GGLC Lotus Corral @ 2010 Monterey Motorsports Reunion (13-15 August 2010)

The GGLC is once again arranging for a Lotus Corral at the 2010 Monterey Motorsports Reunion (nee: Monterey Historic Races) at Laguna Seca Raceway on August 13-15, 2010. Purchase your Monterey Motorsports Reunion ticket and Lotus corral pass from the GGLC and for a discount. The GGLC must sell at least 25 tickets. Please order early and reserve your spot in the corral. GGLC membership is NOT required, but you must drive your Lotus to the event to park in the GGLC Lotus Corral.

# A few things have changed since last year. The GGLC/Lotus Corral is available all 3 days!
# A corral pass is $10 and is good for all 3 days.
# You must purchase a ticket from the GGLC to be able to purchase a GGLC/Lotus Corral Pass
These new “rules” are based upon the new policies from the Monterey Motorsports Reunion organizers.

Click here to buy your Monterey Historic tickets. Typically the tickets are sent to the GGLC 2-3 weeks prior and we will then immediately distribute them to you. Expect your ticket(s) and corral passes approximate one week prior to the event.

DEADLINE TO BUY TICKETS & CORRAL PASS: MAY 25, 2009! We will not be able get tickets and corral passes after this deadline!

[Buy GGLC Corral Pass + tickets]

First Anniversary of the Chapman Report Online

We are glad to announce that today is the 1 year anniversary of the Chapman Report Online and we are celebrating it with our 100th blog post. CRO was started on Feb 8th 2009 with a simple charter:

Through this blog we plan to share with you what we’re up to: club events, track days, autocrosses, drives, etc… We also hope to introduce to some of our members doing the things they love the most. Additionally we will keep you up-to-date with all the latest Lotus news, stories, videos and articles.

The last year has been an eventful year for Lotus with the universal acclaim for the Evora, the design of the Omnivore engine, the appointment of Dany Bahar and the return of Lotus to Formula 1. We have also had the retirements of Mike Kimberley and Roger Becker to whom we wish all the best for their future endeavors.

The GGLC has had another successful year with several autocrosses, track days, meetups, meetings, the WCLM, etc… We’ve also had our members win several trophies at the SCCA nationals and the 24 Hours of Lemons.

Chapman Report Online has been around to chronicle this eventful year and share this information with the GGLC members, the Lotus community and the world at large. Our thanks go to the GGLC executives for supporting the the creation of GGLC blog and to all our members and friends that have given us content to post.

Chapman Remort Monthly Traffic

As the graph above shows, we have steadily grown in traffic (the final drop-off is because February hasn’t ended yet) both to the website and via RSS. All in all its been a fantastic year and we hope to have many more years like it. In closing, we’d like to leave you with the 5 most popular blog posts over the last year – enjoy!

1) Fantastic Lotus Exige Wallpapers
2) Jim Clark: The Quiet Champion
3) Lotus Omnivore Research Engine Unveiled
4) The most beautiful cars of all time
5) The history of a race car (Lotus 49 R5/R10)

Remembering Roger Becker

The news of Roger Beckers retirement has brought out fond remembrances of his time at Lotus. One of these comes from our very own Barry Spencer who used to work in the Engineering department at Group Lotus. In his own words:

The very first week ( Nov 1980 ) I was in the US, I spent it at the SF auto show with Loose imported cars. That week I meet Miss San Francisco and we dated for two and a half years. The first time I went back to England after moving to the US was in 1982. I took Lisa with me and had an appointment to show her the Lotus factory. Roger gave us the complete tour and then he asked Lisa if she would like to go for a ride in a Lotus. Lisa sat in the front and I was in the back of an Excel. On the test track we go and all I could hear was Lisa screaming. A great ride with an awesome driver.

A big thanks to Barry for sharing this story with us. Rogers influence on Lotus will certainly be missed by the entire Lotus community but we do hope to still keep seeing him at various Lotus events.

GGLC EVO School Registration is now open

Elise Autocross

Registration for the GGLC/BMWCCA joint EVO school on May 1 and 2 is now open. As someone who has taken the class before, I highly recommend them as one of the best ways to improve your skills and get better at autocrossing. The classes will be conducted in the Great America parking lot in Santa Clara and official class descriptions are below:

Phase I School

The “original” Evolution program as developed by the McKamey Autocross School. This first step in the Evolution is where all students start,regardless of experience. Daylong course builds upon students existing skills, while introducing new ideas to improve one’s times. Students both ride and drive with Evolution trained national caliber drivers to learn where they are fast and where they need to improve. Small student teacher ratio of 6:1 insures quality instruction time.

Combined with race proven skills, concepts, and techniques this course will improve the performance of all drivers on both road and track.Even experienced driver’s benefit from the Phase 1 course as a refresher for those things they’ve forgotten over the years or perhaps never learned.No matter what type of car you drive the Phase 1 skills will improve your overall driving abilities.

Note: All students must provide their own two-seat vehicle for the day. Two driver cars are welcome.

Phase II School

Building upon the skills learned in Phase 1, Phase 2 takes the driver into new areas of mental race preparation, allowing the Phase 1 skills to be applied as second nature. Various driving exercises are conducted throughout the day to improve the driver’s visual and mental imaging of the course, resulting in quicker lap times.

This course has worked “magic” in reinforcing the importance of Phase 1 skills and transferring those skills to every autocross course you may encounter. The Phase 2 track design is not the same as used in Phase 1 and generally has higher speed sections.Note: Phase 2 students must first have completed the Phase 1 Program. As in Phase 1, students must provide a two-seat vehicle for the day.

Use the following links to sign up for the course:
Day 1 (May 1, 2010): $275
Day 2 (May 2, 2010): $275
Day 1 & 2 (May 1-2, 2010): $500

For more information in the Evo School program please visit their website at www.evoschool.com

GGLC 2010 autocross season

Its time to start thinking about the 2010 autocross season! The Golden Gate Lotus Club will be hosting 7 events this year along with 2 schools. The dates are as follows (October TBD):

Saturday, April 10
Saturday, May 1 (Evo AutoX School)
Sunday, May 2 (Evo AutoX School)
Saturday, May 15
Saturday, June 5
Saturday, June 26 (Evo AutoX School)
Sunday, June 27 (Evo AutoX School)
Saturday, July 31
Sunday, Aug 8
Sunday, Sept 19

At least 5 of these dates will be points events for club members, April 10th will be a practice event. Note, a couple of these dates are Sundays.

We are going to change the classing and points system this year to give more drivers an opportunity to win. The idea is to have all drivers compete in one competition with 1st, 2nd and 3rd prizes, and to use a pax-style system to account for car differences and modifications. More info will follow when the details have been decided.

The Evolution autox schools will be held jointly with the BMWCCA club. Phase 1 will be on the first day of the weekend and phase 2 will be on the second day. You must have completed phase 1 before you can take phase 2, so for most drivers (unless you have done phase 1 sometime previously) the option will be to sign up for either the first day or both days. The price will be $275 for a single day or $500 for both days. Registration is due to open on the evo site on Feb 1st. See the Evo School web site for more info. Note, sign-up for these schools will be restricted to just members of either the GGLC or the BMWCCA clubs.

Colm & Alex
GGLC Autocross Event Chairs

GGLC Sunnyvale Lunch

Its time for another GGLC Sunnyvale lunch. This time we will be meeting at 11:30 am for Persian food at Chelokababi. Its a small restaurant in the Camino Wolf Center strip mall and has a small parking lot which should be pretty empty at that time. The lunch is open to all Lotus enthusiasts and you do NOT have to be a GGLC member to join us.

Please RSVP on this blog post or on the official British Speed thread (only one of the two please) by the 29th so I can make the necessary reservations.

When: 11:30 am on Feb 4, 2009 (Thursday)
Where:
Chelokababi Restaurant
1236 S Wolfe Rd
Sunnyvale, CA 94086
(408) 737-1222
www.chelokababi.com


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GGLC Laguna Seca Open Track Day, March 23, Reg is Open

Traffic jam at the Corkscrew

Registration for the Golden Gate Lotus Club’s first track day of the year at Laguna Seca is now open. This event will be Tuesday, March 23. We will have only two run groups to maximize your track time, those groups will be Intermediate and Advanced – run every 30 minutes. There will be **NO** Novice Group. Cost is $270 for non-members and $250 for members. Both groups are limited to only 30 cars each (Laguna rule, not ours), and as usual at this venue, sound is an issue. So, start working on your exhaust system now and sign-up early.

Click here to register for the event. See you at Laguna Seca.

Brought to you by your Golden Gate Lotus Club Track Day junkies, John & Scott

2010 GGLC Track Days

The Golden Gate Lotus Club is pleased to announce another full season of Lotus Open Track Days in 2010! There are currently 4 GGLC Open Tracks Days are on the calendar and there’s more to come! Join the fun!

March 23 – Laguna Seca
May 18 – Thunderhill
July 13 – Thunderhill
Sept 28 – Thunderhill

GGLC Open Track Days are designed to allow the Lotus and sports car enthusiast enjoy driving in controlled conditions without random traffic and law enforcement. GGLC Open Track Days are not races, but allow the driver to run at their pace and enjoy the capability of the car. Click here for more info.