All Activity

The goofiness with the Birkin turned out to be the starter itself. With all the times it was installed, uninstalled, and bounced around in the shop, it now seems to be functioning perfectly. It started as many times as you would expect at the autocross novice school on Saturday and at the 7-run regular autocross on Sunday. Now I am putting the Birkin up for sale and I have to show some actual performance for the autocross crowd. Put 4 new Yoko A052 205-15 on it yesterday.

Carz, what is your budget for my spares? my friend also has a S7S4 twink, that he built in memorium for our other deceased friend? Wayne in San Diego aka "super7guy7@yahoo.com"

Okay I said the brand wasn't important but you know what, I may as well vouch for the cheap one I bought. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CYPSTLMB Price seems to bounce around the range of $20 to $25. I usually come back from a drive with it smelling too bad to do anything else with it besides washing it, so maybe it's time to pick another up in a different color like this green.

Have you checked the owners manual in the Library? The CSR 260 used 12:1 pistons, and doesn't have knock control, so I'd personally be more comfortable with 92 or 93, but it really comes down to how they set the ignition map. Given they sold that model in CA, where 91 is the highest available at normal gas stations, it might be ok. Hopefully an owner can chime in with real-world experience, rather than my speculation.

I believe I now have that car. Darren had it resprayed in orange in 2025, I think.

For the 260: Do you recommend 93-octane gas-station fuel? Can I get away with 91-octane if 93 is not available?

Sun hoodies are awesome.

The Spectra L066 did the trick! No more smell and no more fuel seepage. I’ve run out of time to work on the car and adjust the caster before Autocross but that’s ok. Don’t know about 150, but luckily my cutoff is much higher! Fun fact, my SVT and my friend’s 485 are the same weight. We don’t know the reason as we expected the iron block to be heavier. Maybe the diff+trans?

Returning from Cars and Coffee on a stormy afternoon.

Thanks for the ID info! Eric

You made me look. Here in the middle of the night I went out to the shop and pulled down the box with the MOCAL oil cooler. Hmm. Nothing in the box but the oil cooler and hose. Those brackets do remind me of the ones that held my now-removed cooler. I know I used the holes in the radiator flange to mount the bracket for the air horns on 74PHIL.

The mirror clamps on the CSR's SLR cage would shred the Storm Cap that arrived today from Soft Bits For Sevens.

It takes balls to protect a Storm Cap.

oil cooler mounting brackets

I was sorting through some of the spare parts I got with my 1989 Caterham and found two of these. I have no idea where they were installed or what they are for. Made of steel and with excellent welds and paint. Any ideas? Thanks, Eric

Without giving away too many fashion secrets, I do also often wear a sun hoodie (I forget the brand, it's unimportant — probably an alphabet soup amazon brand. There are ones from fancy running brands but the one I got was cheap) for when it's hot out and I don't want to get sunscreen everywhere. Thin, stretchy, cycling jersey-like material, with long sleeves and thumb hooks. Works great.

I like to wear sunglasses, a baseball cap, a lightweight hooded jacket with the hood over the hat, and a neck gaiter over the top of everything. The neck gaiter provides sun protection for my face and keeps the jacket hood from flapping, and the hood keeps the hat on my head. Ear plugs underneath it all and driving 70+ mph is comfortable. This is with a windscreen and wind deflectors. Without the windscreen I wear a full face helmet.

Sorry, a price would be helpful. I'd be happy with $2,000 or best offer.

I'll apologize in advance to the other person who has one of these for sale at the moment, but I'll admit his is in better overall condition! I have one of these small tilt trailers available for sale. As I'm sure most are aware, these were made specifically for the Stalker. Mine has a 144" long deck and is 76 wide. I've towed my car with my wife's minivan and my old Tacoma without any issue whatsoever. It's such a lightweight package that almost anything with a hitch can pull this thing. Electric brakes and lighting all work great. Hubs maintained every season and it's only used for local autocrosses a few times per year. I have an entire spare hub assembly in the front toolbox as well. It could use a spit shine as the paint isn't pristine but no serious rust issues and is in overall good shape. Please let me know if you have any questions. I just sold my car and the new owner already had a (HUGE) trailer so he passed on this one. Thank you!

I used to get that question a lot. Did not have a VIN. Had a simple 4-digit serial number after the "65" designation. 65 2597. Supposedly, she was the 2589th Europa built, Lotus having started the serial numbers with the Lotus 46 and continued through the Lotus 54, and the Lotus 65 "Federal". The Twinks were Lotus 74, I think, but they came too late to be numbered this way. Though we all know that Chappers played fast and loose with serial numbers. They were making the Lotus 54 for Europe and the Lotus 65 for the USA at the same time for a while. Were there duplicate serial numbers between the two types. I have not seen a specific example, but it could be the rumors are true. Although she was a 1970 Model, Grace was made in November 1969, and the rules for VIN didn't kick in until January 1, 1970. The rules changed again about 1981. I used to get a lot of static from guys who insisted that 1970 cars had to have the "new" numbers, but everything matched up for a November 1969 build date, 65 2597 serial number, and a 1970 model-year, just like it said on the factory ID plate. Glad I looked this up. I have lately been thinking that the 710-012 Collector plate was left over from my MG Midget, but that can't be correct because I sold that car to a Minnesota buyer and let him take the plates. This Minnesota record shows that 710-012 was the plate I got for the Europa in 1991 when I bought the car. The seller had just bought new regular-car plates for it, having until then been displaying the Hawaii plates. It was just about that time that Minnesota started requiring only rear plates for Collector cars. When I registered Susie's Triumph as a Collector car in 2000, I had to ask for two plates (TR44SUE). The clerk wrote it in the margin: "Issue 2 plates" for which they did not charge me extra. Same thing happened when I bought Susie the Stag (UNK JACK) in 2010. You will notice there is nothing after "PLATES EXPIRE" on the Minnesota title tab. That's because Collector Plates do not expire. Since I sold the Europa to a Triumph guy in Illinois, I kept the 710-012 plate. It should still be mine just as TR44SUE and 74PHIL are. i should be able to use 710-012 to register another Collector car. If the Birkin gets sold to a Minnesotan, I will let the Collector plate go with it and save the buyer some money.

Grace N. Violence in earlier days, wearing the ill-advised paint she was subjected to in Hawaii. She left the factory Lotus #7 Yellow. At least part of her was for a time a nice metallic blue. Then came this awful, hard as a rock, black paint over silly custom work. The only fiberglass change my predecessors started that made any sense to me was removing the warts. I finished that job when I painted her white with spray cans. The heat in the car with the black paint was terrible. Why anyone would think to do this on Oahu is difficult to imagine. Nobody was ever going to believe she was a JPS. The changes to the fuel fillers were ugly and virtually inoperative. Actually more-difficult to fuel than a Seven. I measured a friend's stock S2 for the correct location to holesaw, flipped it for the right side (Grace had the optional second tank) and glassed over the crappy recesses on the sails. Bought new filler tubes and it all fit perfectly. Gasoline literally fell into the tanks at the gas station. The right tank was a perfect mirror of the left except it had no provision for a gauge sender. The 1/4" fuel lines were teed together and thence proceeded to the fuel pump. The tanks would take a while to equalize. Fuel starvation from autocross cornering was not a problem. None of that tank slap my MG Midget had.

What’s her VIn?

Here is my Europa, Grace N.Violence, at LOG 22 with her autocross trophy. I think she came third overall and second in class.

You might find a zipper-equipped full hood may be the answer. I like to drive my Caterham full-hood, back window zipped down in hot sunny weather. I did that a lot with my Miata also. A Lowflying author suggests adding a second pull arranged like on luggage. He can then move both of them just around the corners to allow an air-exhaust vent without letting rainwater in. Since he lives in England, he just drove to the factory and gave them the hood, and they sent it too their vendor, who made the change. He totally loves it. I have a great upholstery guy here in Saint Paul, and since I don't want to ship my hood to England and back, I broight the hood to him. Yes, hie can do the work. He just can't seem to find a pull the correct size on this side of the pond. I'm not 6'2". I'm currently working on blocking up the driver seat on my CSR to defeat the effect of the lowered floors.