W00t: Great weekend ahead!

This next few days are going to be great. On Friday a quick blat to Montejunto with FiLi, an experience track driver and enthusiast. Really looking forward to do that road again and to a nice lunch talking about my favorite topic with someone that really knows about driving :-)

The big one is on Saturday, though. The first big Lotus meet in Portugal which includes a 100 km blat up to the North of Spain. Oh yeah!

Pics will be posted, have no worries. My co-driver on Saturday is JCPR, a Lotus enthusiast that I me through SELOC / AHO. He's a great photographer.

Anyway, I'll be at Bela Cruz at 10.30 or so, in Foz (Porto). Stop by to say hi, chat about Lotus and see all the other guys arrive.

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This is sad :(

OMG!

I just went to check the pics of the meet last saturday and apparently the post below was interpreted as saying that some people were crap or the whole AHO is crap. (sigh)

In spite of not wanting to post in AHO anymore, I was tempted to post one last message explaining this. That will teach me to use american colloquialisms when I have a Portuguese readership. Hell, I didn't even know I had a readership.

Anyway, if someone comes and reads this without checking the Forum, the gist of my message was that I was using crap as in the expression 'my boss gave me crap', to mean grief not as in the expression 'I went to take a crap' to mean 'sh*t'.

I was referring to conversations that I had about the closing on my diary of the Lotus that sort of revived the whole exprience from which I wanted to stay away that day, so that I could enjoy it in the company of my fellow enthusiasts.

Oh well...

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Meet this saturday

Had a blast on Saturday. Drove in a group to Fatima up the highway. The highlights of the trip were an empty tunnel in CREL where I was able to let the Stage II sing its best song. It was soo good I wet myself :-D

The meeting was great. Again the Lotus was the star even with a couple of Fezzas around (a 360 and a 355 spyder). No fun roads where the meeting was held, but did take a few trips. The brakes felt a bit strange. On the trip back they seemed to be OK though. There are a number of very nice pics of my car. Check them out here (don't forget to check until the end of the thread

Not sure I'll go on another one. It got tiring to have to deal with the crap from some of the other members of the AHO forum :-(

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Track rat

I am really committed to go to be a proficient track driver. I thought I would do that in the Lotus, but I just can't afford an accident right now. I am planning on buying a Caterham as soon as I can. It may seem like a waste of Lotus, but the only reason that I'm going to be using the C'ham instead is because I can afford a C'ham repair, but not the 10K+ that a Lotus costs.

Anyway, the Exige S is still an epiphany on mountain roads, and it is used as it's meant to be there.

Kind in a sour mood today because I closed by online log book, so I'll probably take it for a spin tonight to wind down.

Back here

Well, my log book at AutoHoje is gone because some users just kept hammering me. No way I was going to take that kind of crap from people. I was constantly judged on how scared I was of my car by people that had not taken a single drive in a mountain road with me.

It was hurting my development as a driver by putting unduly pressure on me :-(
So I'm moving my experience as a Lotus owner to this blog.

Enjoy.

Upcoming car meets

Lots of social activity for me and my little Lotus. On Oct. 27th we're going on a meet for rare and historical cars and the weekend after that we are going on a Lotus only car meet. Hurray!

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Newest car line up

Since I got the Exige S, I really do not see the point of bigger and better, only different. I also became increasingly passionate about Lotus. As things stand now, this is the lineup.

1. Lotus Exige S (check)



2. Lotus 2-11 / Caterham if the 2-11 is not road legal



3. Historic Lotuses, probably beginning with a 23B

Pax rides last night

Went to a car meeting last night and gave 4 pax rides. Check out the pic:

Joy across all blogs!

Busy driving the new toy. Not much time to publish...

The Lotus compared with regular cars

There is a great thread over on elisetalk with pics of the Elise and the Exige next to regular cars. Some of the pics are amazing. The one below is my favorite:

More nesting

Just picked up my own Multivex Mirrors from the mail (ordered from hangar 111). Now I just need to get a bigger horn.

Nesting

Got leather racing gloves from Luvaria Ulisses in Lisbon. A Classic Team Lotus shirt from an F1 memorabilia store at the airport. Also bought a Nuvi 360, very happy with it except for the voice instructions in portuguese, which is appalling! I immediately installed the Portugal speed trap database.

Here's a pic of the Nuvi 360.



Here's a pic of the Classic Team Lotus shirt.

Data acquisition on track

Haven't tested any of the products below, but I have read about them in online fora and thought it would be interesting to post.

First there's ChronoGPS which is a free piece of software for Windows Mobile devices. Lots of features and hgey, it's free! Virtua cup follows a similar approach, but with more features. You have to pay for it, though.

The cheapest datalogger (and not so bad, this is the one I want) is the Performance Box (used in shows like Top Gear). Very compact and looks great. Not sure if it features backlight, though. But you wouldn't be timing your driving at night now, would you?

If you don't want to go all the way, there's always GPS speed sentry.

Exige S delayed :-(

Got a call from the dealer. I'm going to have to wait a few more weeks.

:-(

Britcars all the way

I spent ome time in China and I had the opportunity to think for a bit about cars. I found out about the ultima GTR and realized that the only reason I would pick a 360 CS over the GTR would be to be able to tell people that I had a ferrari. Me... a poser! So screw that. New car lineup is:

1. Lotus Exige S (coming in 3 weeks!)



2. Ultima GTR



3. Ariel Atom

>
4. Probably something bike-powered, like the Westfield XTR4 (it is street legal)

Nesting for the Lotus: Shoes

Building the nest for the upcoming arrival of the Lotus. First step: get some new rubber for my own feet :-)
(Mine are brown and *do not* have the Ferrari logo)

Hooray for Geneva and light cars!

The Aston Martin N24



The Gallardo SuperLeggera



The Exige GT3



The Lotus 2-11



The KTM X-BOW



.... and Ferrari finally announced the Light Pista!

w00t! Pulled the trigger on an Exige S

Finally!!!!!

Put my deposit down for a (Chrome Orange) Lotus Exige S on Feb 19. Should be here in May!

Can't wait!!!!!

:-D

Holy shit! I have the cash!

It's really happening. I just reached my 40K target to get the lotus. I'll be making the call to the salesman later this mornig. OMG!!!!1!!!

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How to drive

Now that I am about to get an exige, it's time to get some lessons in real world driving.