Kitcat

Click and Clack's formula for a person's degree happiness is reality minus expectations. You gotta be bummed:(.

My standard sized Cat was 1225 lbs w/2 gallons of gas when weighed last summer. This was after I took out all that was removable: top, doors, tool kit, spare, etc. I have since removed the 8 lb standard roll-over bar and replaced w/the 33 lb FIA bar, replaced the heavy, unreliable starter with a lighter, hopefully more reliable one. So I am at abt 1250 lbs now I wld guess, in track form. Al's fuel added about 80 lbs to his total, so his car is deserving of the name, Superlight.

I like the car much better as shown above on the existing wheels than on the faux red wheels that were photo-shopped onto your avatar. With red, the colors look too busy, with silver it looks all of a piece (IMHO, of course). You really got the aluminum to shine nicely too.

For scoring a 1/2 page blurb in the May '08 Grassroots Motorsports magazine. It shows him, at speed, in his lovely Birkin. Also points out that there is still opportunity fun after age 70 noting that at the tender age of 71 he tried using his AARP card for a discount at a NASA event (unsuccessfully:)). Mike (pushin 70 but still not ready for Grassroots Motorsports).

Unreliable yet charming? I can't imagine being attracted to anything like that:). Mine is still ticking, btw.

What is 145 hp based on? For instance, when dynoed, my 135 hp crossflow made 93 hp.

Thanks for all the data. It is very informative. For a naturally aspirated 2.0 liter street engine, that seems like a lot of power. I don't want to think abt what all the additional development cost. Now you can get around to driving/enjoying it:).

For ''08 the Fed budget is about $2.9T. Included in that are: Pensions $723B Health Care $680B Defense $727B Interest $243B. That totals $2,373B. And that spending is considered off limits-no cuts. In fact the pensions categories are indexed to go up by the inflation amount every year and health care is usually double inflation or more, ditto military So everything else that the government spends is about $500B. Lets' say we cut back there by 10%, which would be huge. We save enough to offset some, not all, of the increases in the first 3 categories for next year. Its not a pretty picture and government "waste" is actually a very small part of the problem. Any politician saying they will balance the budget by eliminating waste is dishonest. It will call for sacrifice, by everyone.

In the last week gold has dropped from abt $1000 an ounce to $920 and the Dow is up 600 points. So much for knowing what the markets are going to do next (tho I have to admit, I have a hunch the other shoe has not dropped yet in the financial markets).

I drove a RHD Caterham as part of my personal Seven quest. These little buggers are so narrow it doesnt seem to make a lot of difference what side you sit on (except at toll booths, etc). But toll booths are also quite an adventure in a LHD too. A slight advantage with the RHD, if you do track days, is that since most race tracks run clockwise, a RHD car has the driver as ballast on the inside of most turns, which is a plus.

Well, the contest starts with miles accumulated starting from now til 11/1. So, unlike G Bush I, being born on 3rd base doesn't mean you hit a triple. I have to say tho, I am very impressed that a Seven had 128K. Maybe we could name the "prize" after your car:)? Or maybe its previous owner? I think Seven miles are like dog years. So it's really like driving almost 1M miles in a normal car! If we count miles walked up and down stairs, logically we would have to count miles driven for parts, or even miles the purchased parts traveled, in all, to get to our Seven. That would give us Caterham and Birken owners a huge advantage over locally brewed LISS's, given how far our parts travel. So it's just miles driven (forwards or backwards), in the next 8 months. And who cares who wins? As long as it gets you in your car:"Honey, I HAVE to go for a 3 day blat, I am competing for the grand prize!"

Camping anyone?

The tires that Box ID's are wonderful, as long as it doesn't rain. They are basically slicks with 2 token grooves posing as tread. If you want a grippy street tire with tread, look at the Toyo RA1 or R888. Both are excellent track tires and rain tires and street tires. They are about 2 seconds a lap slower than the Hoosiers or Kumos, but will last 10x longer (maybe 10K miles) and offer decent driveability should it rain. I think the Toyos' wear rating is 40-most street tires start at 140 and go up. I have run all the above on my Miata and liked the Toyos best as an all around tire. I have them on my Seven now and they are great. If I were towing my Seven to a track, and using it mostly for track days, I'd go for Hoosiers

The issue before the Supreme Court isn't whether its a wise law, or not, it's whether its constitutional or not. The citizens of DC, thru their elected representatives have concluded, rightly or wrongly, that it is a wise law. As the Conservative members of the Court like to remind everyone, their job is not to act as a "super-legislature", by overruling the informed opinions of elected officials. Instead, their role is more limited-regardless of the law's merits and demerits, is it barred by the language of the Constitution? Unfortunately, the Constitution is ambiguous. Tho they wont admit it, the conservatives (just like those hated liberals) will fill in the blanks with their own biased opinions on the issues. No guns here either, tho my nice middle class area is right next to the "Hood". We have had 14 break-ins in the last 2 months, most while the owners were home. One of our neighbors and good friends was murdered on his front porch when he scared a would-be burglar late one nite last year. Our friend was returning from a memorial for a another friend's son who had been murdered in a holdup. Three of our neighbors walked with us to our friend's memorial, held in the neighborhood. On the way back we split up and they were robbed at gun point a few minutes later. Its like Baghdad at times.

I just listened to some snippets of the argument in Court today. Justice Kennedy, by his questions, strongly hinted that he thought that the right to bear arms was independent of the militia language. Since J Kennedy is the closest thing to a "swing vote" on the Court, if he's in favor of endorsing a right to bear arms, then the four staunchly conservative members can be expected to line up behind him. Hence the DC law will be struck down by at least a 5-4 vote. This wouldn't mean all gun control laws are banned, just that all will now be given a new look. How the Court frames its opinion is critical to future developments here.

Slngshot: When was the last time a state mustered a well-regulated militia? And if that's the predicate for gun-totin rights, maybe the gun rights evaporated with the militia? Mostly I am OK with this whole deal-for reasons I cant explain, but believe, a lot of people who I respect feel incredibly (irrationally?) passionate about their right to bear arms. As long as people don't point their guns (or bibles) at me, its cool.

SW25: Get the new tires now! You will never wear out tires on a 1200 lb Seven. And if they are rock hard, not only will they last even longer, you will miss about 50% of the Seven experience. The biggest single improvement I have made to my Seven was ditchin the 12 year old Michelin's-which looked like new-for a set of ToyoRA1's. It transformed the car's handling and it became the awesome, road hugging machine it was advertised as being-instead of the twitchy, tail happy car that had to be driven ever so carefully. Tell Mary it's a critically important safety item (which it actually is).

Fearless prediction: Gun law is going down-this is now a group of God fearing, government-hating, anti-regulating folks who think a person's right to carry a gun is right up there with their right to carry a bible. (Whoops, that sounds a lot like a rant). Better to say, we now have a group of wise and learned jurists who are not afraid to restore to the people the gun rights that our Founding Fathers intended (There, that's better).

Would love to go for many reasons, but.... Our middle son graduates from college that weekend and we will be there for that, of course. I love that some people are camping, it's true to the Sevens minimalist approach to life. I hope to do some track days again at Nelsons Ledges this year. Maybe I can connect with some of you Ohio Seveners there? Check out their website at the "Fundays" section. If there is a better deal in all of auto-dom, I haven't heard about it ($120 for all day, with 3 run groups). I will post on that once my plans firm up. Mike

I'd settle for a rough estimate. In true Caterham tradition, one of the many non-working parts in my car for a while last year was the speedo (first the drive gear broke, then the gauge itself fell partway out of the dash) . But I had a pretty good idea as to how far had I traveled during that time. Let's face it, its a big deal if your Seven can actually travel, knowing how far it went almost seems like an unnecessary luxury in comparison:).

My "skills" are limited to finding a problem and paying someone else to fix it. I am amazed at the level of self-help talent here. I guess if you build your own car, you have to be pretty handy. Which is why I bought a car that was already built.

Just noticed that Alan Greenspan has described this as the worst financial crisis since WWII. He must have discovered the skyrocketing increase in the cost of Caterhams: a financial bellwether for economic health if there ever was one!

That's a problem w/my 3rd brake lite: when the top's up (wh/it rarely is) the light is totally covered as it's on the middle of the top hoop of the roll-over bar.

The problem is, if everyone decides it's a good time to cash out, then the market doesnt just drop, it collapses. Then there is the challenge of deciding when to get back in. I am not disagreeing with you, just noting that this could be an historic few weeks and that it has the potential to lead to a very different world. I am not predicting that will happen, but it's maybe the only time I have ever thought it could happen.

When considering a Superlight last year I asked the owner how it compared to the current version of the Lotus Elise at the track. He said it was about 4 seconds a lap faster. In an environment where .2 of a second is considered a lot, 4 seconds is huge . JBH: How does it compare to high end Porsches and 'Vettes-the cars that typically dominate track days? My modestly powered Caterham is about midpoint between the Miatas and Vette's at the track. I finally have a decent engine tune and some good tires so we'll see how it does this season.