- Lotus Week Australia offers closed-road events where passionate Lotus owners can fully unleash their cars.
- A unique community experience, the event unites longtime Lotus enthusiasts and newcomers alike.
- Lotus Australia’s commitment to luxury events shows why the brand is rapidly growing its fanbase Down Under.
Lotus wants you to join its ownership ranks, and it’s prepared to close roads to make its case… Chris Simonis isn’t unique just because he’s participating in three of the four legs of last month’s Lotus Australia’s Lotus Week — other Lotus owners, both new and seasoned, do the same.
What is Lotus Week? A Unique Gathering for Lotus Enthusiasts
No, Chris’s claim to fame is that he’s doing it in three different Lotus models. The owner of a Lotus Evora, Lotus Exige 420 Sport, and an original Lotus Elise Series I, Simonis has caught the Lotus bug badly. And if you’re even a modest petrolhead, it’s not hard to see why.
Day one of the 2024 Lotus Week is a tarmac rally-style closed road stage on Lake Mountain, northeast of Melbourne. Around 12 km of sinuous, challenging bitumen, it’s been exclusively secured for the Lotus event. It’s closed to others — so there’s no oncoming traffic or errant road users to interfere with the pursuit of perfect cornering lines. Speed limits no longer apply…
Simonis is among around 35 other Lotus owners and is driving his Evora S. “It’s a good road car, so it kind of suits this. Soaks up the bumps nicely, but still goes a bit hard. It’s a good fun car,” he enthuses. The comparatively tiny Elise — the car that defined the modern Lotus for decades — is his choice for a track day at Broadford later in the week.
“It’s actually Broadford itself that inspired me to buy the Elise. I had the Evora first and went to a track day there with Lotus — it’s a tight, twisty little track, and I was chatting with some of the other guys and decided I needed an Elise for this. So, I went and bought one…”
He’ll use his Exige 420 Sport for the final chapter of the week’s road component — the 18 km blast up Mt Baw Baw, one-way and Lotus-only, Targa Tasmania style. “When the Lotus factory announced it was going to stop making the Exige and the Elises in 2021, I just bit the bullet and thought, I need an Exige as well,” Simonis says almost apologetically.
Lotus gets under the skin, it seems — and Lotus Australia boss Richard Gibbs doesn’t argue when I suggest that. Many of the Lotus Week participants are well known to each other, and clearly, the events have a club rather than corporate atmosphere — in the best way. The participants are very, very passionate about their cars and the brand. “Absolutely. And I think the reason is obvious”, Gibb quips…
“It’s in our tagline too: for the drivers.”
“We spend a lot of time talking to our customers about how the cars drive. Unfortunately, we live in a bit of a nanny state and society, so it’s kind of beholden upon us to put these events on so that people can experience their cars the way they were meant to be driven. It’s a safe, controlled environment, but best of all, it’s good for them to get together and just talk and share stories. I’ve seen lifelong friendships made through our events,” he explains.
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Why Closed-Road Events Make Lotus Week Stand Out
While many performance car brands host track days, few go to the complexity (and expense) of creating closed-road opportunities. Porsche and Lotus’ participation with ‘tour’ groups at Targa Tasmania is probably the best-known example in auto circles. With the Tassie event’s future still in the balance, opportunities like Lotus Week are currently few and far between. “It’s unique to be able to close these roads,” Gibbs explains.
“A lot of work goes into it — a lot of negotiation — but at the end of the day, it’s worth it. Tracks are reasonably accessible, but when you tell people you’re going to have this [at Lake Mountain], or tomorrow we’ll have 18 km all to ourselves all day, it’s amazing. That’s heaven, isn’t it?”
Lotus Australia supports its dealers in staging regular state-based events for Lotus owners, but it’s the national events — including Targa and a track-based event at Bathurst’s Mt Panorama circuit — that are the jewels in their customer experience crown, says Gibbs.
Both Bathurst and Targa were non-starters in 2023 through no fault of Lotus. Hence, the establishment of Lotus Week. Bathurst is locked in again for 2025 [buy your Lotus quickly if you want to go, is my advice!] but the week’s been such a success that it’ll likely keep a permanent slot on the calendar, Gibbs says.
“We’ve got quite a good contingent from interstate here today — New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, and the Northern Territory represented. Maybe the weather was a bit cool for the Queenslanders, but usually, we’d have them here as well. At a Bathurst day, we’ll have every state represented — around 120 cars.”
Lotus Australia’s Commitment to a First-Class Experience
Gibbs says Lotus Australia prides itself on making the experience fuss-free for owners. It has technicians on hand and offers other services to ease the way.
“About a quarter of the cars you see here from interstate came down on trucks that we organized. We try and make it as easy as we can. We generally have three or four race transporters go to Bathurst [with customer cars] as well. So, for those people who don’t particularly want to drive to the event, they can just fly in. There’s a private charter plane that runs out of Melbourne.” The whole rockstar treatment, I joke. “Why not?” Gibbs replies.
Critically for Lotus Australia, the brand is growing its family. The latest sports car model, the Emira, sold around 300 units in 2023. In previous years, Lotus Australia’s best-ever total new car registrations were fewer than 80. The more polished, more comfortable, but still eminently capable two-seater represents a step change in refinement and volume for the brand. Gibbs says over 90% of Emiras sold Down Under are to people new to Lotus.
And they are embracing the Lotus Week concept. Of the 35 or so cars on hand at Lake Mountain, approaching half are Emira and their newcomers to a Lotus event. It’s a massive vote of confidence for Gibbs, his Australian operation, and its dealer partners.
“I was speaking to a lady here earlier, and she and her husband used to go to Sandown in their BMW. She said she saw a dozen Lotuses there one time and decided right there and then that she needed to have one. That’s where her Lotus journey started,” Gibbs explains.
“We’ve seen the same thing up in Sydney. We go out to the Burrows Drive Days [at Eastern Creek], where people are out there in exotic machinery, and one thing leads to another [and they buy a Lotus]. It’s not to say that they’re replacing that other exotic machinery. Oftentimes, they’re adding to their stable primarily because they come to realize that these [Lotus models] are pretty cheap to own and run. The total cost of ownership on these cars doing these sorts of events is very low.”
As if to prove the point, Lotus Week first-timer Chris Duong offers up that he’s left his arguably more-storied German sports car at home, purchased an increasingly collectible Exige 430 Sport, and joined the Lotus ranks.“I have a couple of cars, but this is the first time I’ve done a week of things [in one of them],” Duong explains.
“No other brand I’ve had does this. They have their own thing, but not like this. This is next level — the service that Lotus Australia provides and the care that they take with your car is amazing. I dunno how to explain it. It’s just something that, as an enthusiast, is like a dream.”
“It’s a real learning experience. I’ve actually never driven this car on a closed mountain road, so it’s been very interesting because it’s not like a racetrack. The road obviously isn’t as flat and smooth, and you feel all the bumps and everything. The car is really alive. It’s great fun.” Duong says an event like Lotus Week is perhaps the best reason to own a performance car — and a Lotus.
Duong also has the last word: Everyone here is Lotus family. Same frame of mind… They love their car. They love their Lotus, and they love driving.”
