Timothy Keith-Lucas

There's a related concept that I use when teaching fire extinguisher use. Neither gasoline nor wood actually burn. What burns is a combination of oxygen (in air) and the flammable vapor from each. You have to heat wood or gasoline up to its "flash point," which is when it gives off flammable gas. For wood that's around 450 degrees F. but for gasoline it's about -45 F. You can't get a log going with a cigarette lighter because every time you remove the lighter the log dissipates the heat.

Damned good point, JB. My young friend hit the jackpot on fuel/air mixtures. Let's be careful, folks. Hand sanitizer has been the culprit in a bunch of hand fires for people lighting cigarettes immediately after rubbing in a squirt of the stuff. Good news; he's been released from the burn unit with a huge bandage down one leg, and is home again. Yeah, we play with fuel/air mixtures every time we adjust a choke.

Everyone knows that if you pour sugar into the gas tank of a combustion engine the result is ruining the engine, as in, burning sugar in the cylinders and a massive seizure. Used by the underground in WWII and by teenaged vandals ever since. Nope. Look at the picture below. At the bottom, a tablespoon of granulated sugar. The yellow stuff is gasoline, and it's been sitting on my desk for several months now. The answer is (and it helps to be married to a chemist here) that sugar does not dissolve in gasoline. You might clog a fuel filter, and it could be a mess to clean up, but no. The chemist is also archivist for a WWII museum. Apparently what did work was a hand grenade with a rubber band holding the spoon in place. Gasoline does dissolve rubber. On an unhappy note, a 10 year-old friend of mine got hospitalization level burns Friday evening when he lit a match in a small garage restroom where alcohol-based hand cleaner had been spilt. I would not have guessed that an explosive fuel/air mixture would have resulted.

Yeah, I tried doing without the leather strap that came with my S2. Can you picture the bonnet sailing above my head and landing on the road behind me? Fortunately I had the road to myself. The cam latches on the bonnet must have been marketed by Lucas Electric.

I'm not going to recommend Lexan in this application. Lexan (polycarbonate) is softer than plexiglass (acrylic). The fine high-speed grit coming off a road would pit it very quickly. Lexan is so soft that you can bend a sheet of it in half without it cracking. On the other hand, it is wonderfully tough against impact. Plexiglass is harder but more brittle and is usually used for plastic windows like our face shields and goggles.

My understanding, and I am not a battery authoritarian, is that the Lead-Acid setting would be a better match. AGM batteries are lead-acid, with a mat added, so the chemical processes are more like L-A than like Lithium. But then, at less than 3 amps and a maintaining circuit, I don't imagine your damaging it either way.

Have we exhausted ideas? If so, I vote for any of the near relatives of the original design proposed by JohnCh, such as this one: A risk in doing a group design is each person having a very specific favorite, such that no consensus is reached. I actually would prefer a slightly lower bonnet and wings, because it looks more Caterham than Lotus, and I own a 1962 S2. Perhaps someone with more investment in the organization than I have developed could propose a model that he/she thinks everyone could live with.

Several of the profile designs (which as a group I like) have a blank space that could be occupied by wing fenders (AKA clam shells). I think the designs would be improved by the addition thereof.

Let me work in that "pretty messy" garage for two days and you would not be able to find the John Deere Gator.

Climbing into the car when it's in the wild? That's awful. Get them out of the gene pool before they reproduce. Never happen in this part of the country. People are much too polite for that. Lisa asks if "the kids" would like to sit in the Model T for pictures.

Yes to the kids and ambivalent on taking the bonnet off. My wife (1924 Ford Model T) and I are engaged in a campaign to get all entered cars to have explanatory plaques. A paragraph or so naming the car, why it is significant, and a bit of its history. Most of the visitors at our shows cannot even name a Lotus 7, but they are interested in cars and want to know more.

Good morning. Is there an accepted paint number of formula for British Racing Green? Jaguar has one, but it seems almost black to me. Some manufacturers try to palm off Case Green (as in the heavy equipment manufacturer) or Hunter Green as BRG. Neither is really right. Thoughts?

Today I will build an additional carport to join 2 existing carports and five garage bays, with 1962 Lotus Seven Trailer that takes it to car shows 1924 Ford Model T Enclosed trailer that takes it to car shows 2017 Miata RF (pop top) Yamaha TW200 dirt bike 1994 Jeep with crane (retrieves the bike, plays in mud) 2007 Ford F150 (tows the enclosed trailer and 1924 Model T 2017 Dodge Caravan (dogs, plywood, tows Lotus Seven) And now, with the new carport, a 1926 Ford Model T BARN FIND! I guess we're back in the restoration business.

Can anyone name a source of a 13" wheel like this one? I need a spare tire, and the rim I have was damaged beyond repair during my car's racing career. Thanks.

Cros and CharlesG, that thing looks like the designer was on acid. It is repellant to even think about it, much less meet it on the highway.

Black Hole, your example is a clear explanation, too. Thank you.

Wow! Thanks so much for the clarification and the story. Computers? I remember programming my engineering homework in Fortran on cards. IBM computers of the era came with a hook used to pull mangled cards out of the works.

So, basically, the new owner visited DMV and claimed a wildly inaccurate date of manufacture, and DMV, never having seen a Caterham or the weird VIN on it, thusly unable to challenge the claim, goes with the flow? Hmmmmm.

For example, there is a 1998 Westfield on the market at present titled as a 1960 Westfield. Could someone explain this to me? Are there ways that a pre-dated title can be abused? This particular example includes a multitude of parts that simply didn't exist in 1960, so it's not a nuts and bolts replica.

Here's the "cap" for the Lotus nose badge: https://www.ebay.com/itm/323985454655?_trkparms=amclksrc%3DITM%26aid%3D1110006%26algo%3DHOMESPLICE.SIM%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D279229%26meid%3Db7ab0c58a4b549dc8f47880db0facb14%26pid%3D101506%26rk%3D2%26rkt%3D10%26sd%3D324206691484%26itm%3D323985454655%26pmt%3D0%26noa%3D1%26pg%3D4481478%26algv%3DDefaultOrganicWebWithV11WebTrimmedV3VisualRankerWithKnnV3AndUltBRecall%26brand%3DUnbranded&_trksid=p4481478.c101506.m1851

I found on the internet, and then lost, a 2 1/4" Lotus logo cap that fits over a tired old cap. Does anyone know the source?

It was a bit more than I expected - $1089 for the set, but that's half the cost of new ones, they did extensive repairs underneath, and they - of course - have all the holes drilled and in the right places. Smooth as glass, and a four day turn around.

I've got some wonderful news. Carrabelle is a small port on the Gulf of Mexico, so we have a fiberglass repair shop that generally repairs boats that have lost in fights with solid objects. I took my "beyond repair" fenders and snout to them and asked them if they could prep for painting. "We can do that" was the answer. Two days later they showed me the flared front fenders - smooth as glass. Gorgeous. Reinforced as needed on the back side. I'll see the rest and post some pictures soon. I'll also tell you what it cost. As near as I can tell, having searched diligently, there is no source for old Sevens fenders and snouts in the US. Redline is gearing up to produce more, but a set for my S2 would push $2K with shipping. I'm really happy to have found an alternative.

ProGuard 3" straps 4 point safety harnesses. Two. $151.99 from Amazon. Very little use, but minor dings on one set. Out of my S2; I'm going with 2" five points in my restoration. The 2" version can be seen on Amazon at https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08WJJFWMQ/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&th=1 Leave me a voicemail or send me a text at 931 636-1122 if you are interested.

Nope. It's an order at this point. He said that it might be weeks before he received BRG gelcoat flared wings, snout, and rear fenders. I'm doing the interior upholstery, cleaning up the engine, rewiring, and prepping the aluminum for painting. That last step will have to wait until I get the fiberglass, gien matching the color. Anything that I should be doing to encourage him?