After hearing about our brilliant driving roads in the North East my Brother in Law brought his Supercharged Lotus Elise up from Cambridge for 4 days over Easter.
Steph and I met Tim and Linda at Helmsley on Good Friday and purposely made the meet up late afternoon to get a clearish run at the Helmsley B1257 to Stokesley. Our timings paid off!
From there we headed across country to the North Pennines to join up with Stanhope to take him to the B6295 via Rookhope and Allenheads and Allendale (where we had to contact Cherrym for an open petrol garage 
Thanks Mike ). A quick lap of Derwent Water and we headed home to Newcastle in the semi dark. First day and some terrific roads already. 
Saturday saw us heading for Newcastle City centre and the Quayside. Two leather jackets later (thanks for the Birthday Present Steph!) and some breakfast and we eventually headed out to Alston on the fabulous A686, again in the late afternoon to avoid traffic. Up over Hartside saw us have a late afternoon lunch at Melmerby and a return run up over Hartside. At this point I sent Tim off to take the lead and began to get some idea of the true capabilities of the Lotus - very, very impressive!
At Alston we headed out along the A6277 to the North Pennines - onto an un-named road to join the A689 then Stanhope and on to Middleton in Teesdale - back via another un named route (thanks to Cherrym). and home. day two and we'd been lucky with traffic and had another wonderful day - and the weather - wow!
Sunday we set out to show them Hadrian's Wall; Steel Rigg and Housesteads then returned to Corbridge and our driving route for the day - heading out to Kielder and the Hawick loop. It's here that it was clear just how much cornering speed and instant acceleration the Lotus had - no chance of keeping up and not many 'on road' photos as Steph was battered from side to side and back and forth as we did our best in the Zed. :lol: Great fun but a reality check - what a fabulously capable sports car that Lotus is - instant overtake and changes direction like a startled fish. Much much faster than the Lotus 7s we kept up with on the same road last year.
Monday we headed south with Tim to see them off with what we hoped would be a terrific road to end our driving - The B6276 from Middleton in Teesdale to Brough then on to the Buttertubs Pass and Tan Hill. Sadly the A66 was closed and all traffic (including caravans!!) were using the B6276 and it was congested and at a standstill when we got there due to the narrow bridges and sections - good job the weather was brilliant as this was frustrating and we just had to join the parade of very slowly moving or static traffic!
Nevermind we had a clearish run at Buttertub and hardly any traffic on the approach to Tan Hill.
A fabulous 4 days but I've had enough of the Zed for now - I'm driven out
. . . . it was hard work and quite intense - I wouldn't have missed it but that Lotus is in another league! Tim was amazed by the lack of traffic in Northumberland and the Borders, the quality of the routes in our area, and the number of great driving roads. He was pretty impressed with the scenary too but we didn't get too many opportunities to take that in - only when we stopped.
Anyone else have experience of the Elise - it must be the most affordable way to get into super car performance - I was totally impressed but I wouldn't want to drive one necessarily on the road - it's just too capable and consequently probably very frustrating to hold in check. . . . . fabulous though. (Note the lack of rubber on the left roof support pole hole - fell out and couldn't be found during the trip. . . . I say no more :roll: )
Now I'm taking a good rest before heading down to Wales - Steph and I have got a meet for the Evo triangle and North Wales at the weekend. . . .
Steph and I met Tim and Linda at Helmsley on Good Friday and purposely made the meet up late afternoon to get a clearish run at the Helmsley B1257 to Stokesley. Our timings paid off!
From there we headed across country to the North Pennines to join up with Stanhope to take him to the B6295 via Rookhope and Allenheads and Allendale (where we had to contact Cherrym for an open petrol garage Thanks Mike ). A quick lap of Derwent Water and we headed home to Newcastle in the semi dark. First day and some terrific roads already. Saturday saw us heading for Newcastle City centre and the Quayside. Two leather jackets later (thanks for the Birthday Present Steph!) and some breakfast and we eventually headed out to Alston on the fabulous A686, again in the late afternoon to avoid traffic. Up over Hartside saw us have a late afternoon lunch at Melmerby and a return run up over Hartside. At this point I sent Tim off to take the lead and began to get some idea of the true capabilities of the Lotus - very, very impressive!
At Alston we headed out along the A6277 to the North Pennines - onto an un-named road to join the A689 then Stanhope and on to Middleton in Teesdale - back via another un named route (thanks to Cherrym). and home. day two and we'd been lucky with traffic and had another wonderful day - and the weather - wow! Sunday we set out to show them Hadrian's Wall; Steel Rigg and Housesteads then returned to Corbridge and our driving route for the day - heading out to Kielder and the Hawick loop. It's here that it was clear just how much cornering speed and instant acceleration the Lotus had - no chance of keeping up and not many 'on road' photos as Steph was battered from side to side and back and forth as we did our best in the Zed. :lol: Great fun but a reality check - what a fabulously capable sports car that Lotus is - instant overtake and changes direction like a startled fish. Much much faster than the Lotus 7s we kept up with on the same road last year.
Monday we headed south with Tim to see them off with what we hoped would be a terrific road to end our driving - The B6276 from Middleton in Teesdale to Brough then on to the Buttertubs Pass and Tan Hill. Sadly the A66 was closed and all traffic (including caravans!!) were using the B6276 and it was congested and at a standstill when we got there due to the narrow bridges and sections - good job the weather was brilliant as this was frustrating and we just had to join the parade of very slowly moving or static traffic!
Nevermind we had a clearish run at Buttertub and hardly any traffic on the approach to Tan Hill. A fabulous 4 days but I've had enough of the Zed for now - I'm driven out
. . . . it was hard work and quite intense - I wouldn't have missed it but that Lotus is in another league! Tim was amazed by the lack of traffic in Northumberland and the Borders, the quality of the routes in our area, and the number of great driving roads. He was pretty impressed with the scenary too but we didn't get too many opportunities to take that in - only when we stopped. Anyone else have experience of the Elise - it must be the most affordable way to get into super car performance - I was totally impressed but I wouldn't want to drive one necessarily on the road - it's just too capable and consequently probably very frustrating to hold in check. . . . . fabulous though. (Note the lack of rubber on the left roof support pole hole - fell out and couldn't be found during the trip. . . . I say no more :roll: )
Now I'm taking a good rest before heading down to Wales - Steph and I have got a meet for the Evo triangle and North Wales at the weekend. . . .
