Nonetheless, here I am! Greetings from San Francisco, California.
No M100 yet but am in process (which should take a couple of months, certainly) of wrenching my pal's M100 out of his hands. Red, one owner, low miles, well maintained, not yet in the registry. He's got way too many cars, and too many people in his family. My household consists of just the heiress and I, she's about 4.75 years old as of this date. Our manny takes the subway.
Mostly I'm tired of driving her around in my short-wheelbase, high roof, rack and shelves equipped sprinter van. The views are great, the performance is amazing, but I'm literally driving around in a toolbox. Not very relaxing on a road trip, even though the mileage can't be beat out of the Benz's I5 CDI. As a biker guy, slowly aging and parenting and medicating my way out of hooligan status (killed a BMW 1150GS clutch in 24k miles), the M100 seems a good cross-conversion from two wheels. I may even sell the GS, which is... I dunno, that bike is me and has been me for a long time.
Of my car history, aside from the Sprinter, all have been FWD or quattro/AWD. I grok understeer and oversteer freaks me the hell out. Last I tried performance driving in a RWD coupe was the mid-eighties, I was 16, in a friend's Datsun 240Z, and we spun nearly all the way around before thankfully coming to rest in the middle of the road.
Topics of current interest, for the acquisition and upgrading of my new ride, are likely expected enough as to be cliché at this point: brakes, hard top (I'm SOL, right?), respray (she's red but not terribly faded), headlights, chip, roll bar (see above: heiress). Exhaust when it's due, and for once I'm actually not happy with the stock wheels' aesthetics and may consider replacements to actually be money well spent. And Hallie H. Selassie, do they *all* leak in torrents, or is this more of a UK experience given the scope and quantity of downpours back in the old country? Oh, right, this is the introduction node. Ahem.
A good friend has an Evora and she hasn't let me near it. I've long been a Lotus fan, even my urq and A4QA were BR Green (ish). My uncle races SCCA vintage and thinks I'm crazy, but as his rides are Lolas and Crosleys I think I'm on the right track. I also quite appreciate that the M100 is the redheaded step-child of the marque, that kind of underdog status appeals to me (my eventual Ferrari will be a Dino, my Harley would be an Aremacci or AMF disaster, etc). It must be amusing to mess with the other Lotusistis' heads about it.
Thanks all for the resource, the brain-trust, the community. I've been lurking and reading on and off for a few weeks.
Might as well throw down with a jpg:
- duh, i knew better than to try to cross the darker brown!
