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The origins of our club started in late
1976. It began when two or three Lotus owners met up at a pub (nothing
new there then). One of the founder members was Gary Weston and being an
enthusiastic friendly type it was decided that they meet again and this
developed into a regular meeting. Soon they decided to form a club and
given the location of the meeting place it was called the West Midland
Lotus Drivers Club.
It was not until the following year
however, that things really started to take off. As the word spread and
more people started attending from further afield the "West" was dropped
from the title. They published a club magazine and it may surprise you
to know that at it was called Slipstream. The magazine continued by this
name for around 3 years until a dispute amongst the committee lead to
some sweeping changes.
A split
occurred and some of those who left started another Lotus club with a
magazine called Slipstream! In order to avoid any confusion, it was
decided that the title "Midland" should be dropped from the clubs name
to become Lotus Drivers Club and the club magazine be re-launched under
the name Chicane. These alterations have been retained to the present
day. There have been many leading lights along the way notably, Laurie
Barton, Paul Robinshaw, (now the famed Lotus author) Jon Dobson and Des
(Le Mans winner) Fitzgerald to name but a few.
The club has continued to develop and now has members in all parts of
the country as well as many in Europe and as far afield as Germany,
America and Japan. The magazine "Chicane" has gone from strength to
strength and is widely regarded as one of the best club magazines
available and is well respected by leading Lotus luminaries. It has come
a long way from a few photocopied pages stapled together or those that
were produced on a Gestetner printer (if you don't know what those were,
you're just too young).
In 2008 the
club took a step forward and launched a new and much needed Community
Forum. The Forum allows enthusiasts to socialise online, share
experiences, photos, guides and anything else which is desired. As well
as the new Online Community, an improved Lotus Drivers Website was also
launched and in 2010 will aim to provide one of the best Lotus
enthusiast websites online today.
We hope you enjoy your visit to the Lotus Drivers Club Website and visit us again soon.
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