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News and event update
Most
of the arrangements are now in place for the “50 Years of the
7” event at the Norfolk Showground and we, the Planning
Group”, are very pleased to be able to give you all the details.
We are looking forward to seeing you and hope that you have a
really enjoyable weekend.
The
Weekend Itinerary:- The Norfolk Showground to The Lotus Factory
Friday
Evening Arrivals
We
will be open from 1600 hrs for the campers to book in and set up.
During the evening there will be quality food available to
purchase, a live bar, canned music in the marquee and plenty of
seating. Anybody staying in hotels on Friday is welcome to join us
in the evening.
The
“Day at the Norfolk Showground”
We
are really pleased to announce that we are very close to 1,000
people planning to attend the “50 Years of the 7” celebration
which will open at the Showground at 1000 hrs sometime after the
last of the early morning blatters will have left. We have a day
of fantastic attractions for everybody attending our event and
nobody should be disappointed. First and Foremost it is an
opportunity for everybody that comes to meet up with similarly
minded enthusiasts from all over the world and exchange views and
experiences. Secondly everybody will have an opportunity to see
close up the development of the 7 over the years with examples of
many years’ production and some of the cars that preceded the 7.
Thirdly most people attending will receive, free of charge, a
commemorative brochure with a whole host of interesting articles
and photos. If that is not enough you will be able to talk to
Classic Team Lotus about their GP cars, try racing around
Silverstone in a full size F1 simulator, listen to John Watson’s
“History of the 7”, watch the Spitfire fly-past (subject to
weather), investigate a wide range of trade stands all aimed at
your car, entertain your children in the “Childrens Tent”,
expose your lack of skills on an 8 lane Scalextrix track, top up
your own fuel tank from our caterer, check out Caterham’s latest
offerings (buy one if you must), review the exhibition of 7
photos, purchase a print of the specially painted centenary
picture (the original is the 1st prize in the raffle)
with proceeds to LRF, attend a “High Performance Driving”
seminar, visit the clubs event vehicle and purchase regalia or
just mill around drinking tea and kicking the tyres of the car
that you really fancy. We are expecting well over 400
Lotus/Caterham 7’s on site.
After
all this a quick change and off to the celebration party which
will open at 6.15. There will be two live bands playing during the
evening, a hog roast with desert and tea/coffee after, a pay bar
with some special anniversary bottled beer to take away, some very
special surprises and a short interlude with the LRF raffle draw,
a cheque presentation, and some recollections by those directly
involved with our cars. All this will take place in the
“Village” area of the event under marquees.
Sunday
Sprint
Sunday
is centred at Hethel the current home of Lotus Cars. For the
campers the blatters will leave early for their right royal
breakfast and the remainder will have the option of heading over
to Lotus, for the sprint, at their leisure or heading off home
(breakfast will be available on site). For the hotelers the
blatters will need to shake out early and get to the showground
whilst the rest head over to Lotus, or home, at their leisure. At
the Sprint there will be access to the paddock, a track viewing
area and “van type” catering. There will be practice in the
morning, the timed runs should start around 1400 hrs and
presentations shortly after 1700 hrs.
Lotus
Factory Tour
Essentially
the factory tour bookings were intended to be issued on a first
come first served basis and this is what happened. However,
despite our best efforts at getting everything right hindsight
tell us that we could have done better in one or two areas. The
factory tours is one such area because we omitted the box to tick
for the tour on our booking form. By the time we realised this it
was far too late to do anything about it. Once we realised that
the demand was going to be greater than we had anticipated we were
able to obtain some more but this did not alleviate the issue that
if it was not mentioned in the booking response a tour was not
booked for that applicant.
I am
really sorry that this has caused a few people to miss out on the
factory tour but there is really nothing that we can do
to put right. This is a "one - off" organisational event
for all of us in the Planning Group and we sincerely hope that
everybody will understand that we did not set out to be difficult,
or make mistakes, but in amongst the enormous task that we
undertook it was, perhaps, inevitable that there would be some
issues to deal with.
We
hope that, despite this, those of you that missed out have a
really good time at our event.
Single Price Ticket
There
are two principal reasons for this:-
- At £35 per
person, with children free, the costs of putting on this event
substantially exceeds the ticket charge and the difference is
being underwritten by our club. The facilities that we have to
put in place, just to operate the event at the Showground on the
Saturday, have to be in place for the whole period. We have to
hire the premises, purchase a licence, keep the premises secure,
obtain and operate a health and safety policy, check people in,
provide undercover seating and tabling throughout the day and
the evening, keep the place clean, provide the attractions and,
in many cases, cover in the event of rain. We are also providing
a commemorative brochure free of charge (£10 + p&p to
purchase more) to most of those attending the event. At the
Saturday evening party we are also providing food and
entertainment but overall this represents a minority part of the
total cost.
-
We
are a small group of volunteers organising this event in our
spare time and we do not have the facility to operate a range of
tickets that will all need to be checked at varying times. It is
a lot easier to have one ticket that covers all and minimises
the numbers of helpers that are required for an event where we
expect attendance to exceed 1,000.
We
believe that £35 represents particularly good value for money and
sincerely hope that you will be able to attend and be part of this
celebration of our car.
Camping
& Security
The
Norfolk Showground is fully enclosed and we shall be locking the
gates overnight. We have also employed the services of a local
quality security firm to provide a permanent 24 hour presence
on site from Friday through to Monday.
The
only people allowed on site are those with pre-purchased tickets or
specially issued " tickets "
(to exhibitors etc). No " ticket "
= No admittance, although we will have a list of all who should have
tickets and will allow flexibility where identity can be proved. We
are not able to sell tickets at the gate. Tickets are only
available to 7 club members and their immediate family or non club
members who own genuine Lotus 7 or Caterham 7s and their immediate
family (the same for Caterham 21s and Lotus 1s).
The
camping area is within the Showground and adjacent to where the
event is taking place. We have a rule of no naked fires of any sort
on site because there will be a lot of campers and we do not want
the fire risk. There will be plenty of seating in the
"Village" area of the event (an integral part of the event
site) which will be used for the evening party as well as
daytime activities.
In
order to minimize the burden on our administration we have not
issued specific tickets for camping. Each camper will know that they
have booked and paid and, in addition to our own records, the camp
booking will be recorded on the documentation that you will receive
on arrival. Please park where directed on arrival and proceed to the
“Booking In” area to collect your “tickets” before you set
up camp.
There
will be a quality caterer on site selling food on Friday
evening from about 1800 - 2100, Saturday morning breakfast from
about 0730 through to Saturday lunch. This will close at about 4pm
and reopen for breakfast on Sunday morning at around 0730 for a
couple of hours or so. We believe that you will find their
prices reasonable. The hog roast at the Saturday evening party, with
desert, tea and coffee is included in the ticket price and will open
around 1800. For those going on the organised Blats breakfast is
covered by the ticket they have purchased. There is
a "fast food" type restaurant within walking distance of
the site. There is a major Sainsbury supermarket within walking
distance of the site. There will be a catering facility selling
food at the Lotus track on the Sunday.
Soft
drinks will be sold by the caterer throughout the day on Saturday.
The pay bar will be open on Friday and Saturday evenings.
|
50th Anniversary
of the Lotus 7 1957 - 2007
