Published by the Golden Gate Lotus Club www.gglotus.org July 2005

The Chapman Report

Friday, July 15th

Host: Kyoshi and Laura Hamai

July Meeting

WCLM ‘05by Jon Rosner

When we arrived we were greetedby multi-story maple-stained redwoodbuildings sporting large plate glasswindows that seemed to have sproutedorganically from the surrounding hills.Plus there was a heated pool, Jacuzzi,tennis courts and a windowed white ¼football field size tent that had a LotusElise ribbed frame to keep it rigid. Thetent was called the Pavillion and thatwas where we were headquartered forthe weekend.

Thursday night’s tasty bits recep-tion was followed by registration whereeveryone signed their life away on theusual registration disclaimers anddecided upon which tour to join orwhich restaurant to go to for Fridaynight. Marvelous Lotus factory andWCLM pins were packaged with fitteddenim shirts and coordinated leather-trimmed WCLM 2005 baseball caps.Very complete schedules; instructions,nametags and meal tickets were handedout in packets.

Across the way William Taylor, hiswife and future-top-salespersondaughter (of Coterie Press) had somemarvelous books to sell such as thevery engaging and hard to put downLOTUS, THE EARLY YEARS, byPeter Ross, to the marvelous DennisOrtenburger THE LOTUS ELITE, aswell as the LOTUS COLLECTABLESbook, rare formula one books, signedpages along with cool posters andbaseball caps. On the other side wasRon deVogel from British Motor Carsshowing an elegant line of jackets andpullovers that those on the RegistrationDesk were betting on a few someonessaying, “I’m not taking it off, howmuch is it?” (which happened at leasttwice.)

Participants were not allowed tomeander for too long before the buffetin the middle of the pavilion wasloaded up with variety salads, properlycooked vegetables, and choice stuffedchicken breast or baked paprika fish.

Friday was an oh-dark-thirty wake-

up for those who wanted to arrive at theReno-Fernley Race Track in time forthe driver’s meeting. But for those lessambitious the breakfast Buffet wasstocked-up and ready to go for 7:30AM, still to early for civilized thinkerson holiday.

continued p. 4

page 2

CalendarJuly 9 Mt. Hamilton Drive Host: Club 111

July 15 GGLC Meeting Host: Kiyoshi HamaiiPalo Alto

July 16 Tune-up, Tech Session and Parts Swapat Mike Ostrov’s

July 27th GGLC Track Day Thunderhill

July 28 - 31 San Jose Grand Prix Streets of San Jose

August 19th GGLC Meeting Host: Jim McClureCupertino

August 19-21 Monterey Historics Laguna Secaand Lotus Corral

August 27 Practice Autocross Marina Airport

by David Anderson

Join the folks getting the ChapmanReport (CR) via email (pdf) instead ofpostal mail by sending a noterequesting the CR via email to”ggmail@gglotus.org”. Be sure tospecify what email address it should besent to. You will get your monthlyChapman Report sooner and the clubsaves expense. Of course this is yourchoice — unless you tell us to useemail you will continue to get the CRvia the postal service.

Keep us up to date on your change-of-address. Once in a while we lose amember because we don’t get notifica-tion of a move so the CR gets returnedto us “no forwarding order”.

P.S.: Those getting their CR byemail will generally be getting it fiveto ten days prior to its postal deliv-ery date. ed

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.

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Infineon Raceway28935 Arnold Drive F-10

Sonoma, CA 95476 Phone # 707-933-8039

Chapman Report by Email

NorCal - Club111 drive over Mt. Hamilton 7/9/05

Mark your calendars! We’re planning a Club111 driveover Mt. Hamilton for Saturday, July 9th. We’ll depart alittle early in the morning, to arrive at The Junction forlunch. Then, north on Mines Road for a visit toForcedFed’s shop in Livermore!While this is an official Club111 event, it is open to allLotus owners (and GGLC or Club111 members), not justElises. It’s also open to those who have been members ofEliseTalk for at least two months. If you do not fit one ofthese categories, please email me and I’ll add you to thewaiting list in case the turnout is low.If you’ve never driven this route before, you owe it toyourself to check it out! It’s a long drive, but a fantasticglimpse at what California used to be before all the people.

Matt Gawlowski

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The all new lightweight and highperformance track day LotusThe new Lotus “Circuit Car”was announced yesterday(Saturday, 11 June, 2005) byKim Ogaard-Nielsen, CEO ofGroup Lotus, to privilegedLotus Club Internationalmembers at the annual LotusClub International Gala Dinnerheld at Norwich City FootballClub. Based on the Lotus Elise Alu-minium chassis, and weighing in atapproximately 600kg, the single-seatercar (with an option of two seats) hasbeen designed and engineered solelyfor Track Day and Club Racing.The lightweight composite bodyworkof the visually dramatic open-toppedcircuit car combines high downforcefrom cleverly engineered aerodynam-ics.

Part of its phenomenal perfor-mance is from a supercharged VVTL-i(Variable Valve Timing with Lift -intelligent) engine, and is estimated toachieve the 0 - 100 mph (160 km/h)sprint in a staggering 9.0 seconds. Thisexciting combination has allowed for adynamic racing package producinghigher performance to that of existingElise-based products. An entry-levelnaturally-aspirated VVTL-i engine willalso be available, powering the carfrom 0 - 62 mph in under 4 seconds.Tony Shute, Head of Product Develop-ment at Lotus Cars, explains whatmakes the Lotus “Circuit Car” aleading high performance track car:“The new product has allowed Lotus toonce again apply its key “performancethrough lightweight” philosophy. Thisis in order to achieve an innovativeproduct for the track day and clubracing Lotus enthusiast whilst stayingtrue to the key design attributes of theElise and Exige products. They areconsidered to be amongst the finestexisting road and track day cars bythousands of owners around the world,and the “Circuit Car” will build onthis formidable reputation, helping to

further underline Lotus as theultimate driver’s choice.”The introduction of the new Lotus“Circuit Car” will generate additionalexposure of the Lotus brand andprovide Lotus with entry to further keymarket sectors, as Clive Dopson,Managing Director of Lotus Cars,explains ”The introduction of this newmodel plays a key role in developingand enhancing the presence of LotusCars on the track, whilst providing thedriver of today with a pure circuit carwhich thrives on the essentialvalues of the Lotus brand. In addition,it will be yet another example of ahigh quality product to be built at ourworld class production facilities atHethel.” The Lotus “Circuit Car” is dueto go into production at the GroupLotus Headquarters in Hethel, Norfolk,in December 2005, with scheduled

volume of approximately 100 units perannum.

Full specifications and price willbe announced closer to the productiondate. Predicted Performance figures:Naturally Aspirated VVTL-i Engine:0 to 60 mph 4 seconds (approx.)0 to 100 mph < 11 seconds Super-charged VVTL-i Engine:0 to 60 mph 3.5 seconds (approx.)0 to 100 mph < 9.0 secondsENDS.

For further details please contact:PR DepartmentGroup Lotus plc, Potash Lane, Hethel,Norfolk, UK, NR14 8EZTel: +44(0)1953 608264Fax: +44(0)1953 608111Email: pr@lotuscars.co.uk

end

Lotus Circuit Car News Release

page 4

Pete Richen, Tour-Meister, called adriver’s meeting and handed out maps.Cars were asked to stay in groups ofthree to eight as cell-phone service waslikely to be sporadic.

The first half of the run climbed upover the twisted mountain paths,through dense green sections and shortsheer desolate rock-fall before begin-ning to drop down towards our BBQmeeting point at Reno-Fernley RaceTrack.

I could hear the flat-crank howl ofan Esprit V-8 combined with themelodious thrum of the three buzzingElises as they passed us at one shortrest stop. We feared the worst andnearly stopped when we saw LillieJaffe sitting hang-dog on the passenger-sill of her green-stripped yellow Elisesurrounded by four of Nevada’s finest

with the balance of her group parked afew feet forward, dead in the water.When Lillie and her troop arrived forlunch nearly 45 minutes after theprevious last cars she was surroundedby worried WCLMers. What hap-pened?

A woman in an red SUV hadgotten bent way out of shape thinkingthat Lillie had cut her off and passedher poorly and illegally. Ten milesdown the road the red SUV driver wastrying to run Lillie off the road, Lilliehigh-tailed it and was on the phonewith 911 just as the fashionably stick-thin madwoman caught up andscreamed across the lane at Lillie. Bythe time Lillie and the troops reachedthe Reno outskirts Nevada’s finest werewaiting, wanting to hear Lillie’s side ofthe story. Turned out the police werepretty cool and there was no one who

could verify the madwoman’s story,while Lillie had the balance of her crewto vouch for her to the officers whowere admiring the Lotus.

The BBQ lunch was well-done andquite filling with most of the Toursticking around to watch the V-8s, theElises, Joel Lipkin’s Noble, a gaggle ofM100s, the Zender Flamer, TomCarney’s burnt orange S2 Europa andan assortment of other entertainingstormers fly around the track at warpspeeds.

There were a few large gusts ofwind, but moderate temperatures heldas the cars roared past start-finish at upto 130 mph, pushing rapidly over thegentle hills and dales of the long track.The only real problems encounteredwere Tom Smith’s and Don Hogue’sType 47 that unfortunately and unex-pectedly spun a bearing put it out ofcommission. Thousands of beautifulbutterflies came in waves with manysadly ending up splattered on wind-shields and blocking radiator venting.

Friday Night was a “free night”and roving bands of Lotus ownersbroke off in groups, visiting everythingfrom the Mickey D’s to some of theswankiest of the posh restaurants.Rumors abounded that a few plunkeddown some serious palookas in thedens of iniquity (gambling that is ~ Iwas informed that the well-knownhouses of ill-repute were out-of-business, I guess that some things dogo out of style!)

Saturday’s options were Lake TourII or the WCLM Autocross. The Tourwas another perfect run led by DonNester. The Autocross was anothermatter. While the

Registration Committee was doingthe reception and most folks weregallivanting, Tom Carney and KiyoshiHamai were out laying out an autocrossinto the dark hours. That no onenoticed that there was anything off is atribute to these two working stiffs.

The Autocross was a blast. Thespeed limit was 5 mph except for thoseon the autocross and those taxiingaircraft, taking off or landing. In fact atone point it looked like one of theplanes was getting in line to run theAutocross, but then declined. It has theAn Esprit and an Elan M100 running the WCLM Autocross

page 5

potential to take the fastest in the non-Lotus category, ah well.

Randy Chase really PUSHED thethe Elise he was driving hard. Problemfor the timers was that he and RobertPuertas had swapped Elises and provedthe adage that you can go faster insomeone else’s car, with Robert inRandy’s car taking top time of day by7/1000s of a second. There were jokesabout not being afraid go like heck insomeone else’s car, but we won’t gointo that here! Ron DeVogel also wentfast in his Elise and Shinya Suzuki flewEsprit around the autocross.

No sooner had we returned fromthe Autocross and it was time to headto the National Auto Museum for acatered dinner. Those who arrive earlywere treated to a feast set up in fourlarge rooms and several historicdisplays. The Brass Era cars werespectacular, with the original 1908Thomas Flyer that was nationallyfamous for it’s cross-country run. Ablindingly handsome hand-formedcopper-bodied Rolls Royce, a 1925Julian with

Centered-front placed driver andtwo passengers. The engine was a largerear-mounted scaled-down Wrightrotary type engine where the mass ofthe engine spun while running.

Other ultra-rare cars included the1937 Aerodynamic Car with whale-

flipper rear bodyworkand the sole remainingBuckminster FullerDymaxion.

The dinner wassimply superb with well-prepared choices of freshsalads, perfect pasta,rice, crispy veggies, nicefish, tasty chicken, porkroast, roast beef anddelicate desserts.

Tom Carney took thepodium as the guestsreached food saturationand satiation nirvana.

His first “thank-yous” went to out to thetwo hard-working eventchairs, Joe Lipkin andMel Boss.

There were prizesfor each class of vehicle from theAutocross. And in accepting his trophyfor fastest time of day Robert Puertaswalked up to the podium with a 12 inchorange rubber cone in hand. He foundit jammed up against the diffuser. Hesaid that it took him fifteen minutes topull it down past the right-rear suspen-sion. It was nice of him to return it andeveryone had a laugh.

The rest of the event chairs werethanked, but not before the generoussponsors were recognized and cheered.By 10 PM it was time to go back to theGranlibakken, many with great prizesdonated by the WCLM sponsors.

On Sunday morning getting fromthe hotel to the site for the Concourswe truddled along at slow speedswatching out for the swarms ofbicyclists, 3,000 in all, on the “MostBeautiful Ride in America.” Right lane,close to the edge with right turn signalon and turning slowly ~ one cyclist stillinsisted on passing me on the right. Ifelt like yelling “o.k. you, out of thegene pool.” But the guarantee ofunfavorable TV coverage for theWCLM made me clam up. Still thescenery was stunning and the location asuperb choice.

Lots and lots of pictures weretaken at the Concours and a few folkscame over to check out the cars. It wasnot surprising to find that most of the end

back row was made up of Elises, withonly two Europas and one early Elitepresent. The Concours Winners were:

Elite - Jess and Eddie MarkerElan S1/S2 - Roberta and Dave

BeanElan S3/S4 - Sarto RocheleauM100 Elan - Tie - trophy awarded

by coin toss to Kevin Metz andMariana Pickering with second place toMel and Darlene Boss

Europa - Keith and Laura WorkEsprit (Pre-V8) - Roy NakamuraEsprit V8 - Allan and Becky

ZachardaElise 1st - Laura and Kiyoshi

HamaiElise 2nd - Tie – trophy awarded to

Lillie “Spin” Jaffe by a coin tossElise 3rd - Dennis Fleming (loser of

the coin toss)Wildest Lotus – Shinoo Mapleton

of Sector 111Lotus Race Car – Lillie “Spin”

JaffeNon-Lotus – Joel Lipkin for the

NobleFavorite in Show – Jess and Eddie

Marker with their original Elite

The Sponsors:Platinum Sponsor: Lotus Cars

USAGold Sponsors:

Dave Bean EngineeringLotus of San Francisco/BMC

Silver Sponsors:LotusGarage.comGolden Gate SevensKampena MotorsSector111Viking MotorsportsJAE PartsCoterie Press

The Chairs: Mel Boss, Joel Lipkin, Kiyoshi

Hamai, Tom Carney, Don Nestor, JustinGross, Pete Richins, Barry Spencer,John Zender, Bard Wilmar, RobertGreene, Jon Rosner, and the Registra-tion Volunteers, Cherie Carney, LauraHamai and Judy Anderson.

It was a great show and an abso-lutely superb West Coast Lotus Meet.

page 6GGLC Autocross School

By Kiyoshi

Over the past 8 months the Elisehas been arriving and getting into thehands of new owners. While it’s beensomewhat of a shock, it’s been adelight to welcome many new Eliseowners to the GGLC fold.

One delightful affect of these newElise owners is that they bring withthem an infectious refreshing energyand excitement that has re-energizedthe GGLC. It’s invigorating, butdelightfully not so different from a timewith Europas and Elans were new. AsEuropa and Elan owners discovered aLotus is best enjoyed from behind thewheel and so it is today with the newElise owner, their Elise is best enjoyeddriving!

And like the Europas and Elans theElise BEGS to be driven and drivenhard. So, it came to be that the GGLC’snewest members wanted to learn aboutAutocrossing.

One such member, Larry Bisaresapproached me a few months ago aboutautocrossing. It was a simple question,“I want to learn how to drive my Elisebetter. Are there any autocrossschools?” “Well, not really…”, I said.Larry then queried, “Can the club do anautocross? How hard is it?” I said,“Sure, we’ve done plenty in the past.It’s not that hard… We just needsomeone to chair the event.” “Well,how about me?” said Larry. And withthat the GGLC had an Autocross!

In fact the GGLC not only has anAutocross, but an Autocross Schooland two follow-up events all becauseof Larry!

GGLC Autocross School - June18, 2005

Larry contact and secured theMarina Airport for an AutocrossSchool on June 18, 2005. The Marinasite is the site used for the 2002WCLM Autocross.

We contacted the Lockheed-MartinSports Car Club to make the dates jointevents. The GGLC and Club111 wouldsecure and rent the site and LMSCCwould contribute the use of theirautocross equipment, an equitablearrangement that works perfectly for

the threeclubs.

TheAutocrossSchool had39 drivers, 12from LMSCCand theremainderfrom theGGLC andClub111.These driverswere in-structed by13 experi-enced autocrossers, Michael Sands, JimMcClure and myself from the GGLC,Randy Chase and Robert Puertas fromClub111, 4 from LMSCC and theremainder from the SCCA.

Drills & SkillsThe morning sessions focused on

building skills at a few basic autocrosscourse elements. Two courses were setup, Course #1 focused upon slalomsand Course #2 on various types ofcorner elements and situations. Half ofthe drivers and instructors took to eachcourse. Then as small groups theinstructors led their drivers on a walk-through of the course pointing out thedriving line and talking about what toexpect on course.

The groups then broke into three,with one group of drivers driving withtheir instructors, another working thecourse and the third observing. As thedrivers progressed through their runsyou could see their confidence andspeed growing. Each successive runwas faster, cleaner, smoother and moreprecise.

Merge and PracticeDuring the lunch break the two

smaller courses were merged togetherinto a full course that provided a greatopportunity for the drivers to try outtheir newly learned lessons on a fullcourse that had all the elements learnedin the morning sessions.

Again each driver had his or herinstructor available to ride or drive oneach run. The course was challengingwith an opening slalom followed by ashort straight and then a right-handerthat needed to be taken with a late

apex. A 3-cone slalom followed then aleft and a longish straight into a nice180. Using a nice wide entry into the180 helped you finish off the turn witha late apex, followed by a shortishstraight. Next was a technical bit, thenext right-hander was take wide inorder to get a nice wide sweeping arcleading onto the longest straight. Bystaying wide on the right-hander youwere able to get on the throttle earlyand blast down the straight.

Coming off the straight wasanother right, a short straight, a quickleft-right leading into another right thatput you into the final slalom.

After the drivers had their runs onthe full course the instructors got toplay. Giving rides to their drivers theinstructors put on a show! Lots ofsmooth fast lines, wonderful to watchdrifts and times that illustrated whatlots of practice and experience does.

The Chapman Report is published monthly by the Golden Gate Lotus Club, POBox 117303, Burlingame, CA 94011. The GGLC is a non-profit incorporated car cluband is not affiliated with Group Lotus, Team Lotus or Lotus Cars USA. The GGLC’sannual membership dues are $25.00.

Opinions expressed in the Chapman Report are those of the authors and do notrepresent those of the GGLC or its officers.

Submissions to the Chapman Report are accepted and encouraged. Please emailthem to chapmanreport@gglotus.org in MS Word, rtf or ASCII text. Submissions mayalso be mailed to Jim McClure, 11238 Bubb Road, Cupertino, CA 95014.

2003 GGLC Officers are: President: Faisal Khan, Vice President:Pete Richen,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 7

MoreClassifieds

For Sale: Lotus 7 and Formula itemsGearbox, heads, bell housing, konis & springs,11" rearwings, rebuilt starter, quick lift, 6 sets2.25" I.D. springs, race mirrors.

Call Don at (650) 347-0572 or email7lotus7@prodigy.net

For Sale: 74 Europa. Yellow with cremecloth interior. Low mileage car. Not running,bent valves trying to replace pulley seal. Headredone and ready. I didn’t install for obviousreasons. Can send pictures to interested mem-bers. I live in Moorpark, Ca.(VenturaArea).Contact at 310 4660421 day cell orevenings at 805 5290544. E mailallis99@earthlink.net Reasonable offersaccepted for immediate sale. (3/05)

KARDEN AUTOMOTIVE1400 CENTRAL RD. #6, WALNUT CREEK, CA 94596

LYN BARBERAuto Technician

(925) 939-6769LBARBER748@SBCGLOBAL.NET

$

Mike’s PlaceJust a reminder that another GGLCLotus day at my shop in El Sobrante. l0am start time. 1) Swap meet to cleanout your 30 year stash of parts 2) techstuff where we can do: compressiontesting, leak down tests, camber, castor,corner weighing, etc. 3) Will also havea boot or bonnet lid freshly painted, sothe lads can try their hand (s) at coloursanding and polishing back the gloss. Arsvp would be appreciated at: (5l0)232-7764 or mikeostrov@webtv.netCan you please do a note for the GGLCCalendar? Hope you can pop up.Cheers. Mike.4ll9 Santa Rita Rd. El Sobrante,

page 8

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

for three issues before requiring renewal)

First Class Mail

For Sale: 1979 Esprit S2.Commemorative Edition #100 (lastone). Black with gold stripes (like allof that series Esprit).Very good condition. Well cared for.Reliable. Previously owned by DavidAnderson (GGLC). Chuck is 3rdowner. $10000 Call Chuck: 707-875-3728 (2/05)

For sale: open trailer ,pro builtcustom,15' bed,73" between fenders,fulldeck with Recessed D ring tiedowns.Tandem dropped axles withfull spring suspension,surgebrake,new tires with new chromewheels.less than 1500 miles ontrailer.built for lotus elan and Jagxke.nice light towing trailer.

Also have lotus twin cam Lblock,perfect weber cyl head,omega11:75 pistons, steel crank, carillorods,genuine set minilites with bothsets of lug nuts.all lotus componentsare brand new including wheels.contact Joel Mauser 209 477 4198 or209 482 5351cell.located inStockton,calif.

WANTED: Lotus Europa S2. Projector non-runner ok. Frame should bestraight. Call Ed at 510-849-2833(3/05)

RICHARD L. KAMP

Authorized Dealer of Caterham Cars

Designed for Racing Built for Livingwww.goldengatesevens.com

G GOLDEN ATE EVENSSInfineon Raceway

28935 Arnold Drive F-10Sonoma, CA 95476

Phone # 707-933-8039

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

For Sale: 1969 Lotus Elan +2vintage race project car comes withSpyder chassis, Cosmics, limited slipdif, Koni’s, steel brake lines. Extra setof widened steel wheels. Have Weberhead to be installed with mildcams. $4800.00 George at831-648-9064 (3/05)

For Sale: Cobra (1) sport seat.Adaptor bracket fits M100. Mediumgrey cloth. Like new. $200 OBO. Mel925-831-8834 ordarmel@sbcglobal.net.

FOR SALE: 1. Elan Series Onebody only. Needs some glass fibreremodeling and attention to the rear lamppanel. No title. 2. Elan FHC Series 4.Almost complete. missing a few me-chanical bits: ie engine tranny, backbonechassis, suspension, diff. Greatproject or starter car. Title available.3. Elan knock off (4), bolt on steelwheels (4) and one set (4) Europafactory alloy wheels. Sensible offersconsidered. All items FOB El Sobrante,CA. Mike Ostrov (5l0) 232-7764 ormikeostrov@webtv.net