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Try a synchronized set of actions with a group of people carrying bags in any airport in the world and you can guarantee arrests all around

I have a friend who retrofitted an Elise Diffuser to his Duratec powered Europa and claims that it really made a difference to the handling in high speed sweepers. The Elise diffuser is relatively cheap, lighweight and should fit under Seven.

I just ordered a copy of the new MotoGP documentary "Fastest". I absolutely loved the directors first MotoGP documentary "Faster" and this one looks even better. If you are a fan of any kind of motor racing you have to watch the first 5 minutes of the film at http://axisofoversteer.blogspot.com/2011/11/fastest.html Another good movie to get would be the BluRay of Senna

Congrats on the sale. You should tell him about the Golden Gate Lotus Club (http://gglotus.org/). We organize several events a year and have several Se7en show up at our AutoX and track days.

Original Elites are fairly valuable and I believe mint condition ones can go for 6 figures Mike Ostrov is a GGLC member in the East Bay who is considered the worlwide expert in Elite restoration. At any given time he has about a dozen of them in his shop/house which is especially impressive when you consider that Lotus only made 1000 of them

Now that I have both I can say that the Seven is the one I would keep if I had to choose. Mainly because I can always get another stock-ish Elise but the Seven is mine and I have customized many things to around me. The other difference that I do understand is that while the Seven puts a bigger grin on my face, the Elise puts a smaller grin on more often. I daily drive my Elise and no matter how rough the day has been at work I always end up at home with a smile on my face.

I just checked the route and SF to Seattle is 808 miles so with stops and detours it a little less than 900 - did each way in a single day. I also did 600+ miles (14 hours) from Vegas to SF via Death Valley and the Sonora pass 2 weeks ago with 2 other Elise owners. One of them made this time lapse video - I am in the grey Elise.

People have had issues with the 6th gear ratio breaking when they attempt an LSD swap so you may want to get one pre-installed. Will likely raise the price though since all the autocrossers want one too. The way the Elise Chassis is extruded and glued together results in very thin suspension pickup points that cannot be welded or replaced. Most salvage cars have issues with the pickup points which is why they are salvage to begin with. The main thing to check will be the wear on the high-cam. Pop the valve cover and check the "big" lobe of the cam for any visible wear. Unchecked wear will eventually break a rocker arm as well which will be a big $$$ repair. Another thing to look for is many people find the 06+ seats (probax) more comfortable than the 05s. I have driven my car 900+ miles in a single day with no issues whatsoever.

I cant help you with the Seven but I do know a lot about the Elise having owned mine for 6 years and 60k miles. They are not as comfortable or as well built as an Evora but they are perfectly reasonably daily drivers especially if you are able to do some of the work yourself. Things to watch for: 1) Try getting in and out of it with the roof on before you put your $$ down. While it does get easier it never really becomes easy. 2) Good used ones are available in the $20-25k range. If its less you need to take a long hard look at why. Do not get a salvage one as the suspension pickup points cannot be repaired 3) If you ever want to autocross the car you want to get one with an LSD. (late 05 onwards) 4) Inspect the second cam for wear before purchase - this is an issue that affect some percentage of cars regardless of usage. 5) Look on Britishspeed.com and lotustalk.com for cars with a history. 6) You absolutely never want to parallel park one so plan accordingly

The GGLC contingent will be out for the event itself as usual - I'll post the link to buy tickets and corral passes when it comes out (typically feb/march)

No remote that I know of but it has one button operation which I find easy to use even when strapped in the car with the camera on the rollbar. It does have some sort of bluetooth apps that can connect to the camera and wirelessly view video and change settings - maybe they can turn the recoding on and off as well?

Also try the Contour Plus which now includes GPS and external mic support: http://contour.com/products/contour-plus I have the earlier Contour HD and while it has the same noise issues as the GoPro I do prefer its ease of use with only 2 buttons to operate.

Deal!!!!

Get the sliding tether kit for the R3 - makes a huge improvement to your visibility. If your belts were correctly installed to begin with (within 10 deg of horizontal IIRC) there will be no changes needed. It will work with 3 inch belts as well - the extra width of the belt just slips over the edge of the HANS collar. BTW I hope you guys also check the age of your belts as they age rapidly in the sun and typically last only 5 years.

I use a Safety Solutions R3 which is SFI rated and more importantly for me works with 3 point belts as well as 5/6 points. It also puts no pressure on the collarbone which can occasionally be an issue with HANS http://www.safetysolutionsracing.com/rage-series/ Most new helmets have the HANS holes pre-drilled and it takes

BTW I am not the creator. I just know that Randy from Blastolene is a member. I bumped into him at a GGLC trackday where he brought out the Seven that he built for his dad.

Also Seven owner and USA7s member

The weather did not help matters. I strongly considered driving my Seven over from SF but in the end better judgement prevailed and I took the Elise instead.

Doubly painful since it happened a week after both Dan wheldon and Simoncelli' career best 2nd place at Japan. While Valentino and Edwards did hit him I have to think there was something worng even before that. His attitude on the bike looked extremely "off" before the impact and I wonder if there was a medical condition beforehand.

New NC Miata with folding hard top. Super practical and pretty good fun. Need to be

How many seats and doors? Would it have to haul anything? Define "well-made". Would warranty repairs remove the need to be well made? Do you mean refinment and NVH? Define "quick". Straight line, twisties, both? Parking requirements? I love the Elise as my daily driver and it has most of your requirments but cannot be parallel parked which makes it harder to use.

My car came with a PC680 that lasted 2 years from the date of manufacture listed on the battery. I could charge it up and use it for a day but it would go flat with just 2 days in the garage.

Is your aim to do have fun at the track or actually become a better driver? With just 4 track days I'd suggest you spend time getting comfortable with VTEC rather than swapping the engine. An ideal lap in an Ultralite is spent with 100% of the time above VTEC regardless of engine choice. That said the stock F20C has 3k rpm of VTEC (6-9k) compared to the 2.5k rpm of the F22 (6-8.5k) which can mean less shifting on the f20 to stay in the powerband. Depending on your ECU you could also lower your VTEC engagement point and add a few hundred extra revs to the powerband My Ultralite has an F20C which I damaged and eventually rebuilt into an F22 with no other drivetrain changes. The primary place where I notice the extra torque is on the highway where passing is effortless. At the track I try to keep it in VTEC so there really isnt that much difference. I do notice that I have to sometimes shift up an extra gear due to the lower redline though going faster is probably also contributing to that.

Mine is a 6 inch dia and 20 inch length. Call their special projects division and they will be able to suggest the correct sizing for your application and fab it up for reasonable prices (mine was $199). The guy I dealt with was: Lee Thompson VP of R&D 800-544-4761 ext. 710 Feel free to mention my name (Rahul) if you'd like. Also I should mention that while car was listed at 95 db at Laguna we do believe that the majority of the noise is now from the intake rather than the exhaust but I have not yet tried a different intake to test the theory.

I drive with a helmet and custom earplugs so the sound level isnt too bad for me. Hushpower will make you any custom muffler you want so I would recommend that you ask them to make one that will fit your specific needs. Mine is a custom one and I can probably dig up a part number for you if you;d like.