Received from Lotus, Hethel:
Track schedule:
We recently (19 September) received an email from Lotus:
Dear local resident,
I hope that you are keeping well and that you have had a good summer.
Attached is the last quarter of the year track calendar – and you will see that Lotus Driving Academy finishes next month. Other activities on the track after that, and to the end of the year, will be Lotus business activities – testing and development, customer and media visits.
This coming weekend we have two events, on Saturday 21 September, we have our annual “Lotus On Track” track day which is for only Lotus cars. The cars have to be road legal including sound and tyre squealing is not allowed.
The following day we are holding our annual “GreenPower EV” event. GreenPower is an educational trust that encourages students of school and university age into STEAM subjects and careers and involves designing and developing and driving small electric vehicles, with a competitive element on a pre-determined closed course, in our case at Hethel. Therefore the site will be slightly busier than usual for a Sunday and we are expecting a couple of hundred of people to support the event.
Then the following weekend, on Saturday 28 September, the Facebook Group “Lotus Remembered” which is made up of former and current members of Lotus staff and their families are having their annual reunion – it was first held two years ago at Classic Team Lotus and then last year at Group Lotus. We are expecting a few hundred people will attend and again, the site will be busier that usual for a Saturday, but there will be no track activity.
Finally, this week we unveiled a new concept car Lotus Theory 1 in our Lotus London store, on 73, Piccadilly. You can read more about it here. Should you be in London between now and the end of September 2024, do pop-in and have look.
As always, all other the news can be found on our media website here:
And updates via our social media:
Lotus Cars (@lotuscars) / X (twitter.com)
Lotus Cars (@lotuscars) Official | TikTok
Until the next update from Hethel, kind regards,
Alastair Florance, PUBLIC RELATIONS MANAGER
alastair.florance@eu.lotuscar.com & aflorance@lotuscars.com
T: +44 (0) 1953 608462 M: +44 (0) 7802 918662
Alastair Florance writes from Lotus: “I will send an update email about the exciting developments at Lotus’ HQ but in the meantime, here is the Hethel Track Calendar 2021:
As you can see, activities such as the Lotus Driving Academy (LDA) and the Customer Driving Experiences are not planned to restart until July 2021. We are also hosting the GreenPower event at Hethel (https://www.greenpower.co.uk/) where young people are encouraged, through science, technology, engineering and maths to design, build and race an electric car.
This Sunday (25 April 2021), the Lotus Motor Club (LMC) will be hosting one of its twice yearly “Sprints” on the Track from 09:00 to 17:30 and the same noise limits and testing will be in force as in previous events. However, in previous years the LMC has invited spectators to watch the competition, but due to strict Covid 19 compliance procedures, this unfortunately will not be possible this year.
As always, should you have any questions or queries, please do not hesitate to contact me.”
ALASTAIR FLORANCE, GROUP PR MANAGER
aflorance@lotuscars.com / 01953 608462 / Hethel, Norwich, Norfolk, NR14 8EZ, England
Adrian Nicholas, Specialist Technical Advisor at SNC (01508 533722; anicholas@s-norfolk.gov.uk ) has written of contact with Group Lotus and discussions about their Hethel track use and related noise/inconvenience to neighbours.
When we posted about this in February 2019, we had hoped to hear that Group Lotus were reinstating their periodic email updates sent to residents living near their site. These would provide information about the company’s activities, including planned use of the Hethel test track. We have heard nothing about this, but have received a copy of their 2019 calendar for track use – see here
However residents have heard noise from cars on the Hethel track. Some find this untenable. If this is you, then please let Adrian Nicholas know. Write to him at anicholas@s-norfolk.gov.uk providing details of your complaint.
Lotus have written about the Track calendar 2017. They have new internal procedures intended to reduce their impact on the community:
- No Lotus Driving Academy at Hethel – LDA is now a global activity with Academies in Asia, North America and Europe
- No more Mitsubishi Lancer Club Sprint (exceptionally noisy vehicles)
- No more formula type race car testing by 3rd parties
- No vehicle running in evenings unless critical to Lotus business
- No back to back events over the same or consecutive weekends
- Weekend Events classed “potentially noisy” spaced out at no more than 1 per month with more than 4 weeks interval on average
- Updates for the local community.
Potentially noisy users in 2017 currently limited to:
Lotus on Track:
- No more than 6 Saturday events per year.
- Comprises Lotus product owners Track Day events.
- All vehicles noise tested to comply with regulation limits and records kept.
- Has been running for over 10 years at Hethel.
Lotus Motor Club Sprint:
- 2 fixed date Sunday events per year – 2nd April and 6th August 2017
- Comprises Lotus staff club members, Lotus owners, other varied vehicles from associated clubs.
- All vehicles noise tested to comply with MSA regulation limits and records kept.
- Has been running for 20 years at Hethel.
Classic Team Lotus:
- 2 hours allocated per week during office hours for testing. Generally used once or twice per month)
- Comprises classic and vintage Lotus racing cars.
Lotus Cars Engineering:
- Week days and possibly week ends during core hours.
- Vehicle engineering activities for Lotus products and 3rd party clients.
- Comprises road going type vehicles.
Any comments to Alastair Florance, Group PR Manager, GROUP LOTUS PLC, Hethel, NR14 8EZ
T: 01953-608462 or E: aflorance@lotuscars.com
An occasional meeting is held between Lotus Group plc and local residents to discuss matters arising from use of the track at Hethel by Lotus and their Driving Academy. You may be interested that Lotus Group are offering a 10% discount for residents’ family members. Contact Danny Hartgrove (dhartgrove@lotuscars.com) for more details.
Meeting notes: Local Residents Meeting 26 Feb 2015
2015 schedule for Lotus events: LDA CALENDAR 2015
The key to the codes in the schedule is:
FT = Factory Tour
HFT = Heritage Factory Tour (Includes CTL)
SYS = Scare yourself Sensible (1/2 Day Track Event)
L1,2,3 = Lotus Driving Academy Track Events
LOT = Lotus on Track (Lotus Owners Track Event)
LMC = Lotus Motor Club (Annual Sprint track Event)