Kitcat

Nice!

50% ethanol? That cant be good! What does adding "Stabil" do for longevity/stability of the mix?

Hijack: Mighty Mike, everytime I see a photo of your car I am blown away by how perfect it is. Mike M

Mike: As a former Sprite owner (bought it new in '67) I agree that fun and aesthetics are separate from speed. My base Sprite lacked the coveted wire wheels and just ran on 4 little boat anchor steel wheels and it was a total blast to drive. It cranked out 55hp as I recall and did 0-60 in abt 16 seconds. I think it had a 1100 cc engine. It mite have been an earlier year model as the dealer was unable to sell it. Its all a bit foggy. Mike M

Thx Skip, finally got to see what everyone was talking abt. Notakit: Your album says you are ditching the snow tires. What abt the wire wheels? They are very authentic but are probably 2x as heavy, or more, than a stock Caterham Prisoner wheel and the other modern lite wheels out there. Unsprung weight is never good, and esp so on out little lightweight flyers. Mike

Michael: THe se7en in your photo shows you running a full standard windshield. Have you tried substituting a driver's side Brooklands screen or simple wind deflector? My experience w/Brooklands is that it added a bit of top speed as well as improved acceleration. (I left it home for the trip to LOG30/Summit Point as I drove my car there and wanted the added protection on the highway and against the possibility of rain). Mike M.

The 1st mobile phone I ever saw was in early-mid 70's. It was about the size of a regular phone and the owner had to carry a large battery around with him, abt the size of most se7en batteries. Of course, it had no video capacity since that hadn't been invented either. I suspect, tho that, unlike Slingshot's pitiful little thing, it wld have made excellent door stop. The progress since then has been spectacular-science fiction level almost.

Where are you sourcing your parts for rebuild? I spoke with Jay Ivy last year and he has loads of Crossflow upgrade parts. Not cheap tho. As I recall, an aluminum head, wh/saves 20 lbs, was $2K. What will RPM max be? How much of an overbore? Did you ever chassis dyno your existing engine to see what the power was? FWIW, when my stock engine was dynoed, it made 95 hp and 93 lbs torque. Also FWIW, Ben at Caterham USA recommends selling Crossflow engined Cats and buying Zetec or Duratec engined Cats due to the immense hassle of doing such an engine transplant.

For the sake of us other Crossflow owners with "Zetec envy", plz post details of planned mods. Is the goal power, reliability, both? Cost is an obvious factor, what are you budgeting for this rebuild? Mike

One person's "modern" is another person's "butt-ugly":). It looks like a garden variety se7en w/some areo mods stuck on that should make it grip better. So it lost me on the aesthetics but the mods shd enhance on track performance.

Great project, great concept! Any photos of progress to date? Your tranny tunnel probably will act as a heat radiator. It did in my '67 Sprite and does in my '97 Caterham. Heat is one of the 7's nemeses. With or without the fully skinned body, heat will find its way into the cockpit. Since you are building from scratch, you have a chance add insulation in the engine compartment/tranny tunnel as you go, if you want. Do a search here for various solutions tried, none of wh/have solved this problem 100%. Mike

Add Stabil to gas tank, run it a few miles, hook it up to a trickle charger, put the car cover on and tuck it in for the next 4 months.

MoPho: Impressions of the Galardo Balboni? Did it live up to it's hype? Is it even more beautiful in person? Did it draw as many gawkers as the se7en? How did you back it up (I recently saw a video of Balboni himself backing it up by having the door up and sitting half out of the car)? Mike M.

Cry, cry, you guys otta try being a Bengals fan! I too saw about 20 minutes of Top Gear. Boring, pointless, juvenile. I actually liked the Sarah Palin show on Alaska better. Without her heels, she's kind of a shrimp. Turns out, it's hard to look totally put together in freezing weather on a fishing boat. Seeing her beat the one fish senseless with a baseball bat and hold its still throbbing heart in the air gave true meaning to her "Mama Grizzlie" moniker. Think of what she'd do if she got a liberal like me in her clutches:)!

Croc: Love your "marriage" comment:)! I can't imagine anything more terrible than looking at neked pictures of the average middle age, overweight traveler. I don't think even the rare buff female wld be enough to offset that parade of horribles.

Not to mention the ever-popular Bike-engined se7ens: which add both power and lightness.

Skip: Amazing how much nicer your Panasports look on a se7en than they look on a Miata! What are the "wheel adapters" you mention? Mike M.

We still have an old Model T plant in Cincy, built in 1915. Just takes up a small part of one city block, abt 5-6 stories, recently converted to an office building, after decades of abandonment. Each floor was 24 inch thick poured concrete. Finished cars were then parked on the top of the building.

Croc (Mike) bought the Caterham CRS 260 listed hereabouts on this very forum. I am green with envy. I cant wait to hear abt the first drive wh/I suspect will be amazing/terrifying. Mike M (Is it just my imagination, or is every other member here named Mike?)

Sounds like your recent trip to the track reignited your competitive itch. Now for the really hard part: tow vehicle/trailer:). Mike M.

What are the chances:)!

Hmmm. I note that the Caterham CRS 260 for sale at Caterham USA has now been sold. I wonder....?

Whaaa....???? " "Another Seven project". Did the trip to Caterham dealership plant the seed for an even better Cat? Prospective buyers: I believe that the only thing better than a new Cat is a used one. That's because all of the little glitches and teething problems have been resolved, as Croc's list on enhancements on his lightly used Cat demonstrates. The price is a few thou under market too, IMHO, for a car this nice, which I recently saw, and drooled over. Edit: A final note to fence-sitters: after the initial depreciation hit, these cars tend to hold their value extremely well. Buy it, drive it, sell it later for around what you paid. Try that w/a new Porsche:). Mike M.

Evil!

Mike: Glad you made it back from GB in time for another Excellent Se7en adventure and ensuing comprehensive write-up and pictures. Do we now have a snake-bit Miata? I think Karl put a curse on Jon's non-7 car when he hugged him-I thot I detected an evil glint in his eye in that photo:). Damage, think of what it would have been in Jon's Se7en! If it's any comfort Jon, and I know it's not, I have had my Miata in a similar predicament. I narrowly missed a large tree rather than a pole. Also needed a tow to get out, but my rugged little Miata was no worse for the wear. An amazing collection of cool cars, all playing supporting roles for the starring se7ens, of course.