Julius Jodelė

If the discs are used on the roads/streets, painting/powder coating will extend the life (especially if driven in the winter with the salt on the roads.) and make them look nicer... the one caveat is that 3 surfaces cannot be painted! Those are the surface that mates (fays) with the hub, the wheel and the disc. If the discs are floating discs, then the inside of the bobbin grooves need to be protected from the paint also. The reason for not painting those surfaces is that the wheel and/or disc will not run true if painted! And the bobbins won't slide in the grooves if painted. This is very important and a lot of work to prepare the bells for painting. A lot of places won't protect those surfaces before painting, so I'm guessing that is why Dave recommends against painting the bells. All that work costs money and in most cases not worth the return. But if you've got the skills or the connections, that is just another way of personalizing your car.

Confirmation of tickets for those of us that had Lotuses, but don’t at the moment, was a real headache! I didn’t book any reservations until I had tickets in hand. At that point all was booked up. As it turned out, I got the place I wanted to stay at but had to cancel my other reservations. Lines at the store were massive... there were only two tills!!! It would have been nice had everything in the store had x% discount for the event. Why was the motorsports building closed? The only real presence of motorsports was Clive... Lotuses are probably the most tracked car (percentage-wise) of any other brand...and no motorsports representation!

Colin Chapman built the Lotus Mark I in 1948. Two years later, it seemingly fell off the face of the earth, never to be seen again. Do you know where it is? In the spring of 1948, Colin Chapman, founder of Lotus, built the company's first car, the Mark I (pictured above). It was a modified Austin Seven with a reinforced chassis, lightweight panels, and easily replaceable parts—the kind of stuff Lotus is famous for today. He raced the Mark I for a little while before selling it in 1950 for £135 (around $177), after which point it was never seen again. Now, Lotus is asking your help to find it. Lotus announced the search today as a part of its 70th anniversary celebrations. Though extensively documented, Lotus has no leads on the Mark I's whereabouts, even after years of research. "The Mark I is the holy grail of Lotus’ history," said Clive Chapman, son of Colin, in a statement. "It’s the first time that my father was able to put his theories for improved performance into practice when designing and building a car. "We want fans to take this opportunity to look in every garage, shed, barn and lock-up they’re allowed to." The Mark I with Colin's wife, Hazel Chapman, in the passenger seat. The car was originally finished in bare metal, before being painted white, then repainted red. It was sold through an ad in Motor Sport Magazine to a new owner somewhere in the North of England. "It’s even possible that the Mark I was shipped from the UK, and we’d love to know if it survives in another country," Chapman said. Though it's possible the Mark I could be sitting in an untouched garage hidden away from the world for nearly 70 years, it's just as likely to have rusted away, been parted out, or sold for scrap. But being the Lotus fans we are, we're holding out hope it'll turn up somewhere. If you have any information that can lead to the Mark I's location, contact Lotus as soon as possible.

I've changed mine to a 3" from Really Light Stuff on my CUP260. Worked great! But I also change the intercooler to a larger one, also from Really Light Stuff. Anything smaller, just generates heat. The supercharger gets spun out of its efficiency envelope. I also had Jim's 2bular DT3 de-cat system and then 525-550 cc injectors are really needed. That makes a great package.

Damn...I should come on here more often. Missed out on that one.

@Bibs Payment sent. Thanks!

I’ll take it!!! I’ll send PayPal payment in about an hour when I get home.

I called them Friday afternoon and they told me that they were all booked up...nothing available at any price. If someone has got reservations that they can't use any more, I'd be willing to buy them from you. Please PM me if you've got.

@BibsI missed where that was mentioned... I would have like to meet up with you... Will you now be able to refund my payment?

The Lexus equivalent to Toyota's TRD is F-Sport. So it can't be from a Lexus and be called a TRD.

And no stress analysis is complete without a check of the principal loads. principal compression loads are highest, no surprise because I put a 1 bar load. maximum tensile loads.

I've finally gotten the design to the point where I like it. It meets my criteria for loads. It is 10x as strong as it needs to be and only weighs 1.48kg. And the max deflection is only 0.158mm at the red spot. You can also make out some of the interior design features. OK...some movement on this project!

I'll just say that there are full trumpets on the inside. The injectors point straight to the back of the valves. The volume of the plenum is 2.5x the working volume of the engine. Those ribs on the outside are for structural rigidity. Under full vacuum, the plenum only deflects 0.15mm! The plenum weighs 1.5kg.

I finally got the engine block back after Nikasil'ing the bores and silver powder coating of the block.