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The Green Elise' owners name is Eric. He also has a Lotus Cortina and an Elan. However, his son drives the Elise and does track days and some competitions and his name is Rod or Rob. Sorry, my poor hearing is only surpassed by my increasing lose of short term memory. Sound like someone you know or have met? My wife took the rainbow photo at the end of the day. It was a short but heavy shower after a picture perfect brisk spring day on Ontario. I've attached anther photo of the Elise.

Citibank just wanted to point out that I might have a caterham fettling addiction.

HI Ed and thanks for the offer. I just might be able to take you up on those. I have a good friend in Peterboro Ontario that I need to visit. I'll call him tomorrow and see if we can ship to him and then I'll pick em up when I see him. I'll get back to you in the next day or so. Thanks, Mark

The web has a few car forums where owners of cars from small European sports cars to U.S. muscle cars inquire about using valve stem seals with silicon or manganese bronze valve guides. Some say yes, you should fit them, and others say no with a mix of reputable car mechanics advising either way. I have a Holbay Ford cylinder head that some describe as Stage II - fitted with larger 1.6" inlet valves, but not so large as to cause possible cracking between the inlet and exhaust valve seats. The head was new and based on an 1100 c.c. flat cylinder head as there is/was more metal available to grind away for porting (Note: recommendation of David Vizard many, many years ago to use an 1100 uprated flat head on the 1600 c.c. 711M Crossflow which I will be rebuilding). Holbay fitted harder exhaust seats for unleaded fuel, stainless steel valves, and silicon bronze valve guides. Double springs are fitted, but I am thinking of using singles. Holbay did not fit valve stem seals to the double springs. I checked with Burton a couple of years ago as I was considering using 'special' stem seals on the valves (with single springs), but Burton did not recommend using stem seals, as they believe that the valve stem and guide would not receive sufficient lubrication. Some say there is burnt oil smoke on start-up with no seals, and that this goes away quite quickly. Also mentioned was valve stem seizing if there is insufficient flow of oil due to the seals doing too fine of a job. I have read that tuners installing stainless valves fitted in silicon bronze guides normally specify minimum clearances from new, thereby requiring a good flow of oil. Has anybody with road or racing experience seen premature wear with stem seals fitted to bronze guides? I don't want to be trailing smoke and polluting the neighbourhood - even with a car that has no pollution control to speak of - so advice would be much appreciated. W

Hi @Rodnok. I have a pair of Lotus Seven windscreen stanchions made out of 1/8" steel exactly to the shape of the Lotus originals for free which you could use as a pattern, but I think that it may be a hassle for both of us to ship them from Canada to you unless you know of a way? All I would ask for is shipping cost. EW

Wish I still lived in San Jose.... would've totally met up for a drive. Our Sevens are pretty much twins.

Sorry to hear that Charlie, hope to see you at another event this year.

Totally understandable... Wealthier community, even by Bay Area standards with an older population that have a higher likelihood of appreciating classic and custom cars? Yeah definitely can see that.

Yep, there are some great roads out here to go with the weather, but you need to stay alert, California Highway Patrol are always looking for those tax dollars!

I had to cancel my registration. Very sad. Work is really getting in the way of my play time.

Observatory? The backside is great. Y'all have such great roads...

Epic Blat yesterday in the CSR with a couple of buddies. Parked to get the best view over Silicon Valley. 80 degrees, blue sky, double espresso and 260hp is life-affirming!

Does the green Elise belong to a guy named Rob? Nice double rainbow.

I used Concord DMV and Martinez CHP office. I think they both are great. Just make sure you ask for the ones that understand SB-100. You can go to DMV first with all the paperwork (without your cat) , and get a temporary operation permit that is good for a few months. Then you can insure and drive the car around and get the BAR inspection for smog waiver, Vin verification at CHP, and back to DMV for the inspection. Be prepared for multiple trips to DMV:)

When are you passing through NM? Maybe you already have.. There are a handful of cat owners in the northern part of the state, not too hot up here yet - high around 80 and still very cool over night. if I was driving a cat across the country (and had the time) I'd be staying at least central, if not north of that; back roads as much as possible. I-40 would be very uncomfortable. Nothern NM a cross into southern Utah, staying to the north as long as possible before dropping down. Godspeed, safe travels!

Not a photo of our Caterham but in keeping with the above Lotus photo I’ll mention this show and the attending Lotus. The Boot and Bonnet car club had their spring Autojumble this past Saturday and the weather was great. We had a good turnout of Lotus with 3 Elise, 2 Esprit and one Emira. Unfortunately not a single Europa or our Caterham. It is back in the body shop to fix the cracked fender. It was supposed to be finished in time for this show but the tint hasn’t shown up. After all the rain, both real and figuratively speaking, there was a rainbow at the end of our day. The wife won the sealed bid auction for the one owner, 20,035 kilometer 1981 Spitfire. Her bid was $19.80 higher than the next closest bid. (Secret tip for closed bid auctions, always end with an odd number.) In the wife’s case she used the car's build date of June 1980 and it payed off. We’re off to pick up the Spitfire in a few minutes. I’ll put the story in the “Other Car’s” section.

Yes do lock the steering wheel in place; I use a scissors jack and some protective material to push up on it from below. As to friction at the tire surface, there are inexpensive means of reducing it. A piece of plastic sheet under the tire is one way. Another one I've heard about is two pieces of linoleum tile with some grease smeared on them. That one sounds a bit messy. I'm sure there are other ways just waiting to be discovered. And of course one can always get alignment plates...

When you get ready to set the toe, to keep the steering wheel centered, fab a simple fixture to clamp the steering wheel to keep it perfectly align while adjusting the rod ends. With a DIY alignment methods there is too much friction at the tire surface.

If I had a nickel for every time that I missed the point i'd ... probably waste it all all on cars. No offense taken or intended, my friend. Good luck to all of us as we continue to tame these cars that are so amazing and so frustrating.

Jmaz ... I just installed the steering column and your post gave me one of those "I'm so dumb" moments. In my case, I reasoned that since the tie rod ends were 12 turns out ... I *assumed* that meant they were both the same distance from rack center and by measuring the wheels straight ahead (ref. rotor edge to front lower wishbone bolt) I could set the wheel straight and then insert the lower column in the rack at that position. Done. But, of course there is that assumption in there ... Long story short (the detail is updated on my blog post) based on your comment I went back, taped a zip tie indicator to the steering hub and looked for how that ended up when at full lock each way. Sure enough it was almost (but not quite) even; full lock right was about 15deg right from vertical whereas full lock left was about 5deg left from vertical ... I was close, but no cigar. So, disassembled (hey, loctite works!) and moved the lower column one spline CW and, bingo, I was there!

x Sorry, your tangent threw me and I assumed that was a generalization. I should have read it more closely. I took the car for a longer drive today and can confirm that vibration is now reduced to inconsequential levels. When it did vibrate, it wasn't enough to distort the view, and the rest of the time, it was rock steady. After more than 25 years of se7en ownership, this is a first.

Finally got my S2 home to AZ from Florida. It's not finished but is no longer just a jumble of near worthless parts. The left clamshell is not Lotus, has a curved mounting surface and no depression for the clamp. I will therefore need an appropriate replacement and will consider a pair if that is the only alternative. Additionally, the windscreen stanchions have gone and I'll be in the market for a pair.

The build continues to progress at a very gradual (comfortable for me) pace. No problems so far. Steps completed to date include front suspension, engine+trans, roll bar, steering, heater, throttle cable, front lights (although not yet connected to the Econoseal connectors), other engine electrical connections, 4-point belts (will install crutch straps when I get them from Josh at RMC as part of my original order), Next on the list is radiator+fan install and engine plumbing. Here are a few things I've noted with some of the recent work: Headlight Wiring: I could have done a much better job of making the wires a more even length prior to heat-shrinking everything. At some point, I'll probably re-do the pins to shorten and even out the wiring into the Econoseal connectors. I'm debating whether to put the stock headlights in place or spend the money now for LED upgrades before final headlight assembly (I'm considering the Morimoto Sealed6 lights, wired for turn signal + DRL function). Steering Centering: Trying to center the steering (in the process of installing the steering column) by counting steering U-joint rotations between full left and right lock didn't seem precise enough, so I used the method shown in https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HEPW0Zz8qoU which involved sliding the boot(s) off the steering rack, and then measuring the distance between the steering rack stops. It might be enough to measure the distance at full stop in one direction and then just divide by two, but I measured both sides of the steering rack to play it safe. The maximum travel was 10 cm on each side, so I set a distance of 5 cm per side to center the steering. U-joint and Steering Column Alignment: It's recommended that, if necessary, the steering rack be rotated on its long axis to get as straight as an alignment as possible along the steering rack U-joint and the lower steering column. Even with the rack mounting brackets very loose, I was having trouble rotating the rack until I realized that I also needed to loosen the lock nuts at the tie-rod ends so that the rods could rotate along with the rack. Probably should have been obvious, but I'm finding that, for me at least, I'm saying "duh" to myself quite a bit during this build. Upper Steering Column Bush: Most people note that it takes some force to push the rubber bush with its white insert into the dashboard opening for the upper steering column. I struggled with this for awhile until I noticed that there were some small spikes of powder coat in the dashboard's bush housing. After lightly sanding those off using a Dremel with a drum sander bit, and also using the suggestion of inserting a 1/2" ratchet extension through the bush to provide something to push against, the bush went into place with moderate force applied (https://caterham420detailedbuildblog.co.uk/2020/01/29/steering-column/) Battery Cables: the kit came with two black (ground) battery cables of different lengths. I wasn't sure which was meant for which grounding point, but only one of the cables (the longer one) has a fitting with a big enough hole to fit one of the transmission tunnel bolts through if you decide to use that as a grounding location.

Took it to the All British/European car show. Hung out with some real Lotus cars.

I absolutely agree with your points about windscreen mirrors. In the past I have had several vehicles with vertically-stacked quads. I have switched the lights around so the low beam is on the bottom. Not only is this kinder to other drivers, but also works better in fog and snow. I believe the decision of car makers to put the low beams on the top in vertically-stacked quads was a bonehead decision, especially in trucks. When I was writing about the blue coating, I was not writing about a windscreen mirror. I was writing about the wedge-mirrors stuck to the side mirrors on my Cayman. The scope of these mirrors do not cover vehicles immediately behind me, only vehicles in adjacent lanes close to me.