Morgan, Mercedes, A Whole Lotta Lotus And More: Members’ Rides

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Meet Dave

Everyone has their own personal taste. For some, it’s big trucks, for others it’s muscle cars from the 60s, and for a few it’s driving an Altima 90mph through rush hour traffic. For Dave, it’s lightweight roadsters. He has managed to accumulate an incredible collection of 6 of the things at his home up in Portland Oregon. Amazingly, all six combined are only slightly heavier than a Hummer EV!

There’s also a Rivian and a dirt-cheap Lexus in the mix for when a roof or storage space is needed. For those counting, I’m only writing up 5 of them, there’s also a Miata in the mix, and while it’s an incredible supercharged NA, I chose not to include that one because we’ve seen those many times.

How did you get into cars?

I loved cars from an early age and have been fortunate to own a few. I like to drive on the track and have done a bit of autocross. Mostly I like cars with character and personality. I like convertibles or cars with no tops. Super practical living in the PNW!

What is currently in the garage?

• 2023 Rivian R1S – 7,068 lbs
• 2003 Lexus ES330 – 3460 lbs
• 1960 190sl – 2,560 lbs
• 1991 Elan – 2,475 lbs
• 2005 Elise – 1,975 lbs
• 1990 Westfield 7 – 1,405 lbs
• 2018 Morgan 3 Wheeler – 1,157 lbs

For lack of a better way to organize these, we’ll go from heaviest to lightest.

Talk to me about the Rivian.

Nobody needs a 7,000 lb 3 second 0-60 SUV but it is fun.  It handles exceptionally well if you want to drive aggressively and instant torque is addictive.  The adult in me recognizes that this is a 7,000 lb missile, and losing it in a corner would be a challenge to get back in control. I remember high school physics class about bodies in motion and all that.

The Rivian is efficient, quiet, roomy, and a total beast in the snow with appropriate tires. I love being able to plug in an induction burner for cooking when camping, and it does a good job towing the little bit that I have done. Never going to the gas station is a blessing.

During a service, I drove a loaner dual-motor R1S performance package. For the money I would have to pay today to purchase a Rivian, I would go that route given it is nearly the same spec of the 4- motor, and when do you really need 3-second zero to 60 in an SUV?

Where did the Lexus come from?

A friend of my dad’s wife had given up driving due to old age. I got the tip that it was for sale and made the call to meet with her. She was told by the dealership where she had all her maintenance done that the car was “unsafe.”

I brought my flashlight of course and crawled around for a bit as this is not my first rodeo.  Brake pads up front were due for a replacement, rears were like 50% so not in my book “unsafe,” but certainly in need of attention in the short run. Under the hood, the front valve cover gasket was leaking as it was a bit of a murder scene under the car. Not sure how she managed to ignore the burning-oil smell!

Brake pads for an ES330 break the bank (brake the bank?) at $58 for both front and rear sets [sarcasm alert]. I ended up having to swap out the right rear caliper as it was frozen and not worth the grief to try and fix it.

The stealership pissed me off about the valve cover. I ordered a new set of valve cover gaskets and went to remove the front one and the bolts are literally finger tight at best. Looks like the dealer was trying to “make” some work here by taking advantage of an elderly person. The rear valve cover does not leak, or leaks so little as to not be noticeable. I replaced the front one gasket, and no more leaks. I cleaned up with a power washer with my favorite dollar-store citrus cleaner in a pump sprayer, and now the front and underside of the engine are all sparkling.

I installed a Bluetooth module in the factory stereo, and it also has an actual cassette deck! I have been rocking some pretty sweet mix tapes of mine that somehow did not get tossed out along the way.

As transportation, the ES330 is tough to beat. As long as you get the timing belt done, they will last forever. I loved the project aspect of the car, getting it tidied up, and thought about selling it, but it has grown on me. It may end up being my daughter’s daily driver in a few years as it is a safe and dependable ride.

How did you end up with the 190sl?

When I was young, I saved myself a decent amount of cash while living rent-free in my parents’ home. I was on the hunt for a 1969-72 BMW 2002 as my first car as that was the hot ticket way back in 1983. I was actively looking and not easily finding anything.

My dad always had some interesting cars and was driving a 1969 Mercedes 250SE at the time. His mechanic told him about this 190sl that he had been taking care of for years. The owner was getting divorced and was going bankrupt. So it was going for a very reasonable price. Please remember this was just another old German car back in the 1980s.

On a whim, we went and looked at the car. It was very nice with only 62k miles showing on the odometer, but it was way out of my budget. We said thanks and a few days later started a driving trip through the northwestern parts of Canada with my brother, dad, and myself. My mom had recently passed away, so this was a guys’ trip.  Along the way my dad said it always bothered him as a kid that only the old guys got to have nice cars and somehow convinced himself that he should support the purchase of the 190sl and we would go in together to buy this car.

How has it been?

The 190sl and any Mercedes of this vintage do not require all that much maintenance once they are sorted.  Most of the maintenance is just old car stuff and regular driving and fluids are pretty much all I need at this point.

I have done everything I can to keep her running as new and recently did a complete refurbishment of the suspension (springs, rubbers, shocks) and upgraded the sway bar. I have kept most things stock except for parts that make the car more reliable including an electronic distributor, an electric fuel pump, and replacing the generator with an alternator that is 1/2 the size and 4x the power.

I did have it repainted at one point when the lacquer was getting so thin as to show through, and the interior had a refresh along the way as leather gets old and the patina craze had yet to be embraced.

What’s the best thing about it?

The 190sl and I have been on so many adventures together over the years and the odometer now sits at 104,000 miles. To this day, iit s my wife’s favorite car to drive. The 190sl is reliable. I would not hesitate to jump in this car and start driving across the country.  It has never let me down. I still drive this car anywhere I want. Not just cars and coffee or shows, I take it to the grocery store, the post office, and out for other mundane tasks and it never ceases to bring a smile to my face.

You said you got the Elan while looking for a Lotus Seven?

I was using a generic search for “Lotus” to find a Seven, and that turned up all sorts of things –  including what looked to be a scam ad for an Elan out of Palm Desert, California. I contacted the seller via the Craigslist email, no reply. After a bit, I forwarded my original email to the Craigslist email a second time, no reply. Finally, I added some additional language to my forward of a forwarded email for the last try to see if this might actually be a real thing as it was kind of a game at this point, and the seller replied. His price was pretty reasonable given the car was for a non-runner. I was looking for a project so I was intrigued.

He sent a few more pictures and a plan was hatched. I did a bit of googling and found him. He seemed legit, so I agreed to pay a deposit and he would pick me up from the Palm Desert airport in his Maserati. We would go inspect the car and decide if it was a go or no-go on the sale. This was solidly outside of my normal purchase comfort zone and I was a little apprehensive.

With it being a non-runner, was it pretty rough?

The pictures did not do the car justice at all.  The paint was in far better condition than I had expected. I got the service records, and the owner paid a shop to do all the things you would want done right before Covid hit. Timing belt, water pump, general tune-up … all done. Come to find out, this Elan is the very first Elan M100 ever sold in the United States with a letter from Lotus Cars USA confirming this! Seems the original owner was the president of the Lotus club out East and this owner purchased it from there.

It had sat for a number of years with questionable gas in the tank. The owner thought he would just throw a fresh battery in the car and start her up. This plugged two injectors right out of the gate.  A buddy of the owner dropped by to help him diagnose. They pulled two offending injectors out to be cleaned and then said “buddy” disappeared into the ether with the injectors never to be seen again. The car then sat for another couple years.

What did it take to get back on the road?

I had a bit of time until the car got shipped up to me. While I waited, I found Lotus Elan Central, a web forum devoted to the care and feeding of this unique car. Huge props to those folks! They helped me make a list of what to do first and where to find parts for the Elan.

Within a few days after its arrival, I had siphoned out the brown gas, installed a new battery, and new injectors, blown out the fuel lines, and replaced the fuel filter. Ten gallons of ethanol- free fuel went into the tank, then she started up and purred like a kitten.

Those of us old enough remember seeing this car back in the day recall everyone said it was the best front-wheel-drive car they have ever driven. It is true. The suspension design makes the Elan feel very neutral and not at all FWD in nature. It is kind of weird actually, as my brain says “Hey this is FWD,” but my butt says “No way!” It is roomy, comfortable,  and relatively rattle free which is surprising both because Lotus and being a fiberglass car.

Any issues with it?

Not that you would drive it much in the rain, but the top is not known to be watertight, and the brakes are meh at best– a problem solved via a big-brake kit. Trim parts can be difficult to source but there is a bit of aftermarket picking up and lots of bits can be sourced from the UK.

I thought I would sell this car and that it would be a stepping stone toward my Lotus Seven desires. I was not having luck finding a Seven in the price range that could keep both the Elan and a project Seven, until I did. Now, between my wife and daughter, they decided it was a keeper and they would drive it, so it stays.

How did the Elise come into the picture?

About 4 years ago now the Portland area was hit with a really bad ice store that uprooted a 90 year old walnut tree that crushed my little shop.  My 2000 BMW M Coupe track car that I had owned since new  was crushed in the building.  It was a sad day for sure.  Life goes on.

The M Coupe was really as perfect it could be with full MCS suspension setup, subframe reinforcement (if you know, you know) and a tune. It was as dialed as it could be without making it a full racecar. It only had 62,000 miles on the odometer when the tree ended her life.

I was 100% certain that the BMW was a total loss, so I started looking for a new track car. Some crazy person had listed a 2005 Elise for sale in the middle of the worst snow storm we had seen in 10 years or better. I was bored, the wife’s Model 3 has AWD and snow tires.  The car is only 15 miles away, so I got in touch. They said I could take a look, if I could make it to them.

I was smitten, and we made a deal to purchase the car. With the snow, I never even drove the car. The sellers were adamant that the only way it could leave their garage was on a flatbed. Not many 11,000 mile Lotus Elises show up locally so I agreed and had it sent over to a specialty shop who I had used for other work and knew well.

What track upgrades have you done?

I replaced the oil cooler sandwich plate with a thermostatically controlled Mishimoto unit.  The factory supplied plate was free flow all the time. This avoids the issues of the Elise motor taking forever to warm up. I also replaced the factory oil pan with a baffled sump so that I don’t kill a motor with high G cornering on the track.

How do you like driving it?

The Elise is a great track car that you can drive on the street. Steering is telepathic and intuitive. With the hard top on it is a bitch to fold yourself into the seat. The seat has like 3/4″ of foam pad and is terrible. The AC / Heating is anemic at best. It is noisy, it leaks, it rattles. The body is fragile. I absolutely love this car. Go figure.

Track day consumables are way down. My MCoupe would eat an entire set of tires over 4 track days. I am in the second year of running the same set of RE71RS tires on the Elise.  Brake pads on the BMW were $280 an axle for anything that would survive track day use, the Elise uses stoptech sport pads I get off Amazon for $48 a set.  Lightness is truly an amazing thing.

The very first day I went out to Portland International Raceway (my home track) in the Elise I was 5 laps in and already 6 seconds faster than my very best time with the BMW. I barely knew the car but it is clearly made for this purpose.

So how did you finally find the Seven you were having a hard time finding?

I was lusting after a Seven of some type for years.  Recently I started looking in earnest for a Seven project as I wanted to do some wrenching and I did not want to do an entire build of a car as I did not have that sort of time or welding ability.  I preferred to find something that I could “refurbish and improve” as opposed to an outright clean slate build.

After I had been looking for a while, I was never finding any cars locally.  There is a site out there where people keep track of available Seven cars on a weekly basis. Everything I found was far away from home where you commit to hopping on a plane.  Pictures can often lie and the potential to be disappointed and feel the internal pressure to purchase because you made the trek all the way there is real.  Patience paid off as I very recently (like in the last 30 days) found a Westfield for sale only 8 miles from my home.  Go figure.

What is it?

A 1990 Westfield is a SEIW (IRS – Wide Body).  All of the Westfields of the 90s were specced out similarly and my car uses a Ford Kent crossflow motor, Ford T9 five-speed trans, and differential out of a Ford Sierra / XR4Ti. It would have originally been fitted with dual Weber 40 DCOE carbs. Fortunately, the previous owner had other ideas.  This car has ITBs via Suzuki Hayabusa bits and a custom manifold and is running Megasquirt which is a desirable upgrade as you can imagine. It runs well, but there are still a few rough edges to get ironed.  I have an appointment with the dyno to get things properly set.

Did it need work/restoration?

The car needed some sorting, fluids, tires, water pump, electronic fan switch, basically old car stuff. I still need to replace the CV joint boots, but that is a winter project.  The shocks were 30+ years old and old school technology and I just got done replacing them this last weekend and I could not be happier with the results.

The 7 is a bit of a canvas, and my plans include a nice yellow stripe and likely refreshing the interior in red which was a common color combination for the early Lotus cars in the day.

OK, now what’s the story with the Morgan?

If it is not clear by now I am a car guy.  I am not ashamed.

Reading Jalopnik back in the day, I came across this article about the Morgan 3.  I was like – wow how did I miss these. I am sure I must have seen one along the way but I could not recall ever having come across one.  My very agreeable wife leaned over while I was enjoying the article and says “that’s cute – you should get one.”  WHOA – wait did I hear that correctly?  

I soon stumbled upon a listing for the car that I would end up purchasing.  It was February – very much winter and I was not going to be able to go in person to view the car.  The car had 850 miles, its first service had been completed, and it had 2 summers of warranty remaining. Details were exchanged and plans were made.

I had two summers to decide if the Morgan is a keeper.  It will be a forever car.  One cannot be an introvert and own a M3W because you will have people everywhere stopping to talk with you.  Guys, girls, kids, grandmothers – if they are at all car people you will end up having a 15-minute conversation with them so don’t be in a hurry.

Upon receipt of the title documents I had the PO’s mailing address and penned a letter offering my phone number and email. A few days later I got an email and we had a nice chat about the car.  He shared pictures of him and his wife in it and I shared some action shots of me and my daughter out driving.

Thoughts on the new 3-cylinder version?

I am a bit of a purist here in that I think the best 3 wheelers have a V-Twin out front like they did from the beginning.  I get the necessity for Morgan to sub in the new 3-cylinder under the hood because of emissions requirements in the EU but for me a V-twin it will always be.  If I had to sum it up in a word, driving a Morgan three-wheeler is “motoring” pure and simple.

Thanks Dave!

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