Croc

Bruce - I think you picked it. It does look like a Dellow Mark V with modified rear body work and clams, identical wheels and nose. http://www.dellowregister.co.uk/

Excellent! Good to see you made it home before the snow.

oops! I guess this will kick off the Hank and Skip niggling act again!

I learned to race in an Elfin Formula Ford in Australia. Wonderfully rewarding car to drive. I would probably not fit in a FF anymore. Good living has taken a toll! Still I do get turned on by the GT - I would just go for one of the GT40 replicas by CAV before the modern GT by Ford.

Great introduction - really good videos. You obviously have set your car up well - it looked nicely settled on the Ascari track. I have always like a yellow 7!

Great post! The thing that gets me about your car is its sheer reliability with no work needing to be done or sorted from the previous owners neglect. I am still working my way around my car fixing mechnical and electrical niggles - no sooner than I finish one than another pops up. This week it is a coolant leak - probably because the garage is down to 19degrees Fahrenheit! No driving for a while

I had the same concern when I was car hunting - so I deliberately drove the cars with different types of shoes. I have a little more heft in the waist (ok...a lot more..:blush:) and a very wide size 13. What I found is that the Birkin was easy to adjust the pedal box to drive in regular shoes if I was careful - I tried both with trainers and dress shoes. if I did not pay attention I could get two pedals at once. In narrow sole moccasins I had no issues - very easy. In the SV there is more room again. Again I can drive in regular trainers and dress shoes without an issues - just need to careful - but I prefer the narrow sole driving shoe. One thing to look out for is the ability to slide your left foot behind the clutch pedal on long trips so you are not holding it at an unnatural angle. For me this is a godsend on long highway stretches. In the birkin, we could not get the pedal box to adjust far enough to do this in the narrow sole driving moccasin. I know others do this but they must have smaller feet. However, no problems in the SV with the driving shoe and it does not have the same design flexibility that the Birkin has with its pedal box - so there is obviously more usable space in the SV down there. I cannot perform this trick in anything but the narrow sole driving shoe

I can understand the feelings of desparation to get in and drive! How did you find it in Japan? Do you speak nihongo?

I beg to differ - I think it would look much nicer in my garage!!!!

Wow Skip! Thanks for this. They are stunning - if I did not know they were models I would not have guessed. Abolutely brilliant. I hate to think how many hundreds/thousands of hours went into such detail perfection. I almost wanted to hop in and take a drive

Congratulations!!!!

Sorry I beg to differ - China Airlines is Taiwanese and not Communist China http://www.china-airlines.com/en/about/about-1-1.htm Air China is the Communist one. Damn confusing with the virtually identical names. Either way - your assessment is correct - the safety record is atrocious. :ack:

Having spent my time in third world countries on overloaded, no safety, poorly trained pilots and survived 2 crash landings - 1 in Indonesia in a 737 and 1 in PNG in a Beechcraft - that sent shivers up my spine. China Air (Taiwanese Airline) does not have a great safety reputation - they have lost a fair number of planes over the year. They are on my do not fly list. From listening to the Japanese news service, it happened at a Japnese airport. From what I could work out with my rusty Japanese the pilot set the wrong takeoff weight in the flight computers so that inadequate thrust was applied for take off. These days, modern aircraft dont just shove the throttles to full and go, they only use the amount of power computed by the engine for the weight of the aircraft - less wear, safer overall.

You just reminded me of something funny recently I was visiting the parents and it was the usual male bonding in the garage with the cars and bikes. Dad with his vintage boxer BMW bike was telling me how well it performs. I asked what is the secret - so he popped a little blue pill out of his pocket and dropped it into the fuel tank. With that he quipped "you would be amazed what it can get up to" I was left doing goldfish impersonations....

Paul Great suggestion - I have been on rt 521 before and loved it. Never tried rt 97 before but I will save that up. We may have to give it a miss this time - we will probably be all converging on Frenchtown/Milford NJ area - little bit far south. Come and join us!!! cheers

I dont know what you are talking about....my brake lights are just fine from where I sit I think your problem is that you just need to be in front.....go faster!!!! :D

Its a looooong way away but count me in. Last year's drive was great despite your jinxing us with the weather (just kidding!!!) We may even get Al to join us on the drive with his "new" old car instead of doing the "beauty pageant" bit at the beginning! Maybe we could try part of Al's 'Nurburgring of NJ' course he has laid out? Or we could also use the LEO of NJ route from November which was a good run. I can tell I am not the only one with a hankering to get in the Se7en and drive.:auto:

Now you have done it Hank. Wanita's effeminate brother Serge will be in touch shortly to chat you up. I believe he drives a Subaru....or hang-on maybe that is Wanita's butch lesbian sister who drives the Forester? Seriously though, I am sure these emails are a real pain in the ass for you? :jester:

Here is the only sale I have ever seen for a Rotus in the last year http://www.usa7s.com/vb/showthread.php?t=4285 Not really comparable on spec and I bet they probably took an offer at around $12k - no one pays list from a dealer unless they can avoid it.

It is the same car - gone from $12500 price to $39000 in the process. Someone got a good deal at the BAT day

Looks like it was a 122 Amazon donor. Engine looks about right along with the reused elements of the dash. It is great to see all the historical photos that come with it. Nice pedigree.

...but it is a volvo... http://www.autotraderclassics.com/find/vehicle/vehicleDetail.xhtml?adId=226149&actionMethod=find%2Fvehicle%2FvehicleSearchResults.xhtml%3AuShipController.init&conversationId=133716 Interesting look.....

LOL....it is Lousiana you are referring to here - no surprise really Where I came from Skippy was the bounding furball that would leap across your hood in a single bound and frighten the living carp out of you - assuming it did not come through the windscreen and become a heaving mass kicking around in the car. :ack:

A minivan would have a lower center of gravity!

Ah Martin - low blow on the temperature angle in sunny CA.:toetap05: You know how to win easily on that one! However, I thought CA had the most screwed up state government system out of all the states....:ack: You will have to move north to escape!