What did you do today?

[Charlie Horse]

I hardly talk about my many side projects other than my goat adventures.... So since I worked on one today...

On and off over the last 6 years I've been restoring an old Lotus Europa race car for a friend as part of a work trade, and just for fun. I finished sanding the primer today. Here's a pic from about 2 years ago when we first put some epoxy on it:



We're at the point where we need to buy paint, and we've done a lot of photoshop brainstorming to come up with the paint scheme we're going to go with. I've done over 20 variations and all kinds of colors...

Like British Racing Green


Black and gold are classic Lotus racing colors


And Red/White with Gold is what Lotus used when they were sponsored by a cigarette company


We decided on 2000 Corvette Millennium Yellow, which we saw at a car show. When we went to get the paint we found out it didnt have pearl or metalics like the one we saw, so we're going to have to add that. I photoshopped the car from the front with the Porsche Rainforest Green stripe and gold trim like we had planned. Then I added .... a goat related graphic. I thought it was fun. My friend doesn't think its very British. Its an ugly car anyhow so why not go nuts... but alas no evil goat head and runes this time. Booooo!



BTW, this Europa has been modified -- We've given it some haunches and flared the fenders and moved some lights around so its not so hard on the eyes. It was even uglier originally, with squared off wheelwells and slab sides. But it is ultra aerodynamic and insanely light, at about 1,350lbs and this one has about 170hp. Thats like half the weight of a Miata with all the same power. Its all fiberglass with only a metal backbone with suspension hanging off the corners. Even the seat bolts right to a fiberglass floor kinda like it was a boat. Despite its looks, I do like a car that can do a 90 degree corner at 90 mph, stops like a watch, and runs like a raped ape. This one has been too much work, though, and I have lots of other car projects I could talk about someday!