6 months in of Lotus ownership & no regrets

I have just realised I joined the Aussie Elise’s forum one year ago on the 22-October 06 and I thought I would remember my Lotus ownership expericen since then with the fun I’ve had since that date.
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I ordered the new Elise R 12 months ago from Jayson at Rick D’s after a long decision on wether I actually needed a sports car or to go for a sensible car. In the end after a few persuasive comments from my lovely other half and even from my parents in the UK who loaned me a bit of the money they said “to enjoy myself while I was still young” and “to go for it son”

I went to Rick D’s and very nervous I put down my deposit for a $120k+ car and started the wait…….
Jayson handed me on a piece of scrap paper the words aussieelises.com and told me ‘if im into the internet I should check it out’. Well being in the IT industry I thought I would, and I found myself a wealth of knowledge and information at hand.

My car didn’t take the 3 months of build and shipping as expected but in fact 6 months, but during that time I was hanging out on the forum not posting at all but really watching and learning about what I was to expect in owning one of these cars.

During the wait the long term forum member and owner of a Blue Exige Cup 240, Rob240 contacted me by private message and through conversation we became friends along with many other forum members who made contact and gave me much advice which I was very grateful for and which proved very useful for the future.

Lotus apologised for the extended wait of the car during the build process and sent me on a track day on Eastern Creek in a Lotus Exige S where I met Rob in person and Mat (found on the forum also) who taught me how amazing the car is and how amazing a driver he is with hsi racing experince of many years icon_smile.gif

So 6 months in and the car arrives. I got a call from Jayson to come pick it up tomorrow. I rush down with the misses and in Rick D’s storage area, fresh from the factory in Hethel UK is the car of my dreams all new and shiny and waiting there for me.

Over the next 6 months I have been enjoying a Burrows Drive Day at Sydney Eastern Creek racetrack every 2 months along with meeting up with some of the guys on the forum for drinks and thoroughly enjoying the ownership of a modern Lotus.

It has given me no technical problems, has returned a great Km per litre compared to most other cars on Aussie roads and has given me so many enjoyable drives on the country roads surrounding Sydney, especially the Royal National Park, the Putty road up to the Hunter Valley and the Blue Mountains Bells line of road.

Everyone I meet when with the car just wants to talk about the car, its design, its look, its uniqueness. I offer for them to have a sit in it and to explore its features with me and it makes there day it seems icon_smile.gif

So now we lead to today where I have been a member of the forum for 12 months now signing up on the 22-October 06, and I have gained so much enjoyment with participating in the postings online I have decided in becoming a forum sponsor, effectively paying for my involvement in it’s great worthwhile online AU based community. I have signed up to join the large forum members trip organised by forum member Ashton and others in November and generally look forwards to hanging out with the fun and friendly Lotus ownership community they seem to have here in Australia in the future.

Overall I just wanted to say that after one year of ownership I am glad I have purchased a Lotus car with the fun it has given me, im grateful in all the help everyone on the forum has provided and I am glad in finding such a great online community and with my family for helping me. icon_biggrin.gif

Fraser Island & Noosa Holiday


 

Last weekend was a long weekend in the NSW state Australia so Sanna and I booked a holiday away somewhere hot and tropicial but not international so it was cheaper. Sanna was up in Brisbane for work for the late part of the week so I flew up on Friday night to meet up with her in Noosa just 1 hours drive South West to the coast.

In the morning we left our hotel in Noosa and drove to Fraser island which is 1 hours drive north. Fraser island is famous for being made totally of sand. There is no rock on the island at all, all the plants and tree’s roots hold the island together to stop it from falling apart and washing into the sea.

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As soon as we got there we went for a walk to a lovely lake, it was very hot near to the 30’s, coming out of winter this felt really hot to us.

 

 


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There were some huge sand dunes like small deserts patched around the island. This long stretch fo sand led to a beautiful lagoon.

 

 


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The lagoon was just truely beautiful, one side huge sands and the other a forest of tree’s.

 

 

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 lovely photo I took as we walked away from the lagoon in the middle of the desert looking back.

 

 

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A little bit of paradise all around

 

 

 

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Surveying the path beyond

 

 

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Here are some of the locals pushing their truck through one of the deep sand channels. Unfortunatly this channel was one of the main routes across the island so they had to use it and everyone was getting stuck, very funny to watch.

 

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A major landmark of Fraser Island is the shipwreck of the S.S. Maheno. The S.S. Maheno was originally built in 1905 in Scotland as a luxury passenger ship for trans-Tasman crossings

 


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The wreck was very interesting to wander around, time had eroded it very well, it was once a very large ship.

 

 

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We spotted a dingo whilst driving along the beach, they were very common at around 2000 on the island at their peak, but there were a few attacks on humans and so the government made a huge issue of it and they were culled down to now a figure of just 200.

 

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Day 1 was over and We started day 2 after breakfast with a short 20 minute flight over the island and the sea to spot some marine wildlife.

 

 

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Look there’s the lagoon we walked to and had a swim in on day 1, looks just as beautiful form up here.

 

 

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These plants are called Antler ferms and they are plant parasites that stick to the tree from a seed carried on the wind. They grow in this shape collecting any leaves or small bugs that drop from the tree and consume it for food. If you look carefully you’ll even see it has legs!

 

 


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What out killer dingos about!

 

 

 

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The only way to get about the island is via a series of sandy tracks through the middle of the island. These are VERY rough and play havoc with the suspension of the 4WD’s as you drive about the island.

 

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I had good fun sitting up the front of the 4WD tour bus talking to the driver as we were drivng down the bumpy dirt tracks.

 

 

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Driving along the beach for endless kilometres, the beach is the fastest way to get around the island as opposed to driving on the inland tracks.

 

 

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On the third day we left Fraser Island and drove an hour South to the coast front town of Noosa. We deceided to hire bikes for the day to explore the coast and town.

 

 

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On the cliffs walk we spotted a some dolphins.

 

 

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This is a view of Noosa from a lookout we cycled up to.

 

 

A lovely holiday, very relaxing and felt worlds away from Sydney and was really good fun 🙂

Cleaning night – Mothbusters video

Here’s a short video of flatmate Damien the crazy Frenchie hunting down moths in our Sydney apartment Mothbuster style!

The last week there’s been hundreds of months attacking our apartment it seems, some crazy moth mating season or something. Damien has been having great fun every evening ridding the apartment of months with his moth busting vacume cleaner! Cleaning time has never been so much fun for Damien 🙂