Take the inaugural evo Active day at the brand new Rockingham Raceway. I pounded round in the Lotus for most of the day, even feeling confident enough to give a few readers a taste of the track while mixing it in Goldtrack's Group 3, which seemed to consist mainly of GT racers and TVR Tuscans getting in a bit of sneaky practice for their imminent races. With its almost slick Yokohamas warmed up, the little Lotus wanged around the twisty infield section as fast as most things, though there were a couple of exciting moments. The first was when I span going too high into one of the faster corners (doh!), the second when I was about to take a straight line through the fast chicane. The air began to pulse, the ground trembled and out of nowhere came the angry-sounding TVR Speed 12. Gave me the willies, I can tell you.

Anyhow, I hand over the freshly refuelled 340R to Meaden in exchange for the new M3 (what a hoot that is) and some 15 minutes later, back in the paddock, there's a concerned-looking gathering around the 340R. The clutch isn't working. Investigation by a couple of TVR mechanics (thanks, lads) reveals that the pipe union into the clutch slave cylinder is cracked. This is the second time it's gone. At the end of the day I drive it clutchless the six miles back to Meaden's house, which proves pretty easy with straight-cut, close-ratio gears, and next day a factory Lotus engineer comes out to fix it because the 340R is needed for the first Easytrack evening at Donington a couple of days later. He notes that the brake pads will need changing soon but there isn't time.

I'm detailed to demo the car at Donington and have a great three hours. The GP circuit is known to be especially hard on brakes but the pads stand up to it and the car runs faultlessly again. The instruments have been very much on and off over the last couple of months but seem to come good when you need them, specifically on track. I love Donington and doubt that the 340R has had such a hard few hours, the tyres showing the first ever signs of really hard work and a mid-session refuel revealing 'economy' down at 12.1mpg. Mind you, all evening only a Caterham Superlight R racer was appreciably quicker than the 340R.

Soon after, the 6000-mile service was due but it would have to wait until after an outing to the Wheeltorque event at Spa. Mr Meaden had arranged for the pads to be changed at the Belgian track and set off very early one morning only to abandon the adventure on the M11. The Lotus started to run hesitantly and then the ECU dropped from under the dashboard. Fearing he'd be stranded by the Lotus for a second time, he turned back for home.

Right now, the 340R is getting its well-earned service. Along with new brake pads, the intermittent instruments and the one-off dodgy running, the exhaust will be checked out too, as it's become even louder than it was in the last 1000 miles. For all that, it's been a brilliant month. Well, at least it has as far as I'm concerned.