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Southrun VII - 9th February 2003 |
See Southrun Seven Details and Route Video Footage Music From the Video Footage |
 We
arrived at the start first, 3 cars, an Elise S1, Elise S1 135
and an Elise S2. These numbers increased quickly until the
carpark filled up with 40 cars. The weather really held off,
despite being quite cold, we got the chance to see Steve's new
development hardtop from Middlemoore Mouldings, an attatchable
roof that doesnt leak and at a reasonable price! Plenty of
Elise and Exige with nice dual stripey paint work, a tasty
Esprit and an increasing number of Sports exhausts! Just what
the local villagers wanted. Actually, the locals as usual tend
to be interested in our arrival, not only is it a surprise to
see a score of Lotus Sports cars at their usually quiet car
park, but many came to talk, both young and old.
We don't normally have a number of non-Lotus cars at these events, but it was great to chat to our ex-Lotus owning chums, for instance, extremely surprising comments from Drew who said on a cost per smile basis, his new Focus was more satifying than the Noble! NO REALLY! Although he didn't comment about the Lotus :)
Some of the different Elise types and paint colours at the start were good. I particularly like the light metallic one shown top right of the page. I'm not sure of the colour, some kind of Aqua? We eventually set off after 11am and onto the open road.
Exiting the car park some of those local kids were certainly
going spare with excitement, probably down to some of those sports exhausts I
See you there! Craig D.
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Along
with the rest of the attendees were a couple of guests, Craig
T who has helped us not only plan this run but in the past has
been of great help (and which Southrun would probably not
exist without him!) in his new Honda S2000 which replaces his
red Elan Turbo. Also a very good friend of mine, David who had
been a big part of Southrun 6 (Twister) and gave us all a look
at his sparkling new Hyundai Coupe, a Subaru and finally (have I missed
anyone?) ex-Lotus and ex-Noble owner Drew who during his short
stay from the US showed us his Focus RS.
Craig
T took me through the differences with his S2K and explained
how his new toy revs to around 9K Revs where the racing cams
take over the job. Craig demonstrated the amazing power at the
end of the 
run.
All I can say is, BLIMEY!
mentioned.
I think we had a very lucky run, we seem to avoid most traffic
and the pack didn't get split up too much. After the first
main stretch and through Marlborough, we hit the A4 to
Hungerford. As I was first to set off from the start, I was
still leading the run and had a lucky break up that short two
lane section just as you leave Marlborough, and the rest were
caught behind the local Sunday driver. So on I ploughed,
eventually a Police car shot past me, on-coming, and at this
point I started to wonder what his reaction would be when he
saw plenty of others down the road. I radioed Matt (Cobalt
S2) with no luck and saw Craig T in my rear mirror. Luckily no
one was done for speeding, despite the tempting open straight.
A
sharp right turn into the forest area towards Great Bedwyn. I
loved this section, the narrow back lane between the trees. It
was a little slippery as I started this section, I remember accelerating
feeling the rears spinning like mad. After the second
leg of the first part of the run we reached Hungerford, parked up
near the station and everyone headed for the nearest pub. If
you were wondering about the food situation, despite the sign
outside saying Sunday lunch, they unfortunately didn't have
the staff to do any food that day. Some of you used Somerfield
and other pubs.
Setting
off for the second leg after lunch saw us through Hungerford
and back heading towards the Cotswold water park. I heard and
saw plenty about those young girls who were startled by someone's
exhaust note on that sharp right junction, shame on you! This
was probably the best leg of the run and I was very pleased
with Craig T's help with planning this section being so quiet
traffic wise.
After
one stop to check that we were still going in the right direction
(yes, even run planners get lost on their own routes!) we hit
that single lane road with traffic lights. I certainly don't know
what was happening with those lights, but for those of you who
don't know what happened, there was that bit of road that goes
from two lanes to one, with traffic lights for traffic to
share this blind piece of road. So we stop at the lights, I'm
at the front with about 15-20 Lotus behind me. After 5 minutes
we're still there. 10 minutes later, still there. Now
obviously someone was caught short, as he who will remain
anonymous decided to use the bushes of public convenience, I'm
not sure how far you got, but the lights turned green which
seemed to give much amusement to the rest of us.
We
eventually arrived at the Cotswold Water Park to be greeted by
a truck load of geese and swans as you'll see in the video
footage. I really enjoyed meeting up with both new and old
Southruners, and hope you did too. Thanks to everyone
for turning up and driving with great care on the roads. I
believe we can always enjoy a run at the (speed) limit if we
have the right roads.
I
hope you all didn't mind the birdy reception and excessive
dirty finish. That was probably the only muddy run we've ever
done and the next should be a return to clean cars. The next
run has already been drawn up, it'll contain some good roads
that you may be familiar with,
and if you liked this run, you'll love the next!