Croc

Hi Bryce, It looks like it was a great journey home with lots of interesting adventures. All great journeys have some tribulations so not surprising you found yours! I dont understand your comment here though? No radiator fan? Just relying on air passing through the radiator to cool? This might be a first fix for you - an electric fan with a thermostat switch for when you get caught in the inevitable traffic. Have fun cleaning the bugs off the Stalker!

It is actually easier than you might think - I have driver licenses on 3 continents and flip back and forth regularly. You have to concentrate initially but after about 20 mins it seems pretty natural. However, I give myself away at times: 1) When I change gear by lowering the window 2) When I get in the car and realize that there in no steering wheel in front of me....oops...sat in the passenger side by mistake! The real issue to watch for though is how you react in an emergency situation. Lets say you are confronted with an oncoming car do you instinctively turn left or right to avoid trouble? Safest course of action for most people in the US is to steer right, i.e. away from trouble and off the road towards the kerb (curb?). An Australian buddy of mine living in CT ended up in an accident 10 years ago when a drunk driver dozing wandered onto my side of the road. Being brought up to drive on the left, he instinctively turned left to escape only to find the oncoming driver had now woken up and turned back onto his side of the road. Luckily it was at a low enough speed that only the cars were damaged and not the drivers (although the DUI driver suffered some additional punishment). There are similar instances I have read about in Australia with American drivers in the outback with unfortunately fatal consequences.

Sorry to hear about the crack. I have not got a raceo can however, in my first 2 years of driving my car I had 4 cracks at the 4 into 1 just before the muffler chamber. At the time I was using the standard Caterham mounts - front support off the collectors, a big unsupported stretch and then a rubber bobbin mount at the rear of the muffler. Apparently the unsupported stretch would flex too much thereby causing the continual splitting (and need for welding) on the crap quality NJ roads. It is a fairly common problem I am told. I ended up putting a middle mount that bolted through the floor and extended out under the body to support the front of the muffler near the 4 into 1 join. It is invisible from the side and can only be seen when looking from the top or bottom. This has made it much more rigid but the rubber mount still allows a minimal amount of flex. No problems since then and it still looks ok after 1 year. I can take a pic if you want when I get back home later this week

This has been a great thread to read - the highs and lows of Se7en ownership!

Hi Skip - As a small hijack to this post, the purchaser of the orange car from Caterham USA is on USA7s (Blubarisax) and it will be coming to NJ. Needless to say he is pretty excited!

Next time before you go give me a PM letting me know the suburb where you are staying in Sydney and I will write up some better directions on the roads to have fun on. The city has changed tremendously in 30 yrs. the greater Sydney population has increased 2 milliion people, the city has sprawled outwards, owning a home is almost unaffordable, and traffic is much worse. Still the climate is such that you can still have a beer or three in the beer garden at the Watsons Bay Hotel and watch the sunset over Sydney Harbor and the city skyline - you can get there by ferry from Circular Quay (pronounced "key"). Have a great time! :cheers:

You can tell you are not a local - no-one in Sydney knows roads by their route number - it is always the road name. So despite growing up in Sydney and learning to drive there I have no idea where these roads are. However, you lovely lady friend looks like she is in front of Stanwell Tops coastal highway area south of sydney so I guess you have found one of my favorite roads. Some other suggestions for fun roads: - The road between Kangaroo valley and the town of Berry (rt 7?) - Northern Sydney suburbs - McCarrs Creek road from Terry Hills to Church Point and anywhere inside the National Park which branches off from McCarrs Creek Road. This was my local race track - I used to drive up and down all night after work - Road through Galston Gorge (get on this one early before the bike riders hit it) - Old Pacific Highway from Berowra heading north. - Head west for 3 hours to Bathurst and drive Mt Panorama circuit - it is open as a public road - just watch the cops on mountain straight and conrod straight. - the Putty road joining north western sydney metro area to the western Hunter valley - get on it early before the bikers and trucks do Enjoy your time there!

I think the black and ali or the JPS color scheme will both look very nice. To give you an idea here are are JPS Seven pics for a body wrap approach - very smart idea - you can remove it and change your mind for later: http://www.nogripracing.com/details.php?filenr=7924 Here is the same image plus some other racing livery examples (for ideas): http://www.artsonika.com/index.php?option=com_remository&Itemid=27&func=select&id=10 There was also a car pic posted on blatchat at one point by one of the members who adopted the JPS color scheme - I looked but cannot find it sorry. There are a few members out there with black and ali color schemes - see Bruce's car in the below link (scroll down to the pics): http://www.usa7s.com/vb/showthread.php?t=5092&page=4 Much nicer than the current faded red scheme you have now!

Shhhh! Don't tell everyone about my screw up on the hairpin turn.... I will start to get a reputation like Boxologist!

Some more photos got posted by others on the Lotus Talk site. Plenty of gratuitous Seven pics plus some ribbing for an indiscretion I made. http://www.lotustalk.com/forums/f110/nj-ny-catskills-spirited-drive-saturday-august-21-a-90732/

I was having problems with the links...not quite sure what I was doing wrong....if you continue to have issues then here is the link to the photofucket album where they are stored: http://s15.photobucket.com/albums/a354/mjohnson555/seats/Aug%202010%20Catskills%20Spirited%20Drive/

Interior of the Elite http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a354/mjohnson555/seats/Aug%202010%20Catskills%20Spirited%20Drive/DSC00059_edited-1.jpg Being a scrounger at heart I went prowling in the storage areas for interesting things – any guesses on the shell?: http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a354/mjohnson555/seats/Aug%202010%20Catskills%20Spirited%20Drive/DSC00060_edited-1.jpg Karl (Blubarisax) and his wife joined for the party at the Lotus Shack. His new car from Caterham USA is about a week away and all of the potential registration problems look to be overcome so he will be roadgoing in no time at all.

Here is the interior of the Europa – note the autographed dashboard from LOG 28. http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a354/mjohnson555/seats/Aug%202010%20Catskills%20Spirited%20Drive/DSC00058_edited-1.jpg http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a354/mjohnson555/seats/Aug%202010%20Catskills%20Spirited%20Drive/DSC00056_edited-1.jpg http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a354/mjohnson555/seats/Aug%202010%20Catskills%20Spirited%20Drive/DSC00055_edited-1.jpg http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a354/mjohnson555/seats/Aug%202010%20Catskills%20Spirited%20Drive/DSC00057_edited-1.jpg

The end of the day was at the Lotus Shack. The owner from the LEO group built it next to his business in an industrial area to store his toys. It has to win the ultimate garage award or come a close second. Lots of food and drinks to snack on while we prowled the contents of the garage. Excellent fun! David (owner in the green/yellow t shirt) welcoming us to the Lotus Shack: http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a354/mjohnson555/seats/Aug%202010%20Catskills%20Spirited%20Drive/DSC00051_edited-1.jpg The cars....drool.... http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a354/mjohnson555/seats/Aug%202010%20Catskills%20Spirited%20Drive/DSC00052_edited-1.jpg http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a354/mjohnson555/seats/Aug%202010%20Catskills%20Spirited%20Drive/DSC00053_edited-1.jpg http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a354/mjohnson555/seats/Aug%202010%20Catskills%20Spirited%20Drive/DSC00054_edited-1.jpg

We stopped for a mid point break at Phoenicia. Lovely little Catskill town that has a strong focus on visitors to go river tubing or on bikes for lunch/coffee/etc. The owners of this place were dumbfounded by our cars. http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a354/mjohnson555/seats/Aug%202010%20Catskills%20Spirited%20Drive/DSC00043_edited-1.jpg Some drive pictures. I got stuck behind a block of apartments….oh…a Volvo 240 who pushed in without giving way from a side street and then went slow. First opportunity and I passed him: http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a354/mjohnson555/seats/Aug%202010%20Catskills%20Spirited%20Drive/DSC00050_edited-1.jpg http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a354/mjohnson555/seats/Aug%202010%20Catskills%20Spirited%20Drive/DSC00046_edited-1.jpg

An Elise and an Esprit. The Esprit is nicknamed Frankensprit as it has had a few turbo modifications that make it somewhat faster. Still I would like to see Frankenseven slap it silly in a straight line. http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a354/mjohnson555/seats/Aug%202010%20Catskills%20Spirited%20Drive/DSC00036_edited-1.jpg http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a354/mjohnson555/seats/Aug%202010%20Catskills%20Spirited%20Drive/DSC00037_edited-1.jpg The one up man ship game for modifications was one by this Exige – a kit had been fitted to make the entire clam rotate back for complete access. Held down by some thumbscrews it looked remarkably simple. Very neat design – so simple you would think the factory would do this: http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a354/mjohnson555/seats/Aug%202010%20Catskills%20Spirited%20Drive/DSC00039_edited-1.jpg Off on the drive we were probably too big to keep together as a group. We always seemed to be stopping to try and keep the group together. Here was a 10-15 min stop as we waited for Tom who fell victim to a traffic cop stopping him for “speeding” Made no sense as he was following our train of cars, had only just left the truck stop and we were coming up to a red traffic light. Escaped with a warning. http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a354/mjohnson555/seats/Aug%202010%20Catskills%20Spirited%20Drive/DSC00041_edited-1.jpg

I joined the Lotus Enthusiasts Organization (LEO) of NY and NJ for its annual Catskills run yesterday. About 2 hours north of NYC, the area is very scenic, great views and excellent twisty roads. Meeting place was at Montgomery NY, at a truck stop before proceeding for the drive. About 16 cars turned up – 2 x Esprit, an Elan, number of Elise and Exige, 2 Sevens, a Porsche GT3, an NSX, and a Corvette plus 1 on a bike. Here is Stewart’s Seven Classic (crossflow powered). Originally from CT (so you may remember this being up for sale on Ebay last year) but Stewart managed to navigate the pitfalls of NJ registration to get it on the road: http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a354/mjohnson555/seats/Aug%202010%20Catskills%20Spirited%20Drive/DSC00030_edited-1.jpg The business end of his car: http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a354/mjohnson555/seats/Aug%202010%20Catskills%20Spirited%20Drive/DSC00034_edited-1.jpg Here it is again next to my fat bastard Seven: http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a354/mjohnson555/seats/Aug%202010%20Catskills%20Spirited%20Drive/DSC00033_edited-1.jpg A lovely Elan – not sure that exhaust looks stock? http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a354/mjohnson555/seats/Aug%202010%20Catskills%20Spirited%20Drive/DSC00031_edited-1.jpg

Count me in for a couple.

Great post - I enjoyed reading through the upgrade process. I am glad you like the results!

You are right - Bster was looking for a Stalker and has one lined up for pick up this month when he can start terrorizing the roads! It is a different one to this particular Stalker though.

Are you moving the Seven to Bonaire? No heater would be needed there!

I love the color scheme on this edition car. I am sure they had a 50th anniversary edition but I cannot recall it - obviously not as memorable as the 40th version.

Wow...just think how much faster you could be with a set of these beauties http://kalecoauto.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=1&products_id=4&zenid=c8oc1vnv6lhqasg2akt8q6q4n7 :jester:

Posted from the Lotus Enthusiasts Organization (LEO) of NY/NJ/CT. Some of you have been on these drives before with Atwell Haines' group - great bunch of guys who appreciate anything automotive. This drive last year was a stunner. Right now, I am planning to be there (unless it wants to bucket down). On Saturday, August 21, with the assistance of Alex Cornwell and Sandy and David Nagler, we present our Catskill Drive and Driving Fever Summer Gathering! We will meet at 10:30 AM at: Travel Centers of America 125 Neelytown Road Montgomery, NY 12549-2823 (845) 457-3163 That is at Exit 5 of Interstate 84 (jct of State Route 208). The TA truckstop has refreshments for you, and gasoline for your Lotus...come earlier if you want to have breakfast (I'll be there about 10 AM). Then, it's off on an enthralling drive of more than 2 hours. Our midpoint stop at Monticello Motor Club has been cancelled last minute, but we will definitely have a mid-drive break at a place of local interest. Eventually (about 2:30 PM) we will wind up at the Nagler's Lotus Shack in Chester, NY, (32 Elkay Dr) where we can unwind, see the automobilia in the 'Shack, and graze on some of Sandy's delicious appetizers and finger foods. Please RSVP by Tuesday, August 17 to David or Sandy so they can pick enough fruit... lotushack@lotusowners.com or 845-781-0316. It's OK to show up at the Shack only, if you can't spend the entire day with us.

Go for it - the mechnical oil pressure gauge was one of the better improvements I invested on my car. Also easier than expected to install once I purchased the right bits and bobs.