The Chapman Report

Published by the Golden Gate Lotus Club www.gglotus.org November 2008

Wet Coast Lotus Meet by Dave Anderson The WCLM started with time In spite of the rain it was a very reporter left a bit early as Judy had trials at Jackson County Sports Park fun track. That some corners were promised to help Joel Lipkin at in White City Oregon (about 70 much slipperier than others added registration at the Seven Feathers miles from the main WCLM venue to the challenge driving in the rain! resort in Canyonville so we needed in Canyonville, OR). The park About 3PM we wrapped up to get to Canyonville). has a go-kart track often used for and headed to Canyonville (your autocrossing. It even has a little hill with a small grandstand where the whole track is visible! One corner is slightly banked. There is even a little bit of elevation change. It was a bit overcast to start, and soon the overcast turned to rain. So different times and groups had very different track conditions! Once it started raining it was a bit slippery the rest of the day, though at one point it almost dried out. Kiyoshi Hamai drove the GGLC autocross truck (trailering his Elise) and the first task of the day was setting up the timing lights. Something about the weather made November Meeting that time consuming though the equipment has been used many times! Friday, November 21st, 7:30 pm By about 10AM all was work- ing (on schedule) and timed runs Host: Jim McClure began. One run was 3 laps around the track. One car at a time. Tom Carney spent most of the day leaning over his 1970 Europa S2 engine because 38-year-old plasticcarb linkage was siezing up and then broke, leaving him no throttle. A local auto parts store came through for him though. Tom borrowed Hal Gjerman's tow van (Hal brought his Elan on the trailer) to find parts. So Tom did get a few runs in on the track. page 2 The GGLC Holiday Dinner is set for Sat Dec 13th at 6:30pm. Cost will be $35/person. Go to the website for more info and Paypal payment if desired. Ristorante Don Giovanni 235 Castro Street Mountain View, CA 94041 Dinner includes: INSALATE - Baby Organic Green Salad CHOICE OF ENTREES Chicken Cordon Bleu (Mozzarella, prosciutto, sage and breading in bordelaise sauce) Tionuille Pasta (Artichokes, sun dried tomato, garlic, black olives and white wine) Filet Medallion of Pork (Sauteed calva- dos with apple brandy sauce) Grilled Filet of Salmon Hyzau (Bed of green lentils and curnan) DESSERT (choice of) Chocolate Mousse, Lemon Sorbet and Fresh Fruit

Calendar November 4, elect a new president and end this tragedy

November 21, Club Meeting, McClure House

December 6, Toy Rallye, Mountain View KAMPENA MOTORS

December 13, Holiday Party, See Detailed Info

December 26, Track Day, Laguna Seca Infineon Raceway 28935 Arnold Drive F-10 For more and up to date information on these GGLC and other events check the GGLC website at www.gglotus.org Sonoma, CA 95476 Phone # 707-933-8039 WWW.KAMPENA.COM Parts and Service for Independent LOTUS Parts & Service Specializing in Lotus Elans and Europas www.jaeparts.com Quality and Considerate Service Tel: 805-967-5767 Total Ground Up Restorations to Fax: 805-967-6183 Routine Maintenance

Factory parts for the latest Esprits and M100 Elans to Huge Inventory of New and Used Parts Vintage racing and restoration parts for the classic Many Hard to Find Pieces Lotus. Also, pain-free next-day drop ship service for parts we may not have. CALL NOW FOR COMPETITIVE PRICES, EXPERIENCE AND SERVICE. page 3 WCLM continued, from pg 1 The centerpoint for the 2008 WCLM was the Lotus enthu- Seven Feathers Resort and siasts at the Casino. It's a very pleasant winery, ban- and relatively new site with quet, and the nice accomodations and Stanton Park good food. concours The staff there was very nice. I requested a wakeup call and it came on time with a real person calling! One person related being late to pick up a Box Lunch (after Kiyoshi and Laura had left for a tour) on Fri- day and hotel staff tracked down the caterer and found him a WCLM box lunch! The first event was registration and the wel- coming reception. These were in the same pleasant room. No-host bar and plenty of food provided by the WCLM. Joel Lipkin did most of the registration work and was ably assisted by my wife, Judy. A very large area of the parking lot was set up for us with cones marking Lotus parking. There was plenty of room for trailers too. A short list of the events: 1) Thursday. Reception 2) Friday. Tours and BBQ 3) Saturday. Autocross and Banquet 4) Sunday. Group picture, casual concours, and lunch. page 4 WCLM continued, from pg 3

The first tour of Friday was a tour! Diane Griffin rode with Jerry maker, but says he’s moved to more tour of C&D Lumber, an operating Rude in his Europa Special as Peter doing things by taste now than sci- sawmill. It's about 20 miles from Griffin was busy getting things ence. And yet he’s invented a new Canyonville, so around 20 Lotus ready for the BBQ that evening. concrete holding tank which he’s drove in a group to the sawmill, ar- We started this tour from the selling to winemakers, so there’s riving around 9AM. sawmill at 10:30am or so and still some science...Oregon’s oldest Mill staff gave us hard-hats, proceeded to Reustle Vineyard vineyards are at Hillcrest. safety glasses, and earplugs and (pronounced like ‘rustle’). This The final stop (and by this separating into 3 groups, we toured is a relatively new family-owned time we were all pretty tired what the operating mill. We walked right vineyard and they have outstand- with driving, stopping, starting and through the mill and at a couple of ing wines. Their presentation is sipping) was at Abacela Vineyard. points stepped right over the 'tracks' a sit-down presentation of 5 wines Here the focus is on old-world in- used to move lumber (the steel with specific snacks prepared in fluences. The site is beautiful and overhead bar one grabbed to make their kitchen to complement the the wines elegant. the crossing was too high for my wines presented. They are a pretty There being plenty of room in wife Judy to reach it so I held on to scientific family and things are very our Elan trunk, Judy and I were it and her to help her across!). carefully measured and thought carrying the Carney’s and our wine It was noisy and fascinating. through. All the grapes used come purchases. We now all headed back This mill concentrates on aromatic from their property at the vineyard. to Canyonville and the evening cedar. The crucial decisions are They are just finishing a cave (built BBQ. made by people not machines. back into a hill) and so soon the John Ridley instigated the Decisions on how to cut the logs. winemaking will move out of the entire WCLM. He is a founder of 100% of every log is sold for some- garage of their house! the GGLC. After living in Marin thing. Sawdust sold for particle Proceeding along scenic County for many years he moved board, chips sold for cogeneration Oregon back roads, the next stop to the Canyonville area. Of course (ie, burned for heating/power), and was Palotai Vineyard. The owner he took his 1979 Esprit (Commem- boards sold to lumberyards. is Hungarian with much vineyard morative #019) with him. You can Operating the mill is very phys- knowledge and the whole operation tell where he parks it in his garage ical work. Many of the jobs involve is on the property. because of the large oil pan and pushing/pulling large pieces (and It’s small (the entire operation grease spot! small) into place so the machinery of machinery (not much of it) and He’s been wanting a WCLM in can grab it. barrels and tasting room in one his area and it was his contacts with After the walk-thru mill staff small building) and a bit idiosy- area folks that made it all possible. answered questions. The mill is cratic. Unfortunately the owner Thank you John! 100 years old. Someone asked was off somewhere, but his able The rather complicated drive about the 'accident record' and was partner introduced us to his wines. to the Ridley Riverside Ranch runs gently corrected: it's the 'safety re- It started to rain, but we had some through scenic empty roads till it fi- cord'. Your scribe went on the wine time to eat our box lunches outside nally gets to a mile-plus gravel road tour Friday, the other tour choices with no more than a mist falling. through dense forest and federal were a long drive to the coast and More wonderful deserted Lotus- land. a long drive to Crater Lake. Peter roads took us to Hillcrest Vineyard. Then suddenly one rounds a and Diane Griffin did the tour orga- The owner is a long-time winemak- turn to his house and grounds on a nizing and they did a phenominal er at very large Napa wineries who bend in the river. job -- route descriptions seemed now has his own winery. Again Here the Friday BBQ was perfect and the wine tour was won- only using their own vines. He organized. Catered by a local or- derful (if exhausting). was very enthusiastic and had vast ganziation of very nice folks it was In traditional GGLC style 5 knowledge of the wine business and very good indeed. They took good people signed up for the wine tour wine making. Many great stories. care of the very few of us vegetar- and 10 people showed up on the He used to be a ‘scientific’ wine- ians, though the big offering was page 5 BBQ ribs and hamburgers. The 5 the only early Elan driver willing The catered Italian lunch was or 6 different types of home-made to subject his car to the rigors of quite nice and was followed by fruit pies were simply delicious and the course! (Hal Gjermann did not awards. Your scribe left before there was lots of each kind -- so of drive his that day and the other 3 awards so missed that, but everyone course your scribe ate too much pie. early Elans other than mine looked else stayed. The Carneys and Ha- Peter Griffin had organized a like show cars: road driven but mais did not get home that evening keg of a very special local beer -- prepared to an extraordinary level. till midnight or later! extraordinary stuff. One of them was on its first drive We all voted for the cars we I need to mention a friend of after restoration at the Time Trials liked best. There were so many John Ridley at the WCLM: Bob on Thursday!) well prepared cars it was hard to Winkleman, designer of Wink mir- By about 3:30PM the event choose. And of course Rex P’s Lo- rors and Zink formula vee racecars concluded. We picked up the cones tus Type 110 bicycle was in a class and many other things. Bob is an and other stuff and headed back to by itself. Pictures are on www. unassuming gentleman and tells Seven Feathers Resort & Casino. gglotus.org/ggpast/2008wclm/con- great stories. The truck drivers got their parking cours.htm with the detailed results. It was a great evening and the lot back. Saturday evening was continuous rain made no difference the traditional WCLM Banquet. as there was plenty of tented area This time things were simpler as we to keep us all out of the rain! The only had use of the room in Seven autocross was on the truck-parking Feathers Resort till 9pm! So we Lotus 60th Birthday lot near the Seven Feathers RV Park had a rather nice dinner and lots of (across Interstate 5 from the resort). pleasant chat with our fellow Lotus There was no question it was going owners. By David Anderson After the dinner many went to to rain all day! And it did! Lotus' 60th birthday was the cabaret show, which was... well Seven Feathers had put up a celebrated September 14, 2008 big tanker truck and a long yellow the word ‘cheezy’ comes to mind. at the factory in Hethel. The plastic caution banner to mark off But it was still good fun. our area of the lot. Larry Bisares The final event of the 2008 November issue of "Classic and and Rahul Nair organized a nice WCLM was at Stanton Park, a nice Sportscar"magazine has a nice course in the tight lot. It was like park with adequate grass parking arti cle about the event. a very twisted needle where one for a group picture and a covered A couple quotes of Mike drove around the loop at the end of pavillion to hold our catered lunch Kimberly, Lotus CEO in that is- the needle and returned, thus taking and awards-giving. sue: "The atmosphere was bril- half the course in both directions. Diane Griffin (tour leader and liant, and that was solely down Even with rain (so marking professional photographer) took the to the number of Lotus owners group photo. The cars were care- the cone positions or the lanes was who came. We reckon there fully arranged so the photo looked impossible) only a couple people were up to 9000 with 2500 cars got lost all day. And the course was right and the cars showed, though packing our 1km track four deep. fun to drive. I’d call that a great it made things look oddly spaced success. The best times were in the from ground level! We're lucky: owners are fantasti- low 31 seconds. The picture had cally loyal and the best ambas- Near the end of the day Adrian 13 Elise, sadors for our company and our Cockcroft (Elise S1, Honda pow- 5 Esprit, brand that we've got. "On Lotus ered) put on an extraordinary 4 early Elan, reputation for fragility: "Lotus display and took top time of day 3 Europa is such a well-known name that overall. Certainly many others 2 M100 Elan people don't know we've only drove very impressively. The Elise 1 Seven made 87,000 cars in 60 years. 1 Lotus bicycle (the is a remarkable car and many of the And we think 65,000 are still factory designed carbon fiber club drivers are very good indeed. going strong. That doesn't sound Your scribe took first in the real thing. Now 16 years old.) very fragile to me!" early Elan class by virtue of being page 6 Burn Rate, Tesla Death Watch? edited from the Mercury News, editor Responding to Internet rumors spring, Musk said. More than 1,200 In all, Tesla Motors has raised that its demise is imminent, Tesla customers have made deposits and more than $145 million, with at Motors' chief executive gave reas- are awaiting cars, he added. least $55 million of that coming surances Friday that the company is Musk's comments came in from Musk, who was a founder of solvent and scaling up production response to speculation on two Web PayPal. It failed earlier this fall to of its electric . sites that Tesla would stop deliver- raise an additional $100 million it “The company has a $9 mil- ing vehicles and go out of business. was seeking, Musk said. lion cash balance, and will close an The reports quoted an anonymous The company is waiting for a internal funding round of $20 mil- Tesla insider who had attended an U.S. Department of Energy loan lion or more next week”, said Elon in-house meeting on the company's of between $150 million and $200 Musk, the start-up's chairman, chief financial condition. A company million to finance its second ve- executive and primary investor. spokeswoman characterized the hicle, the Model S sedan. "We are making money on reports as "absolutely untrue." The blogosphere continues to every car we ship right now," Late Thursday, Musk did an pillory Tesla. Reader comments on Musk said in an interview with the interview with Reuters to quash the Valleywag.com blog compared Mercury News on Friday afternoon. the rumors. On Friday, he blamed Tesla and Musk to two well-known "As long as we continue to ship cars them on a ''bad apple" intent on car-company failures, Preston and ramp up production, we'll be in "selectively disclosing information Tucker and John DeLorean. good shape." designed to harm the company." Another Web site, www. The financial disclosures came Once the company raises $20 thetruthaboutcars.com, has had 32 after an anonymous Tesla employee million, which Musk said will come postings in its continuing "Tesla posted a note on a Web site suggest- from many of the original investors Death Watch" series, which started ing that the company was about to and "not just me,'' Tesla will be- in May. run out of money. come "cash-flow positive," he said. Tesla, based in San Carlos and founded in 2003 by Martin Eber- hard and Marc Tarpenning, has become a rolling symbol of Silicon Valley's push toward clean technol- ogies, including solar, biofuels and alternative transportation. But Tesla has been plagued by production and delivery delays and management shuffles over its short life. Last month, it shut down its Michigan engineering office, laid off about one-quarter of its staff — reducing it from 363 full-time workers and contractors to 276 — and announced that Musk would become the new CEO. Musk blamed the tight credit market for the company's recent troubles. Tesla has completed 55 cars, Chris Locke also drove this Lotus 32B at Goodwood. It is the and most of them have been deliv- car in which won the 1965 Tasman Cup Championship, ered to customers. Ten Roadsters an eight race series in Australia and New Zealand. In fact, Clark were delivered this week, and the won five of the eight races that year. Lotus built only one 32B, fitting company is aiming for 12 a week a 2.5 liter Climax FPF engine into a modified Lotus 32 F2 chassis. in November and 30 a week by page 7

For Sale: Many S2 and S4 FHC Elan bits, some S2/3 Seven stuff and a Caterham BRG louvered bonnet and scuttle. A few sets of wheels, all 4 bolt with 3 3/4 inch PCD: Cosmic 6 x 13, Western 6 x 13, Europa, Elan and some Elan knock offs.Also, a very lovely and now retired (2003) Super 95 vintage race car, Twin Cam dry sump system, complete for 6 bolt crank. Inquiries to.Mike Ostrov at: (5l0) 232-7764 or [email protected] (9/08) For Sale: 2005 Sport. 4350 miles (really) Soft top only, Midnight blue. Like new, needs a good home ( or some use ). All original / no mods. $35,000.00 [email protected] 503 625-9394

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, or Lotus Cars USA. The GGLC’s annual membership dues are $25.00. Opinions expressed in the Chapman Report are those of the authors and do not represent those of the GGLC or its officers. Submissions to the Chapman Report are accepted and encouraged. Please email them to [email protected] in MS Word, rtf or ASCII text. Submissions may also be mailed to Jim McClure, 11238 Bubb Road, Cupertino, CA 95014. 2006 GGLC Officers are: President: Clark Vineyard, Vice President: Chris Spencer, Treasurer: Laura Hamai, Event Coordinator: John Zender, Membership Chairman: David Anderson, Secretary: Jon Rosner Chapma Report Staff: Editor: Jim McClure, Circulation Manager: Tom Carney, Advertising Manager: Mel Boss. page 8 Classifieds (non-comercial ads are free to GGLC members and will run OLDEN ATE EVENS for three issues before requiring renewal) G G S For Sale: /21 UDT Infineon Raceway Laystall Team car The car got 28935 Arnold Drive F-10 me to Goodwood in 2000 plus Sonoma, CA 95476 some other activity in Europe. Phone # 707-933-8039 She sets in a hanger at Paine Authorized Dealer of Caterham Cars Field, Everett WA. She's in very good mechanical condition and is basically ready to go. I just RICHARD L. KAMP go out for Track Days now and then. Basics are: Lotus 18/21 F1 GP car , FIA Papers, Historic Technical Passport, 1.5 L Coven- try Climax FPF. HD5 Designed for Racing Built for Living Gearbox. Very good record : www.goldengatesevens.com Wins by Stirling Moss and Mau- rice Trintignant . , Wanted: 1966 or later style For Sale: 1986 Lo- Cliff Allison, Masten Gregory, Weber Lotus T/C head. tus Turbo Esprit HCI; 39K etc. among others were also driv- [email protected] or original miles; Red with Tan ers. If it makes sense please let (650)796-2193 leather; Custom Etoile 3 piece your readers know. She's just too wheels painted to match car; much for me any more. For Sale: S – new tires; won first place at the Tim Towey 425-454- 2007 – 7000mi. Track / Touring 2006 LOG in Texas. Excellent 0610 timtowey@comcast. Pack. LSD Starshield. condition; asking $25,000. net (11/08) Dark Metallic Blue. Stock Call Ryan for more info. at with 4 points. $55K OBO, 972.922.7234.

Paul LaHaye @ 707 292-5485

(5/08)

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