JohnCh

The air horns look like TWM Induction pieces and the fuel pressure regulator looks like it might say TWM Induction, so that's my guess for the Throttle Bodies. They were acquired by Borla a while back, but still make all the components. -John

Lucky Dawg is right, I meant to write Port Angeles. Oh well, at least I got the "Port" part right. -John

I-5 boredom hits within a few miles in a normal car, so doubt you'll make it too far in the se7en. There are a few places you might want to see if you are staying in the Pacific Northwest, including: Olympic Peninsula (rain forest, so weather is hit or miss) Highway 20 (big sweeping corners with beautiful scenery, and Winthrop is an interesting little town) Mt Rainier (great roads, but crowded on weekends) Cannon Beach, Oregon Lot's of great roads, but the fun ones are definitely more remote, so something to consider given the original purpose of this thread. Another thing to consider is taking the ferry from Victoria to Port Townshend, WA instead of Nanaimo to Tsawwassen. This eliminates the boring drive from Vancouver to the border and is a much easier border crossing (The Peace Arch can be very painful). Port Townshend drops you off on 101 with the option of heading East to I-5, or West to the Olympic Peninsula. You could then do a reverse route and head down 101 until you are ready to get back and then jump on I-5 to Vancouver. Lots of options -- should be a great addendum to the GBB. -John

Slightly off topic, but there are several of us here who live in Washington State. Let us know if you would like a sanity check on your route or plans. -John

Maybe a dumb question, but given this happened as soon as you flipped the hazard switch, have you checked the fuse for that circuit? -John

Here are the specs for the Caterham 13" wheels that the US distributor sent me a few years ago: 13"x6" (front) .96875" offset (24.6mm positive offset) 4.375" backspacing 13"x8" (rear) 1.53125" offset (38.9mm positive offset) 5.9375" backspacing Also, my prior research shows the bore center is 63.3mm, not 55mm. Might want to measure what's on your car now to confirm. -John

And considering it was Ed who started this thread... -John

I received some devastating news today via the old USA2005 Se7ens.net mailing list. Ed Hudson, a.k.a. Hudson on this forum, was killed in a bicycle accident last month. The following article has the details, but if there’s any solace to those who knew him, he died doing one of the things he loved. Ed and I were in regular contact, typically sharing multiple emails per week, so although it was odd that he hadn’t returned my last few over the past month, it never occurred to me that it was an ominous sign. I just assumed he was busy prepping for his European bike trip in August. For those of us lucky enough to have known Ed, he will be remembered as a kind, generous, modest, easy going, and very intelligent guy. He was my regular touring buddy, having done several trips together including 2 in our se7ens from Monterey to my house in Seattle, and a fly-in event for Rennsport Reunion a year and a half ago. In fact just last month we committed to doing the Monterey tour again next summer. Words are failing me, so I'll close up with a couple of pictures to remember him by. The first was taken along Highway 1 on USA 2005, where we first met, and the second was taken in the cockpit of a McLaren MP4-12C in Monterey in 2010 - a car that tempted him regularly. http://www.throttle-steer.com/uploads/1/1/0/8/11083275/4159713_orig.jpg http://www.throttle-steer.com/uploads/1/1/0/8/11083275/166926_orig.jpg You’ll be missed my friend… -John

Just realized I had the dates wrong, it's 8/16-8/18, not 8/15-8/17, so I've updated the post with the correct info. Still conflicts with the Turn 2 event though. -John

Slomove is coming through the Seattle area on his way back from the Grizzly Bear Blat, so a few of us are joining him for a day as part of a 2-3 day mini blat. We’ll meet Gert in Monroe on the morning of Friday, 8/16 and drive to Walla Walla. From there Gert continues on to Boise, and we’ll either stick with him for part of that day before heading back, or strike out on our own. We’re way behind on route planning, but we’re leaning towards taking 2 days to get back to Seattle; possibly heading towards Winthrop and then taking North Cascades Highway. Is anyone interested in joining us? -John

Perhaps it's time for a new User Name? Farmer Croc, The Gardener, Mike the Florist... :jester: -John

If you're careful with the options, you can *just* get a Miata-based Westfield kit in that price range including a donor pallet from Flyin Miata. One advantage of the Miata-based route is that there are a lot of power upgrades available as you look to increase your investment down the road. For example, Scannon's FM turbo Miata Caterham is putting out north of 300hp. You can play with FM's pricing configurator here. -John

5-Speed sequential gearbox, deDion out back, and A-arms up front with Ackerman geometry. -John

According to Westfield, the alloy uprights have slightly revised Ackerman geometry, but I've yet to get definitive feedback from anyone if there's a noticeable difference from behind the wheel. The weight savings is only ~1lb per side, and if you are running cycle wings, you'll also need to buy different mounting brackets, so not great bang for your buck. Alloy hubs are a different story. If you have the budget, I'd also suggest looking at alloy 4-pot calipers. Switching to alloy hubs and Outlaw M16 calipers shaved off 16lb of unsprung weight from my car. -John

Can't really tell from that angle, but you don't have a standard upper control arm. Yours is fully adjustable with inner rod ends, which is a nice upgrade. Here is a picture I found online of the Cortina upright. http://i46.photobucket.com/albums/f150/Pistonheadz/Hotrod/rodrebuild017.jpg -John

If you plan to stay in Monterey, expect to pay about $280+ for what is normally a $90-$100 room, also most places have a 3 night minimum stay requirement that weekend. Things get cheaper though as you move to the outlying towns such as Salinas. Best thing to do is get on the phone now and see what's available. Most of the popular places (i.e great location, or reasonable rates) sell out by this time, so you are definitely not too early. I've heard from some people who have showed up in Monterey without a reservation and have scored pretty good deals on last minute cancellations. Might be an option if you aren't very risk adverse. For what it’s worth, I’ve stayed in Salinas and in Monterey. Saving hundreds of dollars was great, but the stop & go traffic leading back to Salinas each night got old pretty quickly. -John

Or if they are paying the same as Stalker, then they are paying too much! -John

Hit refresh and then check again. It should alternate between Stalker and Westfield. -John

There is a US distributor. In fact he's a paying site sponsor (see the rotating banner at the top of the page). As for paying me...that's a damn good idea. Interested in becoming my agent? Might be beer money in it for you. -John

Bruce, that’s not entirely true either. Although I agree that Loren is great asset to the community and has done some amazing things with the Ultralite, the company was founded by Brian Anderson, with whom I spent some time on USA2005. It might surprise you to learn that when Brian was designing the car, he had a number of conversations with Rob Robertson, another Texan, who at the time was the US Westfield distributor. Rob was toying with building an S2000-powered Westfield for his own use, and had test fitted the engine into a SEight chassis. He shared some dimensions and other info on that project with Brian who was approaching the Utralite’s design from his hot rod background. Brian ended up with something very unique, and was the first to introduce a commercially available S2000-powered se7en. And as already noted, Loren has built upon that, creating some blindingly fast cars. Now I was also going to ask if we could get back on topic, but then along came Croc... :jester:

Gert, do you have a brake flashing module hooked up to your rollbar light, or is does it simply glow steady upon brake application like your other lights? Although the flashing may annoy following drivers, in my experience it really does get their attention. Prior to adding the module to my car, it usually took about three separate taps of the brakes before someone following a little too closely got the message to back off. With the flashing module, I rarely have to tap the brakes more than once. Not exactly scientific, but… -John

Um...actually they do Although to be fair that option was only introduced a few years ago with the FW body (the car in the article has the FW tub, but SEiW bonnet for added clearance). As for shiny, well, you've got me there. Seriously though, I simply thought some folks would be interested that Westfield has added another engine option to their range. Certainly didn't mean to stir up the Ultralite community. Although now that I know how easy it is... :jester: -John

Let's see, Westfield introduced that hoodscoop to their line with the V-8 powered SEIght in '91, and the double bubble aeroscreen on the FW400 in '98, followed a year later as an aeroscreen option for the SE range. Oh yeah, and they also added IRS and the widebody to the options list in '88. So when exactly did the Ultralite and Stalker come to market? :jester: -John

Complete Kit Car just tested the new S2000 powered Westfield which leverages a lot of the engineering changes introduced in the factory-only built Sport Turbo. They really seem to like it. (PDF here) As an aside, I know of three Westfields in the US that have been running that engine for years, but only one in the UK. Perhaps the colonies should take credit for this idea -John

Gert, please keep me posted on your plans when you're traveling to/from Monroe. My house is less than 20 miles south of your motel, so it would be pretty easy to tag along for half a day. -John