Lotus Europa Community

Concerning the VIN plate I also believe the current one isn't the original one. I think it was added sometime later, probably during the repaint some 20 years ago. I will reverse it to the original plate as soon as I have found a correct one for sale.
Unfortunately some information, e.g. if it really got rear ended, is missing as the car stood for several years now and most of the work was performed before. I cannot find anyone who did repairs or respray and therefore I cannot say what exactly happened in the past 57 year.

That serial number plate has me a bit jumpy.  Never seen one like that before.

I think that's something added by a previous owner for a couple of reasons. Firstly, even though the initial production run was exported to Europe, I'd have expected the chassis plate to have been in English. Using German doesn't sound as likely as English or even French  but of course with Lotus you never know for sure.

But even if Lotus had decided to stamp chassis plates in the country of export, I very much doubt they would have spelled "Norwich" like that.....

Of course the plate doesn't detract from the car, it's still a usable S1. But whoever fitted that plate would have been better to have contacted Lotus and obtained a genuine replacement considering the historic importance of the S1's. There's every chance the true history is even more interesting, a rebuilt racer for example ?

Recently, however, I bought a Bambu Labs X-1 Carbon, and it is amazing!

That's a seriously good printer, Bambu Labs are on my wish list for the day my Creality finally gives up the ghost or becomes not worth the cost of maintenance.

I think I'd agree on the development rate of printers. I only became interested 2-3 years ago when a couple of archery friends were talking about them at a club night. Even then I was surprised how much they'd dropped in price and increased print quality compared with a few years previously. I quizzed them about the market with a "I don't want something to tinker with or perpetually upgrade, just something that works out of the box" view and bought the CR6SE on their recommendations. At the time it was the best bang/buck for someone wanting a toy to play with.

I've since done a lot with PLA+, had some good prints with TPU and PETG but I think that's about the limit. So far I've changed the drive & bowden tubes after the OEM stuff cracked and replaced the hot end section (again) so a few months ago I started looking at the market for something which will be a bit faster. Even over 2-3yrs we've seen some great improvements and Bambu Labs seem to be the new kids on the block with good machines.

You mentioned PETG-CF, what are you making with this stuff ? Just curious...... 

Says the chassis was replaced.  Probably rear-ended judging by current rear body and rear fittings.  That serial number plate has me a bit jumpy.  Never seen one like that before.

My real goal for many items is to 3-D print patterns for casting or maybe short run stamping in aluminum.
I have been offered a contract to print some items that will require a much more serious machine.
But this toy Ender 3 v2 should suffice to learn the basics.