JohnCh

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

I like the idea of incorporating the West Coast Lotus Meet. Al, if you decide to do that, I'll break into my upgrade budget and buy you a beer :cheers: -John

Agree with all the above (even Croc ). Two things to add: Final build quality is more dependent on the builder with some brands than it is with others. Consequently if you are buying used, you might see a wider variation among examples from brand A than brand B, but that doesn't mean that any given example of brand B is better built than something from brand A. It also means that if you are buying new, your efforts will have a bigger impact on the finished product with some brands. Depending on your perspective, that's either good or bad (personally I like it). A se7en, regardless of make, is never really finished. All owners suffer from Acute Upgraditis and are always tweaking things to improve the driving experience. So yes, setup and mods will make a big difference in how various cars compare. The good news is that you can generally achieve what you're after with any of the major brands, particularly if that includes an ugly credit card balance -John

I doubt it. I've gone from 195/60-14 AO32R to 185/60-14 AO32R, and later from 195/55-14 TS1 to 205/60-13 R888. Both times the difference in effort was negligible. -John

I’ve run the R888 and RA1. The R888 seems to have a touch more grip, but I prefer the handling with the RA1. Kind of hard to describe, but the car just seems more playful and communicative in the corners. According to Toyo, the sidewalls are about 10% softer, so that might factor into what I feel. As for cold weather driving, they are great to a point. When I bought my R888, they were on different wheels, so one morning with the temps hovering around 47F, I took the car out on the outgoing Toyo T1S (a "real" street tire), then came home, swapped the wheels, and retraced my steps with the R888. Even with less than 1 mile of warm up time spent driving at 25mph through a neighborhood, the R888 still had more grip than the T1S. Yes they do grip a lot better when warm, but they still grip well when cold. The RA1 feels identical to the R888 in this regard. Once the temps dip into the mid 30’s, they do begin to feel a bit slick, but nothing dangerous. My old Yoko AO32Rs, by comparison, were a handful when the temps fell into the 50's. -John

Gone but not forgotten: '74 Renault R17 Gordini (rally spec engine w/DCOEs) '85 Honda CRX '87 Honda CRX-Si (lots of Jackson Racing engine & suspension mods - a little giant killer of a car) '86 Porsche 944 '76 BMW 2002 (lots of suspension mods but still had skinny 165-13 tires) '69 Alfa Romeo 1750 GT Veloce (suspension & engine heavily modified - rust helped keep the weight down) '00 BMW M-coupe Current: '86 Porsche 944 turbo '95/'03 Westfield '95 Porsche 993 C2 '95 Miata (set up for track) Of the ones that are gone, I miss the Alfa the most. -John

Based on my earlier research, one of the benefits of a Ferrous Phosphate battery over a Cobalt, Manganese, or Nickel Oxide battery typically found in consumer devices, is safety. They are reportedly a lot more stable and harder to ignite. Are you hearing about LiFePO4 batteries specifically exploding, or Lithium batteries in general? -John

Somewhat ironic that the two people on this thread who have called into question the need for saving an additional 10+ lb by going with a lithium battery, both run an Odyssey battery rather than a cheaper, heavier, traditional car battery. Hmm... :jester: While I agree that 12lb doesn’t make a noticeable difference to the driving experience, saving a few pounds here and there does add up. There also aren't too many places on a se7en where you can shave off that much weight in one chunk without doing major surgery. -John

Just to make your decision harder, the EVO2 is available on Amazon from Mueller Motorsports for just $226 incl shipping. BTW not sure you want the EVO2 HD over the EVO2. The $30 more expensive HD has the same specs, but is sized differently to fit a Harley Davidson battery box. As for weight, my EVO2 came in at 3lb 4.5oz on an accurate postal scale vs. 14lb 10oz for my outgoing PC680. -John

I switched from a PC680 to a Balistic EVO2 16 cell battery almost a year ago. Saved over 11 lb. and starts the car in mid-upper 30 deg range without issue. http://www.throttle-steer.com/uploads/1/1/0/8/11083275/409951_orig.jpg -John

Might be worth a call to Ivey Engines in Portland, OR. They are arguably the crossflow experts in the US and might either have something in the shop or can steer you in the right direction. -John

Done! -John

I just looked at the mounting instructions on Raceline's site (see bottom of this page). It states: -John

Are you sure it uses a gasket? I have their wet sump for a Duratec and it uses liquid gasket. I thought the design for the Zetec was similar? -John