Published by the Golden Gate Lotus Club www.gglotus.org June 2009

The Chapman Report

June Meeting

Saturday, June 20th, 1:00 pm

Hosts: Mel and Darlene

Fun in the Sunby Mel Boss

Mark your calendars for 1 PM,Saturday, June 20th and enjoy afun day of Lotusing, camaraderieand a BBQ.

This will be the fourth time Darand I have hosted a Saturday clubmeeting and celebration of the grill.While we’ve had a history ofuncharacteristically hot tempera-tures in years past, this time I feelthe mojo for perfect weather!

Rob Dietsch, GGLC Prez andowner of DietschWerks in SantaClara, will lead a “Run toDanville”. The details of that runwill be announced soon. A startingpoint at the weekly (Saturdaymorning) Santana Row meetfollowed by a spirited drive along

the Calaveras Reservoir road and abrief stop at a winery are likely.

There will be plenty of good eatsfor carnivores and herbivores alikeat the house--and also plenty ofbeer, water and soft drinks.

One year the featured BBQ dishwas a deep fried 17 pound turkeythat was ravaged in about fifteenminutes! Last year, we slow-roasted an uncured ham. Whoknows what the treat will be thistime, but for sure there will beplenty of munchies, salads and acrowd favorite--grilled/stuffedportabellas--to satisfy everyone’staste.

There’s no need for you to bringanything, but if you feel you must,simple dessert items are good, orwine if you prefer it to beer. Mostimportantly, be sure to bring ahealthy appetite and a deep rootedneed to have some fun in the sun!

RSVP to: darmel-at-sbcglobal.net

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Calendar

June 27 Autocross (Points) Marina

June 28 Palo Alto Concours Stanford

July 14 GGLC Track Day THill

July 18 GGLC Tech Day MikeOstrov

For more and updated information about theseGGLC and other events check the GGLC websiteat www.gglotus.org

Parts and Service for Lotus CarsSpecializing in Lotus Elans and EuropasQuality and Considerate ServiceTotal Ground Up Restorations toRoutine Maintenance

Huge Inventory of New and Used PartsMany Hard to Find Pieces

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WWW.KAMPENA.COM

Infineon Raceway28935 Arnold Drive F-10

Sonoma, CA 95476 Phone # 707-933-8039

Independent LOTUS Parts & Servicewww.jaeparts.com

Tel: 805-967-5767 Fax: 805-967-6183

Factory parts for the latest Esprits and M100 Elans toVintage racing and restoration parts for the classic Lotus.

Also, pain-free next-day drop shipservice for parts we may not have.

CALL NOW FOR COMPETITIVECALL NOW FOR COMPETITIVECALL NOW FOR COMPETITIVECALL NOW FOR COMPETITIVECALL NOW FOR COMPETITIVEPRICES,PRICES,PRICES,PRICES,PRICES,

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Fun at DisneyWorld, FLby Mike Ostrov

Sandie and I spent 7 days at theBoard Walk hotel last month withMinnie and Mickey. Great enter-tainment (3rd visit), plenty ofsunshine and 83 ºF from 9 am to10 pm. We managed to walk over6.75 miles each day at the variousparks. Even so, that’s not sufficienttime to enjoy all the magicalwonders at the site. We will return next Spring—butthe real reason for this visit was forme to do the Richard PettyNASCAR Experience at theDisney World Speedway, which is

a 1-mile tri-oval with each turndifferent—at least to me. The Experience features standardBusch cars (except for the glassfibre body panels), and 1.5 hoursof instruction, mostly to watch forthe huge red oil pressure light andto try to maintain the 3-car lengthdistance behind your instructor. There is only you and theinstructor on the circuit, except forthose taking the “ride along”. So, after signing away all yourconstitutional rights on 4 pages,getting a suit, helmet, baklava andHANS device, they stuff you intothe car through the window. My class of 18 included somereally large-size good old boys, but

they were all pushed and pulledinto each car. One guy was 72.He had a stroke last year, walkedwith a cane, and he needed a stoolto get up to the window. He hasdone 10 of the 20 circuits in theU.S., and he says he will do themall before he departs this earth. There is a standard 4 speedgearbox, but only 4th gear is usedwhen on the track. Cones are usedat each turn to mark the lift andacceleration points. The instructor car has a set oforange and green lights. Green totell you “close the gap to 3 carlengths” and orange to say “backoff, buster.......too close”. Yep, Igot a few of those orange remind-ers.

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News From Chapman Report Online:Praise from the first independent road tests of Evora

for a week’s all-roads Europeangrand touring, the first of themarque to achieve it.

Car Enthusiast:

The 5.1-second 0-62mph timedoesn’t do the Evora justice, as thecar is quicker than that suggestswhen you’re on the move. The six-speed gearshift is the best Lotusdoes too. If you thought the Evorawas good at ambling along atregular pace, you’ll be blown awayby it at speed. The steering is nighon perfect, with virtually all the feeloffered up by the Evora’s moreextreme siblings, but without asmuch kickback (it’s a hydraulicpower assisted system) and ittelegraphs exactly what is going onat the surface of the road.

The world’s automotive presshave finally gotten their hands onthe Lotus Evora, and glowingreviews have been pouring in.Some examples:

Car and Driver:

The Evora is planted andsecure, yet picks apart cornerswith a light and playful feel thatalways makes mid-engine carsfeel so special—think FerrariF430, only with better steering.

Edmunds / Inside Line:

With the 2010 Lotus Evora,Lotus seems as if it’s ready tobreak out of its niche as a makerof hobby cars to become amainstream manufacturer. And

just like one of the big names,impressive technology is the key toits accomplishment. Ferrari haslong resisted a return to the portionof the market once occupied by itsV6-powered Dino 246 GT in thelate 1960s, the Italian company’sfirst midengine street car, but nowLotus has built the baby Ferrarithat Ferrari won’t.

Automobile Mag:

In terms of build quality and thesolidity of its presentation, theEvora is easily the most matureLotus yet. While heavier than mostof its predecessors, none will doubtthey are driving a car built bypeople who place a premium onroadholding and handling.

Autocar:

However, themajor surprise is theEvora’s suitability forday-long journeys;the creamy torque ofthe engine, the waythe suspension quietlyabsorbs bumps andsuppresses the coarsesurfaces so oftenfound in rural Scot-land, the rock-likerigidity of the chassisand the richness of itscabin trim andequipment are all newareas for Lotus. Thisis a car truly suitable

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Disney (contd.)

It is strange to turn left all thetime, but these cars can drive bythemselves if you have secured thesteering wheel. Power steering isneeded and useful. The Experience consists of onewarm-up lap, 8 laps at increasingspeeds and one cool-down lap.So it’s all over in a few momentsof excitement. My lap times came down witheach passing of the S/F tower,with an average speed of 86 mphand top speed at 127 mph. Aboutmiddle of the group, as many in theclass have done this before. So, when you get tired ofMinnie and Mickey or Goofy orPluto, spend the morning at theDisney World Speedway. Thatexplains my expected return nextspring with a projected side visit tothe very fast 2.5-mile Daytona. You could also visit the othertracks, like the California Speed-way in Fontana or for those goingto Las Vegas, the Las VegasSpeedway at 1.5 miles. I hope this encourages you toenjoy the banked tracks. They doindeed provide a unique experi-ence. Meanwhile, I wonder whatour Lotus cars could do, if we hadthe opportunity to hang it all out?

T’Hill TrackDay-- May 27, 2009by David Anderson

Though it was hot (over 90 ºF)at Thunderhill, there was enough ofa breeze make it bearable, and wehad a full field of about 70 cars.

The Lotus contingent was around6 Elise, an Exige or two, 1 EspritS4s, 1 Elan, 3 Europas, twoSevens and a Lotus 18 (FormulaJr). John Zender’s warnings at thedrivers meeting to take it easy inthe first session were taken toheart, as no one spun out in thatsession so no one had to wear theBOZO sign on their car!

As usual, we hadthree groups andthree twenty-minutesessions each hour.Each driver could runin two of the threegroups, so there wasplenty of track timefor all. Due to theheat, the number ofdrivers on trackdropped off signifi-cantly by afternoon,and the final sessionof the day hadexactly one car ontrack! The first car wenton track at 9 am, andthe track was closedat 5 pm. Everythingstayed on schedulepretty much all day. The day wasentirely safe, and everyone I spoketo had a great time (in spite of theheat!). A Subaru had apparent headgasket problems and a BMW blewits radiator, both during the initialwarm-up session of the day. TheLotuses proved to be prettyreliable, although John Zender’sEuropa did break a suspensionjoint at the end of the day and myEuropa did have a clutch slipproblem. Dave Close’s Europa

suffered some from high watertemperatures (and a gauge readingeven higher). Near the end of theday, the Crusader Formula Veehad engine trouble on track andhad to be towed to the paddock. As an aside: none of the 3Europas at the track day wereusing their original engines! DaveClose and I have 2.0L Zetec

power (see related story), and JohnZ. has a Duratec 2.3L engine. Tom Gibson’s Lotus 18 isimmaculate and this was its first dayon track in over 25 years!It has been restored twice (beforeTom acquired it) since it was last ontrack. Truth be told, old Lotuses donot seem to respond well to sittingin a garage and not being driven.Thank you, Tom, for bringing yourbeautiful racecar. Alan Franck brought hisCaterham and had a fine day on

page 5track, though at maximum speedsit was blowing some oil out of thehood louvers--something he’ll haveto work on. Unfortunately, hisbrother Keith (the GGLC Webertuning guru) had to skip the trackday. Keith’s Elan was ready butKeith hurt his back at the lastminute. Scott Whitman apparently hadsome trouble on the way home.His Elise was being picked up on aflatbed (on I-5 near Williams) as Ipassed by. Scott was standingthere watching the process, so itmust have been some systemfailure that stranded him. Since Iwas towing a trailer on busy Hwy5, I could not have safely stoppedclose by, and Scott had help, so Ijust proceeded on home, reachingBurlingame at 9 pm.

Europa Make-Over Sagaby David Anderson

My 1972 Europa 2037R, hashad a rocky history.

Some, um, unusual things weredone to it before I bought it in1982. But let’s just skip over thatand other history and fast forwardto May 2007 when at a Thunderhilltrack day I revised the rev limiterup to 6700 rpm. That really made adifference since max speed on thestraight was up to 105 mph and theengine felt powerful (accelerating)right to the limit. Of course, onestarter bolt fell out and anotherworked almost out, and I justbarely got the car on the trailer at

the end of day... On changing oil, I discoveredsome sparkling foreign matter. Uhoh, not good! So I decided toswitch to a modern engine insteadof another TC rebuild. However, ifI had known at the start how hardthis swap would be I might wellhave done something different!(Much later I checked the TC andthe sparkles were from the rearcam bearing nearest the alternatordrive wheel.) Rich Kamp supplied a donorFocus Zetec 2.0 L engine andvarious Caterham bits, which,combined with 0.050 inch mill offthe head, brought the engine wellabove stock Zetec specification (atabout 200 BHP). But, unfortu-nately, nothing in this swap is likewhat anyone else is doing. When aZetec donor is used, anyone doingthis transplant is on their own withregard to mounts, electronics,clutch, transmission, and so on.The key advantage of the Zetec,however, is that it bolts to a Europabell housing; but other folks havealso done 4AGE or Duratec swaps

for their Europas. Every ‘simple’ step belowinvolved weeks or months of workand learning lots of new things. AndI did everything over at leasttwice—and usually 4 times—before it was usable. I even boltedthe head on several times to learnhow to do it right (a special toolmakes the instruction ‘then turn thebolt 30 degrees’ easy to do cor-rectly) and then I switched to ARPhead bolts. Only when turning theengine over on the starter did Irealize I’d left out little bolts thatplug the ends of the oil galleries inthe head (messy mistake). It tookdays or weeks to realize thingswere wrong and then to redo themright. I’m using Kent Cams ‘Focus12’cams, and their brochure giving liftand duration data is confusing. So,although I eventually got them setright, it took a long time and many,many re-measurements to actuallybelieve it. John Zender made enginemounts for me to my specification,and I made a couple of small

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mistakes which lead to rework. I designed (several times) andhad machined (several times) acrankshaft extension so the 336gearbox nose would have a placeto rest in the crankshaft. Sam atS+T Machine (San Carlos) madethe extension. ClutchNet.commade a clutch disk for me, and bythe third time it was right.Roman at Veracom Ford(Burlingame) was very helpful inlooking through parts books andordering Ford bits (I have no ideawhat Focus engine it truly is!),where at another dealer the partscounter just ‘did not want toknow’. Boyd Ferry (South SanFrancisco) created an exhaust. First I tried a Pectel (Caterham)ECU (Engine Control Unit, the littlecomputer that actually controls keyengine functions) and a Caterhamwiring harness, but in my ignoranceI failed to get the crank pickup thecorrect distance from the Fidanzeflywheel pickup-spokes. I neverdid get a usable software interfaceto this ECU so I never found a wayto diagnose the problem. In des-peration I acquired a MegasquirtECU and software. And rewiredthe engine to match. Armed withthe Megatune software forMegasquirt I realized my pickupmistake. I initially designed a clevercooling system with a Davies-Craigelectric waterpump nestled in theframe near the engine. (I removedthe original waterpump vanes frominside the stock waterpump,retaining the pump housing as Ineeded the pump idler wheel toroute the alternator belt.) Too manycoolant-tube-joints that were toohard to reach meant I could not get

the water to stay in the system. SoI moved the electric pump to thefront by the radiator, whicheffectively removed most of thejoints near the engine. Of course,this design means that now all ofthe water in the system has towarm up before the engine willwarm up. There is no separateshort-path for coolant water. I’m leaving out lots of adven-tures, such as learning the rightway to control an alternator (thesense wire should go as close tothe battery post as possible, notthrough junctions if at all possible).By the way, a cute little Toyotaalternator fits wonderfully in verylittle space! By October 2008 the engineidled with Megasquirt. But theclutch did not work at all. I re-moved the engine again andordered the third clutch diskvariant after building test framesthat let me test clutch disks with notransmission attached so I couldsee what was wrong. I finallyrealized how remarkably little theclutch pedal needed to move withthis clutch setup.

Then, in May 2009, after 2years of work and many, manythousands of dollars, I drove thecar around the block the first time.By the time you read this I may (ormay not) have taken the Europa toThunderhill for the May track dayfor some gentle testing.

Lots more to tell in future in-stallments, but I fear it may bore...

Club Decalsby Tom and Cherie Carney

We have a few more club decalsavailable to show the world ouraffiliation to our great club. Weoriginally sent these out to mem-bers last year until we ran out; butwe kept records of people thatdidn’t get them. Then we made alittle discovery that our recordkeeping wasn’t as perfect ashoped. Your circulation managergot distracted . . . that’s my storyand I’m sticking with it!So, the bottom line is, if you didn’tget an official decal yet, there aretwo ways you can remedy thesituation. You could e-mail me(europa7t@aol.com ) and use“decal” as the “Subject”, or youcould call my home phone (650)342-7203 (leave a message ifnecessary). Either way, give me anaddress for mailing them to you. (A third way would be to come toa meeting and perhaps I’ll remem-ber to bring a few, but no prom-ises.) Because we have a limitednumber please just ask for whatyou need. So, if you have 8 Lotuscars and only 2 run, then just askfor 2. Of course, if you get anothercar running then ask for anotherdecal at that time. Thanks for beingpatient.

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Showtime for my Espritby Harvey Laskey

For the past several years, I havebeen entering my 1985 Lotus TurboEsprit in various car shows. How-ever, I could only enter officiallysanctioned SCCA Concoursd‘Elegance events as a “for displayonly” car due to the SCCA require-ment that a Concours entry be atleast 25 years old. This year the rulewas slightly modified to allowgeneral show entrants up to 1987. My first “judged” entry was theShriners Hospital Concoursd’Elegance at Mather Field, RanchoCordova on May 17. The Espritwas assigned to “Class E SportsCars 1956-1987” and positionednext to a finely turned-out red (whatelse) 1987 Ferrari Testarossa. Imentally picked the Ferrari (with,among other things, a 3 to 1 advan-tage in the number of pistons), to bethe odds-on favorite. Not so. TheEsprit, on all 4 cylinders, wasawarded First in Class, on its firsttime out! The win was quite the

compensation needed for spendingthe day outside in 110 ºF heat. A few weeks earlier, I took theEsprit to a EuroSunday display inDanville. EuroSunday is a far lessformal event held once a month,and it is “geared towards superexotic, rare and vintage Euro carsand motorcycles.” Parked betweena red (what else) Ferrari 308GTBand an Aston Martin DB9, theEsprit was awarded “Car of theMonth.” Check it out atwww.eurosunday.net.Next stop... Palo Alto, June 28.

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From Lemons toLemonadeby Rahul Nair

The Goin’ For Broken race atReno Fernley was the 5th 24 Hoursof LeMons race for the FormulaBMW team, which consists of GuyArgo and GGLC members GabrielMatus, Rob Dietsch (aka The Prez)and myself. I was driving the first stint for ourteam and got off to an inauspiciousstart when I had to pull into the pitsjust before the green flag because ofa loud noise and vibration from theright front on right hand turns. Itturned out that our new wheel wasrubbing against the right front strutwhile at speed. We had bent ourstruts for extra camber at Altamont07 which was causing the wheel torub on right handers. Luckily wewere able to find a wheel spacer,but we started the race 2 laps downon the leader. When I first went out undergreen my immediate impression wasthat we were waaaay faster thanmost of the cars out there, and Iwas passing several cars at eachturn. This was probably due to myfamiliarity with the track and the carbecause after about 5-10 laps carsbecame more difficult to pass as thedrivers became more comfortablewith the track. I made it to the 2.5hour mark before fuel problemsforced me to pit. My stint had putus back on the lead lap (9th over-all), but we were well short of the3+ hour stint we were originallyplanning on. Guy drove the next stint and keptin touch with the leaders. At this

point we knew that we were in thetop ten and were basically trying toput in reasonable laps withoutdoing anything crazy. Guy drovefor about 3.5 hours before the fuelstarvation became bad enough thatwe were forced to do anothergreen-flag stop. Gabe got into thecar with about 2.5 hours left in theday and was doingsome excellent laptimes when he hadan unfortunate spinat turn 15 whichbrought us in for ablack flag penalty.Since we had beengood racers formost of the day(and we bribed thejudges with someexcellent Guate-malan rum) wewere let off with adriver changepenalty, which putme back in thedriver seat for thefinal 10 laps of theday. At this pointthe traffic hadthinned consider-

ably, and I was able to able todrop my fastest lap down from a2:51.844 to a 2:46.177. By theend of day one we had completed129 laps and we in 4th placeoverall, 6 laps behind the raceleader. We were the secondslowest fast lap in the top 10 butwe used our long stints to make up

photo credit: Jeff Balliet/ASK Photography

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for our wheel issues at the start aswell as 3 green-flag pit stops. Day 2 started with Gabe puttingin consistent laps and pulling backseveral laps when the leader hadan electrical problem. They wereable to fix their car in time andwent back out just 3 laps in frontof us. Rob put in some stellar laptimes in the final sprint includingour fastest race lap of a 2:42.809,but in the end we just did not havethe pace to win. We finished a respectable Firstin Class and 5th overall--just 4laps behind the winner. We alsogot a nice trophy to put on themantel and a bunch of stories totell friends and family. We nowknow what we need to do to win,so we will be ready for the Button-willow race on August 15-16.

Autox SeasonIs Underwayby Larry Bisares & Alex Komlik

The second GGLC AutocrossPoints event of the season will beheld June 27 (Saturday). Onlineregistration is open until June 24;see the www.gglotus.org site forsign up info. We will count your best finishingpositions in 4 of the total of 6events to compute your final pointstally for the season. If you areparticipating in the series, pleasemake sure your vehicle details areup to date.

Mike’s ShopDay in Julyby Mike Ostrov

How about Saturday, July 18,for another GGLC shop day in ElSobrante. We will discuss the usual finepoints of glass fibre repair, dosome tune up (leak down, com-pression and exhaust gas testing)stuff, maybe a bit of suspensionchecking, have lunch at our regularplaces and maybe do a drive ortwo around the reservoir. We’ll plan on a 10:00 am starttime at the shop: 4119 SantaRoad El Sobrante (5l0) 222-6437. Please RSVP to me at:mikeostrov@webtv.net or(510) 232-7764 (home). See youin July.

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Classifieds(non-commercial ads are free to GGLC members and will run

for three issues before requiring renewal)

First Class Mail

The Golden Gate Lotus ClubPO Box 117303, Burlingame, CA 94011

For Sale: 1991 M-100 Elan. Mywife says we have too many carsand one must go. A 1-owner carpurchased in 1992 at BoardwalkMotors. At 105K miles, the carhas been my daily driver and is ingreat condition. All the importantstuff works, including motor, A/C,heater, power steering, powerwindows, etc. The paint is good(factory red). Located in Gilroy,CA. Asking $7,000.Contact Justin Gross (408)848-0072 or jjgross007@verizon.net

World’s Largest Lotus Garage/Parts/Car SaleJust too many Elites (two available:Lovely street Elite with 5 speedand my retired Vintage Elite Super95), Seven parts and lots and lotsof S2 and S4 FHC Elan stuff,including 6 inch Cosmic andWestern wheels and a full set ofstock Europa alloys.Contact Mike Ostrov (5l0) 232-

7764 or mikeostrov@webtv.netif I can help get your Lotus carback on the road.

For Sale: 1963 Lotus Seven,SB1503 frame # 1818 completelyrestored with only a few modifica-tions, in beautiful condition. Con-tact Tom at (408) 247-9741;Troderick4@comcast.net forpictures and information. I amasking $18,000.

Wanted: 1966 or later styleWeber Lotus T/C head.(650) 796-2193; donhogue@charter.net

The Chapman Report is published monthly by the GoldenGate Lotus Club, PO Box 117303, Burlingame, CA 94011. TheGGLC is a non-profit incorporated car club, and it is notaffiliated with Group Lotus, Team Lotus or Lotus Cars USA.The GGLC’s annual membership dues are $25.00.

Opinions expressed in the Chapman Report are those ofthe authors and do not represent those of the GGLC or itsofficers.

Submissions to the Chapman Report are accepted andencouraged. Please email them to chapmanreport@gglotus.orgin MS Word, rtf or ASCII text.

2009 GGLC Officers are: President--Rob Dietsch, VicePresident--David Ellis, Treasurer--Laura Hamai, EventCoordinators--John Zender & Scott Hogben, MembershipChairman--David Anderson, Secretary--Scott Hogben.

Chapman Report Staff: Editor--Joel Lipkin, CirculationManagement Team--Tom & Cherie Carney, AdvertisingManager--Mel Boss.