Hi all,
I'm John Donohoe, owner of one of the old original Lotus Sevens. Has the smallest motor they ever came with (948cc) and does not strain the neck in acceleration but does very much so in cornering, even running on skinny 155 series tires :-) Bought as a present for my dear wife, Linda, in 1999.
I'm going on 44 yrs old, am a Graphic Designer by education, working as an account rep/art director for a design firm in Lansing, Michigan. I've been married for 19 years, have a 17 year old son who's restoring a basket case '65 Mini, and a 14 year old daughter who will look great driving the Seven :-) Oh, we live in a small town East of Lansing called Williamston, where there are more old British sports cars than you would think!
I am a Boy Scout Patrol Leader, I sing in my Church Choir, serve as President of the Williamston Area Chamber of Commerce, and on the board of Mystic Lake YMCA camp. I htink I do some other volunteer stuff, but can't seem to recall it all just now!
In my rare spare time I maintain the web site SimpleSevens.org which is an 'online collection' of Lotus Sevens, histories, stories, etc... when I retire (or if someone out there wants to pay me to do it!) I would love to expand the site to include sections for all the known varieties of Seven. in fact I'm learning about many of the obscure ones, having recently acquired a 40 pound box of materials that Dennis Ortenburger used as source material for Legend of the Lotus Seven, and also his newer 'The Independents'. Eventually most of this material will be shown on SimpleSevens - from the 4WD Caterham conversion to Westfield, Donervoort, Stalker, TMC, Sabre, etc, etc...
Anywho, there's a quick rundown on me :-)
Oh, I did also accept the position of 'Area Rep' for the Lotus Seven Club of England offered by their president, Steve Winterberg while I was over there for their celebration of 50 years of Sevens (I also got to thrash his very highly modified Series 3 Lotus Seven:-))). Anyway, I'm still figuring out what 'Area Rep' actually means, including how big 'my area' is so if you have any questions on that, I'll have to get back with you!
Cheers!