LUG 2026 – Day 6

Posted on October 11, 2026 by Dave

Tuesday, September 29

Chad and I shared a hotel room for LUG. Chad’s not a morning guy. My plan for the drive home was to stop at Hanging Lake for a quick hike. Hanging Lake requires a timed-entry permit, and before I left home, I bought one for 2 pm. Which meant I had to be on the road by 7. And the hotel room is in my name, so an early departure for me means Chad has to get in gear much earlier than he’d like. He seemed barely conscious when we walked out the door twenty minutes before sunrise.

By now, I’d had my share of plain bagels, and I let Chad know that I’d be stopping for food within a couple of hours. I wouldn’t be in his rearview mirror all day.

The rain made my lack of shades a moot point at the track yesterday, but I wasn’t looking forward to driving into the morning sunshine without my sunglasses. I need not have worried. It was overcast most of the time I was driving, except for about half an hour of bright sunshine near Vernal.

On the drive from home to Salt Lake City, I was shocked to see two reservoirs completely empty. Today, I passed by Strawberry Reservoir and Starvation Reservoir in Utah, and Kenney Reservoir in Colorado, all at or near full capacity. I wonder if this is because these reservoirs aren’t part of the system controlled by Denver Water. Due to the extreme drought, Denver Water has reduced flows in the Fraser River and its tributaries to keep enough water going through the Moffat Tunnel. The reduced flow of the Fraser River could very well have severe environmental impacts, because with less water, the river could freeze solid.

I stopped for fuel in Rifle, just before getting onto I-70. At the next pump, a guy got out of his pickup truck, looked at my car, looked at me, and said, “Ah, to be young and rich!” I replied, “Sorry, neither!”

I made it to the Hanging Lake parking lot a bit early. I thought I had the permit in my phone’s wallet, but it wasn’t there. I had a screenshot of it somewhere, but the ranger found my name on his list before I could find the photo. This might be the best time of the year to visit Hanging Lake. When I made the reservation, there were still quite a few permits left, and, judging by the number of spaces available in the parking lot, my Tuesday afternoon time slot wasn’t close to selling out. Bonus points for it still being good aspen viewing season.

I pulled into a parking spot next to a couple in an SUV. He was trying to get a photo of a blue jay while I was changing my shoes. (My driving shoes aren’t at all suitable for hiking.) Usually, I’m the one who wants to engage with strangers. He was drawn to the car, of course. He greeted me and asked if I tracked the car. No doubt he knew the answer before he asked it. They were visiting from Switzerland. He used to have a Radical that he drove often at Spa and at other Belgian, German, and Dutch race tracks. What are the chances that, in two days, I’d meet two people who often did track days at Spa? I met him again at the lake. He’s a trail runner. He ran it in half the time it took me.

It’s only a mile and a half from the parking lot to the lake, with about a third of that on the bike path along the Colorado River. Where the trail leaves the bike path, there are half a dozen informative signs telling the history and geology of Hanging Lake. With the highway right here, it’s noisy, but the sound of the river softens the traffic noise.

From here to the lake, the trail is fairly steep, climbing a thousand feet in a mile. After half a mile, the traffic noise is gone. The trail is very well maintained and features six bridges over Dead Horse Creek, the lake’s outlet stream. Strangely, there’s water flowing at the base of the trail and below the highest three bridges, but no water under the lower three.

I am often prone to exaggeration. I try to avoid it, or admit it when I do it. I don’t think I’m exaggerating when I say that one out of three paces on the trail is on a stone stair. The trail climbs the floor of a narrow, steep-walled canyon. For much of the hike, there are no views, except for the nearly vertical canyon walls. The lake attracts folks who don’t normally hike, and there are many benches along the way for people to rest. The final climb to the lake is up a stone stairway narrow enough to require a railing.

Just before the lake comes into view, there’s a trail junction. To the left, up the trail a short distance, is Spouting Rock Waterfall. I’d like to return here in late May or early June. Today, the flow of water is only a small fraction of what it must be in late spring. It must be spectacular when the stream is running at full flow.

Hanging Lake is small. I’ve been to dozens of bodies of water of this size that are unnamed, unworthy of notice. The surface area is only a quarter of an acre, or the same size as the lot my house sits on. Size is overrated. This place is outstanding. It is key to the ecosystem of this canyon. Birds live in the canyon walls around the lake. The water is so clear, you can see the fish.

On the hike in, at a platform near the top of the final staircase, there’s a view of the canyon. You can see how close the Grizzly Creek Fire came in 2020. This lush little lake and the wonderful spouting rock above it saved this place from the inferno. It’s a special place.

I’ve said before that I don’t have a Top Ten list of lakes, but if I did, Hanging Lake would be on it. I can’t believe I’ve lived in Colorado for more than half a century and have never been here before.

I will definitely make a point of coming back in late spring. I also think I’d like to come here in winter. The ranger told me the trail can be quite treacherous in winter, getting packed into ice by people’s footsteps. I’m willing to give it a shot with microspikes and trekking poles. The only part that seems sketchy to me is the final climb, but there’s a handrail there, so it seems doable to me.

When I got back to the bike trail along the river, there was a small herd of bighorn sheep ewes. I don’t often see bighorn sheep on my hikes. When I do, it’s always ewes, never rams. And I’ve never been this close to them before.

I was back to the car by 3:30, so just under two hours for the pleasant little diversion to Hanging Lake.

I needed a comfort break by the time I reached Georgetown. I stopped at the visitor center, where I spotted a Lamborghini. The driver was standing outside the car, talking on his phone. When I took a couple of photos, he interrupted his conversation to say to me, “Don’t post the pictures.”

I felt he was being a bit of a jerk. Two things came to my mind right away. First, unseriously, why don’t you want a photo posted? Did you steal it? Second, and really, if you don’t want people taking pictures of your car, don’t take it out of your garage. You’re out in public, and everybody carries a camera. People take pictures of my car all the time, and mine is not so exotic (or expensive) as a Lamborghini. Only a small number of people ask before they take a photo. There’s no need to ask; by now it’s pretty much expected.

A moment later, he was done talking on the phone. I showed him pictures of the three wild cars I saw at the track yesterday. He asked if the Aston Martin was my car. I pointed to my car and said, “No, that’s mine.”

My initial thought that he was being a jerk was unwarranted. It turns out that this Lamborghini isn’t yet available in the US. This car had Michigan manufacturer plates. I often see “test mules” in these parts: camouflaged cars full of test equipment. This one was not at all camouflaged, and there didn’t appear to be any equipment on board. I did a quick web search and found a bunch of photos of this car (or one just like it) in the Denver area, so it’s no secret that it exists. So, yeah, I’m posting a photo of it. I never said I wouldn’t, and I don’t think showing it to my seven subscribers will cause any problems.

I do find it hilarious that a guy driving a car that screams to the world, “Look at me!” wants to keep its existence here a secret. My car is not inconspicuous, but this thing demands your attention. In the words of Elmer Fudd, “Shhh! Be qwiet!”

Thus ends my trip to LUG. I experienced despair and elation; I drove my car in the wet on the track, and I topped the week off with a short hike to a lake long on beauty. Sure, if I hadn’t had car problems, I’d have had a better time, but things could have been much worse.

The next LOG (Lotus Owners Gathering) will be in Dayton, Ohio. I think I might consider thinking about going.

LUG 2026 – Day 5

Posted on October 10, 2026 by Dave

Monday, September 28

Sitting in the hotel lobby, munching on my plain Starbucks bagel with plain cream cheese, I reminisced about the LOG in Austin, where an Einstein Bagel was a block away . Ah, how I’d love to have an Asiago cheese bagel with onion and chive schmear. I was brought out of my reverie when, through the atrium roof, I saw what looked suspiciously like a flash of lightning. My suspicions were confirmed a few moments later by another flash. It looks like we’re in for a wet morning.

Chad and I headed off to the track. I don’t know how many names this place has had. It used to be Miller Motorsports Park. When we were here in 2021, it was the Utah Motorsports Campus. Today it’s West Desert. The current name is apt, as the place is in the desert west of SLC.

Not long after getting onto I-80W, we drove through a pretty good shower. It let up, then reintensified, then let up again. By the time we got to the track, we’d passed under a few cells. Things didn’t look good to the west at all.

We got there a few minutes after 8, thinking we were only a few minutes late, but the schedule had changed, and the drivers’ meeting was at 7:30. They were surprisingly casual about us missing it. In lieu of the twenty-minute-plus meeting, we were simply told where to line up to enter the track. We got signed in, had our helmets inspected, put group stickers on our cars, and were good to go.

Usually, I put all my stuff on a tarp wherever I’m parked in the paddock. With it raining, I wanted my stuff inside. I looked around and didn’t see that anybody else had brought anything in. I was told to just put it out of the way in the garage where we’d have lunch. Once I brought my things in, lots of other folks did, too.

We were both in group C, the advanced group. They told us the car count for intermediate, B, and advanced. There were only about 2/3 as many cars in intermediate, and I said I’d like to switch. He kinda brushed me off, said I should stick with C, and I didn’t push too hard. So, C it was.

This is a Hooked On Driving event. About a third of the cars here today are Lotus. I didn’t see any non-Lotus cars that were less than double the horsepower of my car. And, most likely, nobody is on worse tires than me. I have the street wheels, not the track wheels. The tires are hard, and I probably should have replaced the rears before this trip. They’d be okay if it was sunny and warm, but cold and rain will make them entertaining.

This is my first track day in the US where they wanted us to have our windows up and to use turn signals for point-bys. In Europe, it’s windows up and signal the direction you are going; in the US, it has always been windows down, point-by with arm signals. Today, it’s windows up and use the turn signal to indicate where you want the passing car to go. I’m not a fan.

I drove this track five years ago, but back then we did the outer loop. This time, we’re doing the full course. The outer course is three miles long and has fourteen turns. The full course is four-and-a-half miles and twenty-three turns. So, although I’ve been here, I basically need to remember the bits I’ve driven before and learn the equivalent of a whole new track.

For the first session, I left the soft top on and didn’t mount any cameras. All day, we’ll be running twenty-minute sessions. I prefer half-hour ones, but only HPR seems to do them. It’s a long lap, particularly when you’re going slow. I was going slow because if I tried to push, the car would go sideways. I spent a lot of time looking out the side windows of the car. I managed to keep it on the track and never spun it, but I was sideways a lot. In the first session, I got two timed laps, plus an out lap and an in lap. The two timed laps were pretty close to five minutes each. I’m not going to get many laps.

We had a quick meeting after that first session. They said a dark green Lotus’ left turn signal wasn’t working. That’d be me. I had no idea. Everybody passed me every time I signaled, except the guy behind me on the checkered flag lap. I’ll do the rest of the day with windows down and arm signals.

The left turn signal situation is annoying. It worked for a couple of years after I bought the car, then failed. We tried everything. Then, magically, a couple of years later, it started working again. That’s how it’s been – work for a while, then fail for a while. I was pleasantly surprised that when we did the engine swap, it magically started working again. Failing again so quickly is disappointing, but not unexpected.

The rain let up a bit for the second session. I ran without the top and had the cameras going. The slightly drier conditions didn’t help me. I wasn’t any faster, and I was still sideways way too often. Again, just two timed laps. I was getting lost, confusing turns 6 and 9. The place is not quite billiard-table flat, and there are no landmarks. There wasn’t any water running across the track, but there were a few puddles on my line. I’m enjoying the challenge, in a way, but I’d feel more comfortable if there was less traffic.

After the second session, I switched to group B, using my hard, worn tires as the excuse. Yeah, yeah, yeah, “cold tires” is the excuse of the neophyte, and it’s a poor carpenter who blames his tools. It was a good decision, though.

At lunch, somebody asked me if I’d checked out the cars in one of the garages. I hadn’t, but now I was curious. I was not disappointed. The first one I came to was a Lamborghini Huracan STO. They made just under 30,000 Huracans, with in the neighborhood of 10,000 of these selling in the USA. It’s the most popular Lamborghini, and they’ve made more than a dozen variants. The STO (Super Trofeo Omologato) is a track-focused version. I don’t know how many of this version were produced, but you can pick one up for $400,000 or so.

Next was the Aston Martin Valhalla. This is as close as you can get to a Red Bull F1 car for the road. It’s a mid-engine plug-in hybrid that pumps out more than a thousand horsepower. They made 999 of these, and if you look around, you can probably find one for about a million dollars. This one looked to be brand new, still sporting protective wrappings in the interior.

Finally, I came to the McLaren. It’s the sixth edition of the McLaren Ultimate Series, which started with the McLaren F1. This baby is a track-only mid-engine beast with a V-10 based on a Judd engine. It’s not as powerful as the Valhalla, but it’s quite a bit lighter. It’ll make your bank account considerably lighter, as they only produced 25 of these babies, and they’re going for in excess of $3 million.

I don’t know why these cars are here today, but it was pretty cool to see them. I suppose it’s possible I’ll see another Huracan in the wild, but not likely it’ll be this STO version. The other two, though, are unicorns. About the only cars I’ve ever seen that were produced in smaller numbers were concept cars, which are unique.

I went back to the garage where we tended to hang out between sessions and grabbed a sandwich. Chad and I sat next to a guy named John. John served in Germany and often took his car to Spa and the Nürburgring. He’s run over a hundred laps on the Nordschleife and has lapped the Grand Prix course. I told him I had an American coach when I lapped the Nordschleife, a guy born in Missouri. John said, “Was it Nashe? We served together.” He showed me a photo. Small world, eh?

It rained on and off in the afternoon. One session, the track had developed a mostly dry line. In between sessions, I draped the soft top over the cabin and covered the camera with a towel. The rain was never heavy, and if you go fast enough, not much rain comes in the cabin. When I was getting out of the car after a session, a gal walking by told me, “You’re crazy out there!” I immediately wondered what I’d done, but she was still talking: “Driving without a top!”

I ran into a guy I met at the LOG in Austin. I’m so bad with names, I’ve forgotten it. He drives a turquoise Evora, a pretty car. We share some geography. We’ve both lived in Toledo and Ft. Myers. He’s got the track bug at least as bad as I do. He’s been to 34 or 35 tracks and wants to ship his car to Europe to bag a bunch over there. I empathize, brother; I feel your pain. My name is Dave, and I’m an addict.

I cut 36 seconds off my time in the third session, and 18 more in the fourth. I didn’t run Happy Hour because it rained again. I managed to run five laps in each session in the afternoon, for a total of 14 for the day. There are tracks where I get 14 laps in a single session.

It’s the first time I’ve driven on a wet track in the Lotus. I lost traction dozens of times but never put a tire off the track and never spun. I improved every session. I saw some incredible cars and talked to a bunch of people who share one of my passions.

Chad and I finished the day with dinner at Rabbit’s Foot Brewery.

It was a fun day.

Scuderia Rampante

Posted on March 30, 2019 by Dave

Saturday, March 30

This month’s Lotus Colorado meeting was held in Erie at Scuderia Rampante, a high-end Ferrari restoration shop. Calling the place a high-end Ferrari restoration shop is a bit redundant, I guess, but I think I can get away with it. If you had a Ferrari and wanted some work done on it, how far would you be willing to send it? They’re working on a car that, when they’re done, will go back to Hong Kong. I’m not sure there is anywhere farther from Hong Kong than Erie, Colorado.

They called the event a “shop tour”. That probably overstates it. To me, a tour implies some sort of guide telling us what we’re seeing: what’s important or interesting. Nothing like that today, we just wandered around the place. Several employees were there to answer questions, so we weren’t completely on our own.

This was not our first visit. We were here a few years ago. Not much has changed, and for somebody not very interested in cars it might be fair to ask what there is to see a second time. For those of us quite interested in cars, there’s always something to see. I’m not particularly a Ferrari fan – I’ll never own one and probably never drive one – but I think they’re fascinating examples of engineering and technology.

And it’s not just Ferraris. There are a variety of other cars there as well. Most are stored in a giant rack but a number are in various states of disassembly. To do engine work on most of the Ferraris, they simply remove the entire engine, transmission, and rear suspension and put that assembly on a table or rack.

As I said, I’m not that into Ferraris. For the most part, I can’t look at one and say, “That one is a 430 and that one is a California.” I don’t know what any of them is worth (other than more than I’ll ever spend on a car) or how much it might cost to have one worked on. On many of them, I’d guess a clutch service would go for perhaps as much as I paid for the Elise. So I won’t go into any detail on any of the cars I saw.

On prominent display were an F40 and an F50 side by side. The F40 is the red one, the F50 is the black one. The F40 was built between 1987 and 1992. I have no idea how many of these they made. A quick look on the internet tells me if you want one today, you can expect to spend about $1.6 million. The F50 dates from 1995-1997. You’d need to sell two F-40’s and kick in an extra few hundred thousand dollars beside to pick one up. I’m guessing you don’t get to see these cars side by side very often.

I know even less about Lamborghinis than I do Ferraris. This one is an example of the first Lamborghini model made. It’s a 350GT. They hadn’t yet started naming their cars after bulls. There was a 350GT and a 400GT. If I understood correctly, this car was an interim car – a 350GT with the motor from a 400GT, which makes it quite rare. Even so, it probably could be had (were you to find one for sale) for somewhere in the neighborhood of a million.

I thought the Fleetwood was interesting. I don’t know what year it was, but it was a giant. I believe this one is a 1952 Fleetwood Seventy Five limousine. It’s about a mile long and has more chrome on one car than on all Cadillacs built in the last decade. Looking at it, I couldn’t help but wonder what the thing weighed. I was guessing it might be 6,000 pounds. That was way off. In fact, these cars were closer to 4,700. For comparison, my 1967 Imperial was 4,900. The Imperial had a giant 440cid engine, while this Fleetwood was motivated by an eight cylinder 331cid motor that cranked out 190hp. Again, for comparison, my Elise generates 190hp.

They don’t just work on cars here, they store them as well. I didn’t count them, but they can probably stack something like forty cars in this giant rack. I’m sure it’s quite the operation to get one off the top: move the bottom one out of the way, rotate the stack down, take the next one out, repeat. Every car in there looked to be hooked up to a battery tender, so you could just jump right in and drive them off, once you managed to get to the one that belongs to you. Not all of them are super-exotics. In this photo, the car on the other side of the Testarossa is a modern Ford Mustang. And there were a few examples of Detroit iron from the same era as the Fleetwood above.

Here’s one of the engines they had taken out of the car. It’s the engine, transmission, and suspension. This one was hooked up to a device that lets them run the thing. I wasn’t in the room when they fired it up, but it was much quieter than I expected. I guess you’ll get that, given the size of the muffler hanging off the back.

It wasn’t just cars. In the back corner they had a little sitting area with a couple of stuffed bears (including a polar bear smoking a cigar and holding a pool cue), a couple of cabinets filled with knick-knacks, and some vintage race posters on the walls. This portrait of Steve McQueen caught my eye. It’s made up of articles, photos, and advertisements from magazines.

Not a bad place to spend a Saturday morning.