I have a very large smile on my face when I DRIVE our Seven down to Sears Point and queue up behind the transporters entering the track. I have driven it down to Laguna Seca once in the rain with the "baby buggy" hood in place and a very understanding wife wiping off the inside windshield mist with a chamois. I would have loved to have had more time back in the 60's to see the Loti in SCCA but did have a very close and dear friend, Bob Bent now sadly passed away, who won the Pacific Coast SCCA championship in his Seven and is featured in Denis Ortenburger's book on the Seven. He often would drive his Seven to places like Cotati and Vacaville racing around the hay bales. The E2000 is a straight stock box but I don't know the exact ratios - they do work fine for me. I have looked at the Accusump set up but I am afraid it breaches my own standards of upgrading the Lotus from stock. Our big catch tank has solved the scavenging problems although the oil pressure will dip on a long hard right turn such as Turn 2 at Sears Point or Turn 10 at Laguna Seca. I am afraid I don't have a digital photo of the car to send you handy, but I am attaching a couple of beautiful water color paintings by Sonoma artist, Garland Rush of both our Seven and our Type 14 Elite to show you what the ladies look like.

Well, actually I bought my 1964 Lotus Seven without ever seeing even a photo of it. As it happens back in 1985 I was shifting my home base back to the US from the UK and had sold my beloved Caterham 7 (BRG, long cockpit, Kent Sprint w/dual Webbers). I had stopped by to see Rodney Smith (former Elite owner) on a business matter and in the meeting he mentioned he had a Series II Seven for sale - it had just been advertised in AutoWeek. I asked him about the car, he said that he had thought about vintage racing it but it was "too nice" to do so and as he had too many toys at the time had it up for sale at $11K (this was 1985!) It was a 1340 Cosworth (glass crankshaft) with dual Webbers, RHD and had all road equipment including top and side curtains. Not quite BRG but green with a yellow nose. Sounded like a nice car and as I would be spending a lot more time in the US from then on, I told him I'd like to think about it. I was leaving that day for England but stopped by to see John Streets on my way to the airport. He confirmed that it was a very, very original Series II car and well worth the money. I pondered the car on my flight which had a layover in New York. I had an hour on the ground by which time I had convinced myself that I should snatch up the car from Rodney before someone else did. I rang him from a pay phone and told him that I'd take the car at $11K, I would have my wife send a check and I would be back in the US to collect it in a few weeks. He said, "well, you mean you want to come down and look at it?". I emphatically said, no...I wanted the car. He should cancel the ad in AutoWeek, he'd have my check in a couple of days and I'd be back as I said in three weeks to get the car.

When I arrived at his home in Woodside, I found a very pretty kelly green, very, very original series II Seven in fine condition. It had been restored a few years earlier by a fireman who did very good work. I drove it home and within a month was on the track at Sears Point after the usual fitting of catch tanks, full harness seat belts, etc. I've been racing it and driving in on the road on the odd weekend ever since. Sure, I've had to replace the 1340 with a 1500 due to the fragile crankshaft problem (Dave Bean calls them "good for 30 minutes racing time"), changed the gearbox to a Ford E2000 and a few years ago the Cortina diff was replaced with another due to a cracked case that was beyond yet another re-weld. After some worrying cracks around the stud holes on the pressed steel rims, I upgraded to Panasports and for safety sake, we installed a fuel cell. Otherwise it must be one of the most original Sevens on the West Coast. I have run most of the HMSA Wine Country Classic events in May each year, did the Monterey Historics last year and at least three CSRG events each year since 1985.

It's been a great partner to the 1961 Elite in our garage and I look forward to more seasons on the track and great early morning weekend drives through the hills of Sonoma Valley.