And what did we buy today?

Too each their own.
Here are two of my own.
Just bought a removable water pump timing chest for the S4 DHC (soft top) to cure the original design weakness in the venerable Lotus Twin Cam motors. Not a problem with race cars with their 8-20 hr. rebuild intervals, but in a street car, it's nice to not have to pull the motor to change a water pump!
Downside is it cost more than 2 fresh heads and 24 new valves for my buddy's Toyota pickup.
 

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Bob, let me know if you find one- my goggles and helmet are ready!


Here are two of my own.

Beautiful!!!

My brother and I watched this one race at Road Atlanta about 30 years ago. It absolutely outran a 427 Cobra. Side-by-side all-out acceleration on the front straight? Nope, the Elan eased ahead. Surely coming off the looong back straight the 427 would be ahead. Nope, Lotus still out front. The Cobra was lifting the inside tire through corners, too- he had nothing left to give. The Elan started in pole position and never gave up an inch. The big-block Corvettes and 911's couldn't even join the party. I have big respect for the little car.
 

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Is this not a DIY forum? Start with the Lotus Super 7 concept, clone it into a kit car in the same manner as the countless Shelby Cobra kits. There are several Super 7 clone kits, but most are found in the UK. One was called Locust after the name of a Super 7 in a movie or video game, I forget which. Then another kit maker called his the Locost since it used a donor car for most of the running gear bits much like the Factory Five Cobra kit starts off with an 80's vintage Mustang.

Then stuff in a turbo charged Nissan motor and upgrade the suspension......windscreen? who needs it? Actually everyone in the USA, a requirement for being street legal. Full "fenders" are required too. My friend got stopped by the cops a lot for driving his "race car" on the street, a street legal Super 7. The Florida license plate AND inspection sticker should have been the give away.

Who is gonna build one of these:

THIS TERRIFYING KIT CAR HAS MORE POWER TO WEIGHT THAN A *BUGATTI VEYRON* - YouTube

Locost Turbo - YouTube
 
I caught the Locost bug several years ago...but having owned and worked on VAG product for so long I found my online obsessing took me in the direction of wanting a Lotus 23 after discovering a Google group based out of New Zealand devoted to Lotus and replicas.

One gent built an amazing 23 replica using the 1.8t VAG motor and a longitudinal tranny out of a Passat. I had most of the drivetrain parts already...and started collecting more parts.

My intention was to get a body pulled from molds from a company on the West coast. Instead, I happened upon a rare mid engine body designed by John Sabel.

The project still hasn’t gotten off the ground yet. The house got in the way.

I impulse bought a low mileage Z3 this spring as a band aid to hold me over.

Pics are my body on former owners race chassis...a pic of what I wish it to look like when it’s done...and the band aid.

Today I bought a refurb Mac Mini to set up a digital front end with my first DIY DAC.
 

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It is brandless, made in China, the model is 4050 FWIW, I bought it on AliExpress AKA the Chinese Amazon, there are a ton of similar engravers there, I wanted one that had a 50cm working area and a 15W laser so I can engrave 19" rack anodized aluminum front plates. Apparently it will engrave aluminum but the line width will be very thin, I dont care about that very much since I'll only use it for scales and labels.
 
Compound Sliding Mitre Saw and a 100T blade for alauminium cutting. Going to order the alu bar so that I can start building a new case for my Bedini amp.


@AnalogJoe - Where did you buy the engraver? Purely academic, I probably won't have the money for this for a while still.
 
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I've had an aluminum blade for my mitre saw for a couple of months now, and I love it. Doing case stuff I never would've attempted before.


Only downside is the "snowstorm" of aluminum flakes (my dust collection is not so good). I did find a foam filter for a wet-dry shop vac that fits over the saw's motor housing. It's already got a few flakes stuck in it - glad to see them there and not in the motor, heh.
 
Compound Sliding Mitre Saw and a 100T blade for alauminium cutting. Going to order the alu bar so that I can start building a new case for my Bedini amp.


@AnalogJoe - Where did you buy the engraver? Purely academic, I probably won't have the money for this for a while still.

I bought it at AliExpress, the chinese Amazon...

I got it with a 40% discount, there are a lot of sellers selling similar items so you really need to dig in, it is quite overwhealming some times, but many times I find stuff there (chinese stuff) that is considerably cheaper than eBay or Amazon.

How much did you pay for your mitre Saw, if you dont mind me asking?
 
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