Kitcat

Hijack: Al, I want to replace my standard Caterham 8 gallon tank w/one a bit more resistant to exploding. Who built yours and at what cost? Did you lose any fuel capacity & if so how much? I assume its a custom deal or do they make a standard "Caterham gas tank". I'd love to just be able to call someplace & say "Give me what Al got". Is it that simple or do I have to start taking measurements? Any other issues to be aware of? Mike

Hey, that's how I feel when I am driving my 7!

I have a Caterham and live in Cincy and would be happy to introduce you to some good Ohio micro-brews & talk of all things Sevens. You can tutor me on how to actually pronounce my car's name (I am told it is not cat-ter-ham). Weather here in January can be anything from 65 to minus 30F. So check before coming. Depending on the weather your visit may or may not involve a ride/view of my car. Other locals/nearby shd feel free to join us.

Speaking of Birkins, the one persistent complaint I have heard about them here on the Forum is wiring issues. Maybe the Birkin faithful can comment? My impression is that after 2004 it got better, but prior to that the wiring mite be problematic (As in:"I had to completely rewire the d*@m thing").

If you can wrap your left leg around the back of your neck while straddling the entrance and holding the side screen up with your right hand, then it's no problemo. Pluses: once in, there is a surprising amt of room and visibility is decent. And, I think the car looks cool with the top up, which is nice.

Cost: priceless (haven't got the credit card bill yet, tho as I recall it was around $500). The killers were the Caterham 6 pt belts at $353 (each!). Well, they DO say Caterham on them.

Lowcost: It is WELL over $44K for a new CSR Seven. Assuming it's reasonably optioned, over $75K would be closer to it. It is a bit over $44K for a base Caterham with a crossflow these days, assuming you have them supply the engine/tranny & put it together. Do it yourself & maybe save $5K. Find your own engine, etc., & save another $5-$10K. Makes an Ulltralite look like a deal, not to mention the new Westfield sitting over there in the For-Sale section of this forum!

I have noticed several other threads in which members talk about putting their car away for the winter (or putting them on jack stands so as to rebuild them from top to bottom). Cold weather seems to be the explanation. So, when is it too cold to drive a Seven? I like to ski and it's never too cold to ski. As a newbie owner facing his first winter with a Seven, my plan is to don my ski apparel, and keep on motoring (as long as there is no snow/salt/etc). Am I alone in this? What is the coldest day you have driven your Seven with the top down?. With the top up?

When I registered my '97 Caterham in Ohio this summer it had a NJ title so it was quite easy-just a matter of a visual inspection and some paperwork. Go to Ohio's BMV site for info. You will need to trailer it to the BMV so it can be inspected or you can drive illegally there-I had temporary NJ plates so I just drove it there. Everyone loved it and came outside to look at it and share all their favorite car stories. Then they all stayed outside to hear how it sounded when I drove off. Some applauded! They were so dazzled that they didn't notice a huge typo we made in NJ where I bought the car: Seller certified it had 17K miles but it really only had 13K. So it looked like I had fiddled with the odometer-I was sweating bullets but they missed it completely, tho it was one of the things they had to check. Have car insurance or an insurance binder too. I expect it will be more complex for you as you have no title. My seller registered it in NJ as a '98 but with a '67 Pinto engine, to get around the NJ smog rues. Here in Cincy we have no smog rules or inspections so its not an issue. Apparently if you register as a "collector car" in Ohio that gets you around any smog requirements elsewhere in Ohio. Good luck!

I live 30' from Ross Ohio, home of Rossion Motorcars (formerly 1G Racing). They were the exclusive importer for the Noble and now make the Rossion (sort of a reskinned/upgraded Noble). Anyhow, their bread and butter vehicle for years has been the Cobra replica which greatly outsells the Noble. They also marketed a Seven clone called the Superperformance S1. All of these vehicles are made in the same factory in S. Africa, and sold exclusively though the company's small headquarters in Ross. I enjoyed a spirited run up there just this last weekend in my 7, which fit right in with all of the Cobras and other exotics parked everywhere in their garage.

I replaced my stock roll-over bar with the upgraded unit. The shipping weight for the FIA spec Caterham bar is 33 pounds. I just got around to weighing the stock bar: 8.5 pounds! About the same as the aluminum bicycle rack I use on my Accord. I am sure the stock bar is better than nothing, but the question is, how much better?

I plan to at least do the LOG 28 track day at Putnam Park. Will decide the rest later. Mike

Athens7: Maybe the dyno reads low? Everything I have read about these devices suggests that they are wonderful at establishing a baseline hp # and then serving as a tool to optimize that # thru careful tuning. Which you did to good effect. They are less useful at establishing an accurate horsepower number. How does the car do in the real world? Is it fast? Take it to a drag strip and get some #'s. Maybe it's the dyno that's off.

The "Sevens community" is quite small. Except for this Forum, contact is minimal, just because there are so few owners out there. Ownership (like life) is what you make it. I love track days and just bombing around in it. Others like auto-x, and others mostly like to work on their cars. Except for the Dragon and 2 track days, I have not seen a Seven on the road in 40 years. But its not lonely. Try getting into & out of an ordinary gas stop in under 5'. Its hard not to answer the questions of the excited onlookers, young and old. I can assure you, tho, snobbery is not part of the equation (You have to be humble to climb out of one in front of other people)

OK, this my new favorite Ultralight. I love the "hot-roded" look (removal of everything extraneous-not easily done on a car that is minimalist to begin with). I am beginning to thing black is the ideal color for LISS's. Athens7's black Caterham, also pictured in this forum section , is a knockout too. Is the hood bulge necessary with the Miata engine? What does the car weigh? How does it perform compared to the Honda engined versions?

The Simpson diagram proves a picture is worth a 1000 words. Also interesting that the Simpson instructions call for a seat with 2 anti-sub belt holes for a 6pt installation. I don't recall ever seeing one like that.

Auto-x'ing in the rain is the easy part. It's working your corner and shagging cones in the rain for 2 hours that is tough!

I have done a simple test: Sat with my restraint system (brand new Caterham 6 point belts-NOT cheap, btw) buckled up, as currently installed. It feels great. But when I lean forward with even slight pressure on the shoulder harness, it pulls the lap belt up a little. Assuming a front end crash and the much higher forces it wld generate on the shoulder harness, Scroth's concern that it would lift the belt off my pelvic area into the "soft, squishy" stuff (the gizzard???) are valid. It is simple physics. A very strong upward force on the belt will lift it up. What is needed is a strong downward force in exactly the opposite direction. Hence Schroth's recommendation that the anti-sub belt be mounted thru a hole in the seat centered directly below the lap belt buckle. My anti-sub belt is at a 90 degree angle to the belt buckle and, therefore, useless as a means of stopping it from riding up. I guess it would help restrain my squishy parts post-impact, but making it easy to remove my body from the wreck isnt one of my goals. Since it is a 6 point harness with the anti-sub strap similar to the one pictured above, I may, for now, mount it on the seat belt posts sit on it and buckle it up between my legs. I have read a post on the Miata Forum by a racer who has had this set up and survived 2 bad accidents without harm. Also, the Elise forum notes this is how US fighter pilots do it. But long term, my plan is to knock a hole in the seat and mount the strap there, or buy a dedicated racing seat that has the sub-belt cut-out in place.

I replaced my 195 Pilots on my 15" Prisoner wheels ago w/Toyo RA1 205's a few months ago. I use the car mostly for track days and quite a bit of commuting to work. With full tread they have decent grip and are fine in the rain. They are a mammoth improvement over the Pilots. Hoosiers have more grip but have a very short life span, I expect to get 5-10K miles out of the Toyos. I doubt I'd get 500 miles from Hoosiers, which aren't really appropriate for general street use anyhow. Perfect for auto-x tho and I ran them on my CSP Miata for years in auto-x. Anyhow, I am planning on bumping the rears to 225s as I have had an imbalance between front and rear grip, with the rears breaking lose much more easily. Also, the car can get real squirrely if braking occurs at the same time as turning. My son did a lovely 360 degree spin in it at a track day where we shared the car. (Fortunately it was all spectacle/no damage). Heat isnt an issue as high speed laps on a race course are different than the few short, relatively slow blasts around an auto-x course. I will file a update once the switch is made and I get some more track days under my belt, probably next spring (sadly the season is over for now in my chilly, soon to be snowy, area of the country).

Gee, an actual back-to back comparo! I'd like to see more of that, tho I don't think the words "quiet", "roomy", or "comfortable will come up much, unless it's: "Not very quiet, roomy, comfortable...":).

RMSC says the strap can be side mounted and used at an angle. After I read and digest the Schroth article (a mere 73 pages!) I will post my conclusions.

First: Where'd the engine heat go? All summer I suffered in a cockpit heat-wave comforted by the idea that when it got chilly, that heat would be great. I laughed at the redundancy of a heater & toyed with adding lightness by ditching it. This a.m. it was 32 and I was grateful for the modest warmth dribbling out of the heater. All semblance of engine heat was gone & I would have frozen without my little heater. Of course, it might have helped to put up the top, or at least the side screens but that seems unnatural unless it is raining. Second: I just replaced the 3 point inertia reel seat belt system with the Caterham 5 point harness system. The car feels so much better. Instead of feeling like one good bump would pitch me out, I feel velcroed to the seat and have a better sense of what the car is doing, feel more in control and certainly safer. Biggest single improvement to the car so far (aside from rebuilding the starter so it starts regularly:)). Third: Safety. I added the FIA roll bar and feel more secure with it in place. It weighs about 25 lbs and the little one weighs about 12 pounds so all that metal must be worth some rollover protection. Fourth: Seat belt installation. The shop that put in the belts mounted the crotch strap just in front of the seat. Everything I read says it should be mounted at the back & the Caterhjam guys at Rocky Mountain said mount it on the side seat belt anchor and sit on it and then fasten it. Apparently its main function is to keep the lap belt from riding up above the hips and squashing vital organs. So, does the current mounting location seem reasonable? The installers have built many race cars and have a reputation for being knowledgeable.

One (men's). Mike

Offhand, I can only think of one forum member who has been described as "ruggedly handsome" (by no less an authority than Automobile Magazine).

As a Midwesterner, I have watched with interest as S Calif goes up in smoke. And, the local paper today featured an article abt three southern states who are running out of water. That's nothing new in the West where water supply is a constant worry, except when they have too much, causing mud slides. Or when they are more worried about earthquakes Then there are the hurricanes in Florida, etc, and apparently the entire east & west coasts are going to be submerged after 50 more years of global warming. But, while we sit here high and dry with tons of water and an absence of most of the above natural disasters we are cursed nonetheless. We have to deal with rust! No wonder everyone is moving out of here and to those other more desirable locales.