It's winter here in the Midwest and my car is laid up, again, until April. So as I wait until I can feel my toes again I think of more stuff to do to my car (remember, the average demographic here looks to be a guy in late 40's or early 50's and the stock market went up 30% last year). I'm average.
Determined for about 5 minutes when I got the car in '09 to enjoy it stock, I then had to re-do all the silly stuff the original owner did to it. And deal with the two pounds of dog food that a mouse had stolen in his trunk and distributed into the front part of the car. http://www.lotustalk.com/forums/f259/dog-food-hits-my-feet-120700/
Then I did some cosmetic stuff, manual winders, little mirror, Craftsquares, LSS wheels and called it a day. Very happy was I, driving about in my little narrow-tired base Elise.
Until I wasn't. Took it to the track in 2010. Yes, it was more fun than my old Mini at the track. Bought Exige-type seats and a harness bar and 4 point. All good. Called it a day.
Until I didn't. What if the oil sloshed over? Battery flew around? Oil starvation? Catch cans. G pan, battery tiedown, toe link. Whew, all done in 2010, no more worries. Called it a day.
Holy crap, look at those really nice Lotus Sport wheels, who doesn't need a set of those? Really, a silver and a black set, like different sneakers. But I have a perfectly good set of wheels. But the Lotus Sport wheels are so... shiny. Well, if I have lots of wheels, gotta go for a custom back end. Sourced a GT3 exhaust from someone who went to the trouble of dealing with Jim but didn't want to use it, best of all worlds there! But for sure, in 2011 I was done. Called it a day.
15 track days in 2012. 4 points are crap! What about running out of gas mid-corner? And what's with the understeer. Did I buy a Buick? What I really needed was a 6 point, a V2 tank, and more camber. Oh, and those light, sexy floating discs... oooh, they just gotta work better. It's a disease I tell you. But I was done.
15 track days in 2013. I REALLY needed was to swap out my DA Ohlins (oh yeah, forgot, got those in 2011, my bad) for Nitron DA's. Bought and sold some wheels, natch. Can't have enough wheels, so nice and round and shiny. But I'm truly done.
But damn, it was so cold and gloomy in December. I'm warm, shouldn't my car be too? Now it's been sitting in a race shop the last month getting some serious suspension love. Traded my alcantara Exige seats for a leather Exige seats. I'm about to get a 4th set of wheels (2 silver, 2 black) on the theory that it's easier to stockpile wheels with tires than keep mounting tires every other weekend after I destroy them. Now I need a bigger wheel shed in the back. Doing Bertil Roos single seat school in March. My wife thinks I'm insane, but in a good way. Or so she says. I'm not sure that I'm so good about human cues anymore...
So, informal poll: Andy went stupid in:
-(a)2009 when he bought the car.
-(b)2010 when he drove it fast but not very fast but spent lots of money trying to go faster.
-(c) 2011 when he drove it a little faster but spent lots of money which didn't at all have to do with him getting faster.
-(d) Andy has yet to go into full out stupid because I don't see him writing about superchargers or ECU's.
-(e) Andy's not stupid at all, I've spent lots more money than him.
(BTW, what do you think of a nice set of stripes?)
Determined for about 5 minutes when I got the car in '09 to enjoy it stock, I then had to re-do all the silly stuff the original owner did to it. And deal with the two pounds of dog food that a mouse had stolen in his trunk and distributed into the front part of the car. http://www.lotustalk.com/forums/f259/dog-food-hits-my-feet-120700/
Then I did some cosmetic stuff, manual winders, little mirror, Craftsquares, LSS wheels and called it a day. Very happy was I, driving about in my little narrow-tired base Elise.
Until I wasn't. Took it to the track in 2010. Yes, it was more fun than my old Mini at the track. Bought Exige-type seats and a harness bar and 4 point. All good. Called it a day.
Until I didn't. What if the oil sloshed over? Battery flew around? Oil starvation? Catch cans. G pan, battery tiedown, toe link. Whew, all done in 2010, no more worries. Called it a day.
Holy crap, look at those really nice Lotus Sport wheels, who doesn't need a set of those? Really, a silver and a black set, like different sneakers. But I have a perfectly good set of wheels. But the Lotus Sport wheels are so... shiny. Well, if I have lots of wheels, gotta go for a custom back end. Sourced a GT3 exhaust from someone who went to the trouble of dealing with Jim but didn't want to use it, best of all worlds there! But for sure, in 2011 I was done. Called it a day.
15 track days in 2012. 4 points are crap! What about running out of gas mid-corner? And what's with the understeer. Did I buy a Buick? What I really needed was a 6 point, a V2 tank, and more camber. Oh, and those light, sexy floating discs... oooh, they just gotta work better. It's a disease I tell you. But I was done.
15 track days in 2013. I REALLY needed was to swap out my DA Ohlins (oh yeah, forgot, got those in 2011, my bad) for Nitron DA's. Bought and sold some wheels, natch. Can't have enough wheels, so nice and round and shiny. But I'm truly done.
But damn, it was so cold and gloomy in December. I'm warm, shouldn't my car be too? Now it's been sitting in a race shop the last month getting some serious suspension love. Traded my alcantara Exige seats for a leather Exige seats. I'm about to get a 4th set of wheels (2 silver, 2 black) on the theory that it's easier to stockpile wheels with tires than keep mounting tires every other weekend after I destroy them. Now I need a bigger wheel shed in the back. Doing Bertil Roos single seat school in March. My wife thinks I'm insane, but in a good way. Or so she says. I'm not sure that I'm so good about human cues anymore...
So, informal poll: Andy went stupid in:
-(a)2009 when he bought the car.
-(b)2010 when he drove it fast but not very fast but spent lots of money trying to go faster.
-(c) 2011 when he drove it a little faster but spent lots of money which didn't at all have to do with him getting faster.
-(d) Andy has yet to go into full out stupid because I don't see him writing about superchargers or ECU's.
-(e) Andy's not stupid at all, I've spent lots more money than him.
(BTW, what do you think of a nice set of stripes?)
