pethier

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

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.

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.

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.

I first met Bob Dance in 2005 in Saint Louis. I took this photo across the Mississippi at Gateway during the Monday track day. What I wrote then: ===== Lotus Cortina race mechanics From the days when these cars were raced by Graham Hill and Jimmy Clark. Taken at 2005 Lotus Owners Gathering track day at Gateway. On our left is Bob Dance and on our right is Bob Sparshott. The gentleman in the middle is Gordon Morris, a Brit who has come to the USA for every LOG since 1991. Gordon drove the Bobs to the race track in the 1966 Mk 1 Lotus Cortina loaned to Gordon by Gary David for his stay in the USA . ===== I was there Lotusless, having just delivered my 1970 Lotus 65 Europa Series 2 to a buyer in central Illinois. I was at the LOG with an empty trailer. Couldn't find a Lotus at the LOG that I could afford in those days. Dave, a Minnesota Lotus buddy of mine, and I spent a wet day driving around the Saint Louis area looking at used Miatas. They were all overpriced. We took one out from dealer and drove the wheels off of it. Much later, I was on Flickr looking at someone's photos of a car show in England. Sure enough, there was Gordon Morris sitting in a chair behind his Seven.

I'm a member of Caterham and Lotus Seven Club, but all I get is the Lowflying magazine, as I'm never in the UK.

Your full hood does not have the zip-open rear window?

Both my polarized sunglasses and my Transitions glasses are in Ray-Ban DADDY-0 frames. I was totally sold on these things by a LensCrafters salesgal in Colorado Springs. I had just towed in from Minnesota for the Lotus Owners Gathering and my sunglasses seemed to have a coating delaminating. "Hello, sir, what can we do for you today." My wraparounds are shot and I'd like to replace them. I'm myopic with astigmatism. "Wraparounds take ten days." I won't be in Colorado in ten days. "You should do what the bikers do." Do you mean motorcyclists or bicyclists? "Yes." She reached into a drawer and handed me a DADDY-0 sample. It fit. When I got back to The Cities, I found that both a Harley-rider and an ex-mountain-biker autocrosser I knew were wearing DADDY-Os. Up near Superior Wisconsin at an autocross venue where nobody knows me, I actually had a young eyeglass-wearing guy ask me what they were because they were the coolest and he wanted a pair. It was an overcast day so my Transitions didn't even look like sunglasses. I often like to drive my Caterham with full windshield, top on, no doors. A USA7s member put me on to some 3M low-profile headphones with about half the normal sound attenuation. I took it a step further and pulled out the foam. These phones completely kill the turbulence in my ears and I can still hear what is going on around me. Driving without the top, I add a baseball cap. The phones keep the cap on. Interesting feature of the 'phones is that the button on the top of the cap fits in the split of the phones' band. In Minnesota it is legal to run music in one ear, but not both, so I run the risk of being stopped. No problem, as I can easily show the officer that there are no speakers in the phones. I took the Birkin with windshield and windwings to a novice autocross school, I used an open helmet so that the students could hear me more clearly. When I first got the 1700, it was about 50 degrees. I found I could drive topless with a full-face helmet. When I stopped for a red light, it would fog up. Snapping up the shield caused the fog to clear instantly. As soon as I got moving, I would snap the shield down. When I bought Darren's CSR, he was kind-enough to include a pair of wraparound goggles. I can't use them, because I need corrective lenses. The CSR has a cage and an aeroscreen with the right portion removed. Whether or not I wind up cutting the aeroscreen down to the height of the central section, I expect I will always be using one of my full-face helmets with this car.

Ah. So the oil pump is immune to the clutch-limit disaster. It would be the thrust washer itself that would take the hit. I wonder how unusual the Zetec is for its oil-pump placement.

Taken Sunday at the autocross. When I drove in on Saturday, some wags in the club asked me if the car was for sale. Really original humor. I said yes, but I didn't tell them why. I only said that I had not driven to California for the scenery. This was a good Seven to bring to a novice school: It has ordinary 3-point belts so students did not have to mess about with more-exotic restraints. I generally don't beat all the students at these things, but this time I did. I was trying harder because of the cycled-out tires. Practice event Saturday, so I plan to spring the orange beast on them. The tires are not legal for XU, but fortunately, the practice day is a classless event. I wound up second of three in XU on Sunday. I want to sell this car so it needs to look more-impressive next Sunday. When I got home ordered 4 fresh Yoko 052 tires from Tire Rack. They are in-stock at their Roseville warehouse. I pick them up Tuesday.

The Duratec pump is on the crannkshaft llike a Zetec? I did not know that. I don't remember an engine with a belt-driven oil pump, just water pumps. The oil pump on my Caterham 1700 was driven by a shaft, presumably driven off the camshaft. I'm told tht the Lotus-Ford Twin Cam still has the camshaft in the block, only there to run the oil pump (and distributor?)

No, my first Caterham was a 1600 with a dry sump. My Cayman has a dry sump My CSR has a dry sump. Neither my Birkin nor my Birkinized Cayman have dry sumps. I'm interested in what made you think about dry sumps. Ford just seems to have liked the idea of putting the oil pump on the crankshaft in the Zetec. Remember, this was not a case of engine failure because of lack of oil pressure. This was a case where the oil pump just intantly stopped the engine turning. Ron, the tuner whom I had always planned to tune the car after the other guys swapped engines, expected from the symptoms that the thrust washer was welded. In concept, he was right on the button. Ron was just surprised to find out that the oil pump had taken the hit and that the thrust washer was fine. Ron had had a thrust washer weld before. A performance supplier gave him specific instructions on how to set the clutch limit under power. Ron followed their instructions exactly instead of using the "two guys" method. Welded the thrust washer. He complained and they had to pony up repairs on their dime. Did the first shop assist me? Nope.

With my Europa, Elise, and Sevens, I got pretty good at removing seats. Just did an R&R on the driver seat of the CSR. Not for the usual reason, access under the dash, but to block up the seat so I can see.

I do not know what kind of bellhousing and clutch are in Caterhams originally equipped for Zetec engines. Setting the clutch limit with the stopscrew on the bellhousing is apparently not required on BIRKIN cars because the way the clutch pedal is mounted stops the pedal. The shop that helped me swap parts from a Birkin car into a Caterham car did not know that over-traveling the clutch on a Zetec can seize the oil pump, stopping the engine. The oddbalI placement of the oil pump is not the basic issue: The normal victim of such an oversight is the thrust washer, with the same result. I was also ignorant, but I don't specialize in doing engine swaps into British cars. They do so-specialize. Their failure to adjust a part that they didn't notice cost me a ton of time and money. I still don't have the full benefit of the work that Steve had put into that Zetec engine.

Thanks.

As ACBC-size man, I really don't need lowered floors. If I take them out and replace them with flat aluminum, is there any market for them? I would think the market size would be bigger if the SV is the same.

I have been talking with Soft Bits, sent many photos, and they seem confident that it will fit. Just closed on the order.

Waiting to finalize shipping details.

This is the only picture I have of the Electro-Birkin.

Yeah, the Suburban fit easily, but the F-150 with the big cab and short box JUST fits. The front camera makes it a lot easier. Other trailer-related news: After a whirlwind trip to California and back, I am more-motivated to get the terrain tires off the F-150. The tread squirm when towing an enclosed trailer in wind drove me nuts. I have identified some Toyo all-weather tires that may be "the new Michelin" as the model changes in the Michelin LT tires apparently have ruined them. Toyo apparently have a 500-mile trial window, so Tuesday I am having new Toyo tires put on. Hoping to get on the road with the trailer empty in high winds during that window. If the Toyos handle that as well as the dearly-departed Michelins did on the Suburban, I will be happy indeed. 2021 Ford F-150 Limited Crew Cab 4WD Toyo Tire Open Country H/T II LT275 /60 R20 123R E1 BSW Load Range E - 80 psi max

Thanks! I contacted them today. There is a hole in the part that might be related to RHD/LHD, but but I don't think that is a big deal. I can relocate the hole if need be using some supertape. I'm not likely to take the car to a concours and remove the nose cone...