Friday February 18th, 2000

7:30pm

Richard McDougall & Traci Christie’s

February 18 Meeting

March 17 meeting

26 Ostrov clinic

April 21 meeting

30 Dream Machines—Half Moon Bay

May 7 chassis/welding/fab day at Zender’s

19 meeting

21 Dave Bean Tour

June 16 meeting

25 Mt Hamilton run by Mike Schlicht

July 21 meeting

23 Woodside Rallye

August 13 Santa Cruz Mountain Drive and BBQ by the Dubberleys

18-20 Monterey Historics

19 meeting at Monterey Historics?

18-20 LOG—Toronto

September 10 ABCM Palo Alto

16-17 California Melee

Meeting at ABCM or WCLM?

29 track day At Thunderhill

Ocotober 20 meeting

November 17 meeting

December 3 Toy Rallye

9 Holiday Party/meeting

After a few hours at the shop, all the Lotus’ that are still running will head up to the San Pablo Dam with lunch at the local deli or Cactus Jacks BBQ. If you wanna hobnob with Mike remember to bring lots of candy and don’t mention anything about electronic fuel injection, cell phones, computers, or anything else designed after 1967.

The show starts at 10:30 and you should call or email ahead if you plan to attend. (510) 232-7764 or mikeostrov@webtv.com

By Scott Hogben

For two years now I’ve been bugging everyone to take their cars out and drive them, not only because they’re a pleasure to drive, but also because they need to be used so they don’t deteriorate. Well, this is one more time where I’m going to pester you all about that because this whole issue hit close to home for me recently.

In my last CR article I made a commitment to drive my cars more often and I’ve been driving the Europa often enough that my conscience isn’t bothering me too much, but I’ve been neglecting the Seven. So, I took my own advice last month and dragged it out for a short drive since it’s been longer than I care to admit since I drove it last. What a great opportunity I had to drive the car too! It was the weekend of the Toilet Bowl, and since I hate football so much, I thought I’d go drive the car on the clear roads. I raised the garage door and there was the poor Seven looking rather sad, with two flat tires. That was hard to look at, especially after what I said in my last article. So, I pumped up the tires and backed it out of the garage- a necessity to running the car because as some of you know, the Seven is squeezed underneath the other Europa which is on a rack about 4 feet off the ground.

As is always the case after not running the car for a while, it took some time to get it started. But I’ve come up with a good indicator for the amount of time I should allow my car to sit without being run. Those stupid Weber carburetor float bowls seem to go dry very quickly, and when this happens, it takes a while to fill the float bowls. The simple answer to this problem is to drive the car more often!

After some coaxing I was able to get it fired up and it was running great, which was a pleasant surprise since I’ve been playing with the jets trying to get rid of a stumble and I hadn’t run the engine since throwing a different set of jets in. About 2-3 minutes into the warm-up the fan belt started to squeal like a whipped pig. The same thing that happened to me on the way to the British Meet last year and I thought I had tightened it enough.

Annoyed, I blipped the throttle and it went away, much to my pleasure. But while it was humming right along, I notice that the fan belt was indeed a little loose. Just as I noticed the belt flopping around, I heard a slight knock, and then SPLASH! The water pump seal and/or bearing gave out and started puking coolant all over the driveway.

I’m glad that it happened on the driveway and not out on some club fun-run, but I was a little surprised that it gave out so soon. This was basically a "new" water pump as this engine has only run for about 200 miles! But, it did sit on an engine stand for (basically) 15 years before it ran and that was obviously too long to sit without being run.

It was a real bummer to have that happen, but at the same time there was a silver lining to the story- at least it’s a Kent engine! I can honestly say that I’m glad I don’t have a Twin Cam in my Seven right now. Doing the W/P won’t be bad at all, but I wonder what other seals have been rotting all these years? It was just another sign that I should have gotten the car on the road a long time ago. And, it was more proof that if a car sits without being used, that doesn’t mean the parts will be in the same condition they were when it was run last. It feels better to replace a worn-out part than to replace a rotted-out part and this should be more incentive for everyone to drive their cars more.

So now I have to add that to the list of things I need to do on the Seven to get it roadworthy. With January already gone, I need to get going and change the rear suspension A-arm as well. Last year I noticed a pronounced "clunk" from the axle on the way back from the British Meet and found out that the spherical bearing that locates the axle was worn out. I plan on changing things over to a system that’s similar to the current Caterham configuration and I need to hurry up. Yes, the months are going by fast and we have our first event in late March, the spring tune-up at Mike Ostrov’s. The Seven might not be done in time for that, but I’d like it done in time to be at the Pacific Coast Dream Machines in April. This year the plan is to meet at a designated spot in Half Moon Bay and then drive over together for a day of mechanical excess. Details of these two events will be in the next Chapman Report, but start dusting off your Lotuses now in preparation. Check through your cars, you don’t want to have something happen to your car like what just happened to me when you’re at the next event! See you at the next meeting!

Scott

by Daren Stone

I have a greater sense of appreciation for our President right now (Scott, not Bill), for here I sit with this beautiful newsletter in front of me, completed and ready to go to print (early !) save that big white space which is my column. I could work editorial magic and make the space smaller (and I may do that yet), but the thought of Scott commitedly churning out his column month after month inspires me. And so I type.

Hats off to new members, new Lotus owners (‘95 Esprit) and February meeting hosts Richard McDougall and Traci Christie ! Be sure to ask them to tell you the story of driving the car from Texas, a trip which according to them took less time that the plane trip to Texas in the first place.

On the Chapman Report front I’ve now taken over the editorial duties full time so that Mr. Zender can dedicate his resources to setting up events and getting his Esprit back on the road. Spy operatives recently infiltrated the security network at Fusion Technology and report that although they were unsure what exactly was happening but there were piles of fiberglass dust all around and welding sparks coming from the back of the Esprit. Stay tuned.

This month’s letter from long-time club member Steve Frey reminded me that for many of our members, the Chapman report IS the club.

Living amidst all the activities it is easy to forget that most people don’t live near enough to participate and thus must rely on the CR. It’s for these members that we continually work to make the CR better; more interesting, longer (when possible) and on time !

In support of these goal s (and especially the last one), we’ve put together a full events calendar so we’ll have things to report about, cleaned out the dead ads, and put in place a new electronic printing process that allows the CR to ship out early.

If you have any suggestions, feedback, or submissions, please send them in to lookbusy@ix.netcom.com, or regular mail at:

The Chapman Report

579 Rockport drive

Sunnyvale, CA 94087

Submission deadline is the first Thursday of the month.

On a more solemn note I’m sorry to have to report on the passing of two of our club members, Dan Barnhart of San Jose.

Dan (72) , was a native Californian and a lifelong car enthusiast, whose automotive interests spanned such diversities as Porsches, Jaguars and Fiat Abarths, and even a Talbot restoration. Dan had recently joined the GGLC and was enthused about exercising his S3 Elan. My wife and I had the pleasure of sitting across from Dan and his friend Jacqueline at the Holiday Party last year, and had looked forward to their participation in upcoming events.

Dan, you will be missed.

By Jon Rosner

The third Friday of the month, the usual suspects rendezvous at the Carney hideout for good grub and news about Colin Chapman's plan to return from Argentina. Well, maybe, food was tasty, but no word from Colin at almost nine when El Presidente Hogben gave the two minute warning. And since we had new members present and Charlie Rockwell and Bernadette came after a long hiatus we did the round robin of introductions, including cars owned, and a variety of statements.

It might be noted that Alan Dubberley volunteered to be head of nothing, and James McCoy volunteered to in charge of mismanagement. New members Tracy Christie co-pilot with husband Richard McDougall of '95 yellow Esprit Turbo spoke of how it took three days to get to Texas to get the car, and nineteen hours to get home to CA. Given that this included a below zero stop at the Grand Canyon for a photo op, there are few tongue in cheek doubts about their potential to become the year 2000 GGLC Autocross champions !

In the socially redeemable category, it was reported that there were 21 participants donating their $15 plus gifts to the community at the 1999 Toddler Rallye. Two of our leading suspects were particularly involved in creative obfuscation."We really had a good time messing with their minds, it was a lot of fun." You want to know who said it ? Come to the next meeting ! Guilty parties will be in attendance.....

Next up was the Christmas Party which went quite well in spite of the restaurant's location being in what is known as the Bermuda Triangle of Sunnyvale. A Dyno Day for 2000 came up, but there are rumors that the only available fixed location dyno may be rusted out, stay tuned. Pacific Coast Dream Machines in April, if it has an engine, gas, steam, other, it will be there, fun event. And Alan Dubberley spoke of plans to do a run in the Santa Cruz Mountains over paved roads. Proposals were also made for a midnight Mount Hamilton run or a 1 AM run down Lombard Street in SF, but neither had many takers.....are we getting old here, or what ??

Daren Stone is now our Editor in Chief and is bringing us into the electronic processing age to the effect that virtually everyone should soon be getting the Chapman Report a week before the meeting, Yay !

On a disappointing note, it looks like the track day at Mare Island/CSRG races part of the year 2000 West Coast Lotus Meet may be on ice, and that an alternative may be in order. Mike Schlicht mentioned the Alameda Naval Air Station as a possible site.

And for the finale Tom Carney brought out a slightly used solid fuel JATO Rocket canister he snagged from an air show he was part of. Urban legends, convincing the airline to let him take it as cargo, and the possibility of mounting it (or a fiberglass copy) on the back of his Europa were also discussed.

At 10:30 the announcement to hit the road was made and we parted company, Richard and Tracy volunteering to host the next meeting at their home in Cupertino, yours truly will show no mercy and try to be there, you should come too !

I feel that since the dues are now $25.00 our Chapman Report should be at least 12 pages not the usual 8 or occasional 6. If this is to (sic) difficult on those hard workers who produce our newsletter (and they do a fine job) then I feel the extra $1200 + should provide more club activities that the club dues pay for not the members that attend the functions. Example: have an all you can eat lunch on a weekend at some place like Sizzler that the club pays for – at the most 60 will show, this would cost the club about $600.00. Keep the cars running.

Steve Frey

P.S. Just a tidbit from the past - Geroge Varmusa of Twin Cam Enterprises offered me a Weber head with duel (sic) DCOE 40’s installed on my Europa complete, for $600.00 - this was in the late 70’s.

First of all thank you for the recognition. While it certainly has its’ glamorous aspects, there’s also the thankless late nights with the spell-checlchecker.

by Kiyoshi

Okay, it’s the dead of winter and there’s rain pouring down in buckets here in Northern California… But, think about it for a moment, what would you do if you lived in Minneapolis in mid-January? On a recent trip to the frozen Norse-land I was invited to join in on two outtings… The first was Minneapolis Winter Golf. I said, NO. You’re not going to find a California boy on a frozen lake trying to hit a little ball with a club. I told them I had a hard enough time find a little white dimpled ball in a sea of GREEN grass. I didn’t want to even think about finding the same little ball in deep piles of WHITE snow & ice!! They responded by saying they use a bright yellow tennis ball instead. Still… NO THANKS!

The second invitation was from our brethren Lotus folks, the members of LOON (Lotus Owners Of the North). They suggested that we meet in the Mall of America (Mega-Mall) in front of Silicon Motor Speedway. A few of may be familiar with SMS. The company is based in Campbell, California and now has "Speedways" in 16 locations around the country.

Some of you may recognize the name Silicon Motor Speedway from articles in Autoweek and other car mags. The Minneapolis location is in the Mall of America and was the first SMS to open. Best described as cyber-NASCAR-racing. Walk up to the check-in counter and sign-up (pay $8) for a 11 lap run on either Atlanta Int’l Speedway, Charlotte or Richmond. You and about 10-12 other drivers get a quick briefing and then it’s to the starting line.

You climb into a 5/8 scale NASCAR racer, strap on your seat belt, adjust your seat and get ready to power-up and drive a 750bhp 3400 lb cyber-racecar! Switch on the engine and hear the roar, slip out the clutch, ease on the throttle and your off. Too much throttle and you’ll break the ass-end loose. Each scaled down racer is mounted on hydraulics and simulates the G-loads. Hit the wall and BANG! You get jolted. Get smacked from behind and BOOM! You get a big push in the back as you go spinning around and around…

Shift up through the gears and ease you way onto the track and the steep banking. See the tach twist up and as you hear the engine revs climb. Redline, bang the next gear and get that familiar shove in the back. Once up to speed climb up the banking and start running the fast line. You notice that the steering gives you feedback and you can feel the car understeer.

Look out, there’s traffic in your mirrors and there’s two car side by side doing some door bangin’ in front of you. They, smack hard and one car spins to the inside, the other hits the wall and starts sliding down into your path. You’ve got your foot in it… do you brake and get stomped from the car behind you or stay on it and aim for the sliding car and hope that they’re not there when you get there. Hey! This is fun!

Okay, I know the car numbers of my fellow LOON racers… There’s one. He’s runnin’ a bit high and erratic. I get a run on him, slide down inside and then lean on ‘em and push ‘em into the wall. Now, that was REALLY FUN!!! Just about the time you start getting comfortable, some computer drone car comes up from behind and smacks you into the wall! You spin off the wall, get hit again by some other cars, then off onto the grass.

Finally, you see the white flag, try to pick up a couple places in the last lap and get the checkered.

Everything shuts down and you’re back in the Mall of America. As you exit you get a neat print out of your lap times and a breakdown of your corner entry and exit speeds. Go on-line, punch in your driver code and get even more info!

SMS offers a Driver’s Club and a number of various leagues. Joining the Driver’s Club allows you to alter the set-up of you car. Below is a look at one of my runs that I pulled from their web site.

Here you'll find your Racing Results broken into categorized tables, so that you can check each aspect of your driving. Also, this page is designed to print easily, so that you can keep a copy for your records.

Lap: The lap number

Place: Your place in the overall field of racers: 1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc.

Lap Time: Your Lap Time in seconds

Avg. speed: Average speed in miles per hour

Top speed: Top speed in miles per hour

Cars I passed: Total number of cars you passed

Cars passed Me: Total number of cars that passed you

Turn Entry Speed- T[x] Entry Speed: Turn [x] entry speed in miles per hour

Turn Exit Speed- T[x] Exit Speed: Turn [x] exit speed in miles per hour

Turn Entry Position - T[x] Entry Position: Turn [x] entry track position in feet from inside line

Turn Exit Position - T[x] Exit Position: Turn [x] exit track position in feet from inside line

Tire Temp [tire]: Tire temperature in degrees Fahrenheit

Tire Wear [tire]: Tire wear as a percentage of the tire life

[Tire] definitions: LF = Left Front, RF = Right Front, LR = Left Rear, RR=Right Rear

SMS Locations: Birmingham, AL, Irvine, CA, Universal City, CA, Buford, GA (Atlanta), Douglasville, GA (Atlanta), Schuamberg, IL (Chicago), Grand Rapids, MI, Bloomington, MN (Minneapolis), Albany, NY, Buffalo, NY, Syracuse, NY, West Nyack, NY, Charlotte, NC, Nashville, TN, Memphis, TN, Houston, TX

Lap Summary Table

The details of each race lap, including Average Speed, Lap Time, etc.

Your entry and exit positions and average speed, broken down by turn

How consistent was your driving and tire wear? Broken down by detailed wear and temperature info.

Wanted: complete Turbo Esprit motor and/or tranny. Must be late model fuel injected type and Renault tranny. Also need louvers for rear deck lid on Esprit-any year OK. John (650) 368-9105

motofab@fusiontechnology.com

Europa parts for sale: Full set of front lower A-arms in excellent condition with new black powdercoat and bushings installed - $100 each or

$300 for the set. John (650)368-9105

motofab@fusiontechology.com

1965 Elan DHC for sale: ex-Orosco car, BRG w/yellow stripes, new top & bows, good condition. Asking $14.5, located in San Jose.

(650) 965-0869.

Factory Turbo system for Esprit. 7.5cr, 2.2 pistons, turbo, wastegate, blow-thru Dellortos, all cast manifolds, ducts and adaptors. $1500. Steve Lipp. (604) 255-6957 or wigl@radiant.net

The Chapman Report is published monthly by the Golden Gate Lotus Club, PO Box 117303, Burlingame, CA 94011. The GGLC is a non-profit incorporated car club and is not affiliated with Group Lotus, Team Lotus, or Lotus Cars USA. The GGLC's annual membership dues are $25.00, (effective January 1st, 2000).

Opinions expressed in the Chapman Report are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of the GGLC or its officers. Technical advise should be used at your own risk.

Submissions to the Chapman Report are accepted and encouraged. Please E-mail them to lookbusy@ix.netcom.com in MS Word or ASCII DOS text. Submissions may also be mailed to The Chapman Report at 579 Rockport drive, Sunnyvale, CA 94087.

2000 GGLC officers are: President: Scott Hogben, Vice President: Victor Holtorf, Secretary: Jon Rosner, Treasurer: Laura Hamai, Event Coordinator: John Zender, Membership Chairman: David Anderson.

Chapman Report Staff: Editors: Daren Stone, Circulation Manager: Tom Carney, Advertising Manager: Mel Boss.