So, tell us a little about yourselves

[birkinsuper7]

My late mother turned in her driver's license shortly after turning ninety when she determined that she was no longer fit to drive.  That was only a few months after she celebrated her 90th by doing her daughter and three granddaughters on a canoe trip.  She got her license on her father's Ford Model T coupe in 1927.  Her canoe experience began a few years earlier when she received a canoe for her 12th birthday.  

 

I realize that I am not a sharp as I was fifty years ago; however, in defense of my continuing driving for a few more years: I love driving and take it very seriously!

[wemtd]

Congrats!

se7en should also be available- was mine until I moved.

[UglyFast]

On 7/9/2021 at 9:55 PM, birkinsuper7 said:

While living in Arlington, Virginia, in 1953, I saw my first T-Series MG.  I fell in love with the TC - those tall skinny wire wheels and rakish flowing fenders.

 

During my freshman year at college in 1960, I saw an advertisement for a kit from England called the Lotus VII.  I fell in love with the concept and the execution.

 

After dropping out of college and finishing up active duty training with the Texas National Guard in 1963, I worked on a construction site and fell in love with the backhoe.

 

Many cars including a BMW Isetta 300, Volvo PV544, Daimler SP250, and Triumph TR4, were followed by career in software development, a successful couple years of Regional SCCA TSD Rallying in a Plymouth Roadrunner, a Datsun 280Z, two failed marriages, and an early retirement at age 51.  

 

Once I reached 55, I decided that I deserved a dream car.  It would be either an MGTC or a Lotus Seven.  I live in New Hampshire, with more vanity plates per capita than anywhere else.  In order to decide what I buy, I requested a vanity plate for my piss gold Plymouth Horizon:  My choices: LOTUS7, SUPER7, or MGTC.  Only MGTC was available at that time; therefore, the quest was narrowed and shortly thereafter, TC5012 became mine in 1996.

 

A few years later, my 91-year-old mother passed away in 2004.  To my surprise, she left us three some money.  I found the backhoe of my dreams and bought it - an Ingersoll-Rand BL370 - bigger than a garden tractor with hoe and smaller than a CASE 580 - just right for a fifty-acre farm.  Since, I am now living on a quarter-acre waterfront lot, the hoe saw very little use and I sold it this past Spring after enjoying 1200+ hours of operation.

 

While awaiting the money from my mother's estate, I began looking for a Seven.  I viewed and drove one - the one I now own - in Danvers, Massachusetts.  By the time the funds were available, the seller had shipped it to Reading, California; however, the new owner found that his large feet were not compatible with the tiny pedal box.   He posted it on eBay, I bought it, and shipped it to New Hampshire and enjoyed the heck out of it for a few years before putting it in storage so that I might get some home projects accomplished.  That was five long years ago!  This spring, I decided to concentrate on the Seven.  I found a great independent mechanic who would tackle the punch list I had created.  Correct the starter, debug some gauges, replace the overflow tank, clean the fuel tank and more.  After a few weeks, I had her back and better than ever!

 

She is a Birkin S3 for the early 2000s titled as a 1965 Lotus and powered by a Weber-carburetored 2.0 Liter Ford Zetec sporting a custom mesh grill made by the master stainless-steel fabricator, Charlie MacDonald, of the CJM Custom Shop in Fort Lauderdale.  

 

 

 

 

@birkinsuper7 I'm not crying, YOU'RE CRYING!  (Internet joke). But seriously a nice tale of what sounds like a good life and nice, winding mountain road rides. And honestly made me a bit weepy. My son (13) and I we're playing Forza on Xbox last night, something we haven't done in more than 2 years.  We opened our "car library" from a few years ago. In it were two 7's we "built" and he remarked "daddy we should use Forza to figure out the paint job on OUR 7" and it struck me that mostly all I do nowadays is to try and seem cool to him in the hopes he'll both have and BE a bit of me after I'm gone.  I guess I'm hoping to build memories of trips for both of us in this lil car like we have in my other crappy cars, and maybe one day it'll be him taking his kids out for ice cream in "granddad's race car" lol. 

 

Like I said, I'm not crying, you're crying. Must be excess blinker fluid leaking from my eyes. Either that, or I'm driving a 7 without me spectacles!

[birkinsuper7]

Only a few periods during my life were rough; however, they made me stronger.  Two divorces, untimely death friends, some non-productive career choices, and undiagnosed learning disabilities.  As a former military brat, I inherited a sense of adventure and wanderlust; however, rules were rules and were enforced to the letter - my dad was a JAG lawyer in the Navy.  After divorce number one in 1976, I grabbed my motorcycle (400F Honda,) depleted my accumulated vacation time, and soloed the lower-48 covering 12000+ miles in six weeks.  After taking an early retirement and ending marriage number two, I sold my home and moved in with friends in New Hampshire on their 50 acres farm.  That is were I accumulated my mechanical dreams as well as a well equipped woodworking shop.  I would not change much about my 80 years.....

[UglyFast]

Cheers to that last sentence, as that's all that really matters...

[birkinsuper7]

 William Shakespeare's Henry VI, Part 2, Act IV, Scene 2: "The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers".

 

[Croc]

3 hours ago, birkinsuper7 said:

... I would not change much about my 80 years.....

 

@birkinsuper7 I like the way you roll!  May you have many more happy miles.  

[ATCDave]

Hi All,

 

New member here.

I'm a retired air traffic controller (31 years on the boards at Boston ARTCC), and have the Seven bug.

My fascination with Sevens started when I was a kid and would accompany my parents to various sports car club events in and around Long Island, NY. Several of the club members owned Lotus Sevens - I just thought they were cool.

I kinda forgot about them until I attended an IndyCar event at NHIS (New Hampshire) in late '90's, saw Chris Tchorznicki of Seven and Elans who had a booth set up, and a gorgeous BRG Super Seven. Instant love.

But life intervened.

Now I'm retired, kids are out of school, and I want a Seven.

I've been getting Low Flying magazine for years, have all the build manuals, visited all the build blogs, seen all of the great Seven stuff on YouTube, and I spend too much time on the Caterham Configurator, lol

I want to build a Caterham 310S SV.....

 

-Dave

[JohnCh]

Welcome Dave!  I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but as per the post below made by a dealer almost 3 months ago, Caterham is no longer accepting US orders for the Sigma-powered models (310 and 270).  I've read similar on BlatChat.  The good news is the Duratec-powered models are still available.  Although not as light as the Sigma, it's still a great engine.

 

 

-John

[Mark IV]

13 minutes ago, JohnCh said:

Welcome Dave!  I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but as per the post below made by a dealer almost 3 months ago, Caterham is no longer accepting US orders for the Sigma-powered models (310 and 270).  I've read similar on BlatChat.  The good news is the Duratec-powered models are still available.  Although not as light as the Sigma, it's still a great engine.

 

 

-John

Caterham in fact has had to cancel some existing Sigma orders as a quantity of engines they committed to will not be provided so no new orders anywhere and some disappointed Sigma wanabees.  Caterham is working on a Duratec of about 150 HP to replace the 280/310 in the model range.

[ATCDave]

Thank you guys!

Oh well, must have missed that little bit of news.

I could certainly "settle" for a 2 liter Duratec at around 180hp!

 

I remember seeing a Caterham spokesman saying somewhere that if they only sold one model, that it would be the the 310 S/R because it was so well balanced.

So that was the one I concentrated on.

 

-Dave

[wemtd]

Dave- may be worth driving down to Millville for the annual usa7s NJMP gathering. 

[ATCDave]

Just now, wemtd said:

Dave- may be worth driving down to Millville for the annual usa7s NJMP gathering. 

Ha! I just read about that on the thread. Acccch! Gonna be on a camping trip that weekend. (Maybe the wife wouldn't mind camping in the NJMP parking lot...)

[wemtd]

I’ve camped in the field there on more than one occasion. Weather will be good this time of year.  Afterwards you can go over to cape may for a day or two.

[eatonhong]

I'm a new member in Montana. College professor and writer in my 40s. I caught the Lotus bug after the Porsche bug, first with a 66 FHC Elan, which I still have. I'm new to Sevens with this '62 bought from a site member in Wyoming. I've really enjoyed the car during my few months as the latest caregiver.  I feel lucky to have it. Looking forward to gaining info (and parts) from the group.

 

 

[UglyFast]

Brilliant lil machine. I lovessss that color. 

[UglyFast]

Just now, UglyFast said:

Brilliant lil machine. I lovessss that color. 

@eatonhong

[Source]

Hey everyone, I posted in the Pacific thread but I figure I'll introduce myself here as well.

 

Name is Chris from Vegas, I've been a Lotus enthusiast since I was a kid. Despite never having owned one until my 28th birthday. As a kid I had a poster of the Lotus 340R in my room. I think it was secretly training my subconscious for when I grew up. I ended up having interest in motorcycles on my teens and left home to go to technical school. Since then, I've worked in every position in the motorcycle industry. In that time, I bought my first car which was a 2003 MINI Cooper S. That started my real love of cars.

 

That was eight years ago now. Two years ago I bought my dream car which was a 2005 Lotus Elise. I had it for a year. Six months of that year it spend time in a shop waiting for an entire front clam due to hitting an animal. I loved that car but I had owned my dream car and it was time to let it go after that bad experience. (A week after getting it back a truck here on a Vegas highway kicked up a 2x4 and scratched the fresh front clam paint. It was at that moment I decided to sell the car.) I ended up buying an AMG GLA45 to replace both the Lotus and MINI as a do everything car. Which I quickly realized I didn't like a one car for all solution.

 

I had done so much research and had watched so many videos and read through books relating to Lotus and Colin Chapman over the years since I was a kid. Colin and drivers like Jim Clark became my heroes, and I didn't want any car that I didn't think fit the 'add lightness' philosophy of Colin. ( My lizard's name is Chapman). I have books and flags and model cars and everything Lotus in my house. I'm obsessed. So a couple months into the AMG ownership I decided I needed another sports car. I wasn't satisfied with the rather large and heavy AMG. Even though the power is ridiculous and the car is fun in its own way.

 

I decided I had to go crazier than the Elise. So a Seven was the logical step. Over the last six months I've been diving in and researching and following forums to find information and take a look at the type of Sevens I could get my hands on. Caterham was ideal but they weren't really in my budget. I settled on GBS to build a car for me but that came with its own issues. So I stepped back a little and just started following the for sale posts in this forum. Going back and forth with what spec is want or what I'd settle for.

 

I ended up not settling luckily and getting into a car that really fit me. So I picked up this 1994 HPC that was on Hemmings for a while. I'm happy with the spec, it checked every box for me. And while I was worried at first for right hand drive, I fell in love with it. The previous owners all kept a full history since the car was new from the original build manuals and engine specifications to the import paperwork for when it arrived in the US via an owner in the military.

 

Thanks for all the great information stored in this forum. I'm sure I'll have tons of questions. Sorry for my long winded post. I just have a long history with following Lotus.

 

 

[ATCDave]

22 minutes ago, Source said:

Hey everyone, I posted in the Pacific thread but I figure I'll introduce myself here as well.

 

Name is Chris from Vegas, I've been a Lotus enthusiast since I was a kid. Despite never having owned one until my 28th birthday. As a kid I had a poster of the Lotus 340R in my room. I think it was secretly training my subconscious for when I grew up. I ended up having interest in motorcycles on my teens and left home to go to technical school. Since then, I've worked in every position in the motorcycle industry. In that time, I bought my first car which was a 2003 MINI Cooper S. That started my real love of cars.

 

That was eight years ago now. Two years ago I bought my dream car which was a 2005 Lotus Elise. I had it for a year. Six months of that year it spend time in a shop waiting for an entire front clam due to hitting an animal. I loved that car but I had owned my dream car and it was time to let it go after that bad experience. (A week after getting it back a truck here on a Vegas highway kicked up a 2x4 and scratched the fresh front clam paint. It was at that moment I decided to sell the car.) I ended up buying an AMG GLA45 to replace both the Lotus and MINI as a do everything car. Which I quickly realized I didn't like a one car for all solution.

 

I had done so much research and had watched so many videos and read through books relating to Lotus and Colin Chapman over the years since I was a kid. Colin and drivers like Jim Clark became my heroes, and I didn't want any car that I didn't think fit the 'add lightness' philosophy of Colin. ( My lizard's name is Chapman). I have books and flags and model cars and everything Lotus in my house. I'm obsessed. So a couple months into the AMG ownership I decided I needed another sports car. I wasn't satisfied with the rather large and heavy AMG. Even though the power is ridiculous and the car is fun in its own way.

 

I decided I had to go crazier than the Elise. So a Seven was the logical step. Over the last six months I've been diving in and researching and following forums to find information and take a look at the type of Sevens I could get my hands on. Caterham was ideal but they weren't really in my budget. I settled on GBS to build a car for me but that came with its own issues. So I stepped back a little and just started following the for sale posts in this forum. Going back and forth with what spec is want or what I'd settle for.

 

I ended up not settling luckily and getting into a car that really fit me. So I picked up this 1994 HPC that was on Hemmings for a while. I'm happy with the spec, it checked every box for me. And while I was worried at first for right hand drive, I fell in love with it. The previous owners all kept a full history since the car was new from the original build manuals and engine specifications to the import paperwork for when it arrived in the US via an owner in the military.

 

Thanks for all the great information stored in this forum. I'm sure I'll have tons of questions. Sorry for my long winded post. I just have a long history with following Lotus.

 

 

 

 

Sweet looking 7 there Source!

An inspiration for sure.

 

Dave in NH

[mrmustang]

1 hour ago, Source said:

Hey everyone, I posted in the Pacific thread but I figure I'll introduce myself here as well.

 

Name is Chris from Vegas, I've been a Lotus enthusiast since I was a kid. Despite never having owned one until my 28th birthday. As a kid I had a poster of the Lotus 340R in my room. I think it was secretly training my subconscious for when I grew up. I ended up having interest in motorcycles on my teens and left home to go to technical school. Since then, I've worked in every position in the motorcycle industry. In that time, I bought my first car which was a 2003 MINI Cooper S. That started my real love of cars.

 

That was eight years ago now. Two years ago I bought my dream car which was a 2005 Lotus Elise. I had it for a year. Six months of that year it spend time in a shop waiting for an entire front clam due to hitting an animal. I loved that car but I had owned my dream car and it was time to let it go after that bad experience. (A week after getting it back a truck here on a Vegas highway kicked up a 2x4 and scratched the fresh front clam paint. It was at that moment I decided to sell the car.) I ended up buying an AMG GLA45 to replace both the Lotus and MINI as a do everything car. Which I quickly realized I didn't like a one car for all solution.

 

I had done so much research and had watched so many videos and read through books relating to Lotus and Colin Chapman over the years since I was a kid. Colin and drivers like Jim Clark became my heroes, and I didn't want any car that I didn't think fit the 'add lightness' philosophy of Colin. ( My lizard's name is Chapman). I have books and flags and model cars and everything Lotus in my house. I'm obsessed. So a couple months into the AMG ownership I decided I needed another sports car. I wasn't satisfied with the rather large and heavy AMG. Even though the power is ridiculous and the car is fun in its own way.

 

I decided I had to go crazier than the Elise. So a Seven was the logical step. Over the last six months I've been diving in and researching and following forums to find information and take a look at the type of Sevens I could get my hands on. Caterham was ideal but they weren't really in my budget. I settled on GBS to build a car for me but that came with its own issues. So I stepped back a little and just started following the for sale posts in this forum. Going back and forth with what spec is want or what I'd settle for.

 

I ended up not settling luckily and getting into a car that really fit me. So I picked up this 1994 HPC that was on Hemmings for a while. I'm happy with the spec, it checked every box for me. And while I was worried at first for right hand drive, I fell in love with it. The previous owners all kept a full history since the car was new from the original build manuals and engine specifications to the import paperwork for when it arrived in the US via an owner in the military.

 

Thanks for all the great information stored in this forum. I'm sure I'll have tons of questions. Sorry for my long winded post. I just have a long history with following Lotus.

 

 

 

This is the car from Florida, I remember seeing it listed