JohnCh

The boot box for the classic body is pretty small as it is designed to drop in from the top and doesn't take advantage of the room afforded by the sloping of the rear bodywork or the rear firewall. I jettisoned mine during the rebuild and fabricated a custom boot box out of aluminum that's significantly bigger and has a removable floor making it very easy to access the area around the diff. It's not that hard to do, so I wouldn't worry about that aspect. However, I seem to recall reading that the FW bodywork necessitates a smaller fuel tank, which is something that I would investigate. -John

I've bought from them in the past and have always had good experiences. -John

Mazda had a hand in this too, I'm just glad it's fixed. Oh, and if you really want to say thank you, as per the other thread ship the RS to my house :jester: -John

Croc, DirtFish Rally School is less than 20 miles from my house. Why don't you have the car shipped to me and I'll watch it for you until you can fly out and put some proper rally miles on it. I promise to exercise the RS regularly to ensure it's primed and ready for your arrival and I'll keep the Westfield at least 20' away from it at all times. -John

That was a great pre-F1 coffee read! Given the starting mileage, I'm curious if you noticed any difference with the engine by end of day? -John

Beautiful car! I just found the original for sale ad online that included dyno sheets. Um...I think you are going to need wider rear tires -John

Belt routing is critical. It's worth some time going to Schroth's site and digging around in their tech articles, instructions, and crash videos. These provide the safe mounting range for each belt based on type (e.g. 5-point vs. 6-point) and will help you determine if surgery is required. One of the big dangers of running a 4-point (Schroth ASM excepted) is that the lap belt positon rides up to your abdomen and crushes internal organs in a collision. Properly mounting the lap and crotch straps keep the lap belt in the correct position at the pelvis and minimizes this type of trauma. -John

I don't know. Kind of looks like the guys at Zagato got drunk before trying their hand at a Se7en. -John

Hopefully the OBD port is designed to respond to a code reader without giving an error, vs. simply operating as an access port for other devices that are pulling out sensor data (e.g. speed, rpm, temps.) Sometimes they get backed up on email, so if you don't hear back in a few days, give them a call. BTW Karl handles the SW, so you probably want to speak with him rather than Dave who is the tuning guru. -John

I didn't realize Emerald began offering that feature. Dave and Karl are very good guys; I'd shoot them an email, or better yet call, and discuss this with them to see if it would work. -John

I looked into Hagerty several years ago and decided the policy was a little too restrictive for me. Not sure if it's changed, but at the time you couldn't use the car for commuting and there was some type of parking location restriction that effectively meant some shopping trips would put the policy at risk. Given I occasionally take the car to the office on nice days when I can avoid commute traffic, and use the car on weekends to run errands, this was a concern, so I spoke with Hagerty to clarify. Their response was that if I only did those things occasionally it wasn't a problem; however, since the policy wasn't written to reflect that sentiment, it seemed that having a claim on the one day of the year I take the car into the office meant I was at their mercy to honor that verbal statement. I decided to stick with my insurer for the past 20+ years who covers my house and 6 cars. At least with them I feel I have some leverage. -John

As I recall you contact them directly and identify yourself as a GarageJournal forum member. A search for "Racedeck discount" should return info. -John

A great resource for this topic is the Flooring forum on GarageJournal.com. RaceDeck posts there and does offer a discount for members. -John

There are a few things that I like compared to the traditional style that I used for years. Whether they are worth the premium is a personal decision. For my cars, the flat top fits the underside of the car more securely without doing damage to powder coating or undercoating (this is just like a proper lift) it uses a pin to secure the sliding portion rather than a ratcheting mechanism. Occasionally you hear stories where the teeth weren't securely seated and it releases allowing the car to fall. Rare yes, but this eliminates that concern. The stands use flat feet which are very stable (no rocking) and don't dig into the floor. Not much of an issue if you don't have a floor treatment. -John

Although not cheap, the Esco stands are fantastic. They have plenty of height, a secure locking pin, and a padded flat top that doesn't mar the chassis rails. -John

I've heard Caterham referred to as the Porsche of se7ens, and since you have two of them... Ok, time for me to temporarily ban myself for insulting half the membership. Mike, I'll see you in the Time Out box -John

Once again you seem to be confusing the word "better" for its antonym. :jester: -John

With that laundry list you still think you are somewhat better??? :jester: -John

I used Thackeray washers on all my cars that ran DCOEs. As I recall the procedure was to tighten the nut until the washer fully compressed and then back off one turn. The key is that the carbs can rock without breaking the seal. -John

My Westfield is very sensitive to rake. I chased a handling issue for a long time before discovering that was the issue. It turned out that after the rebuild, the shop doing the alignment didn't consider rake when performing the corner balance. As a result the back was about level with the front instead of a bit higher (+20mm at the specified measuring points). Getting this right made a big difference to turn in and got rid of the understeer. I'm curious about your comment "the way these tires have worn, I know I need to make some adjustments." What wear are you seeing? Is it simply a function of more aggressive settings for corners which is generally at odds with even wear on a street driven car where the majority of miles are not covered under load, or is that wear severely compromising tire life? If the former, setting changes that provide even wear may impact the handling you say you currently love. -John

My advice is to break up into smaller groups of like-minded drivers rather than stay in one big convoy. Speed and stopping preferences differ, and people shouldn't feel forced into an approach that doesn't match their desires or comfort zone. Bigger groups also make passing more difficult as passing zones aren't always long enough to let 8-10 cars by at a time, so the lagging cars sometimes feel compelled to pass on a double yellow or not be as safe as they'd like. Touring should be fun. As for daily distance, sometimes that is dictated by hotel availability. We may be forced into two really short consecutive days that stretch the trip by a day, one really long day, or a reroute that removes a particular point of interest from the itinerary. We don't know what we're up against until we narrow down the options. Who knows, there may be sufficient interest to support two different tours. One shorter, more local event that centers on a basecamp, and another longer point-to-point trip that covers a much larger portion of the PNW and draws in people from much farther away. -John

Randall, missed your earlier response. If there is sufficient interest from folks in CA, we could use Gert's PNW2007 tour for inspiration. Starting point was Vacaville, then the group took the interior route to Whistler, over to Vancouver Island, down the Olympic Peninsula and ended up back in Vacaville about 2-1/2 weeks later. Some people only joined for a portion; I met the group in Portland and broke off again a week later after we took the ferry from Victoria to Port Angeles. -John

I agree which is why I wanted to create a new thread for the PNW Tour discussion as that could take on a life of its own. We are probably at least 2-3 months away from getting cooperative weather for a weekend get-together, but am certainly up for it. -John

Gert, thanks for the input. I'm familiar with the challenges of cat herding for these events (learned by watching you). You may recall I put together the NorCal 2008 tour that I believe you attended, and I had to flake out at the last minute due to an injury -- if the organizer can't commit, it's not surprising that attendees can't. Ron, I've done the Monterey to Seattle trip twice when attending car week (>900 miles of freeway driving to get there and 5 days of backroads on the return). It could work as a starting point if there is enough interest from folks in CA and it's an extended trip so those of us in WA can join a little closer to home. Weather-wise, that's a generally a great time. Alfonse, 300 miles isn't so bad. Gas stops are usually 100-120 miles apart max, so there are lots of stops along the way, and it makes for a full day. Realistically, the avg. day has been in the 250-300 mile range with occasional days pushing north of 350 or as short as 200. The problem I've seen with short days is that we usually get early starts to ensure unobstructed roads, and end up arriving in a tiny town with nothing to do pretty early in the afternoon. I've gone through the Chelan area on tours three or four times. With a local's help for finding the right roads it's an option, but as you note, it can get really hot there. -John

Revisiting this thread now that we are wellinto Winter (aka Planning Season). It seems there is interest in doing a tourthis summer, so rather than lose that discussion and planning within this Seattle-specificthread, I’ve started a new one here which may broaden the net of interestedattendees. Thanks, John