JohnCh

Moved to Parts section. -John

Hate to admit it, but Croc is right once again, including time of day (I usually call between 6-7am PT). Although I've never dealt with SBD, short phone calls with all the other vendors -- and there have been a lot over the years -- has always proven the most expedient approach. -John

Build threads are too few and far between. I'd love to better understand your plans for the upgrades and then critique, er...I mean observe this from the sidelines. :jester: -John

I have MOG seats which are similar to the Tillets. Because the shells are so thin, they do make a significant difference in available space. With the runners in place, and 1/4" spacers in front to increase tilt back, my butt is -John

The manufacturer already did that This shows it putting out 2 liters of fuel: It's certainly an interesting concept. The size, weight , and price are big improvements over Halon and Halotron, but I'm not as enthused over the engagement mechanism or the inability to stop the stream. With a regular fire extinguisher you simply pull the pin and squeeze the trigger which doesn't really take any practice to accomplish quickly. With the Element you need to remove a cap and strike it against the end. In the panic of a fire, with never having tried this before, I wonder if it could add precious seconds doing multiple strikes at different pressures, or in my case, finding the cap that I carelessly threw to the ground while attempting that initial strike. When using a fire extinguisher on my car in the past, it was helpful stopping the stream for a second to examine the engine bay and assess if I needed to reposition it. With the Element, it appears there is always a smoke screen partially blocking your view. Not sure if these concerns are valid or if they outweigh the benefits, but I am looking forward to reading more reviews. Given the price though, it might be worth having one in the car to supplement my Halon unit. -John

The WWABFM is coming up on Saturday the 21st in Kenmore. I had hoped to use that as an excuse for a Seattle-area se7en owners meet up and possible drive, but I'm no longer able to make it this year; however, I'm throwing this out there in case any of you are interested and would like to organize something. Event info is located here: http://wwabfm.com/ -John

Safety. I think all of us have had our brushes with people who simply didn't see the car because it's so low and small. Best advice is to drive defensively aggressive; assume all other drivers are either playing Pokemon Go or holding a mocha soy latte in one hand while texting with the other, and then use the car's power and agility to keep you out of their way. it's similar to riding a motorcycle, except there's no danger of tipping over at a stoplight. -John

Unless someone had rear fenders made from aluminum, your car should have either fiberglass or carbon fiber front and rear fenders. Pretty sure CSRs had the latter, but someone with more knowledge can correct me if that's wrong. I'm an advocate of bright colors in a se7en to help them stand out to other drivers, so would definitely prefer the blue to the current config, but not everyone is as paranoid as me about that :-) -John

That's good advice for a highly collectable car or one that is sure to obtain such status down the road. For a Caterham? That seems like wishful thinking. IMHO you are a long, long way from a CSR200 becoming the kind of car that is purchased to sit in someone's garage as a historically significant object or piece of static art where things like production-year correct paint is an important valuation factor and point of personal pride. Color popularity and paint quality are far more likely to impact the price when you resell, so I'd steer clear of something like hot pink or any other polarizing color that will limit the pool of buyers or drive down the price to allow for a repaint. The current factory blue on a car that is still being produced (albeit in limited markets as Croc notes) doesn't seem particularly risky. Create the car you want and then drive the snot out of it. That's where the beauty of a Caterham (or other se7en variants) shines through. BTW since the car is together and drivable, I'd delay painting the car until you've spent some time with it. There may be other things you prefer to change and the current finish may actually grow on you. -John

Raceline also sells a smaller bellhousing to take advantage of the dry sump. They previously told me it uses the same clutch as the standard bellhousing, but requires a new flywheel. My notes don't indicate if a different starter is also needed. -John

Miata.net is the big forum. Lot's of information including a garage section full of how-to write ups. -John

Thanks, someone else reported this a few days ago and I've already alerted Mazda.

I'm not sure what happened. Your initial post was in moderation, which I approved, and why people could see a thread exists, but then for some reason it reverted back to moderation when you posted again and subsequently hid all your posts from view. Also odd -- although it has happened a couple of times recently -- your posts no longer showed up in my moderation view, so it wasn't clear there was a problem until I examined the thread after reading APinSoFl's post. Hopefully your sale goes more smoothly than your posting history here -John

That car is in Vancouver, WA (just across the river from Portland) not Vancouver, BC, so no importation issues to consider. -John

Given the risk to a se7en and its passengers from just a minor rear impact, I'm fine with displeasing the person behind me to reduce that risk. Besides, people are often so interested in these cars, I don't think the annoyance factor is as high as with a normal vehicle. The proof to me that this setup makes a difference came with dissuading tailgaters who were trying to get a better look at the Westfield. Before the blinking module was added, it would usually take 2-3 taps of the brakes to get the person to clue in and back off. These days I rarely have to hit them more than once. -John

More effort, but I wired mine into a brake flashing module that rapidly flashes the light 3 times before going solid. A little annoying for those behind me, but it definitely gets their attention. -John

I forgot that car started life as a SEight. The 4 cylinder cars have a mush smaller tank and a different shaped boot box. Here is a picture of one shamelessly stolen from the Internet. http://www.usa7s.net/vb/attachment.php?attachmentid=14098&stc=1 -John

Rob, do you have a long range fuel tank? I've never seen one without a flat bottom before. Thanks, John

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