Well at last I have got round to record my memoirs of TT2002. This is the "War and Peace" version primarily aimed at those poor folks that didn't make it to TT2002. You don't know what you missed, but this might give you some idea! Living near Glasgow, I didn't have to leave home to around 2:30 on the Friday afternoon. As usual stayed clear of boring motorways and took the scenic route to the Forth Bridge Hotel to drop off some of my ballast before Knockhill. Met up with Bob and Hazel who were just about to head off to Knockhill. They postponed their departure and waited to see if anybody else would turn up. Within minutes more Elises started to arrive. Met up with Nick and Andy from Lotus and after dumping our gear in our rooms, we all headed off to Knockhill picking up Paul in his 340R on the way. Got to Knockhill in plenty of time for socialising. Tut arrived shortly afterwards and Bob and Hazel presented him with his new driving shoes which he proudly paraded around in. Good job there was not superglue in them or I doubt if he would have done well on the night! Good to catch up with everyone and eventually it was time for warm up laps. A relatively new Elise owner, Stuart Pollock, had arrived to try and get some track time in his 160 and came out as a passenger with me for the warm up session. He races Minis at Knockhill and was impressed with the handling of the Elise. He gave me some hints on the track. I can't believe the dedication of some of the Scottish Elise group as both Euan and Steve both tried out the run off areas to ensure there were no nasty surprises for our visitors. Glad to see there was no damage. I carry a tow rope (don't ask) with me so they needn't have worried about getting out of sticky situations. The Scottish_Elises resident Elise recovery expert, Fergus, was also close at hand as he was having his first track session at Knockhill. I have used him a few times and can recommend him though not sure if he does Home-Start. After the warm up sessions I was keen to get on track until I realised that in my eagerness to get on track I was right at the front of the queue with some very powerful looking motors in my rear view mirror! Knew from a previous 360 spin at Duffus, that it is not a good idea to go shooting out on track with cold tyres/brakes. My new tyres felt quite squeamish for the first few sessions so was a bit wary. As the night went on they got better and better and was very pleased with them in the end. Enjoyed many runs and did about 70 odd laps during the two hours, most with passengers. It was a nice change to manage to pass some cars this time (even two up), though my standard S2 car feels slow in the straight as everybody seems to pull away. Maybe too many gadgets in it! Brakes and tyres were good some made better time around the corners. Was one of the last to get kicked off the track. Enjoyed trying to get some video shots and was pleased to get some shots of Willie's Noble at last. He even held me up at the Hairpin!! The weather was great and stayed dry for the whole session. Was enjoyable watching Nick from Lotus being a bit of a hooligan in a S2 135. Headed back to Forth Bridge Hotel where I met up with Nick and Euan for dinner along with Mark and his wife (sorry I could not remember your name) from the Scooby contingent. Very impressed with the menu and we ordered up Haggis for starters. Nick must have though "When in Rome" and followed suite. The haggis was excellent, as was the rest of the meal. Nick chatted with us about all things Lotus. After the meal we headed down to the bar and carried on chatting with everybody else till about 2am. Up early the next morning for a quick breakfast and then out to the busy car park. Campbell and Lisa had turned up to see us all off and kindly offered to take some of my ballast (Tent and Helmet) of my hands. I fancied trying to beat the group to Glencoe and to pick a scenic area to get video/stills of the cars passing by later. By 9am Elises were starting to head off so I ended up heading over towards Callendar. Once past Stirling traffic started to get heavier with plenty caravans and 4x4 holding everybody up. Because I was travelling solo I was able to make good time though the further North I got, the harder it became. Enjoyed some fast sections once past Tyndrum, on the Bridge of Orchy and Glencoe sections. My phone went while in this area. It was Euan saying he had got lost. Funnily enough I glanced at my Palm GPS unit which had been displaying my position on a moving map and realised it was just showing a dot in the middle of the screen with a "?" where the road name should have been. Well not only was Euan, lost but also my latest gadget! Anyway it seems Euan was on a conference call with a few people all trying to help him out. I decided to leave him to Robin's navigational skills and went back to concentrating on traffic. Got to an area which I though would make a good backdrop and parked up. It was now 11:05am and had gone non stop from Forth Road Bridge so was pleased with my time considering traffic. Hoped nobody had got by, but didn't waste time and headed down to cross the river to get up the far cliff side. Got near the water and the noise made me need to relieve myself. As I was merrily seeing how far up the wall I could reach, Steve and Andrew were flying along on the road above trying to catch up with everybody. What they did not realise was that the others had stopped for tea and they were in fact at the front. I climbed up to get a good view and waited for what seemed ages before I spotted a silver S2 around 11:35am. A good ten minutes later the next Elise arrived and then after that, one or two every five or so minutes passed by. A few looked as if they thought they were first and got a surprise when they spotted my S2 parked in the lay-by. A while later Scott arrived and once he had managed to cross the river he came up and joined me. Euan had managed to find his way to us and stopped and waved up before heading off with Ant to the hotel at Ballachulish for refreshments. Once Fergus passed us we decided at 1:00pm to head down the cliff and join the rest for the meal. Caught up with the others and heard various re-encounters of the mornings runs. Before we knew it there was only Scott and I left. Euan and Ant had headed off to get petrol and to meet back up with us. Traffic to Fort William was heavy with us been stuck at 40mph all the way. Pulled in for petrol and the trusty phone went again. Yes, it was Euan who had got lost but soon gave him directions to the ESSO petrol station. Ages later he still had not appeared and phoned him. He was up the road at the SHELL petrol station, simple mistake (even though I stressed ESSO). Soon we all met up and headed Northwards. Traffic to Spean Bridge was heavy with little point in overtaking. Only incident to break the boredom was when a Biker came up next to Liam and asked him to give him a blast of his exhaust note, quite bizarre and caught on video (BELOW). Once we were at Spean Bridge Scott, Euan and Ant with myself leading (they though I knew where I was going!) headed down the A86 towards Newtonmore. What a delight this run was. Traffic was light and roads were clear and dry with great views. The group all worked great together and we made excellent time. Kept an eye on rear view mirrors and because everybody was using their lights it was easy to check we were keeping together. I enjoyed zooming around the corners fast, so slowed a bit on the straights and everybody seemed to enjoy the pace. Because we were not going at full pelt we could still enjoy some of the great scenery (Just!). I think it would have been very hard to keep the pace up and keep together if there had been more than four cars. Stopped at Newtonmore so the others could relieve themselves. Quick check of route and then it was back on the road again. Headed along back roads to Coylumbridge, Nethy Bridge, Tomintoul before arriving at Dufftown for a refuel. Iain T arrived in his Scooby and then some more Elises. We decided just to keep going in our group and headed off. From there is was on to Huntly, Aberchirder, Turrif, Cuminstown with ample route checking stops! Elises seemed to be coming out of side roads and heading in all directions. Kept checking the map and was pleased when I spotted an "OLD DEER" signpost. Soon entered Old Deer and pulled into Tut Towers. We were all surprised to find out that we were among the first there and only minutes behind Tut. Not bad going considering we were the last people to leave the lunch stop at Ballachulish. We were quickly greeted by the hospitality of Tut and his family. There was ample drink and food available and the roasted pig was great. The best crackling I have ever tasted. More Elises pulled in over the next few hours and soon the Garden was full. Met many old and new faces and had a very relaxing and enjoyable night. As the night went on things were getting quieter and people were starting to head off across country to their B&Bs. Fergus, Nikki and company (DEL and David L.) borrowed my torch for a cross country trek to their hotel, was glad the following morning to see they had made it. I think IainW left it a touch late to check into his hotel (12:15am) so it was no great surprise when he ended up back at Tut Towers. I ended up in the conservatory chatting with Andrew Walsh and many of the gang from down South. Scotty C joined us and we kept us going on Drambui. It was now around 3:00 am and those that hadn't disappeared to better accommodation, were dropping like flies around me. Scotty dozed over into daydream state. I think he was having a re run of his days journey with the smile on his face every now and then. Andrew had made himself comfortable on one of the couches and I retrieved my sleeping bag from the car so managed to get some sleep. Woke up at 6:30 and decided to go a run. I spent my childhood only miles from Old Deer so fancied a drive around past memories. Quick freshen up and sleeping bag packed and I was ready for a run. Couldn't find my keys. After searching all over for them I unpacked my sleeping bag and found them at the bottom of it. Soon I was out taking my frozen roof off the car. The garden was full of frosted over Elises. Thank goodness Campbell had confiscated my tent at South Queensferry! Took about four shots panning around the garden (later managed to join these four photos together to from a panorama view (BELOW). Car started up and after putting "Bat out of Hell" on (worth at least a few BHP once the volume is up) I was soon out on the open road. After finding a petrol station in Mintlaw I was off on a run rekindling childhood memories. It was a crisp sunny morning and the roads were empty and I was really enjoying the run so after locating my old house and schools, I headed down to the coast which was a good run. Headed back to Old Deer to find many more people up and having breakfast. Kyle had hijacked the TV/Video remote controls and we all got to see highlights of Scott's infamous crash along with some great bullet camera stuff from Nick around Knockhill. Andrew of course made sure that people saw his encounter with Tut at Knockhill earlier in the year. Also showed some of Willie in his hooligan stint around Crail. It was now getting on for 9:00 so everybody was now getting ready to leave. We were to assemble at Mintlaw before heading off, but I took a wrong turn and had another great blast about and then managed to find my way to Mintlaw in plenty of time. Weather was great again and we had a photo shoot of all the cars lined up. Bit of a water gun fight got some people a bit wet before kick off. I managed to get Scotty to go through the morning's route on my map. I thought to myself that there was no way I was going to follow that. Noticed some of the first cars starting to leave so jumped in my car and headed off to catch up with them. Not far out of Mintlaw I saw a white thing flutter out of my car, my route map was disappearing in my rear view mirror. Shit I thought, and then I spotted an Elise up ahead. It was Ant and luckily he seemed to know where he was going. After about five miles we tagged onto the end of the Scotty's group which included Nick and Andy from Lotus. Ant kept hanging back every now and again so that he could get some speed up through the corners before catching back up with the other five cars. Traffic wasn't too bad and only a couple of times was I number seven trying to overtake some cars with the others disappearing round a corner. Afterwards I found out that due to me travelling with headlights on they had found it easy to know when I had got passed (I always find using headlights on runs and advantage, probably the biker in me!) One amusing incident was when we all approached quite a fast left hander with most of us moving over to the right beforehand to get a good view ahead when a Police car appeared over the brow of the hill ahead. Never seen so many Elise jump back to their side of the road! After just over an hour we pulled into a lay-by. Nick's rear windows had been hit by a stone so Tut helped him clear as much of the glass out as possible. Scotty decided it was time to go so, as I was really enjoying the drive, and very happy with they way the car was handling, I decided to move further up the first group. Caught up with Scotty and minutes later Nick went by me and then we enjoyed some fast back roads. Was good driving with Scotty who knew the roads like the back of his hand and Nick in the S2 135 as I had never followed an S2 on the road, as most SE runs have been with S1s. Was quite amazed at Nicks cornering as I couldn't believe he didn't use brakes in some of the corners. After a while it dawned on me that his brake lights were knacked. Kept a look ahead to see when Scotty was braking and that gave me an indication of what was coming up. Andrew's training was invaluable as the three of us headed up and over the Lecht Ski area. I would never have been able to keep up with the more powerful cars without it. What was even better was the way the car handled. Brakes and tyres were great and never the slightest loss of traction. However our rapid pace was soon slowed down. We were heading down a hill towards a right hander at a fair old pace and all focused on the road directly ahead. What none of us had noticed was the Police car and Ambulance about half a mile to our right. I know, very poor forward observation by all three of us! We were well slowed down as we approached but sure enough we each got a very polite ticking off about our speed down the mountain. It turned out there had been a bad motorcycle accident and the Police had been watching the three of us descend the mountain. Everybody else that came along that way managed to notice the Police in plenty of time. The pace gradually upped again but traffic was getting a bit heaver so Nick backed off a bit and we soon ended up at Braemar. Climbed out of our cars with great big grins. Had an excellent meal while we poured over videos from the mornings antics. People were now starting to head off home so started saying farewells. I planned on heading down with Fergus, Scott, Euan and Lee but realised that I had used up a fair bit of petrol since early morning so let the others head off. I tried to fill up at Braemar filling station only to find it was shut. Headed of South towards Blairgowrie hoping that there would be an open petrol station on the way as "Refill" had been on for quite a while now. Noticed a Petrol station at Spittal of Glenshee and pulled in behind Nick and gang. Caught up with them and stayed with them for a while but traffic was getting heavy so ended up letting them head off as I felt it wasn't worth the hassle trying to pass now. Scotty appeared behind me and he must have thought the same thing as he made no attempt to pass me, and later pulled off at a car park in Blairgowrie. Caught up with the Group just before going on the Motorway at Perth. Was pleased to see that Nick who was leading did not set a crazy pace on the motorway so stayed with the group, which now included Del in his Esprit, to the South Queensferry where I headed solo over the backroads back to home. Was odd and lonely to be buzzing along country roads without any other Elises around. Ended up back home around 5:30. Still managed another run that night with my young daughter, Skye, before the car and I had a well deserved rest. The late nights and early mornings had caught up with me and my eyes were aching from dust so had a good nights sleep. Superb weekend with a wide variety of driving conditions. Was very pleased with the standard of driving of everybody and found the convoys really enjoyable as everybody worked together so well. Enjoyed meeting many new faces and what a wealth of experience out there. Thoroughly enjoyed meeting Nick and found his stories really interesting, great driver as well. Was overwhelmed by the work Tut and his family put into the whole weekend, I only hope he does it again but then it is a lot to ask of anybody. Many thanks to everybody for a great weekend.

THANKYOU,

for 3 days of brilliant roads, brilliant driving, brilliant weather, brilliant food, brilliant organization and brilliant company, I will however be mentally scared for life by the events that took place in the Jacuzzi : )

Tut, Many thanks to yourself, Verian and your family for all the organising, effort, time, expense and sacrifices that you all made to make TT2002 the most memorable weekend I have had. From the moment I left the house till I got back I had a tremendous weekend and just grinned all the way through it. Superb organisation, driving, weather, company, drink and grub. Can't believe it all came together so well. Thanks also to: The Founders of Scottish_Elises for creating a group that Tut got involved in. Was good to meat Del over the weekend has I hadn't met him before. To Lotus for making all these great cars. My S2 is the first car that I have ever driven in at least something similar to what is was intended to be driven like. It was great to have Nick and Andy from Lotus, along for the weekend. It was excellent to see the way Nick drove the S2 135 around Knockhill, and on the road. To Andrew for all his excellent training and demonstrations (well except one oval demo!) and to everybody in the group who have given me demos and tips over recent months. To Fergus for getting me out of some sticky situations! To Scotty for being my high speed guide today on the homeward route. My route map blew out of the car within minutes of leaving Tut Towers so was glad when I spotted a Elise in the distance and managed to catch up and join the back of the first group and had a great run. Managed later to join behind Scotty and Nick and really enjoyed following an S2 for the first time on some tremendous roads with somebody leading that knew them well. Though I think the three of us deserve a rap on the knuckles for not spotting the Police/Ambulance way up ahead. I have not a clue how fast we were going but Scotty probably has an idea. By God Tut, not only do you have great roads up there you also have incredibly polite and understanding Police officers (I take back some of what I said about the Police in General, after today's encounter) Thanks to everybody whose groups I was in either, leading or following. Thoroughly enjoyed the roads runs as everybody was looking out for each other and it was great to travel such long distances, in small groups and at a decent speed. Thank goodness the roads became quieter after Fort William. Hope everybody else got home safely and was great meeting some many more people over the weekend.

Tut, Verian, the kids, Thor and babe the juicy pig, thanks for a great weekend. I knew it was going to be good, but not THAT good!! Superb roads and scenery, made perfect by blazing sunshine and great company all weekend. I can't decide whether to have the sleepy Pollard brothers, Scotty's builder's bum, or Tom's handbag as the opening photo on the web page......suggestions? or bribes...;o) PS, the red squeegee will be a pound-a-go next time ;o) Cheers

Heartfelt thanks to Tut, and particularly Mrs Tut and all the Tutlings (!)for a memorable and enjoyable weekend. The fact that he remains on good enough terms with Weather Gods to have arranged all our sunshine speaks volumes for his high integrity and clean-living ethic <cough> Lisa and I had an early engagement on Saturday morning, so chose not to try to join the masses on the full 300+ mile route. Instead, we ended up in a low key "Tourist Route" taking in the best of what Angus and Aberdeenshire could offer (main waypoints below for anyone interested to re-create in future). Robin, and Bob Van M + Hazel/Dot, joined us. Wafted up through Fife/Perth&Kinross/Angus. B961 from Dundee to near Brechin was lovely though we missed half of it thanks to navigational errors (mine!). Checked it out properly on the way home though. Spot of rain around Edzell/Fettercairn, then lunchstop (nice food but sloooow seeervice) at "Clatterin Brig Tearoom" a few miles north of Fettercairn. Worth a look. Braved the drizzle over the celebrated Cairnomount and barely saw another car from here to Old Deer :-) Thanks to John Stewart, the Real Routemeister, for the "Lecht-Rhynie loop". This was a wonderful way to stretch the cars' legs without upsetting the passengers or other road users - the whole lot was practically deserted and the sun shone all the way. B966 "South Deeside Road" remains a classic, and you can turn off regularly for refreshments at places like Potarch, Aboyne, Ballater. Don't be fazed by the A941 from Dufftown to Rhynie...maps don't show it as single track, and it isn't quite, but it has no centre lines and the locals certainly don't pretend it has any!! On the climb to the Lecht, we showed up in the mirrors of a Beemer 330d (fast & torquey, highly rated by EVO Mag) and the old chap gave us a good run for our money. Led us nicely down to Tomintoul, and (when I could see through the clouds of grit he whipped up) he did a grand job of hanging onto what seemed a rather wallowy suspension setup. I quite fancy a 330d, but would opt for some kind of "sports pack" suspension if I were ever rich enough to buy one. Another navigational error (not mine this time) cut out a couple of the B-roads north of Insch, but we were soon back on track and enjoying Tut's home turf. I do envy you all the open space and flowing bends, Tut! We were first to arrive at Tut Towers (around 5.30pm) which was nice. Being early is not my custom, though not a lot of people know that. As for the party? Well, Verian's Sangria hit the spot...quite fast, actually, and after a fine feed from that Spit Roast (awesome!), I took leave of my senses and joined Mike Brown in the jacuzzi. Numbers swelled shortly thereafter with the arrival of Scott, then Michelle Allen who just can't leave the boys alone ;-) A steady stream of spectators, photographers, commentators and well-wishers then ensued...for what turned out to be THREE HOURS. No wonder I felt like a shrivelled prune when Lisa told me our 1.10am taxi had just showed up. Nice of Tut to put in a guest appearance too. To all those who did not avail themselves of this hedonistic party perk - you missed out big time. Book early next year to avoid disappointment. This morning's hangover was mild. Hospitality from the Hepburns at Pond View B&B was first rate, and for £20pppn you can't get better...not even on the (free) floor of Maidstone House, I'm sure! The top brekky helped me on my way. Recommend it (mile or so north-west of Maud). Mrs Hepburn knows of both Tut and Graeme Lovie, not sure if for all the right reasons or not though. Sorely wanted to join the main drive of the day, but I'd already made my compromise deal with Lisa, so due south we were bound, using the excellent B9170 to Inverurie and then B993 to Torphins. Couple of shimmies to get to Potarch where we hoped for a pint of orange juice each but...denied...too early, again! The Boat Inn along the road in Aboyne obliged, however. Also one to note. Paul and Verona had been our tail gunners this morning but were planning upon using Glenshee to get home. So we parted company and Lisa and I headed south over Cairnomount and reversed the rest of our outward route...correcting the bits I'd got wrong on the way up through Angus. I'd planned to take lots of pics, both at KH and over the weekend. Didn't work out that way but anything I do get back from the lab will be posted up for perusal. I suspect you'll all be more interested in waiting for the papparazzi's digital images of "the bathroom scene", however, showing in a Reader's Husbands section near you soon ;-) I can't comment on how the rest of you fared, but I can confirm that "getting back to basics" in a very small group of moderately paced cars was the breath of fresh air I'd been needing since the Dubya Run. It was also great to catch up with some old (and new) faces and I'll be interested to see if the phenomenon can be repeated next year. However surely dear Mrs Tut deserves a year off!

Well by now everybody has seen my new (ex MMC demo) Gun metal S2135, absolutely fantastic, take everything back I said about it. You will hear many accounts about the weekend, it was very quiet for me early to bed both nights, no drinking copious amounts of alcohol. I don't need to tell you but you missed one hell of a weekend, KH was great especially in the new car the weather, scenery and roads were out of this world the company was great and the hospitality provided by Tut, Verian and family was as usual superb

I resisted the temptation to spectate in the Jacuzzi :-) Settling for some more sangria, fizzy white wine, beer and finally a glass of Drambuie on ice of all things! I decided enough was enough at 1 o'clock and went to sleep. Woke up a whole 5 hours later, surrounded by snoring, farting and general smellines :-)

By 7.30 I had done some token tidying up, eaten breakfast, drunk a gallon of water and taken some magic headache pills. So at 8 I set off for my solo run over the Lecht and Glenshee - I needed to be back in Edinburgh before noon in order to go out for lunch with Katie and the boys.

I had just one moment at the bottom of Glenshee. I overestimated the safe speed for crossing one of the many humps in the road and had the car totally airborne. It's an interesting experience when you really have all four wheels off the ground; the nose of the car dives much faster than you think it will, and for a split second, you actually think the car is going to roll head over heels. But it actually landed on all four wheels more or less in the direction I wanted it to and with little drama. Apart from the huge bang of the rear diffuser being dragged along the ground at some point.

Many many thanks to tut, Verian and family for such a memorable weekend, destination and excuse to thrash the Elise silly. Top marks for weather, scenery (didn't see much of it), routes, grub, company, did I say weather???? Despite having five cars in our group on Sunday, each of us drove extremely well and nobody got pissed off with us (except that Capri ... for no reason at all ... and if you drive a Capri, you must have had a lobotomy anyway!!!).

Thanks to Nicky for excellent navigating (only a couple of errors put right almost immediately... it must be sickmaking trying to read a map at those speeds). Don't know the names of who we were driving with in the 49 and 79 respectively.. so own up, please.

Being asked to lead after Blairgowrie meant I had to actually think where I was going etc. and it took me a while to get into the groove but wasn't it nice to keep three sports bike riders behind us down the last section into Crieff, despite loads of Sunday traffic.

I thought I would send this email to repeat the thank-you to Tut, Verian and others for working so hard to ensure that TT was such a success this year. Here is my review:

First of all was KH in the Seven. I was working all of Friday afternoon on changing the brake discs, and just got them done in time. I had a bit of a scare after the warm-up laps when one of the marshalls sent a message that an engine mount had fallen off the car at the hairpin. Lawrence had helped me change them a couple of weeks ago, but when I saw it I realised it was the old one, that I must have left in the engine bay. Phew! The car was going really quickly (not quite Noble speed but I didn't spin!) so apologies if I came up behind and sat on your tail. I also met a couple of new SE members who were bubbling with enthusiasm which was great :-)

I really enjoyed the dinner. Malcolm and I were badly behaved though - talking about Sevens all evening. I can't wait for the KH race on 1/2 June. I'll be there!

We turned up at the hotel on the Saturday morning at 9.15am expecting to see most people still there, but it was nearly deserted, so I joined up with a group from London. You could tell immediately that they were from down South by their driving - really aggressive, and some silly overtaking to start with, however they calmed down quickly, and the roads were clear for most of the morning. It was the first time I had taken the single track road around Loch Tay, and I really enjoyed it. Elaine however was getting serious vertigo, on the narrow road. There was a lot of screaming, even though I was only doing 20-30 mph!

It was a traffic laden stretch after that through to lunch, and then onto Fort William. Again the road was busy and the London group were trying to overtake, but to no avail. Then onto the single track road through Whitebridge. The VVC cars left me for dead going up the hill, and by the top I was nearly a mile behind. They were flying so we didn't try to catch up and took it at our own pace. A couple of navigational mistakes later we were miles off the route, so we meandered our way around the Lecht and dropped down to Dufftown. By coincidence we met the same group just as we left Dufftown - they were complaining that they were knackered, and wanted to go slow (no stamina!), so I went from being dropped off the back, to leading in one go!

It was a glorious last run up to Old Deer - empty roads, winding their way across the countryside in glorious sunshine. We were staying in Maud at a lovely little B&B. Margaret and Jimmy (who ran the B&B) were really inquisitive about Campbell's and my car, but very shy, so I persuaded them to sit in our car, and many photos were taken. It was a great party - the spit-roasted pig was sumptuous, and the whole thing was organised with unassuming efficiency. Thank-you to all of Tut's family for their effort. We ran out of energy at about 11pm, but taxi didn't arrive till 1am so the last hour was spent semi-asleep on the sofa by the fire in the lounge. Very relaxing!

Saturday was started with an excellent breakfast, then into Mintlaw for photos. We then split from the route and went South over Cairnomount. It was Elaine's turn to drive, which meant I could look at the scenery (quote of TT for me was Scott C: "what scenery?"). The road is one of my favourites in Scotland and the view from the top was crystal clear. If you don't know it, follow Campbell's directions, and enjoy.

Once home, out came the barbecue and more beer flowed. It wasn't quite spit roasted pig but it was the perfect finale. I don't think a weekend can be better than this one. I don't think a group can be much better than Scottish Elises. Bring on the next event - I'll be there.

What can I say, a top weekend. KH ace as usual, quite funny seeing Euan in the gravel on the warm up lap though.!!! Had an excellent scrap with Robin in the last 10 mins of the session, needless to say he didn't get past me.!!!

Drop back to Aberdeen after KH so missed the Hotel shenanigans, up at 6 on Saturday morning to meet everyone at the Hotel for 8:30.

Set of with Scotty C (and Andrew as pax) and a couple of southerners and Euan, after about 20 - 30 mins, Scotty and me were out in front by ourselves. Stopped to let the other catch up..!

After setting off again Tut appeared, got bogged down in Elise traffic and lost touch with Scotty, Tut and Kyle, drove out of my skin for the next 1.5 hours to try and catch up, eventually phoned Tut to fins out where he was only to find out that they had stopped for coffee and were about 50 miles behind me, Andrew and myself had arrived at the lunch stop just after 11.!!!

Regrouped at lunch and then headed off for the afternoon part of the day, very quick pace. all 4 of us got pulled by plod going through a small town, a member of the public had reported a group of Elises for erratic driving, plod obviously assumed it was use, I mean your not going to find many elises out and about in that neck of the woods are you??? He started taking our names and address, just as about 20 - 30 elises streamed past, at that point he stopped writing and we were on our way again.

About 15 miles outside Huntly there was an almighty bang at the back of my car, lots of smoke belching out everywhere, I suspected the worst, pleasantly surprised that I had only blown my exhaust, drove to Ricky's and dumped the car, Ricky reckons that it should weld no problem, Scotty drove me home and we picked up the trouble and strife. Had an excellent night and Tut Towers, food and company was excellent, many thanks to Verian and the tutlings.

Looking forward to next year already, should be able to take the wife with me too. Baby Brand with be with one of the grand parents.

Hope all went well on Sunday. Looking forward to seeing you all soon

Tut walking up and down the pit lane in bare feet. Do you drive with bare feet or where your shoes in the car?

The ear splitting sound of the Noble at full tilt. Really strange sound. The gear change seemed slow though.

Tuts car also made a strange whirring/whistle sound when hammering along the pit straight. I take it someone has been tinkering?

The Evo VII must have shredded his tyres. I was stood at the hairpin and he just kept nailing it letting the computers take over. All four tyres squealing as they searched for traction.

The Elise drivers where easily a match without any help. I thought you would all get more out of shape. The driver training courses obviously work.

I was very impressed with the level of respect everyone showed each other. I thought the red mist would come down when you hit the track and the driving would become very aggressive. If this was the case, as a novice, it would put me off participating.

I had great fun on the roads north of the Forth (probably drove a little too aggressively because of KH) and look forward to my next visit.

I just wanted to add my to cents and say a VERY BIG THANK YOU to David (tut)and Verian for putting us up this weekend and organising such a wicked event....truly in my eyes the "Lotus" event of the year. The food was awesome on Sat night.. What wicked weather, roads and lovely police men..Tut what more do you need, all at your doorstep (footstep..?)...!! I would also like to thank Nick for such a lovely drive home on Sunday along the A68 I hope you enjoyed your weekend and got home safely. (We must have had some serious luck with the unmarked car...and the cameras :)...) I'd also like to thank Lotus in general for making such lovely cars which we can enjoy so much...and brings us all together at such events. They ROCK..!!!! It was great meeting new people and driving alongside new faces..Knockhill was awesome and I managed to stay on it this time... Thanks to my car for getting be back in one piece.... see you all soon hopefully.

Just adding my thanks - KH on Friday was great - not too busy even with that number - and for organising dinner afterwards. Special thanks to Malcolm for passenger laps in his Caterham which he kindly showed me that he can slide effortlessly at any part of the circuit........

Well, I'm off the boat and back on local turf. Only thing I can say about that is I get a chance to wash the dust off the car and out of my eyes. OH! And I get to see my beautiful partner & child. (She's sitting next to me. ;-) First things First; To Tut & Queen of Tut ;-), thank you both for the hospitality shown us (Well Me anyway. ;-) over the weekend. You both have an absolutely stunning old abode. And that pig was I think _THE_MOST TENDER piece of pork I have ever laid teeth into. (Tut, if you feel like vacu-packing some and posting it over, pls feel free.) Right! Now onto things of a more petroleum oriented nature; First words that come to mind are quite simply - FUCK ME!!! Let me clarify. I got lucky on Friday when attempting to make my way up to Edinburgh from the boat following Liam's route minus a navigator, I actually met up with Tom, Liam, Rob, Brian, Simon, Kev - Oh, I don't remember who else. Anyway, I now no longer needed to worry about finding my way, so I could sit back and enjoy the drive. High….. OR rather Lowlight of that journey was following Rob round a bend to see what turned out to be Kev's front wheel bouncing across the road in front of us. Really feel for you Kev. Halfway to Edinburgh, I thought I'd done a ball-joint. A quick call to Tut, who in turn rang Murray's and they graciously agreed to see me straight away. So on I pushed to Murrays. Fortunately, it turned out to be only grabbing roll-bar blocks. So they pulled 'em off, covered 'em in copper slip and it cost me a tenner. Bargain! Tut, you might want to give Robert the mechanic there a ring and tell him the copperslip lasted till about Sat 17:00 and the noise is back. :-( Though on the upside, that's GOT to be a measure of how hard the suspension was working. :-) Onto to Knockhill. What a BRILLIANT little piece of track. Lots of sideways action and lots of practice. I had a bit of a moment at one point while Milan was passengering, but stayed on black. I even had a couple of laps with Nick Adams who got it pretty crossed up at the same corner coming out of Duffus. But he held it well. I had Great Expectations for Saturday. It started out reasonably gentle. There was a bit of a traffic jam happening so I just cruised along in line. Again it would've been hard without a navigator. Then at some point, a black Elise came SCREAMING through the field obviously not content to sit in the traffic. I didn't know who he was at the time, but it had a Scottish flag on the back, so I figured it was a fair bet he knew, at least more or less, where he was going. I saw my chance and followed. Well, THIS was my first taste of driving "Scottish Elises" style. It wasn't more than a couple of minutes and the only car in sight was the rear end of the one in front. 3 min.s later and I see Tut in the rear view. So it's just the 3 of us. And we _were_ MOTORING!!!! Arriving in Kenmore, we'd lost Tut so the guy in front pulled over, I followed suit and while we were sitting there, introduced myself. Turns out I've chosen to follow ScottyC, whose reputation is yet to be made known to me. No sign of Tut, so we turn about and head back to follow the Lotus boys, Tut and some others up the high road the wrong side of Loch Tee. THIS was my first glimpse of Scotland. It was the only time I got a chance to look around. Once out of that, quick stop for coffee at Tyndrum, then off again. This time through some pass en-route to Glencoe for lunch. Here's where it started to get REALLY interesting. At one point, we must've taken about 30 cars in one manoeuvre, barrelling down the wrong side of the road at about 130Mph. (For the record, it was a clear open long straight stretch. Well, this piece was anyway. :-) Stop off at Glencoe before lunch, and I hook onto the trio of Nick and AndyS to go for a blatt around ??? Loch Levin. This initially proved rather …. Ahemmm… interesting until I sussed that it wasn't actually me, rather Nick now no longer had any brake lights. Thankfully he let me swap positions, so I followed Andy after that. Including through the right-left dog leg that dropped seriously off camber on the 2nd half and put us both unintentionally on the wrong side of the road. Minor heart in mouth moment. A spot of lunch and off again. Silly me, I don't know WHAT I was thinking, but I decided to stick with ScottC & Tut, and by now we'd picked up Steve Brand as well. Now right about HERE is where my first words actually come back into play. I don't like to repeat myself but, F#CK ME!!! I don't know exactly how much of the actual route we did, but there were really only 2 things I saw for the rest of the afternoon. One was tarmac, and the other was Scotty's brake lights. And I had decided loooonnnnngggg before lunch, that I was NOT going to take my eyes off *Them*. Peripheral sights encountered along route were both Norfolk Mustard Stu & the Titanium car he was travelling with; about 5 times we went past them I think. :-), the Red Esprit & a few others. Now, I'm sure Scotland is a beautiful place. I just wish I'd seen some of it. :-) At one point the 4 of us got pulled over, names and addresses taken and a tap on the wrist; "You be good boys now, ol'rate!" It was here I made the somewhat innocent comment to Scotty; "It _feels_ like I could go a bit faster through some of these corners, but that's probably just cause I'm following you." And Scotty turns and says; "Oh, you wanna go faster?" OH!!!! How NAÏVE can one person be???? The locals decide we're gonna take "The back road. The really twisty one." What that translates to in anyone else's language is a fucking goat track hung onto the side of a mountain about a foot wider than the wing mirrors and covered in trees. And now Scott's travelling down this at 6000 in 4th. (You work it out!). I lost my bottle a bit here and throttled back a bit. Until I got the hang of it. Well, sort of anyway. Scott eased up a bit and let me keep with him. Another quick stop! Scotty's a bit much in this one. I'm sure he doesn't get anywhere any quicker than anyone else. I mean he certainly travels down the road in a manner to rival the Millennium Falcon, but every 20 min.s he suddenly slams on the anchors, pulls over and disappears off for a pee. :-) (Sorry Scott ;-) Mind you, I didn't mind this TOO much, because this was about the only time I actually saw anything of Scotland other than bitumen, brake lights or dust. :-) This particular stop was Tomtoulin. Or was it Tomlintoun, Or was it Tomlintoulin? Or was it Huntly? Or Rhynie? Or maybe it wasn't. I don't know anymore. Buggered if I remember. Just out of here was an open valley. The road wound through some fields, then down a hill to a long open flat bit across the valley floor before snaking back up left to the top of the other valley side again. Coming down the hill, I saw Scott touch the brakes before an obvious rise in the road. Thought to self; "Have to watch that one." Barrelling down, touch the brakes. "Oh FUCK! I'm airborne and it's coming down crossed up." Land, and hang on for dear life. This was my scariest moment of the day as the rear end bounced around trying to settle itself. All at the only marginal speed of approx. 100 - 110 Mph. Up the other side, Scott goes past a sedan, I have to wait for the corner. Round the bend, I make my move and………………"Oi! Where in Jesus' name did he go now?" So gone was he that the dust had already settled back on the road. And Tut, and Steve have disappeared from behind me too. 'Wonderful, here I am in the Scottish highlands, alone, no map, and no bloody idea where I am." "Ah well, nothing to do but press on." Thankfully about 7 min.s later, there's Scott, Sunday driving down the hillside. "That was nice of him." I thought. Some time later, we've found Tut & Steve again, and back on the pace. Round some quick bends, and………. "Where'd they go now?" A plume of smoke above the trees in the rear view. "Oh, dear. I hope he hasn't…………." Flashing lights, honking horn, waving my arms to Scott in front. We turn about. Fortunately, it's only a blown exhaust manifold which has melted the timing belt cover onto the belt. It's starting to get a bit late now. Scott and Steve limp off to Ricky's, I pick up Andrew (Thanks for the tips Andrew.) and chase Tut as we make a beeline for Old Deer. At one point, we've got a couple a Superbikes 3 feet off my tail. One goes past, pops the front. Tut passes a car, I go to pass the car, and next thing I know Andrew's telling me the 2nd guy's got the front wheel in the air next to me as I'm trying to overtake. Pull into TT and it seems we're not too far off the first one's there. Tell you the truth, I'm NOT freaking surprised. Pig and party were both superb. Thanks again Verian. Sunday, I missed out on as I had booked a boat. Pity, cause I would've liked to see some more of Scotland. This time at a viewable pace. Nevertheless, Tut lined me up with an AutoRoute. Giles had suggested a few roads too. Not sure where I was going, but had to make a boat. Ended up travelling down the coastal A92 from Stonehaven. Nice road, not too busy until Arbroath. Was gonna do the A1 after Edinburgh, but too much traffic, so headed inland. Back-country B-roads and the 2 big Enduros that decided to follow couldn't keep up. :-) Next thing I know, I'm headed down the A697 for Coldstream, right where Giles suggested. GREAT road. Down through Chillingham, Alnwick, Amble, somewhere else, somewhere else, somewhere else to Newcastle, all in time for the boat. And now to clean the blood n insect guts off the outside and start the archaeological dig which I hope will again reveal the inside of the car. Oh, Happy Days! P.S.: I've just read Steve Brands msg before sending this and I quote; "…...then headed off for the afternoon part of the day, very quick pace." Is THAT what you call it? Are ALL Scots so laconical about Lightspeed?

Not a lot I can say that has not been said already. Thanks to Tut & Verian and to everyone for coming and making it a great weekend. What are you all going on about the weather for, it is like this all the time up here. Take care and hope to meet you all again.

Yup, what more can be said.. Perfect weekend, driving, food, drink, mates, fun... and above all the hospitality of the best hosts anywhere :-)))

Thanks Tut, thanks All!

What can I say that hasn't already been said? Thank you Tut and Verian (and family). Weather was great Food brilliant Roads awesome Views (apart from the car ahead) wonderful

Well what can I say except that was a pretty good weekend now wasn't it. Huge thank you to Tut and family for the organisation and hospitality and also thank you to whoever was responsible for the weather. Highlights Incredible roads and stunning scenery The look on the poor local guys face who turned up to the Saturday lunch meet in a grey Elise only to find a car park full of Elises. How confused was he :o) The noise of that Noble at full tilt down the back straight of Knockhill Putting many faces to names The sight of many Elises parked up together at various locations The overtaking Scary moments Cresting a small hill at about 80mph only to find a Peugeot 306 reversing towards us Entering the Services on the M6 while going home a little to quickly, getting it sideways and then noticing a width restriction of about 7 foot. All in all a superb weekend and thank you Tut arranging it

To king TUT Man you sure know how to have a great weekend. Cheers for sorting all the stuff out. Roads were amazing and I would just like to personally thank you for selling your soul to get that weather.

Leah and I had a brilliant time, and can't understand why Scots move away from home, the scenery was stunning. Scottish hospitality was tremendous too - a big thank you to Tut, Verian and Tutlings. Not much else to add to what others have said, other than Tut needs to get a bit quicker round Knockhill !! I also need to thank Tut, Stu Boffey and Graham for their help repairing my car. Yep, my car tried its hardest to go home on a lorry, but Tut's puncture repair kit and Stu Boffey's cable ties did the trick and sealed up the tear in one of my coolant pipes! The thought of missing out on Sunday's driving put a dampener on Saturday evening for me, but I still enjoyed myself, even though both Leah and I were completely knackered. Was really pleased that we got to do the Sunday driving, some of the best routes I've ever driven. Three cheers for Tut, hip-hip-hurrah... hip-hip-hurrah... hip-hip-hurrah !!

Tut, Verian and kids Thanks for a truly epic weekend. Got back last night completely knackered. Unpacked, packed and headed off to Heathrow at 5am this morning, guess where to. That's right, Aberdeen :) To all those that has mishaps, best of luck and speedy recoveries. Thanks also to the Tuesday Club for the company and all the leading they did on our drives. Roll on TT3

Tut, Verian and family - a big thank you for allowing us to invade your home a second time, the meal was great. Georgie - we're glad you got home safely - we'll be in touch. Geoff - thanks for your company - we couldn't have been too bad as you joined us for a second day - you are now an affiliated member of the wrinklie club! TomR - we now know why you kept the Alston area a secret. Great roads, wonderful scenery and our hotel was brilliant. We are glad we spotted your post about Alston as a stop off on journey down South. All in all an absolutely fabulous weekend, great driving, great food and great scenery, and great company.

I am finally back in Wales. Thanks to all the Scots for the last 2 weeks, actually doing the courses in Crail. Thanks to Tut for organising the weekend. Thanks to all of those I had passenger rides with around Scotland I actually had a chance to take in the scenery without having to teach all the time.. Robin thanks for the room and lift on Friday night. Willie Robertson for giving me the noble to use at KH again and only a small mark on my leg from the quad bike racing on Monday. Tut hope you get the belt fixed soon I don't like pushing cars :)

Many thanks to Tut and family. A fantastic weekend for so many people thanks to your generosity and goodwill. I just now wish I'd bought my Elise a few years ago. Oh what I've been missing! To all the other 'Friends of Tut Towers' it was a pleasure to meet you all & I look forward to hooking up with you on future runs.

Tut - many thanks for putting in all the time and effort required for Tut Towers 2002. I had a fantastic time. Some superb roads, lovely scenery and due to your hard work it was effortless for us all - we just had to turn up and drive. Also big, big thanks to Verian for putting up with us all for the second year running - for her hospitality and for the delicious cheese pie (far better than dead pig I can assure you!). Thanks to Bob for the stickers too. Thanks also to Tony & Angela and Derek & Sue for route finding - it makes it so much easier not having to drive & map read at the same time.

I'm still recovering from the epic 6 days driving, drinking and generally grinning like an idiot. Tut, proper thanks and report to follow...

3.30 Friday..My navigator for the weekend decides to phone and inform me he has food poisoning and so cannot make it...bugger... , only managed to get out of work just after 4pm so I was well on my way for being late for KH, Paula (the wife) kindly came and got me and I made haste for the Dundee Bullienfield petrol station where I hooked up with SE'ers Lee and Ian K. Arrive KH at 5 and am immediately accosted for stickers. First time I'd done KH in the dry and a brand new rear set of S02's were nicely worn in by the end of the evening. Most disheartening moment was about three laps from the end of the night when 4 other Liz's past me on the pit straight when I had my foot to the floor...hmm...some pretty powerful cars here at the weekend me thinks. Great to see Mike, grinning from ear to ear and in proud possession of his new S2 135, also good to meet Bob V, Hazel and a couple of new faces that I'm sure will be regulars at SE events.

Next morning, I was due to hook up with Jonathan Neale around 9.15 only problem is that most have decided to leave before 9.00. Mike try's his mobile with no luck so end up setting off with GPS'ed up Stu and Euan, were soon joined by a swarm of Elises and Scotty C, and Steve B who made deft work of dismissing everyone on the road down past KH to Powmill.

Stop in Crieff and all the other cars pass including a smiling Tut??? cant find Jonathans phone number...more arse!!! Do the drive to Aberfeldy by myself at a fair pace getting waved past by a silver Liz and Exige and eventually catch up with some other cars. Scotty, Kyle and Tut then suddenly appear behind at Kenmore, how I don't know??? We proceed down the wrong side of Loch Tay (i.e. the slow side) Idiot in a blue van making the pace abominably slow, so pull over for a pee and Tut heads off looking to get the van drivers head as a trophy, couple of quick pictures and I've got a clear road in front of me...while airborne I decide that when I land I'll slow down a bit. Catch up with Tut, Scotty, Kyle the Lotus boys and start the painstaking process of dispatching traffic till we get to Tyndrum, have a coffee and let all the other road users we've just pissed off pass us again. Get back in the car to find the fuel gauge reading 32 litres I've only used 3 litres of fuel since last night???...I don't thinks so...Everyone else heads off and I go in search of petrol...sure enough the car swallows £17.

I do a solo mission on the A82 to Glencoe and am grinning from ear to ear as for some unknown reason they're doesn't seem to be any traffic coming towards me, as a result I spend most of my time on the right side of the road....

Spot and park up by Iain F's S2 in a lay-by in a gorge beside an amazing waterfall and am bemused to find him some 150ft up a slope (nae cliff!!!) filming all the Liz's going past, join Iain in his precarious position and spend the next half hour enjoying the sun and waving at all the Liz's going past oblivious to our position above them.

Balla-whatever to Spean-Bridge is full of traffic, slow going and were glad when we hit what turns out to be the superfast no traffic A86. Iain sets a superb pace and we dispatch the ground to Newtonmore in double quick time, I'm totally buzzing when we get to Kingussie and it's obvious the others enjoyed it too...

We opt for the road to Drumin then saunter slowly over to Dufftown...OK I'm lying, Iain was in his element and was relishing the twisty roads and on more than one occasion I backed off cause I couldn't be sure when a tractor would suddenly appear from a side road.

We are soon joined at the super friendly "fill her up sir" garage (I'm moving to Aberdeenshire if only for the service you get at petrol stations) by Iain Thomas in his Scoob and a few other Liz's, we decide to push on as our merry band were enjoying the pace with only four cars to worry about.

Somewhere in between Huntly and Turrif we have our only "incident" of the weekend when we all overtake a red Mundano on a piece of road with no centre markings...all that is except Ant as the guy decides to stop in the middle of the road and take out his verbal frustrations on him, I reckon he just couldn't get his head round the concept that you are ALLOWED to overtake on a road other than a straight piece of carriageway where you can see that there is nothing coming for the next 5 miles!!!

We later found out that said Mundano driver had gone home and phoned the Police, and one of the other groups had been pulled over by plod. I can only pass on my apologies cause as far as I'm aware we did not overtake in a risky or dangerous manner and the grievance was caused by someone who obviously has no willy.

Next day I decide I'm going too enjoy the scenery today instead of staring at someone's brake lights for 6 hours, so head off with Stu Cartwright on a sightseeing tour and do a bit of one handed driving/videoing. What can you say...Tut has some great roads in his neck of the woods and the scenery and sun finished the weekend off nicely for me. Around the Lecht, Stripey Si and company pass in the opposite direction, this is obviously there second trip of the day over the Lecht pass. As we approach the bottom of the pass the road up ahead has been closed cause two motorbikes have crashed and we have to watch as the air ambulance takes the injured bikers away...I'm dragged back to reality for a fleeting moment.

After Lunch, set off with the intention of driving slowly back to Blairgowrie....which goes straight out the window, cause I'm on local roads which just cannot be driven slowly, Lee follows suit and we make a beeline for the horizon, I lose him at one point when another person with an averjance to being overtaken doesn't let him past, he catches up and I pull over to let him lead....next thing I know we are in Blairgowrie! We stop in a carpark and wait for others to arrive, everyone says they're goodbyes and I trundle the last few miles home tired and very happy....TT2002 gone but definitely not forgotten.

What an incredible event. We had been so looking forward to TT2 to find that it surpassed even our rose-tinted memories of last year is praise indeed . Scotland never fails to impress us southern jessies anyway but this time she (?) had her party frock on and was basking in spectacular weather. Hospitality exquisite and the piggy delicious . Tut you must post the hard won secret of the finest cracklin' I have ever tasted for all to enjoy. We returned via Northumberland and Cumbria staying close to Alston over nite and blasted the military road behind Hadrians Wall and the faberooney A686 Hexham to Penrith the next day. Added to this Tomr's puppy Kielder road we had 'done 'on the way up to TT2 was Xmas and b'day all at once. Arrived home 11.30 Mon nite with 1600 miles of GRIN added to the speedo.......THANKS THANKS THANKS. You can have your house back now.

Many, many thanks to you and Verian for a wonderful weekend; your hospitality is second to none. I had meant to say goodbye and thanks to Verian in person but never managed it in the confusion on Sunday morning, so apologies for that. Just sorry I didn't get to see you tear assing round Knockhill showing the youngsters how it should be done.

Well I think I get the prize for being the last person to get home - after 2 weeks and nearly 4000 miles, both me & me car are exhausted! We had a great time, and managed to combine Tut Towers (TT) with the Lotus Pilgrimage, the MG Regency Run and various touring too (we detoured to do the Snake Pass & found the Dukes Pass in Scotland completely by accident :o) I set out from Munich to meet up with Bob in Holland. Bob had agreed to be my co-driver for the trip and had booked his 1950s MG Magnette into the London to Brighton run which was planned for the weekend after TT. The journey through Holland to the catamaran did not bode well - the weather was atrocious. This was the first time that I had got to use the Lotus Yoko Advans tyres in bad weather, and even at the slow speeds I was travelling at following Bobs Magnette, they had a great sense of security that I had always lacked when using the original P0s. Waiting in line at the ferry terminal was rather amusing - unusually people were walking right past my car to get a better look at Bobs car - one guy even took a whole set of photos of it. We then set sail from The Hook Of Holland in Gale force winds. Erm, it was a bit bumpy! After we had docked at Harwich it was straight into a traffic jam to clear customs, and then off onto UK roads. Switching between left and right hand driving always takes a bit of concentration at first! The drive to Suffolk didn't take too long and we arrived at Bobs fathers house (where we were leaving the Magnette for a week) quite quickly. Bobs Magnette bounced over the small single track road that lead to his fathers house, my Elise had to wind its way carefully along avoiding the potholes to prevent the car grounding! Wednesday - The Snake Pass to Manchester We headed North in the Elise, Bob wanted to meet up with an old friend near Wigan that he hadn't seen for many years. Of course this meant that we had to make a detour to take a look at the infamous Snake Pass :o) The weather forecast was for it to be clear in the south, showers in the North - typical! Fortunately, this was incorrect, and although the sky looked threatening, it remained dry. The Snake Pass road (A57) incorporated some wonderful scenery, and then a great twisty bit of road that was mostly deserted until we got to the end - wonderful! This road really does have it all, fast open straights, tight moor land bends, wooded sections and a great view of the Ladybower reservoir (where the famous Dam busting bouncing bomb was tested). We met up with Bobs friend at the hotel and proceeded to get very drunk. Thursday - The Northumberland coast to Berwick Slightly hung over, we decided to head back across country to the Northumberland coast. We headed for Amble and stopped to get some info from the tourist office. I wanted to find out about the tides so that we could drive across the causeway & visit Holy Island (Lindisfarne). The woman in the office was extremely friendly and helpful, after finding out that we were on the way to a big Lotus event, she pointed us in the direction of the Jim Clarke Room in Duns - something that was very much worth a visit. Well done that woman! We set off up the coast again, taking in Bamburgh castle and out to Lindisfarne. Great scenery and empty roads again. We eventually arrived in Berwick to find the hotel that the nice lady in Amble had booked for us. A wonderful hotel and excellent food & wine (hangover again). Friday - Knockhill Not normally a breakfast eater, and despite a hangover, I succumbed to the full breakfast. And boy was this a full breakfast! Sausage, bacon, egg, mushrooms, black pudding & haggis! Yum! Yum! We detoured to Duns to visit the Jim Clark room, finding some lovely driving roads on the way. Then we headed up to Edinburgh to dump out baggage at the hotel and head on for the track evening at Knockhill. In the car park was an S2 135 Elise, someone that wasn't part of the planned weekend, but was interested to hear that 60 Elises would shortly be arriving! We hung around for a bit to see if anyone else was gonna show up, but soon got bored & decided to go and find our own way to Knockhill and do some exploring. As soon as we got into the car Iain F. arrived, so we decided to hang on for a bit longer to see who else turned up. Shortly after Nick Adams and Andy Shepherd arrived - so after they had unloaded their cars we decided to push on for Knockhill. 50 metres around the corner and a whole flock of Elises arrived - the Newcastle contingent, including Kyle (no doubt that they found him sauntering along the Geordie roads somewhere :o) Knockhill was my first track day (I don't think the Nurburgring counts, that's a whole different experience!). I listened to the briefing in a state of apprehension, trying to remember all the rules. I needn't of worried of course, the event was well organised and the track was a pleasure. Bob passengered with me, and then I let him go off on his own. Driving my car on track was exhilarating - someone else driving my car was just too nerve wracking! I managed to cadge a passenger lap with Robin though - and he showed me how it should be done! Managed to drag Bob away from my car to get a few more laps in after that. And it was all over far too quickly! We all headed back to Edinburgh to the hotel for the evening meal. We ended up in the bar until 4am (another hangover - do you see a trend developing?). Saturday Major hangover! We had decided not to get stuck in with the hoi paloi on the long Scottish routes & had arranged to meet up with Robin & Campbell to do the "tourist route". The roads were great, the scenery terrific, and the pace just about right for me in my hungover state. Bob was driving & he was obviously enjoying himself too. We stopped off a little tea room stuck high up on a mountainside somewhere. A lovely place, but the service was s-l-o-w! When we had eventually been fed & watered, we set off again for the final leg to Tut Towers, where we were the first to arrive - welcomed at the gate by Thor! Verian (Mrs Tut) was quick to introduce herself & force me to drink sangria (very nice it was too). Shortly afterwards the next group of Elises started to arrive, then more, then more.... Several drinks later, a queue for the spit roast pig formed. It was certainly worth the wait! After stuffing myself on pork and a tonne of salad, I had no room left for the enormous amount of yummy looking cake that arrived later :o( During the evening we wandered around the various groups. The Scots seemed to have positioned themselves near the food, whilst the Londoners had installed themselves in the conservatory (not to mention the group that spent hours in the jacuzzi - wow they musta been wrinkled!) I retired about midnight, previous hangovers and all the travelling having finally caught up with me. Sunday Driving Sunday we set off following someone that we assumed knew where they were going. It was soon apparent that they were not using the same directions as us - and rather concerned that they could be heading for John'O'Groats for all we knew, we decided to make up our own route to the lunch stop at Braemar. I have no idea of the route we took - we managed to get stuck in the middle of a cycle race at one point! Eventually we spotted some Elises on the horizon - at what was clearly an accident site :o( We saw a helicopter arrive and pick up someone - we were rather alarmed that it might be another Elise driver, but when got to the site of the accident, we could see that it was a motorbike accident. This dampened our spirits a little, and we took things a little more carefully from that point. We arrived in Braemar for the lunch stop & to say goodbye to the people that were heading back south. We teamed of with the other hangers on to follow some more great roads and then loop back up to Tut Towers, where we were staying another night (with Georgie too). Sunday evening was the opportunity for a good chinwag with Tut & Georgie. Slightly less alcohol was consumed (I did manage to steal Bobs whisky though :o) Many thanks to Tut for arranging the whole weekend, and to Mrs Tut for putting up with us all! Even the weather for the whole weekend had been brilliant - Bob managed to get sunburnt! Monday Monday we said our farewells to Tut & Mrs Tut, and Thor gave us his usual frantic farewell routine. Georgie, Bob & I sauntered down some dual carriageways, attempting to avoid the speed cameras, on the way to Crail airfield. The road from St Andrews to Crail was the only real highlight of that drive. We arrived just in time to steal some of Willies BBQ :o) As we had arrived quite late, and we were booked in to do a session with Andrew at Crail on the Wednesday anyway, we decided not to join in the fun and said our goodbyes & headed off to Edinburgh. I had to get my glasses repaired - I had somehow managed to bend them & was running out of disposable contact lenses. Bob kindly offered to do all the driving if I was unable to see - but I thought that was far to generous of him! Tuesday - Dukes Pass We consulted the map & decided that we would visit Loch Lomond. We took a pretty much direct route, which turned out to be fairly boring dual carriageways. At our lunch stop by the lake I decided to take a more scenic route back, consulting the map revealed a rather interesting twisty bit of road which turned out to be the Dukes Pass. This road demands concentration - it is so narrow & twisty & sometimes as you come over a crest you can't even see where the road is going a few metres in front of you! Absolutely wonderful! :o)))) We even came across a bagpiper entertaining two tourists in the middle of nowhere! After that we headed back towards Crail via Sterling. Wednesday - Crail Airfield Awoke without a hangover! Sauntered down to breakfast to find Andrew already there. Shortly after ordering our breakfasts Tut arrived - spare place for the day had been too much for him to resist! We all drove down to the airfield and Andrew soon put us to work on the dieseled up skid pan area. My poor car was soon covered in diesel - but controlling sideways movements in slow motion like that was too much fun to miss out on. A sorta Elise ballet. After playing about like that for a while Andrew picked on me to move onto the next activity. Basically this involved driving around and around in circles to find the gripping point of the tyres and the optimum steering wheel angle, then using the throttle to steer the car around ever widening arcs. This again was great fun, but was rather spoiled by the amount of gravel on the airfield surface. Being an Elise owner, you soon get used to stone chips, but this was rather daunting! After mastering the throttle exercise, it was off to do a circuit of a mixture of a long sweeping bend, a hairpin, and a mini chicane - with a few extra corners thrown in for good measure. The combined noise from the engine, the huge amounts of gravel hammering my car to pieces, and Andrew shouting instructions was certainly exhilarating! With some concern for the worsening state of my car, I only did a few laps. A problem with the suspension was developing too. The suspension had sunk since it had been fitted, although it was still at a reasonable height one of the shocks was obviously defective. On sharp high speed bends, the front wheel arch of the clam was impacting on the tyre :o( Not too keen on ripping my clam apart, I decided to take it easy. When everyone had finally finished playing around, we all said goodbye & headed our separate ways. Bob & I decided to head down the West side of the UK this time, and stop off at the Lake District. We turned off the M6 at Penrith and soon found a very nice Inn in Troutbeck. Thursday - The Lake District I've only been to the Lake District a couple of times, but coming into it from the north is definitely the best approach. The hills just seem to open up before you. We had some wonderful views as we headed down to our short break in Ambleside. Then it was off to London to try and get to Lakeside so they could have a look at my suspension. They were as helpful as ever and pumped up the front suspension a little to minimise the danger of any further clam damage. Had some interesting conversations with Max, Art & ??. I even managed to acquire a signed copy of Arts new Track Guide :o) Friday - Emeralds We called Emeralds to see if there was any chance of them doing a rolling road test on my car (we had rung a few weeks previously to see if there was any possibility & they had said to call when we were in the area). I was interested to see what the power output was following the few minor mods I had made (Moto-Concept stainless steel exhaust, Hurricane air box, and the MG Trophy 160 throttle body). They were rather busy, but said to come along anyway & they would see what they could do. When we arrived Dave Walker was busy testing a Belgium Elise that needed a full re-map. Dave & the Belgium guy kindly agreed to let us have a few minutes on the rolling road just to do a simple test :o) The results were pleasantly surprising :o) Max 163 at 6650 rpm, max 135 lbft at 4180 rpm, & the torque curve has a nice flat line from about 4000 rpm (see http://www.mgdot.freeservers.com/rr/emerald.htm ) Saturday - The Lotus Pilgrimage It rained - but that didn't dampen our spirits. On display near the shop were a series of S2s - all the possible colour combinations and a set in unusual paint schemes. The 49 (red & white with a gold stripe) combination did not suit the S2 IMHO, and the Olde English White car didn't do it for me either. The green cars were the best by far. But come on Lotus - it's upgraded engines we want - not fancy colour schemes and air con! We were fortunate to be guided around the factory by Neil Turner who even generously agreed to take a look at my suspension from the warranty claim point of view & put my mind a little bit at rest. The factory tour would have been interesting enough even without the VVC engined S2s lurking along the production line. Neil would not be drawn into discussion about future models though. After that I paid my £25 and got a few passenger laps around the Lotus test track (sideways around the steering circle had me laughing out loud :o) Then it was back to the shop to make the obligatory purchase. Well done to Mike Knowles for getting the whole idea going, and thanks to all the staff at Lotus that made it a great day. I hope this day will be repeated next year, it must have been profitable - just about everyone seemed to have purchased something from the shop, and Lotus musta received a whole tonne of useful feedback. Finally it was time to leave this place of worship. So it was back to Suffolk to swap cars ready for the MG Regency run the next day. Swapping from the Elise to the Magnette was quite a shock, to say the least. Whereas the Elise rattles and thuds over all the bumps, the Magnette sorta bounced - I was soon feeling quite seasick! And where the Elise grips well around the corners, I was frequently concerned that the Magnette was not gonna make it all the way around them! Being in a car without seatbelts was also rather strange - especially when Bob took a sharp corner rather fast & I nearly ended up on his lap - hmmm, was that really an accident!? Sunday - MG Regency Run, London to Brighton Our allotted number was pretty low - which meant an early start :o( We arrived at Brooklands to find a whole range of MGs arriving. The MGFs and Z cars had lunchtime starts, so they were only one or two of them around. It was soon apparent that MGBs were ruling this day though! We quickly managed to find Gilly & Richard with their beautiful MGA, and then bumped into Dan, Lucy & Nathanial. I'd missed Dans email confirming that he was going, so it was quite a surprise to suddenly see him there, even more of a surprise was that he wasn't there with his MGA, but had a Magnette almost exactly the same as Bobs! So the three cars managed to stick together in convoy for the whole trip. We only got lost once, and that was on such a lovely little road that it didn't matter - especially as we looped back around to rejoin the official route. Once in Brighton we surveyed the other cars and set off for some fish & chips on the Prom :o) After lunch, Gilly & Richard headed off to do some shopping, whilst the rest of us headed back to the MGs to search out more friends and survey the cars that had completed the run - that included a Ferrari (quote "my MG broke down this morning, so I brought my other car") and an MX5 (how the hell did that get an official entry!?). We bumped into Kelvin Fagin who was wandering about with his ever present camera, and then we found the unmistakable Scarlet Fever. We couldn't find Patrick Beet - apparently he'd stopped off in a pub somewhere (typical!) After lurking about a bit more (Patrick finally arrived too), we said our farewells and headed back towards London via Ditchling Beacon with Dan & Lucy. Monday - Shopping It was now back off back to Suffolk via a spot of retail therapy at the Lakeside Shopping Centre :o) Tuesday - Sailing Another catamaran crossing in gale force winds. Wednesday - I polished my car! Well after the thrashing that my car has had lately, I thought it deserved a bit of a treat. I have to admit that this is the first time my 111S has *ever* been polished - normally its lucky to get a wash and a chamois dry. After getting covered in diesel @ Crail, whilst playing on the skidpan, it got a quick wash with a brush - resulting a load of scratches to the paintwork :o( So I found myself a Halfords and purchased a job lot of Auto Glym products. I have to admit that I am truly amazed at the results! You now have to wear sunglasses to look at it (especially as Bob polished the petrol cap with chrome cleaner too). All of my prized fly collection and most of the scratches are now gone - and I am confident that the remaining scratches will polish out with a bit more elbow work. So 100/10 fot Auto Glym stuff. Thursday - Floriade Visited the Floriade International Flower Festival near Harlem. Friday - Return to Munich Roof off, sun all the way = one sunburnt neck!

Tut's New Shoes	Fri - Knockhill	Lovely Black 340R
What a Noble beast		Sat - getting ready
	Sat - they're off
Blast those holidaymakers		Sat - No Overnight Parking
	Isle of Glencoe	How many for sandwiches?		Elise - common or wot?
Del's Esprit needs a repair		Sun
	Getting ready for the Lecht		Braemar	Don't ask how this was taken

SCOTTISH ELISES AT TUT TOWERS 2002

PICTURES AND VIDEO

SCOTTISH ELISES AT TUT TOWERS 2002