EspritFactFile

My Spidey-sense was tingling! I hardly ever hang around the forums any more, but lurk about from time to time. I just wanted to pop-in and say thanks for the kind words. I'll be patiently waiting by the mailbox for my champagne care package… Cheers, Karl-Franz Florida Lotus Owners' Group (FLOG) President http://www.espritfactfile.com http://karlfranz.com

Hi Trevor, Yes, the EFF's Registry may be a little buried for those not familiar with the structure of the site, but it is not a submenu of the Stevens section (i.e. you don't have to expand the Stevens section to see it). It is actually at the root level of the Models chapter which is the same level containing other topics such as the Guigiaro, Stevens, Price Guide, Production Numbers, VIN, etc.

Hi folks, For years several people have been bugging me to create a website to sell some of my automotive (and other) related artwork. Well, I'm proud to say that I finally got around to doing this. My online store just went live this week. It features many of my Lotus (and other car-related) prints. Feel free to check it out at: http://www.printskarlfranz.com/ I will be adding other Esprit prints that I have in the works in the weeks and months ahead. Your comments and suggestions are welcome. Cheers, Karl-Franz Florida Lotus Owners' Group (FLOG) President http://www.espritfactfile.com http://karlfranz.com http://printskarlfranz.com/

Bibs, I'm not here very often so I never caught this before, but isn't this registry a duplicated effort of the one that has been on my website for over 8 years? The registry located in the Models category has over 500 entries. Is there a way we can consolidate this list into mine? The one on my site is database driven and has additional fields. Either way here's my data: SCCFD30C9SHF63077 Norfolk Mustard 1995 Esprit S4s, Melbourne, Florida USA

Just a final reminder that the Celebration Exotic Car Festival is tomorrow (Saturday) in Celebration, Florida. Lotus is the honored marque this year, and from the registration roster it appears that this will be the largest collection of Loti we have ever had for a car show in Florida. We have Esprit, Exige, Elise, Elan, Europa, and we even have one of the 7 FIA GT Elise GT-1 racecars with the ZR-1 engine. (I saw this car race in 97 against McLaren F1's, Porsche GT1's and Mercedes CLK-GTR's.) We also have an S1 that was just flown in last week from England after undergoing a full Pebble Beach Concours restoration by Bell & Colvill. Should be a great time. Hope to see some of you there.

Hi Folks, The Celebration Exotic Car Festival will be held next month and Lotus is the honored marque! Dan Adragna and myself will be the judges in the Lotus category and we would like the opportunity to see and meet with all of you. The actual show is on Saturday, April 21st, but there are all sorts of other activities planned throughout the weekend that you may want to attend. If you look at the list of cars already registered, you can tell this isn't a puny-little car show. I mean, how many shows do you know that have two (2) Bugatti Veyrons? You can register online by clicking on the links in the info attached below. I hope to see many of you there. Cheers, Karl-Franz Florida Lotus Owners' Group (FLOG) http://karlfranz.com http://www.espritfactfile.com ======================================================================= Registration is OPEN! Celebration Exotic Car Festival April 20-22 200 Exotic Cars-20,000 Spectators-1 Great Cause Hello! Registration for the 4th annual Celebration Exotic Car Festival to benefit Make-A-Wish is now OPEN at: http://www.celebrationexoticcars.com If you have not yet registered, please click the link above to get to our website and register easily on-line! Check out pix from last years event at this thread: http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/sho...#post135761559 This is one of the best exotic car events anywhere! Celebration is the beautiful community developed by Disney, and is just minutes from the Walt Disney World Resort. Early registrations this year include the FXX, MC12, McLaren F1, CLK-GTR, Porsche GT1, numerous historic race cars, and 2 Bugatti Veyrons! The field of 200 exotic cars is typically about half Ferrari, and the balance made up of Lamborghini, Lotus, DeLorean, Pantera, Aston Martin, NSX, Maserati, other very rare exotics, race cars and some very impressive muscle cars. Friday, April 20 The fun starts with a welcome cocktail party and dinner at Columbia Restaurant in Celebration Saturday, April 21 The judged concours takes place along the waterfront of downtown Celebration, and is a spectacular setting with several sidewalk cafes and shops. Saturday Night This year the Saturday night party has taken a new direction! It will be casual, and the party itself will be held at the Atlantic Dance Hall on Disney's Boardwalk. Top shelf open bar, 5 star dinner (check out the menu at http://www.celebrationexoticcars.com/menu.aspx ) our fantastic annual live and silent auctions, incredible viewing of the EPCOT fireworks, and the a private concert with 80's bands Tone Loc, John Cafferty, and headlined by Loverboy! With 7 platinum albums between them, these bands sold out stadiums and arenas in the 80's, and are still as good as ever today! For more information about the party, including some music clips, check out: http://www.celebrationexoticcars.com/entertainment.aspx Transportation for the short ride from the Celebration Hotel will be provided. This will be THE party of the year! Sunday, April 22 Sunday morning there will be our annual rally, and this year we have a few surprises planned! All proceeds of the event are donated to Make-A-Wish. In 2006, we raised and donated $120,000! Come on out this year, have a great time, and help us achieve our goal of $200,000 this April! Please register early! This will be a sold out event, and registrations are running far ahead of last year. We have also blocked the entire Celebration Hotel, and have special discounted rates. Call 407-566-6000 for reservations and make sure you mention the Car Festival. See you there! Jeff Ippoliti

I think my car is starting to develop allergies to racetracks or at least allergies to doing parade laps instead of real track days. One time at Road Atlanta, my car's clutch "threw out" its throw out bearing while I was giving lister Manny Perez a drive around the track. I was unable to select gears and had to limp back from the hairpin (turns 6 & 7) to the pits in second gear. This New Year's Eve, my friend Michael did his first track day in his Elise at Sebring International Raceway. After doing some "spirited driving" at over 140 mph several times earlier that day, my car decided (again during parade laps) to refuse gear selection; once again forcing me to limp back to the pits in 2nd gear. This time, however, the symptoms were a bit different. It felt as if it was a mechanical problem in the pedalbox. The pedal clutch wouldn't wouldn't always go all the way down to the floor to let the clutch disengage. It was almost as if something was interfering with the pedal itself. The pedal also felt "crunchy" at times. Well driving home was fun that day. 130 miles from home at 6:00 pm on New Year's Eve with no clutch pedal and rev-matching in order to shift gears. When I got home, I took out the clutch master cylinder (which is ALWAYS more difficult than the Service Notes makes you think courtesy of the ABS mounting bracket) and disassembled it. What I found was 5 needle-sharp shards of metal that used to be the return spring in a previous incarnation. Hmmm... So that was the "crunchy" feeling in the pedal?!? Every time I pressed the pedal in, my master cylinder was chewing up pieces of spring for breakfast. BTW If you've ever seen a spring break, it's quite an interesting site. It doesn't just snap like you would expect. The ends of the break are not clean like if they had been done by wire cutters. Instead the metal shears into sharp daggers that could do some real damage. Fearing that this shrapnel may have scored the inside of the cylinder bore, I thought it best to replace the entire master cylinder instead of just the spring. JAE to the rescue! (As usual) Our friend, Jeff Robinson, overnited me a new clutch master and after some agonizing with the darn ABS mounting bracket...voil

Here's another treat:

From Lotus Limited website (http://www.LotusCarClub.org) Solid 5-Year Lotus Plan Heralds 3 New Models September 20, 2006 - Hethel England: Group Lotus is set for a bright future with a greatly expanded and extended car model programme and new opportunities for the engineering business on a re-aligned basis. Following a major review of the entire business and with the full support of the Lotus Group International Limited (LGIL) holding company board, Lotus intends to launch two additional new models over the next three years. This is in addition to the new Esprit, which will top the range as the company

Dr. Fish, You do realize that Mark included the pic of the white car as a means of showing the likely source of the Photoshopped Esprit picture, don't you? It may come as a surprise to you, but the "GT car where the driver and passenger are separated and can't talk to each other" is a real production car. It started out as a concept spyder version of the Lamborghini Gallardo known as the "Concept S" but, after many requests, Lambo has agreed to make a limited production run of the vehicle.

From our Lotus friend, Robb Rill Begin forwarded message: Hello Everyone, Thanks for all the feedback, and I am glad so many people have enjoyed reading the updates and viewing the pictures either through our email list or through our site at www.darkcydracing.com of our latest Bullrun event. Both the Lotus and the now infamous Navi are now being shipped back to Florida from Cali, and as soon as I get the Lotus back I will determine the extent of the damage by Bomber Bart on the Vegas to Cali leg. Thanks also to Karl-Franz for his suggestions on getting the Lotus fixed. With that said, more than a couple people who have read about our crazy adventures have asked my to compare the different rally events, either because they themselves want to participate in one, or just to get some perspective. I will try to provide the main differences, because they are all somewhat different, and certain events are more suitable than others. Gumball 3000 This is the first major event we did, and what an eye opener it was. It was basically the first modern Cannonball type event which started in Europe by Maximillian Cooper in 1999, and has been to the states a couple of times, although it is mostly known in Europe, where it is as well known as any motorsport event Of the three major Rallies which are Gumball 3000, Players Run, and Bullrun, this is clearly the hardest, and yet the most well known. We drove for the first 24 hours straight to the first checkpoint in Marbella, Spain with only a 15 minute stop in Madrid. Also the fact that that rally almost always starts at night with all night driving depriving people of sleep, is an assault on the psyche. Maximillian Cooper likes to consider this first stage the endurance and weeding out stage. When we were done with that first stage, a full 50 cars out of 180 were unaccounted for. I think the fact that he saves one nights hotel costs for over 400 people is the main reason for doing this, plus the weeding out process saves the organization quite a bit of money. Somewhat a similar philosophy of the Paris Dakar, although one cannot compare such events. The main reason to do Gumball is to understand what it is like to be a Rock Star for a week. Rolling into cities such as Vienna for example, with an estimated 200k fans, or even the starting point in London this year with over 100k fans to see the launch, is an experience few people in the world can ever understand. With that said, the experience involves so much driving in the fewest days, there is little time to socialize and meet the 400 or so other insane entrants from all walks of life, which is one of the main reasons you do such an event. Nobody who does such events is really normal, and to have the opportunity to meet so many other eclectic, eccentric people, is the major attraction. It also does its best to attract as many stars to the event as possible like Tony Hawk, Daryl Hannah, Adrian Brody, Jason Priestley, Jodie Kidd, and lots of B listers. I couldn't care less about this aspect, but apparently others like the star quality. They always hype people that are supposed to be on the event and never show, but do consistently bring in others. Gumball has also gotten a little out of touch on pricing in my opinion with entry fees now approaching 70k dollars just to enter. It is almost impossible to justify such costs, especially considering the other alternatives, which previously did not exist. regardless, it is a once and a lifetime experience if money is no object. Players Run This is the upscale version of modern Cannonball Rally Events organized by Markus Lex, after he did Gumball 3000 and sought ways to improve it with his first event in 2003. He continued the tradition of being selective to the types of people who would run in the event so he had a good eclectic group, but also made some significant improvements. One seemingly easy one that no other organization has done is have a luggage van. While this does not seem significant, when you are running several thousand miles in an exotic sports car, with about as much luggage space as an overnight bag and a toothbrush, it is shocking to me only his organization handles this. To top it off, Markus' staff made sure that all your luggage was actually in your room prior to arrival. When one has run 5,6,700 miles a day, its nice to not have to worry about hauling all your crap up to the room, so you can just turn around and haul it back down in the morning. Markus and his group focused the most on treating people like customers and not just people who should be thankful that they were admitted to the event. His event also focuses on other cool things such as police escorts throughout to track events etc., and incorporating helicopters and Yachts into it to keep things different. The hotels involved were all the highest quality and most consistent such as the Fairmont San Francisco, and the Mondrian in LA for example. Gumball had us sleep on the most disgusting overnight ferry with no air conditioning , and decrepit conditions crossing the Straights of Gibraltar, as an example of accommodations that were entirely not acceptable for the type of "glamorous" event it is billed as. Markus was the most approachable organizer of the event and truly wanted to put interesting people with each other. Max in contrast, would not even return a phone call in Spain when another fellow Gumballer needed help and had a question about crossing into Africa that only Max could answer. The main negative for Americans is that up until now all the Players Run events have been in the U.S., meaning tickets and potential arrest are significant liabilities. I have good reason to believe next year will be in Europe, so this will not be issue for any American participants. The other small drawback although is it is the shortest in time frame by 1-2 days. With all the prep that goes into participating for these rallies, including prepping, shipping, and getting the necessary issues resolved to participate, another couple days would make it more worth it. It is also the most social event by far, with more time to actually meet and share stories of the days with other entrants in order to make the most out of participating in such an event. I can honestly say I have met several people because of Players' Run that I expect will be life long friends. Without the opportunity to interact with people, this would not have been possible. It is also the cheapest ironically, and the costs were about 10k last year for entry, which is ironic since you get the highest level of hotels, service etc. If Europe is confirmed for Pr 07, I expect we will do this event with our entire Darkcyd group. Bullrun Bullrun which is the most recent event we did, was a pleasant surprise. founded by Andrew Duncan and David Green, this is the second most high profile event, which is a spinoff from Gumball 3000 in which David Green was Max's right hand man for many years. After Team Darkcyd entered the 5 car team, I only later saw the movie of the 04 event, and was dreading my decision. The 04 movie showed of bunch of immature juvenile delinquents constantly making crude sexual gestures, and lots of topless women also making crude and stupid gestures, that I wouldn't want to see for free. If this was emblematic of the event I was going to be on, I wanted no part. fortunately it was nothing like the 04 movie. The longest event of the 3 major modern rally events was 8 days total, was much cooler and hipper with a diverse crowd. The driving was not as insane as Gumball since it was spread out but we did end up with over 4k miles on the event. Because it was cross country, a lot of the roads were interstate which could not be helped. players run, designed the itinerary based on great roads. Also, like Gumball the problem was not enough time to socialize with all the interesting people to really share experiences and bond. Like Gumball and probably because this event was being filmed for spike TV, there was a focus on star power, and people like Carl Lewis, Mario Anderetti, Hayden Christiansen, and Corey Feldman were technically on the rally but only Lewis did the entire trip. I only saw Feldman at lunch after the first checkpoint freaked out that it was not quite the party he expected and with no navigation, maps, enough gas, he seemed very stressful. I never saw him again at that point and assume the stress put him back in rehab. He later showed at the final party in LA and I am positive he flew there by plane. The hotels were inconsistent but better than Gumball, and while the Hotel Gansevort, and the W in San Diego were top notch, Ceasors Palace and most of the others were just blas

Folks, Robb has posted some pics for this year's Bull Run. You can check them out at http://rill.smugmug.com/gallery/1729306/1 Cheers, KFM :-)

Day 7: Well I have to say leaving the W hotel in San Diego was difficult to do because we all enjoyed the hotel so much. the private party held on the second floor on the special rooftop bar was truly an experience I will not forget for a long time, and this comes from someone who does not drink. These events for me are not so much about driving, as about sharing a common experience with like minded people, from various walks of life. Bonding over stories about cops, speed, mishaps, all bring people closer together and this is the epitome of friendship. It really felt like the W was our final destination even though we had one more day to go , by heading to LA. The day started with a big mishap. The previous night which ended quite late for us that ended up at "the Beach" in which we had the equivalent of a private cabana in the corner of the area where we had a video camera, and camera bag was left by Peter and Bulent. All the pictures they had taken on the rally were on that camera, and more importantly both of their passports. While I gassed up the Bentley, Peter and Bulent tried unsuccessfully to find the bag with lost and found. Since I was driving the GT3rs for the first checkpoint it was their responsibility to gas up that car, which proved to be somewhat problematic later on. Our first checkpoint was California Speedway in Fontana , which I was at on the Players Run event. as usual everyone broke from the hotel like a shot out of a gun racing to the speedway. Bart who was not familiar with the Navigation system, was having trouble getting the stupid device to even turn on, as I am racing up on ramps at Challenge Cup speeds hoping I am even heading in the right direction. Traffic is pretty dense, but flowing and the only way I can describe our driving was being in a video game. Keep in mind the guy is to be ahead of the pack because if you are not, the police, who will have had time to organize, will reign you in regardless of whether you are speeding or not simply because you are part of the rally with sponsor decals all over the car, and numbers. The Navigation is still not working, so Bart is working the phones while I am barreling in and out of traffic, like some version of So based on the police scanner, we clearly determine we are one of the front runners as they are organizing to grab cars about 8 miles behind us. We also hear on the scanner they are requesting air support and although they would normally be only a couple minutes away, they need to refuel before doing so, thus allowing us about a 15 minute windows to make it before we have any issues. This is where the previous morning events come back to haunt us. As I am driving like Sterling Moss trying to procure a a victory, I see the gas alert light go on. now we started with a half a tank which Peter assured me would be enough, but traveling at such speeds we have emptied the tank, and not only are the police going to catch up with us, we are going to be pushing the car. It is also about this time when Bart gets one of the funniest calls I can remember. He gets a call from Kylie, his daughter, and very calmly informs her that we are currently busy being chased by the police and could he call her back in a few moments. What was funny is the even-keeled nonchalant manner in which he informed her, compounded by the absurdity of the situation. Two upstanding productive member of society with no criminal history racing a Porsche in LA to get to a checkpoint, for no other reason then we enjoy the thrill of the chase. Now in reality, to clarify we were not specifically being chased ourselves, and had a cop caught up with us I would have pulled over immediately. At about the same time we hear on the Scanner, that they are on the look out for a Black Navigator traveling at a high rate of speed which I can only assume is Jason. It is really weird to have your car mentioned on the scanner, but such is the nature of these events. So we pull off after informing Jason that we believe he is a wanted man so he can take a detour. We then pull off for gas which is now close to coasting on fumes. As soon as we make a right off the exit, we see a motorcycle cop who looks at us like we are aliens but does not stop us since we are not speeding. I then call Peter, curse at him for not leaving enough fuel in the car and hang up. Because of the fuel stop, we are now behind everyone and it would be dangerous to continue on the same route, so we take a detour, and arrive at California Speedway about 15 minutes behind the main pack with no issues. After about an hour we have the requisite drivers meeting and do some laps behind the pace car in with Aaron and I in the GT3Rs. The girl behind me was Anabelle who got arrested, although her twin brother was driving and he could use some driving lessons. and had that Z06 not had stability control, he clearly would have lost it entirely. Instead he just offroaded the car sideways. Tara tracked the Bentley and then we were off to the final destination which was the Beverly Hills Hilton. Unfortunately, the final checkpoint was supposed to be on Wilshire Blvd but because the group wreaked so much havoc running from one side of the country to the other, the city of Beverly Hills pulled the permit. Based on that info, we planned just to roll into the hotel nice and slow since it was already anti-climatic. But adventure begins when tires start going as planned. The tires could take no more on the Porsche and Bart noticed the tire was going flat quickly. We immediately pulled off and got to the first gas station. The problem was the GT3Rs is a car not even sold in the US and the tire on it made for only two cars in the world. So 15 miles from the hotel we were stuck. To make a long story short, we called a flat bed and 2 blocks from the hotel we put Peter and Bulent in the car on the flatbed, put the Bentley in front, rolled down the windows with our arms hanging out, turned on the best track number 6 which was rap music from the Entourage CD, and rolled in style to be seen by nobody since we were 2 hours late. Ha- how anti-climatic is that. We then had a great party at Social Hollywood on Sunset blvd. We had a crew of 12 so with no ability to grab a cab Alex rented us a Black stretch 600 Benz, and we rolled in with style. We had Kevin from Players Run join us and the funny thing was since it was a party closed to members outside of the event, we gave him a lanyard to get him in and they gave him an award as a driver. Ha! We drove 4000 miles and he gets an award for driving to the party. It was disappointing that Jason did not get an award for his efforts and to some degree it was politcal. Such is life. We then rehashed all the stories and heard new ones. Tara was exhausted and Alex and Danyell wanted to party so after seeing the Cuban Brothers perform, we took the limo to drop them off at another club and called it a night. I currently sit in the lobby of the Beverly Hills Hilton with the whole Darkcyd crew and we are getting ready to roll to lunch. I will later do a write up comparing the events and my thoughts. Until then, Robb

Day 6 It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. Today was a spectacular except for one incident, that I will go into detail about later. The day started about 8:30 while we were loading the car and Alex was trying to get the Darkcyd Gallardo fixed for today's stage which was first to Las Vegas Speedway at the Carol Shelby factory. We all got a tour of the factory which includes making the AC Cobra based on the original 1965 model. In fact, they had Carol Shelby's original model which is still titled in his name on display. we also saw the Hertz GTH special cars being produced of which today the last one ever produced rolled of the line so to speak. We then took a lap on the old Las Vegas race track with all our cars, including the Darkcyd Navi. Before we switched, Alex called and the Lambo was had to have the clutch replaced, which could not be done in time, so Alex and Danyell had to fly to our ultimate destination which was San Diego. An interesting sidenote- the reason the car was not drivable was because the Lambo has a sensor on the clutch plate. When it gets too low it puts the car into limp mode, to prevent further damage to the car. We then did a Chinese fire drill, and Bulent took the Bentley with Holly and Aaron, I took the GT3Rs with Peter, Bart took the Lotus with Tara, and Jason our Darkcyd star who had been upsetting the front runners by beating them in a 55k dollar SUV bombed away as usual with the luggage. Our destination was Lake Havasu, and although Peter and I missed two turns on the way to the main highway, because he was too stubborn to try and figure out how to turn the volume on the Navigation, after only 20 minutes, I caught all of our group, except for the Darkcyd Navi, which I have never caught. we were pushing really hard, and the road leading to Havasu which is 95 South, and there was nothing around so I really tested some limits, since I felt we were front runners which make it much safer from being concerned about police. Any time you are middle of the pack, the police have had time to organize and you were certainly at minimum get some tickets. There are exceptions to every rule though, and today was one. I blew by a cop at speeds I think would be ill advised to publish. I immediately got ready to just pull over , even though he did not hit his lights. Peter was freaking because he thought we were going to jail for sure, and honestly so was I. But for reasons I cannot explaining, he did not stop. So we continued on until we were blocked by a train. This allowed a couple Bullrunners to catch up, and we all quickly got into the town of Lake Havasu about 15 minutes later. The road we're supposed to use to arrive at our destination was South Mccullough Blvd, and our pit stop was a little island hut. The problem was that the Navigation could not distinguish properly the fact that South Mccullough was directly on top of North Mccullough, by being over a bridge confused everyone's navigation and kept putting people in a loop. as a result, pandemonium broke out all over town as the people were driving in every direction to solve the problem. We finally got directions from Jason in the Navi and Peter and I found it and arrived about 13th. While we waited for the Bentley and the Lotus, we grabbed some snacks and the Red Porsche 928 arrived called team Canada. The girl in the car asked the group who owned the Lotus, and I responded that I did. She then called me an asshole basically , until I informed her, I was not driving my own car. When Tara and Bart finally arrived, I learned that about 4 cars were following the Lotus when it was trying to turn around to get on the proper street and instead of following in a u turn they all cut the Lotus off to beat it to the checkpoint. I informed Bart about her attitude, and he went up to her and her husband to discuss, and while he was cool, the wife did not ever seem satisfied, even though our car was the one that was cut off. Anyway, we decided to Chinese Fire drill again, and I took Aaron and Holly with me in the Bentley, with Peter and Bulent back in the Porsche, and Bart and Tara remaining in the Lotus. after a quick gas stop, we found an alternative route to what most would take and took off. The roads were isolated, undulating and fast. I quickly lost the others, even though the GT3 left ahead of us to do recon. We went through some beautiful mountains, an area called the Sand Dunes near the Mexican border, and then rolling hills followed by the beautiful wind turbines in the background. The Darkcyd Navi kept reporting cops ahead and for the most part were were ok by the time we saw them. Since there were so many people taking different routes, it was difficult for them to organize. After one pit stop at a gas station that took no more than 5 minutes, we eventually caught up with the Darkcyd Navi even though they left the first checkpoint 20 minutes earlier. There is a governor on that car limiting it to 110, and the Bentley obviously has no such limitations. I then caught a new Z06 and silver Porsche, and knew that being only 75 miles outside of San Diego I was in contention for top 3. Since I knew I would take it easy on the last day, I knew this was my chase to help Jason with another top 5 finish. The girl in the z06 who is doing the run with her fraternal twin brother, passed me like I was going 50 and I quickly learned she must be British because when she was in the fast lane she always put her left blinker on to encourage others to move out of her way. Knowing that would not help since most Americans have never been to Europe, I passed her and it was a sprint to the finish. We called Alex who was waiting at the checkpoint, which was a train station, for better directions based on traffic, since he is from San Diego, and with the Audi driven by "skinny" by the producers of a new movie about the Pan American rally, Brent and Kevin for chasing me to the finish, we made unexpected right turn and beat them to the finish to record my first top 5 finish for Team Darkcyd, and the only time I beat the Darkcyd Navi. We then got a tour of a private train, owned by Paul Mitchell (who, when I met, I did not realize who he was) and got a nice tour of his Train car with full kitchen, multiple bedrooms, and a living room. I also met the girl in the Z06, who was from Europe as I thought, and learned she was arrested only the day before for excedding 105MPH. I then got the call I should have dreaded. Tara called to tell me the Lotus engine gasket blew at very high speeds when they were dog fighting in the mountains with our GT3. My only concern was getting them a flatbed to get the car to a secure place and get both Bart and Tara, quickly to the W hotel which is where we were staying. If anyone on this email list from the Lotus group can give me a good mechanic to ship the car too, I would really appreciate the help. Perhaps Karl-Franz can suggest someone in Florida. When they eventually got to the hotel, I learned how aggressive they were being. Bart got the car up to 165 and the GT3 driven by a very capable German could not keep up. He then saw oil spewing from the rear very badly and quickly like an oil slick from a James Bond Movie. I can't blame the car, which has been so good too me and taken so much hard driving. Perhaps Bart will just add the car to his collection in its current state like a retired race car, and just let me have the Bentley in return-lol We all then went to the special party held for us at the W on their second floor "Beach" which is one of the coolest spots I have ever been at a hotel. We all finally just got in, and it is past 3 AM as I write this. Tomorrow, we head to a race track, and then to the end in La. Thanks to everyone for all the encouraging emails, and we hope to see some of you tomorrow night in LA. Cheers, Robb