Surprisingly my wife, Jane, agreed to come with me on this trip but not to attend the track days!
We were staying at a nice hotel in Albert which is mid way between Folembray and Abbeville but close to Amiens and Arras.
We had an uneventful trip down, but a problem emerged whereby the expansion bottle would overheat and water would escape out of the cap :-( just keep an eye on the temperature and kept topping up the water at petrol stops. also carried a couple of big bottles of water in the boot, just in case.
The car is a Lotus Elan SE Turbo - which is a fantastic little sports car. It is easy to get in and out through conventional doors, the seats are very comfortable (but being leather are very slippy in hard cornering), the windscreen is a long way away giving the impression of more cabin space and the boot is a decent size (two peoples bags for the weekend, some tools, the water bottles, helmet, racing boots/gloves, spare wheel, oil, camera, wind break) this is because it is FWD! the only one Lotus ever made.
On the Saturday Jane and I went to visit the Medieval walled city of Laon which is on the top of
a very large hill. The views on a clear day must be fabulous but when we were there it was a bit misty but very hot about 26 degrees.Had to put on sunscreen and a hat - fair skinned and burn and end up like "roast beef" as the French affectionately refer to us. Also gave me a chance to wear my Lotus on Track cap - which my wife loves - NOT!
Took loads of photos of the views and the medieval streets which I wont post on here, but the cathedral is breathtaking and I will post a couple of those. It is worth visiting Laon just to see the Cathedral.Now my previous impressions of France had been that lunch was a long drawn out affair which coould last into the late afternoon? However, in Laon everything is over by two and all you can get is a snack! albeit in a very friendly bar with some other "roast beefs". Every other establishment gave you the mad British look - you want to eat lunch now? You sometimes get this look in the UK too :-)
Here are some pictures of the outside of the cathedral which was equally as fascinating.
and yes !that is a hippopotamus on the building - there were lots of strange creatures on the walls of the cathedral.
Next day I went off to Folembray to the trackday and Jane went off by train to Amiens for a tourist day and some shopping.
Folembray is a lovely little circuit hidden away in the middle of a forest at the back of the town.
It is short but quite challenging and loads of fun. There were obviously a lot of Loti there but only two Elans; mine and Monty's (from the Forum - Lotus Elan Central). The Folembray sign and entrance gate can be seen in the background.There was a contingent of fellow Scots who had come down in a few Porsches and a couple of Loti - one of them a Honda VTEC powered Exige - Wow.
It was a lovely sunny day with temperatures in the high twenties again - so time for the suncream and hat :-)
Monty's car is a bit special, lowered, adjustable suspension and a very "bling" engine bay - looks and goes really well. Dico his friend was there, but was a bit off colour from the night before - enough said!Here are some of the other cars there on the day
The first one had come over from Belguim for the day.
There were even two BMW's and one of them an E30 M3 like mine and in Shwartzmetallic - also like mine.
Unfortunately, the expansion bottle problem got worse and a blown head gasket was the general consensus of opinion :-( and in addition the Hall Sensor was giving problems along with the fact that the two coils are underneath the expansion tank and were being soaked. Boo Hoo as children say - needless to say this put an end to my track day and I cancelled going to Abbeville the next day opting to spent the time with my wife sightseeing on the way home.
Unfortuantely it rained all day and after looking around Arras for a short while and having a
marvelloous lunch just off the main square - we headed off to Dunkirk to see if we could catch an earlier ferry.Unfortunately the ferries were full so we had to wait around Dunkirk for hours - not the best place to spent 3 to 4 hours in my opinion, but I did get a new battey fitted to my watch.
Apart from the car problems it had been an enjoyable weekend - good food and wine and very good hotel.
