New Chassis for Lotus Elan

Some cars have a fanatical following, and they are worth preserving. This generates a small industry of manufactures making replacement parts for classic cars:

Today, while I was at Golden Gate Sevens, I was delighted to discover that Spyder Engineering of England build new chassis' for the Lotus Elan.

The replacement Chassis is stiffer and stronger at the top of the spring towers. The Chapman strut rear suspension can be converted to double wishbone. And all suspension pick-up points are strengthened.

It's amazing how the chassis tappers in the middle, and yet it still has great torsional rigidity. If I was ever tempted to design a car, I would make this chassis my starting point.



Thanks Richard
Categories:Cars

Car Sunroofs

The first glass sunroofs I saw were installed aftermarket. They were simple hinged tempered glass panels. The curve of the glass never seemed to match the curve of the roof, and they looked cheap. At that time, factory original sunroofs were sliding steel panels.

I still associate glass sunroofs with cheapness, even though almost all modern sunroofs are now made of glass.

In the case of the Mini, the designers chose to shape the sunroof so as to mimic the classic look of canvas roofs from the 60's.

My neighbour did a nice job of covering the glass with vinyl to make it look like a steel roof.

("Moonroof" is marketing term created by Ford in the 1970's)


Categories:Cars

Wine Glass Door Chime

By Droog Design. $265
At Friend, 401 Hayes Street.



Categories:Gadgets

The Rain

It was raining so hard as I drove to work yesterday that I pulled off the highway in San Mateo and turned back. My little Mini was being pushed around by high winds and standing water. Perhaps I need rain tyres. Anyway, I'd rather miss a days work than risk a car accident.

Blogger

I switched to the new Blogger a few weeks ago. Now, to take full advantage of Blogger, I've dumped the old template and started using Layout, which promises to be easier to use in the long run.

Layout for Blogger is pretty easy to use, but it doesn't have the full flexibility or features I need. So it's back to HTML to create my slide rule custom header. Luckily for me I found the instructions on how to do this at LaCour.

Another issue is the Blogger Navbar across the top of my blog. To get rid of it I added this code in the template above /* Header.

The main problem remaining is to solve the way text sometimes runs down the side of the
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Thisisaknife

This is what I'm watching on my iPod. This is a tongue-in-cheek look at this weeks' internet goings on.

It's on Channel 4 and is availible as a free download from channel4.com/knife and iTunes.

Drosselmeyer Nut Cracker at Scandinavian Details

These nut crackers by Drosselmeyer (named after a character in Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker Suite) are cool: Drop the nut in. Squeeze the handle. The shell fragments don't fly everywhere.

Scandinavian Details in Hayes Valley also has a good selection of Tivoli radios. And they have the best selection of gadgets I've seen in a design store.

On Hayes Street between Gough and Franklin.







Categories:Design

Jong Mea Restaurant

Lani's parents are Chinese. I'm fascinated by her Chinese heritage. I love to look through photo albums with her, and listen to stories about her family. Her family is beautiful. Here's a story from her Blog:







Jong Mea Restaurant
During lunch, while in discussion about the history of Chinese food in the United States, it led to a conversation about my family's restaurant, Jong Mea. My parents tell me the translation of Jong Mea means "China & America". But I've been told it can also be translated as "Midwest". Regardless, both translations fit to a tee, and knowing my grandfather (the founder), this was intentional. Jong Mea opened in 1951, one of the first Chinese restaurants in Columbus.

We had locations in Mansfield and Columbus, OH (my birthplace), and Indianapolis, IN. There was another location in Houston, TX that I knew very little about, probably because it was sold off in the mid 60's. My parents managed the Columbus location in the mid 70's to mid 80's. My aunt and uncle then took over the Columbus location until it closed in the mid 90's. My parents opened a 2nd Columbus location for a short time, then took over the Indianapolis location until it closed in 1998. My great uncle's family managed the Mansfield location until it closed, which I think was in the late 80's.

At the height of business in the 60's and early 70's, the Columbus location had on weekends, 7 waiters, 3 bus boys and 3 assistant managers (answered phones, seated customers, processed take out). We opened from 4 p.m. to 4 a.m. Lines used to snake around the corner with a 30 to 60 minute wait. We had celebrities such as James Shigeta and Gordon MacRae as patrons.

I worked as a cashier on weekends during my last 2 years in high school in the late 70's. Although I hated the work, it gave me invaluable experience that I wouldn't have gotten otherwise. Because my parents worked long hours, I learned to become self-sufficient at home. By the age of 10, I already knew how to do laundry and cook a simple meal.

When I wasn't working, we did have wonderful parties. Thanksgiving, Christmas, dinners with my grandparents and their friends. My dad often prepared the meals for these occasions. I found this to be a bit surprising because he didn't cook much at home until my siblings and I were teenagers.

At some point, I'll have to devote time to rummage in the storage room to find pictures, have Pete scan them and post them on a future blog. Then you'll know how OLD I really am.

The Monsoon umbrella stand caught my attention at Friend on the corner of Hayes and Gough streets. I like it because the dish shaped base will collect the water drops from a full size umbrella placed inside, and from a compact umbrella hung by the handle.

$132 at Friend, or $119 atMotif.

British Nissan Ad

Thanks Winding Road
Categories:Movies Cars