From: "AJ Finch"
Michael,
I realise I promised you some stuff _ages_ ago, and I haven't forgotten.
I just haven't got around to it yet.
Here are some thoughts etc. I'll get around to something a bit fuller later...
Here are some pics of my car ("Morag"). Nothing very exciting, I'm afraid. I had her delivered without the "Elise" Logo, and I've got a "Morag" sign done in the same typeface (or as close as I could get). I'll get a photo of that.
She's been lots of fun already. I've taken the front number plate off twice! Once in a car park, where the kerb was just the right height - it's really difficult to see where her nose ends - and once when reversing from a flat road onto a steep slope. Luckily, the boys at Lotus have come up to the mark, and the mounting is easily re-fixed with some trim fixers (the plastic pins with ridges down the side so youkind you can just push them in and they stick) 6 of them sort the problem out fine. I travel with a ready supply!
The roof does leak slightly when confronted with the fullness of English Weather. The top of the door glass and the edge of the roof don't quite meet as well as they might towards the front. I don't know what the answer is, but I try and come up with one every time it rains hard.
I fitted a pair of nice-looking aluminium window-winders - much nicer than the plastic originals. The only trouble is that if they get even a little loose, they catch the door as you wind the windows and leave a nice scratch in the paintwork. hmmm..
I went away for a week's holiday recently, and I fairly easily got a week's stuff in the boot. Hedgren do a holdall that's just the right size. It's easier to get in than out, because of the way the boot lock sticks out over the actual boot space. It's do-able, though. Anyway, I've decided that if I get married, it'll have to be to a girl who (i) doesn't carry much luggage and (ii) is small, so her stuff fits in the passenger footwell (*joke*)
That might all sound a bit negative, but those are just the problems. The bonuses are difficult to express in words. I've got one of _the_ coolest cars in the world! She looks amazing - there are so few already on the road. The technology that went into designing and building her is not just incredibly advanced - it's really _clever_. I mean she's elegant in every possible sense of the word.
(and from a second note...)
I thought you'd like to know that I've had the removable steering wheel fitted to "Morag", at a cost (including labour and VAT (Tax)) of GBP 400.00. It's quite cool, and makes it a bit easier to get in and out when the roof's on. (Especially for anyone like me, who's a little - er - bigger than the should be ;).
The one tricky thing is that the wheel has a little locking mechanism so you can leave the car and no-one can just walk off with the steering wheel (that would be bad!). This lock basically consists of a tiny lock barrel which slips into a hole on the wheel to lock it in place. You get a key to lock the barrel in place. You get a spare key, but you don't get a spare barrel, and it's going to be _really_ easy to loose. But you're not going to want to leave it locked in the whole time (in fact, I hardly ever use the lock - to secure the steering wheel when I leave the car, I just stick it in the boot). So what are we going to do with this microscopic barrel? Well, the barrel will stay on the key just as long as it stays in the unlocked position. So, I've got a chunky drinking straw and cut a slit down one side to take the projecting bits, and to hold the 2 sections in the locked position. I just slip this over the barrel, and I can keep the whole lot on my key-ring. :- )