one has bottled it so far. Must not be driving quick enough!
Wow!  What is the probability of that??!!  Chet, where are you in the US?
I guess now that I've posted a bit I should probably introduce myself.
feeling about HP is that too much is nearly enough.
which I can't get to 60 in my driveway, etc.
(this one should top or at least get near 60 in the driveway).
I was 13 or so when I first became aware of Sevens.  Car and Driver had a feature on kit cars with a Caterham SuperSprint along with an AC Mk IV (V?) a Beck 550 Spyder and I think something else.  The Caterham was my instant fave.  The fact that it was so cool-looking, so quick, so blessedly simple and the cheapest of the lot to boot was too much for me.  I was in love.
Anytime any magazine had an article about a Caterham I'd read it almost daily for a month.  At some point in college or shortly thereafter I was home visiting the folks and caught the briefest glimpse of a Caterham or Lotus 7 zipping away from a traffic light.  My first spotted!
Right after college and starting work I got in touch with the then-distributor down in Georgia (can't remember the name now) and got them to send me all the information they could.  I was going to have one, dammit!  Of course I couldn't afford it at the time.  I asked a couple of banks about financing one.  You can guess the responses.
So I waited 5 or 6 more years and in the meantime moved to Canada for a couple of years for work.  I was single, no kids, getting a 5% premium for international assignment and benefitting from a friendly exchange rate and a generous tax adjustment from my employer.  Though not a goal at the beginning, towards the end of my 2 years there in 2001 I realized I had put away enough cash to buy a Caterham (a cheap one at least).
I got my first ride (and soiled trousers) when I flew to Nebraska to look at one (funny the things you'll do for these cars), nearly bought a SuperSprint Classic that Dave LeBrun had built, though he sold it before I made a decision, and finally made arrangements to buy a Live Axle kit from Autocourse and a 1700 XFlow from Marcovicci-Wenz Engineering.
I built the car over the winter and had my dream car at age 27, 14 years after the beginning of the affair.
I haven't racked up the miles that some have, but my 7200 miles or so have brought me all kinds of fun and excitement (some not requested; read deer).
OT a little, I'm really looking forward to the prospect of a bona fide Sevens club in the US.  I have a good friend who's also a car guy and has been with me to the USGP gathering a couple of times and he's said on several occasions how impressed he was by the camaraderie and inclusiveness among the Seven owners there when compared with other owners groups he's come across in the past.
Sorry that went so long!  I can also be a loquacious SOB sometimes!
xflow... Your story motivated me to repeat how I came to own my Rotus (I'm sure I have posted this somewhere before). Back in '89 I was a junior at University of Maryland. At the time I had started working on the FSAE program, and like all other car nuts here, I loved the idea of the simplest, lightest possible car on the road.
At the time, I saw a kit car article on Rotus. It turns out the company was 30 minutes from where I lived, so I gave them a call and went up to Hagerstown, MD to take a look.
I sat in the car, touched the ground, and knew that I was in love.
After I graduated, JUST LIKE YOU, I tried to finance one, and got the same answer.
Years went by, got married, had 2 kids, etc... Never really gave the Rotus much thought. But magically, through all the moves, kept the brochures.
At some point, I ran across Joe Worsleys (Old Yellow forum member) Yahoo! user group for Rotus and signed up.
For a couple of years, I never posted, but kept receiving occasional messages. Finally, one day I saw a message from Tim Custer - I recognized the last name (Chris Custer was the founder of Rotus).
I found out that Chris Custer had passed away in 2002, and Tim was about to have an estate auction. I looked up his number in the white pages, and gave him a ring, inquiring about any cars that might still be there.
Amazingly enough, the same car that I sat in back in the late 80's was tucked away in the garage. A short visit later, I paid cash and got her towed away. That was last year.
It's been a great purchase for me.
Wow.  That's a cool story, especially how you ended up buying the very car that first attracted you.  I love stories like that.
So, another FSAE grad here, huh.  I was Cornell '95 and '96.  Can't believe the hours I put in then while managing a full class-load.  Embarassingly, I now live in Ann Arbor, but haven't been over to visit the competition since I've lived here.  That's on the agenda for next year.
I only made it through the suspension design. After that, moved on over the the Natual Gas Vehicle Competition as my primary senior design project, and volunteered on the FSAE. We built a liquid natural gas powered truck... small block, single turbo, 12.5:1 compression. She put out 420 ft.lbs at 2200 RPM... Never could get enough fuel to it to find out how much power.
My favorite memory from FSAE is when we completely assembled the car on the bench in the lab, then realized we couldn't get it through the lab door Alot of long nights working on those project.
Hello my name is Ken Moyer I'm a 27 year old car nut. I live breath cars and anything related to them.    I enjoy watching racing in just about any form from NASCAR(wile napping) to F1. Saturday mornings/afternoons are "powerblock" time and I watch "car TV." I'm freshly married (2+ years) to a VERY understanding wife.
I'm a Mechanical Designer during the day, and as my wife calls it "He draws metal things" I use 3D software Pro-engineer, and have been for 5 years. In between working on our house I send as much time in my garage tweaking on my 1997 Honda Prelude. I've had this car for 6 years and I love it for what it is, but it is too slow and too heavy and drives the incorrect wheels, to drive any faster. I'm currently the Regional SCCA Solo chairman, and I have lots of fun with this organization.
I have been interested in cars for as long as I can remember, and I owe it to a friend for pushing me over the edge into fully "Car Crazy".   We worked on his Mitsubishi Eclipse Turbo, all the time, often until very late class night in college. After he got frustrated with the unreliability of the Mitsu, he wanted a reliable project so, we brain stormed and came up with the idea of a Honda swap. We landed on 1996 (ek) Civic hatchback, and swapped in a JDM H22a motor. That took a few months to complete, and again took many late nights. Ended up to be a pretty fast little car and was reliable for him. Project accomplished.
I have followed the "Kimini" build for around 3 years now, and always amazed me, the work and theory of light and simple. Until recent I have not thought that I could afford to build a car, until the C&D article about Locosts. Well I'm hooked and I hope to complete the chassis and suspension this winter.
   After completed I hope to autocross the car and attend a few track days at Watkins Glen.