Blog

Monthly Meeting at the Buckles Inn - November

Date: 22/11/11

Our last meeting of 2011 (we don't have one in December). A talk from the Yorkshire Air Ambulance proved very interesting, a great charity and well worth supporting.

Andrew Johnson handed over a cheque from monies raised earlier in the year - I'm sure it will help but when you consider it costs £2.65M per year to keep those 2 helicopters and all the crew going... with no government funding...support them please.

Despite the cold weather (frost on the cars when we came outside nearing 11pm) there were a number of Lotuses in the car park, didn't count but must have been well into the teens - well done.

Exige V6 comes to JCT, Leeds - NYLOC chew the fat over 345bhp versus 1080kg

Date: 16/11/11

When the members of NYLOC were invited along to the local Lotus dealer, JCT Brooklands Lotus in Leeds, we thought we'd make a bit of effort.

Not wanting to start off on the wrong foot but once again, Lotus choose to send out a 'new' car in a colour that probably won't be massively popular - I'm guessing here at Frost Blue. At least it's not as bad as sending the Evora out in badger-arse silver. Anyway, it certainly got folk talking, if not always for the right reasons. The arse end is causing most of the controversy - I've described it from the initial pictures that came out as a bit of a Frankenstein job but in the flesh... yes, it does look like there's an Exige buried inside another car trying to get out. I can live with that.

So what's it like then? It's an Exige really... you'd have thought the cabin would have been a bit different, we are talking £55k here after all. The body's a bit longer and that's not a bad thing, it actually looks very good. Also, not too bad on the weight side of things either - tipping the scales at 1080kg it's not really a case of who ate all the pies after all. Dany Bahar said he was aiming to produce the lightest cars in their classes and, that does allow a few shortcrust beasties spare. Steak & ale please.

This was a fleeting visit from Hethel's latest machine, not much after 9pm and it was reversing out of the showroom, aiming itself at Gelderd road and eventually Norfolk-bound. I heard someone say something regarding 'beans' to the driver and, well, all I can say is it reached the 40mph speed limit rather rapidly and left most people wanting one. "MORE POWER EGOR" - Frankenstein can shift.

Left & below: Tough crowd. There's no scrutiny like a NYLOC scrutiny.

PT