MPx

If you want to put a plate on retention its £80 and that covers the fee for (re)assigning it to a car later. It looks like that is an 04 plate and therefore not original to the car which is newer, right? If so, that '04 plate will not be reissued to the car when your new plate is taken off, you will be allocated a relevant age related plate by DVLA - I'm guessing an '09 for an LE and it will be the original '09 allocated number if that has not since been reallocated. If you don't retain it, the 04 plate will go back onto DVLAs books and they will sell it again, probably in one of their auctions, if/when they think they can make some money on it. That might be when one of the manufacturers comes out with their new EVO 4 or similar.

V-Power was £1:99.9 in Wincanton on Friday. So we've made it to the £9 gallon.

There's a lot of scare mongering about this on the EV sites, but as is often the case there is a grain of truth in it too. Kimbers is wrong - there have been several (many?) fires from using granny chargers on a UK three pin plug. This is not the fault of the charger, it is a problem with the basic design of our standard plug/socket. Because we added the safety of a fuse into the plug there are many metal to metal interfaces. As they age they tarnish and build up a slight resistance to current flow. SO that's fuse to holder and plug pins to socket receptors. Uniquely in a domestic environment a car charger will typically draw 10amps continuously for many hours. With even slight resistance in the path, heat can build up significantly and eventually will set fire to the socket and anything combustable surrounding it. If you use a new socket with a new charger plug the risks are extremely low for years. If you use something old with a bit of play in it then you're asking for trouble. Edit: to say as Simon suggests, a 16amp commando plug/socket is a much more suitable connection. The snag is that the 13 amp charger plug will normally have overheat protection built in to it which you would lose if just cut off and replaced with a Commando.

My aerial is right side - I suspect all RHD cars have a RH aerial?? Justin's aerial base is completely different to our S2 as it has the threaded portion on the base whereas the threaded part is on my aerial - female recepter in the base on the car. The yellow wheels have been copied more widely since, but AFAIK as an original factory finish was only for the Jim Clark specials and there were just 12 of them.

If it was a Blue +2 Elan and a Green Elise on the trailer then those guys (father and son) were at Castle Combe today. Not an entirely happy story so will let them take it up if they're on here...

See you there then... (in the M100 this year)

No...

Yeah, but I've never heard of anyone riding a bike while "waiting" a year or two for their Morgan...

I sort of get this sentiment, but it doesn't ring true. I too would like Lotus to be on the front foot with news and updates, but on they other hand they've caught a load of bad press on here for the length of time from announcement to delivery for the Emira. What more can they say other than we're planning to produce a family of new cars over the next few years - ie saying nothing other than they intend to stay in business. Pre-announcement of something you can't have can be just as much of a turn off. So they have decided on teasers and no comment for the most part. But does it really loose customers? Not having the car to sell loses customers, but not telling them about something in the (distant) future probably doesn't. I thought I was unusual in keeping cars for many years. Most seem to buy on 2/3/4 PCP plans or similar and even if not change their cars every 2 or 3 years (or less!) just for a change. So all those ready to buy now obviously can't have a 134 so will buy something else. When it does come out (track record suggests >2yrs stated rather than less) then most would be ready for their next change, or the one after that anyway. I'd suggest very few would "wait" for a car for two years as Ken says he would, no matter what they announced.

Congrats Keith and well done on finding one you like. Completely different (and slower!) compared to your Evora of course, but also night and day cross country compared to a Spitfire. There's little that can outhandle an M100 on real roads, particularly in the wet. Enjoy...

Odd that they've chosen not to say anything. Was talking to a dealer at the w/e who said their cars were delayed too....but he said not for the reasons we might expect like component shortages but some kind of kick back from the type approval process which means they've needed to make a minor change or two at the last minute to get the paperwork signed off.

I recogonise driving those roads by the water tower for a couple of years on my way to London Bridge, including using those archway tunnels right next to it. Cant remember ever having seen the water tower though - observant driver me!

Thanks for the postings Keith. For those of us not yet assimilated into the Borg its helpful to have cross posts like this...tho' can't see Ian's pics, only James's.

Well that was a lot bigger/better than I expected. Some lovey cars came out of the woodwork - no doubt helped by the sun. Very good bacon bap and latte. Expecting their first Emira's at the end of May having suffered another delay...so will probably be there for the next one. Nice to see the Astons/Porkers and other stuff as well as the usual suspects. Great drive in the M100 - and back home before 12. What's not to like...

Not got any you really want Tony, but I found 3 from MBW in 2016 when I spoke to your dad for a while about the M100. This one with Cliff And these two...

I'm amazed you could ever fit in working for Lotus given all the cars you've got to look after....

That's a bit disappointing at sub £15k from a dealer like Matty. £15k is the min I'd take for mine - and as a 57k miler! Oh well looks like I'll be hanging on to it for a while more yet then.... Thanks for the sticker offer Mark, not got any...but not really a sticker man. Enjoy using my LEC pint glass though - are they rare too?

A record for me...first time over £150

I'll go lower...£16995

As I said to Andy in a similar thread a while back, I think life is more about having fun than just having material stuff (though that stuff can add to the fun). But in retirement you need to have all sorts of things you want to do and then make sure you've got enough dosh to cover doing those things. If you dont have stuff to do, you'd very quickly get bored and need ever more money to find things to distract you from your boredom. I retired in 2006 and always have more things to do than I can fit in. Like Keith we sold up in the SE and moved West netting £100k or so while still getting a substantially bigger place. One "benefit" of a big place is the endless jobs and maintenance required to keep it going ... and as luck would have it I like having endless projects doing the place up....but that pace has to be adjusted to match income/cashflow. One thing where I'm probably different to most is that I dont regard "mortgage free" as a good thing. When we peg it I have absolutely no interest in anyone else enjoying my money. If I could book a date that would be best but given the unknown I'd like to run out of equity soon after I'm 80 or so. While I know lots of 85+ year olds, I dont know any whose life I envy no matter how rich they are. So I'm not looking to fund that to any great degree - we'll manage on pension income alone if we manage to survive that long. We were mortgage free for about a decade, but I thought it daft having significant equity in the house when I'd have more fun spending the money (again!). Mortgage money has been very cheap for the last 15 years or so - maybe not so going forward. So having use of £200k costs me £270/mth. Seems fair....

Just paid £1:78.9 for v-power at my nearest shell...

In general oil and filter change every year is a minimum for me - the only times I've missed on one of the cars is a couple of years SORN and one year with 35 miles covered. If its a low milage car then really I'm looking at time not milage changes and (eg) things like belts on the Esprit are 4 years and Elan 5 years whether they've been anywhere or not. However, I do keep my cars for many many years and like them working well. If you (or your Mum) are into swapping out every 2 or 4 years then it really doesn't matter much and doesn't appear to impact values - just maybe how hard to sell, but WBAC etc dont really care.

Congrats Paul...good decision!

If you want white Paul, you can have Lionel for £35k....😉

Deliberately not. But as you know I like messing about with my houses and that's a right pain if you have to ask permission every time you reach for a tool or paint brush. On the other hand, depends where it is. If no one can see it, then enforcement is unlikely as no one will complain!