Blog

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The day started with a rather frustrating experience at the breakfast at De Vere Horwood Estate. Hardly any staff in the restaurant. Normally you would expect that you are shown to the table. Followed by a question if you’d like some tea or coffee. This wasn’t the case here. You did eventually got shown to a table. But then someone else where supposed take your order for tea/coffee etc. We got to finish most of our breakfast before that someone bothered showing up. That’s certainly not ok.

Well then, off to Silverstone. About 20 minutes drive from the hotel. The reception at the track was very efficient. Tickets were swiftly scanned and we got directed to the area where we would find Club Lotus. Compared to last years experience at Hockenheim, this was miles ahead in organization and efficiency. In short, well done Silverstone Classic team! One we arrived to the designated area, we were asked to join the club exhibition together with a couple of other Evora and Esprit.

There were just short distances between the club exhibition areas, the stands and the sales area. Due to the weather, there were a lot less cars than expected. According to one of the Club Lotus officials, there were about 70 cars in their area. Compared to the 100+ expected. on the positive side, there were a lot of older models. primary Elan and Elan +2. but also Europa, Elite and Esprit. This is something we lack in Sweden. Despite having quite a few of these cars, we rarely get to see them on any events.

On another spot, we found Lotus Drivers Club. by the look of it, they had managed to get more of their members to join in the rain. In between the rain showers, we walked around to look at TVR, Aston Martin and other clubs.

Among the sales stands, we found a company that sold carpet sets. The company is called Autostyle (http://www.autostyle.co.uk). Since our car has covered close to 90,000 km the foot carpets has seen better days. So we took the opportunity to buy a set. Looking forward to get them in a couple of weeks time. Apart from this, we also bought ourself some mugs, t-shirts and a couple of die-cast models.

Due to the weather, the racing varied between the different classes. When the track dried up, there were some really good racing. But during the rain showers, the cars were merely cruising around the track. Most entertaining was, as always, the Mini race. Close to 60 Minis were on the track. in many case three or for in parallell – amazing and entertaining. The results from the weekend can be found here: https://www.tsl-timing.com/event/193056

The dreadful hotel experience continued in the evening. On the Saturday evening, the wedding party occupied the bar as well. It was almost impossible to talk to the person sitting beside you due to the noice level. Plus of course the loud noice from the corridor when we got to our room. Which, as mentioned earlier, didn’t had any WiFi connection.

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Friday 26th was another transfer day. Some great roads and scenery during the first part. There we drove through Snowdonia once more. The rest was mainly highways and road work. We tried to avoid Birmingham by going via Kidderminster. We had lunch at a service station along the way.

We’d picked a hotel near Silverstone that had good reviews on TripAdvisor. De Vere Horwood Estate (https://www.phcompany.com/de-vere/horwood-estate/). It turned out to be a mistake. We got a room far away from the reception, restaurant and bar. So far away that the WiFi wasn’t working in the room even. We had to go to the bar to connect to the rest of the world. During the check-in, we found out that there was a wedding party going on as well. We’d booked the hotel mainly to have somewhere to sleep near Silverstone. This turned out to be very hard. The room was very poorly isolated from the corridor. Which ment that we got woken up several times during the night by people in the corridor.

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On the seventh day of the tour, we first set off to the so called EVO triangle. This is a set of roads commonly featured in the car magazine EVO. These days, there are numerous speed cameras. So, the driving experience is less exciting. Nevertheless, there are some great views. There were also a couple of trainer jets, Hawk T2, from the nearby RAF Valley.

But before we arrived to Pentrefoelas, we got to drive some really great roads. We had to refuel after checking out from Maenan Abbey Hotel. Then we followed B5381/A458/B5384/B5113. Stunning views of Snowdonia and only a few mobile homes blocking the way.

We stopped for some ice cream in Pentrefoelas before continuing toward Portmeirion. Some great roads there as well, although the traffic was a bit to intense for any inspired driving while keeping the little group together.

Portmeirion was as quirky as we expected it to be. Very interesting history, a summary is available on the web site https://portmeirion.wales/visit. Since we’d booked a night at the hotel, admission was included. Otherwise you have to pay a few to visit the village. Checking in at the hotel was smooth and the hotel room was ok. However, the doors were not very well isolated and you could clearly hear people walking in the corridor outside. Having lunch at one of the restaurants proved that this place is all about tourist. We got a sad excuse of a Ceasar sallad. Gordon Ramsey would have been pretty upset by the look and taste. This turned out to be an early warning of what to come. We did book a dinner at the Hotel Portmeirion in the evening. Even though the restaurant wasn’t nearly full, we had to wait outside. We even had to order food and drinks in the bar before we finally where showed to our table. After a long wait for drinks and food, the staff had missed out on some of the drinking orders and started to blame each other instead of just resolving the issue. Trying to get their attention to order more drinks or deserts where very difficult.

To summarize the day, neither Evora triangle nor Portmeirion is worth the effort. If you anyhow decide to visit Portmeirion, only do so for the day and spend you night and money elsewhere.

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After arriving early to Harwich, we started the day with breakfast at Costa and a quick refill of the cars at a nearby petrol station. We’d decided to visit the Shuttleworth Collection on the way to Wales. Further more, we decided to take a more northern route in order to avoid the Birmingham traffic. In total the distance would be some 474 km.

Shuttleworth was in the plan already in 2016, during the 40th Anniversary Tour of the Swedish Lotus Car club. But then we got enough of planes at Duxford. This time however, it was a good time to get a leg stretch and some lunch. Lots of planes and some cars and busses as well. All in a very good condition. So, well worth a visit if you are into planes. The restaurant wasn’t impressing though. You are better off somewhere else.

We pressed on towards Wales and the traffic got heavier and heavier. Outside Stoke we got stuck for a couple of hours due to an accident. Further on towards Chester we got caught up in another queue. We finally arrived at the hotel around 8 pm. Too late to get any food, so we went to the bar instead for a cold beer. Two of the other cars had better sat-nav equipment, and took some back-roads instead. They arrived a couple of hours ahead of us. The hotel was as quirky as we expected. We found it via the TV series ‘Car SOS’. In one episode, they handed back a Jaguar Mk iI at this very hotel. You can tell a petrol head from normal people by the way they pick their hotels…

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Third day of the Pagan tour. We’d noticed a restaurant near the hotel that was called Lotus. Obviously we had to stop there for a photo shot in the morning. The Lotus Cup Europe race was the final one on the schedule for the Sunday. So, we had breakfast at the hotel and only arrived att the track when the DTM cars started with their warm-up. Joel Ericsson had another bad day on the track, his race ended up in a big cloud of smoke. For some reason he stayed on the track for quite a while. That ment that there was a significant amount of clean-up needed afterwards.

When the Lotus Cup Europe race finally got going, there weren’t many people left on. the stands. Since the weather on Sunday was a lot better than the day before, we sat on one of the stands after the main straight. Much better view there compared to the grand stand. In the V6 class, Balogh had got his Evora repaired and won overall as well as the class. In the 211O class, Fournier won and in the Production class, Yates was the winner of the day. The Swedish drivers had mixed results, Robin Nilsson came 5th in V6, Cai Cederholm came 2nd in Production class. Neither Daniel Palma, nor Sven Pettersson, finished on Sundays race.

After the race, we said goodbye to Jakob and Göran who would go back to Sweden again. Then we set off towards Hoek van Holland. It’s a 245 km drive from Assen TT Circuit. Once on the boat, we met up with the other cars that were going to England.

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Second day of the tour, first day at Assen TT Circuit. The qualifying for Lotus Cup Europe was at 08:00. So, we decided to eat breakfast at the hotel and arrive a bit later. The circuit as such was a good experience. A lot closer between the paddock, the stands and the lunch facilities. Also, most of the buildings were in a great shape. Compared to other tracks we’ve visited, including Hockenheim last year.

There are four Swedes competing in the Lotus Cup Europe. Two with Exige V6 and two with Elise. Of course we have to cheer them during the race. We also went over to have a chat with them after the race. On Saturday, Daniel Palma finished 4th, Robin Nilsson 8th in V6 class. Sven Pettersson won the Production class.

The weather was changing between rain and sun during the day. During the DTM race, the rain was pouring down. On the long start/finish strait, they looked more like speed boats than race cars. There is one Swedish driver in DTM this year, Joel Ericsson. He ended up on position 16 on Saturday.

Apart from DTM and Lotus Cup Europe, there were formula cars and some motor bikes. A former STCC driver, Emma Kimilainen, is now competing in W series. On Saturday, she won the race.

In the evening, we had some great time with our newly found German friends in the hotel. The favorite food of the weekend has become ‘BitterballenIn’.

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Early morning, departed from Helsingborg (southern part of Sweden) at 05:00. Not much traffic at that time. Then drove across the bridge to Denmark and on to the ferry between Rødby and Pottgarden. Breakfast on the ferry, a bit expensive if you ask me. But a good way to save time by not having to stop again. Plus you got to have something to do during the 45 minutes that the ferry takes to cross the strait to Germany.

Got very lucky with the traffic around Hamburg today. No cues whatsoever, otherwise ‘stau’ is common there. A couple of roadworks, but they were easy to pass. Stopped for refueling at an Aral petrol station. They have 102 octane fuel, which the car seems to like. Another stop around lunch for the mandatory ‘curry wurst’.

After 722 km (448 miles), we arrived at the hotel in Paterswolde. First of the pagans! After a quick shower as well as cleaning the car, we are now awaiting the rest of the group in the bar.