All Activity

Light from bright headlights immediately behind you will still reflect into your eyes. The extent that bothers someone or impacts their night vision for the road ahead is specific to the individual. Given the plethora of LED headlights and trucks/SUvs on the road, I find this issue more problematic today, and of course, it is compounded when the person travelling just a few car lengths behind doesn't realize their high beams are on. Been there/done that even with a day/night mirror fitted. As mentioned earlier, the convexity of this mirror is quite low. Much closer to a flat mirror than a traditional convex side mirror.

I have the blue tint on the little convex wedge mirrors I bought for the Cayman. I thought maybe the blue was the tear-off you get on so many products nowadays. Does not seem so. I did not know the blue was supposed to be a nighttime thing. Does not seem to be something you would need in a convex wedge mirror: The convex means the headlight will appear small and that the light intensity is spread-out. The wedge means that following cars not in the danger zone should not be in your field of view. The larger wedge mirrors I have on the F-150 have no blue coating and I certainly don't regret its absence. 7 relevance: The convex side mirrors I bought for the Birkin seem to be working well. The I-assume-stock Birkin windscreen mirror seemed a little low.* I noticed that the ball was higher on the mirror than central, so turning the mirror 180 degrees raised it nicely. *. I'm only about 5'9", but have shortish legs. I therefore sit tall in the saddle. The antithesis of Danny Kaye and Conan O'Brien.

Have drill, will travel. The carbon is very easy to modify, but the plastic socket around the ball has to be altered and no way to avoid nicking the ball a bit.

I've done touring through very hot areas and recommend a small, insulated hydration pack with straps like this one, which is thin enough to stow behind the seat and hangs from the headrest. Fill it up with mostly ice before you leave the hotel in the morning, and you'll have cool water later in the day when you need it. The bite tube makes easy to hydrate while driving, and the location keeps it out of the way. https://www.amazon.com/Hydrapak-HydraSleeve-Insulated-Shape-Shift-Low-Profile/dp/B0BRBR82BG

I'll be at Palmer on Saturday 5/16 driving my Caterham. Our little group will be driving a turbo-Exocet, a Van Dieman sports racer, a K-powered BRZ, and my Cat. Rides will be available in the Exocet and Caterham in case anyone wants to get a taste of the track. You just have to sign a waiver and have a helmet. Palmer is a fun track, hope to see some other Sevens there! MassTuning TrackFest (May 16, 2026)

Well done you! Now do you make house calls?

No personal experience but please spend time to watch this series at night or whenever, there are 3 of 4 episodes where the guys go into their experience and suggestions They have road tripped A LOT on their channel, doing cross country drives at least once a year with different missions in different compromised cars

If you are worried about wire bulk. I took my first dive into wiring to add some auxiliary power in my 420. It was over kill but I used mil spec wiring. I was shocked at how thin the wires are. (And it is not cheap. But short runs shouldn’t be too bad ). a quick search showed the headlights draw up to 5amps which 22 gauge wire should handle. But if you go up to 20 gauge I think that’s rated up to 8.5amps. The wire is super thin and won’t bulk up with multiple runs. But it is stiffer than regular wire. but please do your research on sizing the wire correctly. not that you likely want to rewire the entire assembly https://www.milspecwiring.com/22AWG-Solid_c_400.html

If someone in the Bay Area (Oakland, CA) wants to compare one of these gizmos to an alignment rack I’d be willing to do it. I’m curious to know if it’s accurate. Andy

Hi All, I acquired a 420R late summer last year and am now relocating from Boston to LA. I decided to do a route 66 road trip with my car (Boston to Chicago, then route 66 to LA). I've just made it to St Louis so one state down (+ MA, PA, OH and NY getting to Chicago). Couple of questions: Anyone done this before and have any recommendations on places to stop and visit? I'll generally planning 24 hours ahead and finding a hotel towards the end of the day. Its worked out pretty well so far! :-) Any thoughts on traveling through the "hot states"? Particularly New Mexico and Arizona. I'm not sure how sparse those sections will be but obviously I'll pack extra water, top up gas more frequently and keep close eye on engine temps. Any other suggestions/prep anyone recommends? While doing this as a once in a life time trip, I'm also raising money for charity at the same time. On the off chance, anyone is interesting in sponsoring, my donation page is https://charity.pledgeit.org/road2resolve Thanks

Got ‘er done! Studied it a bit and jumped in. A somewhat delicate modification of the mirror body and part of the mount for the ball joint enabled enough angle to mount the nice mirror in a usable way. Being a retired Dentist helped, a straight handpiece and what I call a flame shaped acrylic bur worked great on the carbon. A straight 557 fissure bur cleaned up the delicate part right up to the ball joint. 2.5 illuminated magnification eyewear quite handy. Not driven it yet, just got in a mood and fixed it.

FWIW I'll give my initial review of the Gyraline G1, the little brother to the G2 ($200 plastic unit readable to nearest 0.1 degree vs $600 aluminum unit? readable to nearest 0.01 degree), with software on your i-phone, as discussed by Austin David. Gyraline has several on-line Youtube videos which have been very helpful. The biggest thing I've found is I can measure and tweak the suspension as many times as I want very quickly w/o having to schedule / visit an alignment shop and depend on their technicians. This is very handy when rebuilding / refreshing or tweaking your suspension etc. etc. I've had the unit for several months and used it to dial in the suspension on my 2006 Lotus Exige after a complete overhaul / rebuild front and rear w/ new: Delrin bushings, tie rod ends, ball joints, Penske DA shocks, wheel bearings, powder coated a-arms, etc. i.e. 6-months plus effort. I first used the rotors as the reference for the G1 and then followed up w/ the wheels as the reference. Consistency in measurement technique provides incredible repeatability which followed by road testing and the occasional "string" check even for fairly minor adjustments gave me a lot of confidence in the G1. Of course, it helps that everything on the suspension (and tires) is new so the car has a completely different feel (far more precise and responsive). Toe (individual relative to car CL and total front and back) and camber are easily dialed in as well rapid checking for bump steer. After getting the Exige to 90% of where I want, still working on bump steer w/ limited options for adjustment on the Lotus, I moved to my 2009 Caterham S3. I upgraded to Penske DA shocks and revised spring rates, checked all suspension bushings, rod ends, ball joints etc. As a precursor to replacement of all bushings (Powerflex), rod ends, tie rod ends and ball joints (using Jack Webb's (UK) incredible Caterham suspension bits for improved camber and bump steer) I checked, adjusted / tweaked the alignment w/ the G1. Again, incredible how fast I can measure and adjust everything, and feel immediate results on the road. I'll give further update(s) as I get into the S3 suspension overhaul / rebuild but the $200 spent on the G1 has been well worth it for me. Of course, as always "your results may vary". Cheers! Steve

I picked up the G1 when they had a sale, but haven’t tried it yet. Hopi g it gets me in the ballpark and then I can compare to a real one.

Yeah, that's what I'm thinking; I've got an NC getting suspension now, if I can confirm it's "about right" then it'll save me $150 and half a day. I was expecting my dedeon rear end to be pretty consistent. Maybe I should check my neighbor's live axle charger and see if it has any "toe".

I think there's case use for somebody like me who's never done an alignment on the 7 and would at least like the ballpark values dialed in If it gets close enough and can do a number of cars in my fleet I think it would pay for itself with just a few uses

Mine came in over the weekend. It's the "G2" which has some sort of internal hardware and runs an app on my phone. I've reached out for some support, hopefully will hear back during the week. I did a check of my wife's car, which has unknown alignment but I assume it's OK. The numbers weren't crazy, but I didn't save them. IIRC it was something like -0.25 toe front + rear, but very precise-looking values like -0.18* and -0.37* The app has a few modes including a 4-point and 6-point check, plus a thrust angle which uses a body reference. The body reference I chose was the sill where the scuttle hits the "door". I'll assume my car is still square, it's never touched anything. The rear is a dedeon with machined plates, so I further assume the toe is controlled very precisely, tho thrust angle could be off slightly. note that in the photos below the "+1.00*" is a configuration I added, it doesn't actually mean anything for the measurements. here's #1 and #2. The pictures look alarming but the actual values are small. Note that the car didn't move at all during these two measurements, I just repeated the same test twice. The procedure involves holding the phone+device flat (the diamond in the center is your level reference), then hold it against the reference point on the body or the wheel. One of those will blink saying which one it wants next, you align it then tap to confirm. It sends you back and forth a few times to get the measurements before showing the result. I do expect some toe in here, and I think it's underestimating twice. As this is a dedeon I don't feel like toe has much room to wear -- it's steel or aluminium all the way around. I also did the "6 point" check for toe front+back, twice: again, the car wasn't moved between tests. This time the rear toe is more consistent but the front varied a lot. I have not tried to independently measure in 15k miles but I expect the front to be toed in a little. I'd already reached out to the team to see if they could help with the square-check. I don't know if a good set of thrust values would really help here... maybe? My dedeon doesn't have any thrust angle adjustment, I think the two swingarms will constrain that angle. At best I could try and shim the assembly left or right but I don't think the gyraline (as currently provided) can account for that. And It was shimmed + measured when I built it... The above 6-point rear toe check is encouraging, but the fronts and the thrust angle seem ... variable. I'm not sure what the expected accuracy is. I assume something like 0.5 or 0.25 degrees, just based on the swing in the numbers below. But if that's the case I have a front that may or may not be neutral. Based on the very obvious inside wear on both tires after 17k miles I assume they're toed in just fine. I have not yet attempted camber measurement. Again with the dedeon I expect the rears to be very precisely constrained. The fronts were aligned when new and with no accidents and mostly grocery and road trips, I expect the fronts to be about -1.5*.

I am having the Stalker Tilt Trailer sandblasted and repainted in the coming weeks by the trailer repair company that redid the wiring and added the electric brakes. The trailer will essentially be like an almost new trailer, especially with the Torflex axle as opposed to a leaf spring suspension that is like a pogo stick. I am not sure at this point that I want to sell my beautiful ensemble?

Week Beginning May 10, 2026 USA7s Classified Ads of Cars for Sale USA7s classified pages - USA7s club members have the benefit of selling their cars by listing them for free on USA7s forum. https://usa7s.net/ips/forum/26-cars-for-sale/ New Ads This Week Caterham https://bringatrailer.com/listing/2023-caterham-seven-420r/ Repeat Ads From Prior Weeks Caterham https://ebay.us/m/N9vevX Caterham https://ebay.us/m/7vLyH5 and here https://www.facebook.com/share/1EjC9T5FWZ/ Caterham https://ebay.us/m/7vLyH5 and here https://www.hemmings.com/classifieds/listing/1998-caterham-super-seven-fort-lauderdale-fl-2914012 and here https://www.facebook.com/share/18mpNjKYZb/ Caterham https://www.hemmings.com/listing/1999-caterham-all-models-526915 Caterham https://www.hemmings.com/classifieds/dealer/caterham/super-seven/2638345.html Caterham https://www.hemmings.com/classifieds/listing/2026-caterham-seven-miami-fl-2916813 and here https://www.facebook.com/share/1DBn3zPh5H/ Lotus 7 https://www.hemmings.com/classifieds/listing/1963-lotus-super-seven-cochranville-pa-2891143 Caterham SP300R https://www.facebook.com/share/1D67y9sZVg/ Caterham https://www.facebook.com/share/18ppKoxUNX/ Locost https://www.facebook.com/share/1ENevnUwdn/ Caterham https://www.facebook.com/share/1BMgPS4Dtp/ Caterham Project https://www.facebook.com/share/1azSPmCiQM/ Caterham https://www.facebook.com/share/1avG4NQ5FM/ Locost https://www.facebook.com/share/1GaL3oqt2d/ Westfield Pre Lit https://www.facebook.com/share/1ZyVypSmNH/ Lotus 7 https://www.facebook.com/share/1H7wXbdEuP/ Canada Ads Westfield https://www.facebook.com/share/1CejHz2pc6/ Locost Project https://www.facebook.com/share/1C8GZTsjq7/ Lotus 7 S3 https://www.facebook.com/share/178YRz7o5t/ Eva https://www.facebook.com/share/1E73BzJqDH/

Its a big readjustment process but incredibly rewarding as a driver. Most people come from bigger cars which have enough weight over the nose to just hammer the wheel left or right and the car just goes. However, a Caterham (or Birkin or Westfield or Locost) just do not have the nose weight when under acceleration so a left or right turn in that state will just lead to scrub. A brief lift of throttle or light tap on brake is nearly always enough to put more weight on the nose/front wheels to get them to bite for your turn. Then you can play with throttle in the corner to adjust attitude. Think of it in a sequence. Corner coming up. Brake to get weight over nose. Once weight is on nose then off brake and turn in. Once turn iniitated then start to feed in power progressively to come out of corner quickly. Slow in and fast out. Ross Bentley in his Speed Secrets series has a good section on managing weight transfer around the 4 wheels for varying outcomes. Find his first book in the series and have a read. Then go out and experiment - great opportunity for a track day since you can do it safely plus repeat corners to adjust technique and get a good seat of pants feel. Also read his section on trail brake as this is a great technique for keeping the rear end controlled under late braking entry to corners - Caterhams respond well to trail braking. Its more lack of weight on front tires under acceleration. Its not a 50/50 weight distribution front to rear as a driver is a lot heavier than a 4 cylinder Ford engine. Obviously with the aerodynamics of a brick, there is some front end lift which exacerbates the problem. The example corner for me is Copse at Silverstone. Its the old turn 1 if you are using the old pits. Its 60 foot wide track going and about 80 foot wide coming out. I go in at redline in 4th and have 15 feet of available track on exit, even without braking or lifting. And I scrub understeer the whole way through. I do not need to tap or lift as the track is so wide. But I have to do a lift to set the front tires up for a quick corner. Frustrating. Luckily there are not many places where that is an issue - top corner just past the rising esses at VIR, Copse at Silverstone, two corners at Portimao, entry into corner 1 at double Gauche at Spa, etc. Caterham sell one for rear camber and toe: https://caterhamparts.co.uk/de-dion-tube/6531-camber-and-toe-shim-kit-de-dion-cars.html I would ping Josh at Rocky Mountain - I bet he has some in stock. You do need to know where you are starting from on rear alignment. How much rear camber is dialed in from the standard de Dion. Should be 2.5deg but that is not guaranteed - check will tell you. Borrowing a photo from someone else since I am flying this month and won't be near my cars until June. Front - back of wishbone. Photo shows a more recent model Caterham with ali skin. The ruler points at measuring point. My measurement was ground to chassis tube as not all cars are covered in ali there (e.g. older chassis and race cars) but you can deduct the right amount of ali skin cover from the 120mm. For the rear measurement point, do it ground to chassis tube at the rear axle point - no photo handy right now. Its not much - only +5mm rake front wheels to back wheels.

A complete Watts linkage kit for LH and RH. This is for metric chassis. S3 or SV. Might be adapted to imperial cars. $600 plus shiping

Same mount I received, the forward side of the mirror is quite convex. Going to take considerable modification.

Ordered. Thanks. @JohnCh and @Outbound

yep, the same setup @Outbound mentioned earlier. Zoom ships via Japan Post who handles the tariff payment and bills through Zoom, which simplified everything. The mirror was $115.23, the mount another $28.81, shipping to Seattle was $28.55, and tariffs were $20.03 for a grand total of $192.62.

@JohnCh is this the mirror you got? https://zoom-eng.com/en/collections/モナコ-エアロ-ts-コンパクト-リトル-ペンタ-ルームミラー/products/コンパクトルームミラー単体-車種取付用アーム別 was it the small or medium size ? Do you mind sharing the mounting arm you used ? Sorry. Just re read the thread assume it’s the h03 general arm and the small mirror.

It's not a badge, it's the horn button. I had it laser engraved with the logo.