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Ooooh, you had the optional gas heater. Deluxe! We had a '66 Beetle and a '66 Westfalia. The van was the worst. The nearly nonexistent heat had further to travel, and there was nothing in front of the driver/passenger but a sliver of steel. We bundled up like snowmobilers in that rig.

What is this "cockpit heater" you speak of...

My wife fell into that category with her Jeep Cherokee. She's a nurse -- retired now -- and had to get to work despite the weather, so the Jeep was a good choice. But she learned the hard way about "going" in snow being a poor indicator of how well "turning and stopping" would work. Drove off the road into a field, came back home with the proverbial tail between the legs, lesson learned, fortunately without major damage to her or the Jeep. I haven't been challenged by anyone yet while driving the 7. Then again I don't really drive it in places where that sort of thing happens. I'm lucky enough to have a wealth of little rural roads to run on, the kind that scare Verstappen wannabes in SUVs!

That is a serious looking radiator. I like the suggestion to check fan airflow direction. Not sure it would explain all of your symptoms. I don't think an air pocket would totally prevent flow to the radiator in an unpressurized system, but a pocket at the thermostat might affect its function. Re bleeding/burping: I have a Porsche 996. The engine is at one end of the car and the radiators are at the other end. Experts differ on how to bleed the air from the cooling system, with most choosing to evacuate all of the air before adding coolant. There are some who don't like inflicting that kind of violence on things; they lift the back of the car instead to ensure that the overflow tank is the highest point in the system, then add coolant slowly and do the run/burp routine you already follow. Based on that I'd say that you should be okay with the car on flat ground so long as the overflow tank is the highest point.

You wrote: Coolant didn't appear to be flowing through the thermostat to the radiator until over 195 F coolant temp. Coolant reservoir with the radiator cap is located on the firewall behind the engine (highest point in the system), so I had the car flat on the ground with the cap off and a funnel in the reservoir. Putting the cap on seemed to help get coolant flowing, but can't say for sure. The upper and lower radiator hoses and the radiator itself were all ambient temperature when the radiator fan came on around 190 F. From a purely educational standpoint, this stuff is normal. The thermostat controls the flow of water to radiator. Starting with a cold engine, the thermostat is closed and the coolant circulates within the engine (and accessories such as the cabin heater if fitted). The radiator and hoses see no hot water until the thermostat opens, apparently at 195 degrees in your case. As Croc mentions, there are different temperature thermostats. But it sounds as though the thermostat you have is working. It also sounds as though the fan thermostat is operating correctly. Check the lower radiator hose once the thermostat opens to see if it gets hot. If so that would probably rule out a serious radiator blockage. Also there may be value in 'burping' all of the air out of the system, usually something to do with opening the cap and letting the car run for a bit. Beyond that I'm afraid I don't have much else, other than tricks like turning the heater on to circulate more coolant and attempt to bring the engine temperature down.

Odyssey battery here as well. If they're good enough for Leno's fleet they're good enough for me.

The quandary is, how do they manage to make a profit? I am prepping a car for a trip I'm taking soon. Among the tasks I'm performing is an oil change, in the midst of which I realized that I did not have enough of the oil specified for that engine. I checked Amazon -- local suppliers don't carry the specific oil I needed -- and not only did they have the oil, they offered to ship it to me "same day or next day". This was at 4:00pm, so imagine my surprise at the "same day" offer. I was additionally surprised to see that if I chose "next day" I had a choice of THREE different delivery time windows; 4-8am, 10am-3pm, or "any time". Given that the car was in process and I wanted to get it finished and off the lift, I chose the early option. I also needed a couple of light bulbs, which Amazon also had, and also provided me with the same delivery options. All of these options added $0.00 to the total cost. This morning at 5:30am one of my Ring doorbells announced a person at the downstairs door. One minute later that person returned. At 5:50am, another person appeared at the same door, but just once. I went down and retrieved the deliveries. Four individual boxes, all identical in size, each containing one of the items I had ordered. Four items, four boxes, two separate deliveries. I don't understand how this business model works. Is it some kind of automated process at the warehouse? That may be why the boxes are all the same size and each contains a single item, also why these items "qualified" for all of those delivery options. Or do they pre-package items in anticipation of routine, expected orders? Would I have received more boxes if I had needed more oil, or more bulbs? None of those explains why I got two separate deliveries within minutes of one another. The whole episode feels a bit bizarre.

Hmm.

No pictures yet, terrible ad copy, full of weird characters on my MacBook, but I do believe I see "twincam Lotus" in amongst them. Hmmm.

What about new parts for old cars? Crossing fingers...

I had the Se7en out for a wee romp about two weeks ago. The weather was finally good enough and the roads clean enough in combination. It's so strange how this car affects me after I've been out of it for a while. It feels familiar but the thrill is elevated nearly to the same level as that first-ever drive. What a refreshing thing this Se7en is. One of the fun parts of having a little car (or two!) and a 4-post lift is that the little car is "width challenged" relative to the ramp spacing. The Se7en isn't too bad because I can lean over and watch the front tire roll on. The Elan however does not allow me to do the same, plus the track is narrower than the Caterham. I have about 2" to spare on each side. So I came up with a solution. I purchased an inexpensive 2-axis laser level and aligned it's vertical output with the center of the lift. Now when I drive up I can line the green light up with the center of the car and just drive on. Saves a ton of back/forth fiddling. Here's the laser in its final resting place, bolted to my toolbox.

$34 is not 25% of what my seat kit cost. My guess is pre-trump duties. Thanks for the data point!

Indeed it does. I have been hemming and hawing about getting a seat reupholstery kit for the Elan from an English company. Trump announced tariffs and so I thought okay, let's get in under the wire, and placed an order. They took my money. Then they told me there is a 7-9 week backlog... ...I'm going to stay the course anyway. I'll try to remember to update y'all as to whether I pay a tariff.

What, no clamshells?

This is not a bad suggestion.