calvan

My Europa was done as clear over base way back in '97 but the fibreglass was sealed with an epoxy primer before the base coat went on. The epoxy layer had to be sanded, understandably, but then took base and clear like a "normal" steel body car. After twenty-odd years it is showing some signs of wear and minor stress cracks but has held up remarkably well. And before you can ask for a reference, the fellow who did it is (a) still here in western Canada and (b) retired.

To follow the idea of names reflecting car colour, I often refer to my Europa as "The Little White Deathtrap". If you could see the number of badly, but aggressively, driven pickup trucks and SUVs on the road here, the reason for the name would be all too apparent. The Esprit looks great!

Good for you, that was an important project to see through. And in any event, "upping sticks" is generally frowned upon in hockey regardless of playing surface.

@rallyesax, I'll go with your earlier comment and say that goalies are merely misunderstood. Although it does take a certain mindset to stand between the pipes while people are firing a frozen-solid disk of vulcanised rubber at you. To give a nod to the Lotus underpinnings of the forum, I make a point of taking my Europa to hockey once or twice each season. All it takes is cramming a couple of sticks and a large bag of somewhat malodorous equipment into the passenger seat (always on a day that I can keep the windows open). As you can imagine, a Europa attracts a fair bit of attention at a hockey rink. The biggest reaction is usually when I pull regular player sticks out of the car - people see hockey gear being taken out of a car that small and assume that I'm crazy enough to be a goalie 😉

it's great to find another hockey player on TLF, especially a goalie. We can always use more goalies, even if some people think are a generally a tad eccentric🙃 I usually, but not always, play defence. There a couple of rinks near me that run drop-in hockey so for the past few years I've been playing there instead of in a regular league. It's a good set-up but we never know how many players we have until just before the game - over the last two seasons I have literally played every position except goal. You're welcome to it, my friend.

I haven't been playing for a bit over a year due to shutdowns but hope to be back at it in a few months. Could do with the stress relief!

Depends on what you're looking for. If you are evaluating it as a long term career post, working on state of the art equipment in an exciting field has a lot appeal. Particularly if the company has good prospects for growth and advancement. If it just a job, go for the extra money and buy a set of carbon wheels for your Lotus.

Nor owners. Alas.

...or taxes.

I grew out of this phase (I hope) by my mid-50s but for a while my family was convinced that it was my life's ambition to be 10% scar tissue, by weight

That's a unique setup - Twin Hemi.

It's all in the name. BreakMyWindows

I saw a news item that someone in New York left his BMW parked by a fire hydrant for four days. Of course, there was a fire across the street with this result:

I will take the plunge, endure the reaction, and express the first dissenting view on the new CoP package. I agree that it is an attractive lot of trinkets provided and likely a step up from the old Certificates but in my, admittedly subjective, opinion it is vastly overpriced. Part of that view is that I really question the durability of a cardboard box over the long term unless you just want to put it on a shelf and leave it there. So I shall not be rushing off to order one, much less three of them. Having said that, if others will get pleasure from it and it generates a bit of revenue for Lotus Cars so much the better. Mike. PS. Now watch my wife go out and order one for Christmas, thinking it is something I will treasure. Best have a word about it.

Located less than a mile from where I was born. Not that that will give them any cachet 🙄.

There are times when what appears to be an error of grammar or punctuation can reveal a hidden truth. For instance, one of the elementary schools I attended in my youth had a sign at the roadside saying "Slow Children Playing". Indeed, many of them were.

On the other hand, if time flies you must be having fun.

July 1 is Canada Day - national holiday - but this year was a bit different as the vast majority of events were cancelled or had some sort of a virtual alternative. I normally alternate between two events - either volunteer work with the local RCMP to help out with the crowds at the beach or at a car show put on each year by some friends who run a high-end restoration shop called Jellybean AutoCrafters (shameless plug, but their work is good enough to have been shown at Pebble Beach). Both were cancelled this year but my day was saved when I got an invite from Jellybean to join a max 25 car one day tour, lunch included route not known til the start, all gratis. So away we went. Took the Esprit and were one of two European cars in a group of 22 hot rods and muscle cars. Despite some crappy weather, it was great fun. The first shot, assuming I can get them to upload in the right order, is us at the start. The Jellybeans car show is always held at the Langley Speedway, a now defunct 1/4 mile paved oval that was used for stock car racing from 1965 to 1984. I went there as a kid. It is now part of a regional park and has largely been taken over by the nature and horse crowds, but our hosts got approval for our group to get onto the old track for a few (slow) laps. Still a lot of fun; I could remember where the pits and grandstands used to be and imagine the crowds. Especially when I managed to hang back to create some space and give the Esprit a bit of wellie through the east end of the old oval. The second shot shows the cars stopped on track after a few laps. Our hosts had a photographer there taking video and drone shots so I will look for that on their Facebook page in a few days as it will undoubtedly have better pictures than I took. After that it was off along the back roads to Chilliwack for lunch and then the long route up a stretch of the Fraser River and back. The spring flood is on and the river is almost as high as I have ever seen it. Great drive, if not quite as brisk a pace as I would have done on my own. Great day nonetheless. The last two shots were taken at the end of the day - one shows that we weren't the only Esprit there after all .

And a brief follow-up question to the solar experts here: If Covid-19 makes you puke, does that count as a Coronal Mass Ejection?

True. I stand corrected but I must say you handled that with flare.

(sun)spot on!

Sam, I will put my two-bits worth in on a couple of points. And since free advice is generally worth what you pay for it, I won't be offended if you ignore me completely. The main point is in the work to be done to put it together. Not so much whether you can do it but more whether you like to do it. If you don't think you will enjoy assembling the car, follow @jep's advice and move on to something you can get in and drive. Otherwise, read on. My own inclination is much like Justin's. I am at best a semi-competent wrench turner but I sure love to drive. And bear in mind that at the end of the day you will have a Europa. It is a bloody brilliant little car to drive but since you had a Europa before, you know that. . It has its drawbacks - getting stuck in traffic on a warm day gives you a whole new appreciation for the term "shake and bake" - but get one out on a twisty back road with no traffic and there's nothing like it. When I get a chance to drive my Europa through the twisties my usual thought is "if I was having any more fun it wouldn't be legal". Your biggest concern seems to age. I obviously can't answer that for you, but I might have a bit of a parallel. Up until this Covid nonsense put a stop to most things, I was playing old-timers (age 55+) hockey twice a week. I'm 66, more or less the median age of the group, but there are a few guys well into their 70s who are playing with us. Granted, they're in fairly good shape to start with but it is really the enjoyment they get from the game that keeps them going. I realise there is a big difference between playing a team sport and spending hours in a garage, often by yourself, but if you really enjoy taking on a project like that it can be a reward by itself. If you are capable of the work (technically and physically), think you can get it done in about a year, and will look forward to the work then I say go for it. Assuming you're still reading this, the next question is value. To follow what @Bibs said, its value as a car is essentially nothing. Even if you do most of the work yourself, by the time you pay for the body, paint, and engine work and factor in something for miscellaneous extra costs and some value of your time, even at minimum wage, you could just go out and buy a decent running car for the same amount. They don't come up all that often but good Europas are out there. The pile of bits is still worth something to the estate of the former owner but probably mostly as parts. But selling the car as parts may not be a job the executor wants to take on - he will have to inventory the parts, put a value on them, store them until sale and deal with all the time-wasters and low-ballers "Yes, I know you have two front shocks but I only want one and even though it has a bit of rust on it I'll still give you $1.50 for it." Unless they already have a business that can handle this stuff the task of parting out an entire car, especially something a bit weird like a Europa, could be a pain in the ass of monumental proportions. If you still think you want to take it on, I'd suggest pointing this out to whoever is administering the estate and see if you can work out a deal to take the whole works off their hands. I haven't even tried to work out the parts value but if you factor in the costs of inventory, storage, admin fees, etc I'd be surprised if the net value to the estate is more than $3-$5K. If you want to take on the project, that might be a reasonable value to you as well. Let us know how it all plays out.

If people go into my garage, most would happily pay to be allowed to leave.

It was a sunny afternoon here in White Rock so I decided to take the Europa out for a drive. As I was going along the beachfront strip (imaginatively named Marine Drive), what did I see coming along in the other direction but a Countach. I hear the 70s have been calling - they want their cars back. Unfortunately, no pics as I was driving and didn't have a passenger.

here is a beacon of joy and hope (not): If he is re-elected, I will not be the least bit surprised to see a "grassroots" movement spring up to repeal the 22nd Amendment. That is the amendment that was enacted post-FDR to give constitutional status to a presidential term limit. Otherwise, I agree with the sentiments expressed by @Loquacious Lew