with LightSpeed. This is for Intermediate and Advanced drivers only and you will be mixed in a single run group. We will have open passing on most of the course with pointbys requried in the more tricky and high speed turns. You must have 15 trackdays mininmum experience and be comfortable in a mostly open passing format. Price is $285 for five 20 minute sessions and you do not have to be a GGLC member. Go to http://msreg.com/gglcsonoma to register. Hurry up because this is certain to sell out fast.
Hope you all have been working on your cars over the winter break and are ready to start racing again! The GGLC will hold our first autox event of the season at the Cow Palace in Daly City on Sunday March 27th.
Online waivers can be signed using SpeedWaiver. It’s best to use your phone as part of the signing process requires taking a photo of yourself: https://gglotusax.speedwaiver.com/yekml
Passengers, co-drivers, and instructors will be allowed to ride together in the same car as long as both people are vaccinated or both are from the same household. Guests are also welcome as long as they are vaccinated. Please read the event guidelines carefully: http://www.gglotus.org/ggcalend/covid.htm
The Cow Palace has been receiving noise complaints, so please note the following restrictions:
• Have a functioning muffled exhaust system • Run adjustable exhaust systems in the quietest mode. • Always follow local regulations when driving to and from the event. • Accelerate slowly from lights. No “showboating” for any reason. Please report any violation to event management. • Avoid extraneous revving of engines • No heating brakes and/or tires by accelerating and decelerating off course • Obey the 15mph paddock speed while on-site
Again, be sure to read the event guidelines. If you fail to adhere to them you will not be permitted to run and you will be asked to leave, forfeiting your entry fees.
The GGLC 2022 Track Day Schedule (subject to change)
Feb 5 – LCOSC Streets of Willow
Feb 23 – GGLC Laguna Seca
Mar 14 – GGLC Buttonwillow
May 16 – GGLC Thunderhill East
July 7 – GGLC Sonoma Raceway
Sept 2 – GGLC Sonoma Raceway
Oct 15 – LCOSC Streets of Willow
Registration will open on MotorsportReg a few weeks before each event. For more info about track days with the GGLC please visit the club track day page.
The GGLC 2022 Autocross Schedule (subject to change)
March 27 – Cow Palace
April 10 – Crows Landing
May 21 – Crows Landing
June 12 – Cow Palace
July 9 – Cow Palace
August 13 – Cow Palace
September 17 – Crows Landing
October 16 – Crows Landing
Registration will open on MotorsportReg a few weeks before each event. For more info about autocrossing with the GGLC please visit the club autocross page.
(Hethel, UK – 22 December 2021) Today, Lotus commemorates the last of the Elise, Exige and Evora sports cars.
The trio were photographed on site with many of the Lotus team who contributed to the design, engineering, assembly and sales of the cars.
Between these three model lines and over the course of 26 years, a total of 51,738 cars will have come off the production line. Combined, they represent almost half of the total production of Lotus in its 73-year history. In addition, 9,715 sports cars were built for Lotus’ third-party clients, including GM and Tesla.
From 1996 to 2000, the first-generation Elise and Exige sports cars were built in a small assembly hall at Hethel alongside the Lotus Esprit. The current assembly lines, which were installed in 2000, will be dismantled and replaced with all-new state-of-the-art facilities in support of the all-new Emira factory. Full Emira production begins in the spring, after the prototype and test phases currently underway are completed, taking Lotus sports car production into an exciting, high-tech and semi-automated era, and increasing capacity up to 5,000 units per year on a single shift pattern.
The last examples of the Elise, Exige and Evora models are reserved for Lotus’ growing heritage collection.
Joining the collection will be the last Elise, a Sport 240 Final Edition finished in Yellow and the last of 35,124 cars; the last Exige, a Cup 430 Final Edition in Heritage Racing Green – number 10,497; and the last Evora – a GT430 Sport finished in Dark Metallic Grey – the last of a production run of 6,117.
The Elise and Exige sports cars are built around the Lotus ‘small car platform’. On the same platform, and also manufactured by Lotus at Hethel were the Opel Speedster / Vauxhall VX220 (7,200 cars built between 2000 and 2005) and the Tesla Roadster (2,515 cars built between 2007 and 2012). Therefore, including the Lotus 340R, Europa, 2-Eleven and 3-Eleven cars, this brings the total Lotus small car platform production volumes to 56,618 cars.
Matt Windle, Managing Director, Lotus Cars, said: “First of all, I would like to thank the Lotus team who have worked on the Elise, Exige and Evora over the years and who are now transferring to Emira and Evija manufacturing. I would also like to convey enormous gratitude to all the customers of the Elise, Exige and Evora over the last 26 years for their passion, enthusiasm and support. These customers have given our ‘three Es’ true cult status – usually reserved for long-out-of-production classics. As we say farewell to the last few cars, we look forward to the Emira and Evija in the all-new factories at Hethel and sub-assembly facilities in Norwich, which introduce greater efficiencies and automation, higher quality and flexibility and the hugely exciting next chapter in our Vision80 strategy.”
Russell Carr, Design Director, Lotus Cars, added: “These iconic cars have not only played a huge role in Lotus’ 73-year history but have also been ever-present in my daily life. Together with the Lotus design team, I have lived and breathed these cars for over 26 years. We will miss them, but a bit like Christmas, once it’s over, the excitement for the next one starts to build – and that’s what’s happening now at Lotus with the Evija, Emira and forthcoming Type 132. 2022 is going to be a great year as a new Lotus generation swings into action.”
Gavan Kershaw, Director of Vehicle Attributes, said: “The Elise, particularly, has been a huge part of my life. It was conceived when I had just finished my apprenticeship and I was working in the vehicle workshops helping to build early prototypes. The Exige will always remain close to me, as the development programme was the first that I worked on as an engineer and I also won the British GT3 championship in a race version. The Evora is also hugely important as it showed that you can have high performance and award-winning handling without sacrificing the longer-journey GT ability. I have first-hand experience of this as I won the British GT4 championships in one and I will never forget leading the technical programme for our Evora Le Mans campaign where we achieved a podium.”
Richard Rackham, Head of Vehicle Concepts, who was vehicle architect on the Lotus Elise and part of the team that pioneered extruded and bonded aluminium technology in the automotive industry, said: “The impact of these three cars has been spectacular over the years, technically, structurally and dynamically. But all technologies and innovations move on and, if you had asked me of my proudest moment four years ago, I would have, without hesitation, said the Elise chassis. However, this has been usurped by our new Project LEVA architecture for our new range of electric sports cars, starting with the Type 135 in a few years’ time. This is now the zenith of Lotus architectures as it has moved the technology game so much further. There is a lot to look forward to.”
Next out of the Lotus stable is the Emira, the critically acclaimed new mid-engineered sports car from Lotus. Launched last July at Hethel and on a world tour ever since, it’s the last petrol-powered car from Lotus. Joining the first electric Lotus – the Evija hypercar and the most powerful production car in the world – will be the all-electric Type 132, Lotus’ first SUV, which will be revealed to the world in the spring.
