calvan

All the major car rental companies will be available at YVR, but I don't have any need to rent a car near home so can't comment on which may be best. But keep in mind that you are taking on a long drive, ~1200 km/720 mi. to get to Smithers, so make a point of getting unlimited mileage. If you are going to be staying in the Smithers area you might want to look at a connecting flight. Even if you fly to Prince George and get a car there, you are still looking at about 4 hours driving time as opposed to 12 or 13 hours on the road from YVR. Having said that, it is a good road trip.

@Jacques - well said. I am not, and do not expect to become, a vegetarian but respect your choice to follow that path if you so choose. Even more, I appreciate the fact that you are not using this topic to proselytise your views. I draw a clear distinction between explaining one's position in a reasoned manner, as you have done, and taking a sanctimoniously dogmatic approach as many, although not all, vegans are wont to do. A zealot is a zealot, regardless of the cause espoused. I agree with your basic point of taking a balanced and reasoned approach to the choices one can make. I follow a similar approach myself although I recognise that some things I choose to do may not be considered by others to be an optimal course from an environmental or health perspective. Perhaps i can sum it up with a comment that drew a chuckle from my physician during my annual check-up last year when I said that my basic approach was "All things in moderation - and that includes moderation"

Would I be correct in assuming that it is the GTD listed on the Hoffman's website?

Congrats on purchasing the Europa. I was following that auction with interest on Bat; it looks like a beautiful example.Keep us posted on how you take to driving the Europa. I'll be interested to hear how you think it compares to the Evora. Without wanting to colour your perceptions of it, I will say that I use a different driving technique in my Europa as compared to more modern Lotus. The Europa's steering and handling are hard (almost impossible?) to beat but the power delivery and brakes show their origins in the '70s so you have to be much more aware of maintaining momentum. Having said that, it remains my favourite Lotus to drive and can still keep up with almost anything else over a distance on public roads, as long as the speeds are short of criminally lunatic. I should also say that I am mildly jealous of the condition of your new Europa - it makes mine look a little bit ratty around the edges.

The problem with with bucket list cars is that every time i think of compiling a list it becomes obvious that I have champagne tastes on a beer budget. And whenever I manage to get the bucket full of beer, I drink it.

Shockingly Good !

Thank you for the enlightenment.

This is not an exposition of useless fact, but rather a useless question to alleviate useless curiosity. I saw a news headline over here about "Bonfire Night" goings on in England. Is Bonfire Night a politically-correct renaming of Guy Fawkes Day? If so, when did that bit of PC driven revisionist history take over?

@NedaSay - Welcome to BC !

No ideas about Range Rovers, but congrats on the new granddaughter.

I live in total.much.speeding Think it's trying to tell me something?

Sounds much like the extended exercise I finished up a couple of years back, so this recommendation may be a bit out of date now. Spent three or four years of on and off searching for a new daily driver but didn't find anything we liked. Eventually got round to Volvo and ended up buying a V60. Very pleased with it as a daily use vehicle but must keep things in perspective. The Lotus are great cars; the V60 is a good appliance.

I seem to recall posting a version of this a couple of years back, but it bears repeating and I can't be bothered going through the archives to find a link. Mandatory Template for Road Test Report of a Porsche The New Porsche (insert model name/number) is perfect. Diligent engineering work by the wizards at Stuttgart has addressed all of the shortcomings of the previous model (insert name/number). Which was perfect.

And in other news, someone tried to throw a beer at Pres. Trump. It was a draft, so he dodged it easily.

Caution - Punks Crossing:

The voice of reason, at last. By all means talk to the neighbours when they get back. It will be much cheaper, both financially and emotionally, if you can reach a satisfactory resolution before having to escalate the issue. On the other hand, let them know that you are prepared to escalate if it can't be resolved. As for the additional panels you installed, it seems to me that as the neighbours gave permission for the installation they should be required, at a minimum, to give you reasonable notice that they were rescinding the permission. At that point you may well have to consider putting up your own fence. I t also occurs to me that if the neighbours were acting reasonably they should have had someone there to supervise the contractor instead of just buggering off and leaving their contractor with no direction as to the appropriate performance of their work.

I agree. At a minimum, have your solicitor send a strongly worded letter to both the contractor and your neighbours setting out your claim for the damages arising from unauthorised trespass and resultant damage to your property. In this case the damage to your place was deliberate, not merely negligent. The neighbours should be ultimately responsible or the actions of their contractors and I suspect that by this point the chance of a friendly neighbourhood relationship is well and truly down the shitter in any event.

Perhaps, but if it is a good IPA six would suffice.

Well, it didn't take long to hit a dead end on Farnham Ales. No joy at government run outlets, private sector stores in Vancouver or a couple of places I checked out south of the border in Washington State. Lotus IPA appears to be made of unobtanium, at least in this part of the country - too bad since it looks like an Esprit V8 on the can. Maybe they use transmission parts in the brewing process. I suppose I could hop in the car to go get some but even buzzing straight through on the highway it is a four or five day drive. Each way. I like the idea of taking a cross-country road trip, and going for a six pack of beer is an excellent excuse to go, but it is just not in the cards right now.

I'll see if I can find out anything about it but, frankly, I'm not optimistic. Stupid government policies, but there are significant barriers within Canada to the movement of alcoholic beverages from one province to another. And I'm out on the west coast so a brewery in Quebec is physically closer to you than it is to me. Still, I shall check it out and report back in due course.

I hope this post won't start a long term process leading to my excommunication from TLF, but here goes anyway. I, for one, will be taking a very serious look at the C8 Corvette, although likely not til next spring. They will take a couple of months to ramp up production and there has been a sad history of very early adopters of new GM products so even if GM claims to have solved their teething problems it seems prudent to let some time pass before taking any action. A couple of times over the past year or so my wife and I have batted about the idea of rationalising the current fleet of three Lotus. The Europa is sacrosanct but we have talked about a 2 for 1 reduction by divesting the Elise and Esprit in favour of something that can substitute for both. The Evora has been seriously considered twice - in Evora S and 400 forms - but has been rejected on both occasions. To explain myself, the issue with the Evora has been its lack of luggage capacity. We usually go on at least one good road trip per year (may have to skip this year due to family commitments) and have a pair of somewhat ratty, mismatched bags that hold enough gear for a week or so and fit easily in any of our three current Lotus. They don't fit in the trunk (okay, boot) of the Evora. I know that the back seat area of the Evora would hold them but we have our reasons for not liking that alternative. So, no Evora. I watched part of the C8 introduction last night and from what was shown it looks like the luggage issue may be solved. I was somewhat amused that GM was loudly touting the fact of having both front and rear storage space while thinking that my Europa has had that feature for years. What once was old is new again. Although I sincerely hope that the C8's rear trunk will have better thermal insulation than the shake & bake feature of the Europa. I noticed a couple of other Lotus-like features of the new car as well. One of the things they talked about was low door openings to provide ease of entry are possible because of a backbone chassis structure rather than a tub like many current performance cars. Shades of the Europa and Esprit. And while they didn't talk about it, a cut away rendition of the rear suspension had what looked like modified Chapman struts at the back. And the styling has hints of Elise and Evora about it, at least if you squint a bit. I'm enough of a neo-Luddite that I'm not too keen on the lack of a three pedal manual transmission but other than that the new Corvette is appealing. Perhaps an update in the spring.

I haven't been on the Forums for a while and just noticed this. Could it simply be that the BBC reporters have been spending too much time covering the House of Commons and in doing so have developed a familiarity with slimy mammals?

I realise that this is somewhat trivial in comparison to some of the issues that have been raised on TLF of late, but still an existential question for your consideration. If two vegans have an ongoing and unresolved point of conflict, are they having a beef?

@silverfrost, thanks for the complimentary comments on the car although it is simply a driver that scrubs up well, not a show car. You will notice that all photos are taken from at least ten feet away 😉

Yes, that's my car in the side of the Packard. Here is another shot of the two cars side by side to get an idea of the relative size. Our involvement with the local hot rod scene is through a local shop that does high end restorations and builds - they have sent a car to Pebble Beach and fixed up my wife's car (not to that standard) a couple of years ago. Better yet, they organise three day tours for friends and customers twice a year with usually no more than 15 to 20 cars. These pics are from this year's spring tour. Great bunch of people, if a bit hard on the liver in the evenings. I am adding an extra shot of part of our contingent parked in the street outside our hotel in Port Townsend.