This Saturday sees the World debut of the most exclusive and expensive Lotus since the company began in 1952.

The Lotus T125 will premier on Saturday August 7th at Laguna Seca, during Monterey Car Week, where the official name will also be annouced. Since it's earliest days the names of Lotus road and track cars have started with E and the T125 is no exception.

There is no word yet on when the car will be shown in the UK but expect it to be on display at the Paris Motor Show in October.

At the same time will be the North American debut of the Evora Cup GT4 race car where Johnny Mowlem, fresh from a successful run at Snetterton recently, will put it through it's paces on the world famous track. Johnny will be providing rides to seriously interested Evora Cup GT4 prospects.

Despite the typical wet weather, the Lotus Drivers Club endeavoured to make the best of it's first visit, as a club, to the Lotus Silverstone Center. Welcomed by a warm showroom and a soaked autotest circuit, we were all setup to enjoy the day, even with the lack of sunshine.

There was a fresh Limited Edition Type 72 Exige S and an Evora in the Showroom along with a few other exciting Lotus products.

Many Lotus enthusiasts turned up to enjoy the atmosphere in spite of the weather.

Well done to Nick MacMillan for posting the quickest time on the autotest of 1.04.1.

For more information about Lotus Silverstone visit www.lotussilverstone.co.uk

The Lincolnshire Meetings, starting from the 8th April, will be on the second Thursday of the month. This will not be changed again as we are hoping this will suit everybody in the area. Please accept our apologies for any inconvenience caused. The new venue for our Lincolnshire area meeting is at The George at Langworth on the A158, Lincoln to Wragby road. Tel 01522 595787. At our February meeting, Len Terry ex F1 Lotus designer came along and joined us for the evening. We hope to persuade him to come back in future months.

Lotus Racing today unveiled its 2010 challenger, the Lotus Cosworth T127, at a glittering event in London’s Royal Horticultural Hall. Team Principal Tony Fernandes was joined on stage by Chief Technical Officer Mike Gascoyne and drivers Jarno Trulli, Heikki Kovalainen and Fairuz Fauzy to take the wraps off the car in front of a 500 strong live audience.

As the lights came up the car’s stunning green and yellow livery was seen for the first time, striking an emotional chord with both young and old alike and evoking memories of some of motor racing’s most iconic moments in an entirely contemporary fashion.

January 2010 sees the launch of the new Lotus Drivers Club website which has been re-designed and launched with a vibrant new look, new content, significant layout updates and features the latest functionality including up to date event information, full events calendar, online regalia catalogue plus much more.

Alongside the website, the Online Community Forum will continue to provide online users with a daily resource for general chat, sharing experiences, photos, guides or anything else social or Lotus related. Please visit the forum and register quickly and easily, and then introduce yourselves to the site and other members.

The Midlands area meeting for January 2010 will be held on the Third Thursday of the Month. For the rest of the year the meeting will remain on the Second Thursday of the Month. The Midlands Meeting is held at the Arrow Mill Hotel, Arrow, Alcester. Just off the A435/A46. The hotel entrance is directly opposite the entrance to Ragley Hall.

On the Sunday 21st February at 11:00am the first Midlands Breakfast car meet will be at the Farmers Fayre, Stoneleigh Park. This will make a great first drive out of the year. The car park is in front of the building. All members and enthusiasts are welcome along. For more details contact the Midlands area coordinator Eddie King: edwardking159@msn.com 

We are planning our first Club tour to Scotland hosted by our Scottish Snippets man - Jim Grant. The date will be from Thursday 27th May 2010 with two options of either a long weekend or continuing on for a full week-long tour up into the Scottish Highlands finishing on June 5th. The full itinerary and details will be listed soon, so please reserve your place by contacting Chris Mayhew as soon as possible at christophermayhew@btinternet.com 

The 2009 Classic Motor Show was yet again another thriving and successful event, and according to the organisers attracted its highest ever number of visitors - the classic car interest is obviously still at an amazing high. Once again it seemed the event had even more halls packed full of clubs and stands. The NEC Classic Motor Show in Birmingham has become the traditional season grand finale for the classic car scene, and every year the Lotus Drivers Club participates in this passionate event, with once again a smashing club stand on show.

There was a beautiful array of Lotus cars on the stand, from the S1 Exige, S2 Elise, Excel, Elan+2 to the brilliant S1 Esprit. All that were involved with the club stand did a great job over the long weekend, and a special thanks to the Midlands Area Coordinator, Eddie King, for managing to be there for all but a few hours. Next year's dates have been confirmed for the 12-14 November 2010, so if you are interested in having your car on show please contact our Events Organiser. 

A total of 34 cars took part in this year's show and as a result we were awarded the best stand in show. Despite a poor weather forecast we ended up with a reasonable day with just a small shower. We were very pleased to see some new faces and well done to Tony Farmer who travelled from Liverpool, Alison Reeves from Cheshire and David Salter from Bristol. The passes this year included a free tour of the spectacular Ragley Hall Estate and surrounding gardens which newcomers to the event found particularly interesting. 

When Britta, a club member and friend, returned to Germany in 2007 we all said how lovely it would be to visit her. In April 2009 this became a reality when 9 members in 5 Lotus cars set off for Sohlde to help Britta celebrate the opening of her 'English' cafe. Everyone met up at a very nice pub just outside Harwich on the evening of 30th April, and after having a nice meal headed off for the port of Harwich.

Over the weekend Britta had arranged a couple of drives for us to go on, unfortunately she was unable to come along as she had the cafe to run. However, Bjorn and his girlfriend Nina were to be our escorts along with several other motor bike riders. 

23 cars driven by 29 drivers assemble for this, now legendary, event on what looked a bit of a dodgy day, weather-wise. However, we were blessed with minimal rain and the track was dry and the going good-to-firm for the majority of the day. Lake Windermere on the inside of one of the bends was a testimony to the type of moist weather we had been having recently and further reinforced our good fortune on the day.

The cars were an interesting mix comprising Elises, Dulon (sort of mini GT40 with a mid-engined Lotus Twincam), Westfield (one with 250 bhp - you little Tinker - you know who you are), AC Cobra (replica but a chuffing big engine never-the-less), MX5, Escort Cosworth (350 bhp rally car), Exige, Caterham, Elans, Esprit, Mini, 911 Porsche, Suzuki Cappucino, Audi 80 and a couple of special attractions.