Kitcat

Croc: The back of my car will be stone-free zone this year. If it is not, I am counting on you, Seb and Tom to keep me honest.

Croc: In your opening post you noted the possibility of a small Monday test and tune? I am just following up on that possibility-if it happens, mark me down. As I have posted before, 2 years ago when I did it, I learned more that Monday a.m. (before my engine died) puttering around by myself and a few others than the previous weekend where I was constantly trying to be fast. So on Monday I was playing with braking zones/turn ins/lines/acceleration spots without the pressure of not being passed etc.

Bob: Your Caterham is looking pretty sharp! Did you spend the winter polishing and shining:)? I haven't seen a bare alu body that shiny since BBall showed his at NJMP at the annual se7ens event. He'd give you a run for your $, but it looks like a tie to me. Keep up the good work, I always love the photos.

This is a dazzling vehicle! There is an old adage that says, when you're buying a used car, you are buying the seller as much as the car. Both are obviously exemplary in this case. Good luck with sale!

The word "primitive" comes to mind:)! The roll-over bar is 4" below your head, without a helmet (tho improved in the drag race photos). What amazing history you made. Is your Ariel all that much slower?

I use negative 2 and 18 psi rear, 16 front. I prefer the RA1's over the R888's, having run both. I have not tried the R88R tho

Pretty amazing!

Just some random thoughts: How wide do you want the rims to be/how wide are the slicks? GR Motorsports tested rims and tires a while back and found that wider rims added more support to the tire and were worth abt 1" a lap, on the same tire (One set had been squeezed onto a smaller width rim). And, do you have dry sump system? The higher g-forces of slicks can cause oil starvation/engine failure in a stock oil pan setup. Good luck with the MIA ECU. Maybe it's time for a "backup":)?

JR: Several of us here have also had a similarly disastrous (catastrophous?) experience with TMW "assembled" Birkins. I think it is why Tom Carlin is now the exclusive Birkin dealer. He takes no shortcuts. Back to the fun stuff: I love your car collection and devotion to orange as the color theme. And, for me, bright colors make the most sense on these hard-to-see se7ens, if they are regularly driven on the street.

How significant are the noise restrictions at NCM? Some se7ens (like mine) are barey muffled.

It's the essential se7ens driving experience. Anyone who has never driven one now knows what its like. Somehow, hearing the driver express his enthusiasm in Italian makes it even better:).

Remember, you also have to pay 5% of the final bid to BAT and you need to add another $1-2K for shipping the vehicle to you. So you are then around $30K out of pocket. And who knows what Jloehlein's threshold was? Might have gone a lot higher. I could easily see this as a $40-45K car.

You must've made considerable progress already? The picture doesn't show a car three months away from completion :-)! Since I lack any mechanical talent I'm unable to say for sure, but it appears to me that many members enjoy restoring and improving their se7ens as much as driving them. And somehow, I had overlooked that this year is the 60th anniversary of the Lotus seven. That means I have had continuous ownership of one Se7en variety or another for 10 (great) years.

Sevens and Elans (978-772-3777), now in FL, is a longtime Caterham dealer and often has parts in stock, assuming Beachman Racing (206-774-0852), noted above, does not. The troublesome fueling is part of the fun-just like the gas shooting out after you overfill it:). I have never had to use a funnel tho, so the current standard Caterham replacement part may be an improvement? Not sure how hard it is to convert to side exhaust but, having had both, I can say the side exhaust is MUCH louder.

I don't think the mystery car is a Lowcost. They follow a time honored blueprint by Ron Champion that results in a different looking car than this project. This seems more to be one person's home made/backyard special.

I agree that the Bring a Trailer Birkin is pretty irresistible. It has updates and features the isotope green Birkin at TMW lacks (IRS, cage, supercharged Duratec, etc). If I were in the market, it would be at the top of my list. The Stalker would be second, tho( I think....)!

Good call MichaelD. Yes, the RA1's did allow me to fully exploit Caterham's little known "Farmall" upgrade that I made to my Cat. They definitely complimented my driving style!

Todd: Great illustration of technique and using all the track, esp the curbing, while not over-driving. It's such a fine line. What is clear is even a little underpowered Honda is faster then a heavy weight, overpowered Porsche IF the Honda is on the gas whilst the Porsches are coasting or braking:)! What WAS surprising is they never seemed to pull away from you, even on the straights! Had to be a humbling experience for all of them. SPC: I think the RV sites at NJMP are just electric, Tom or Croc can chime in. I look forward to your COTA and Sebring reports!

My X-flow Cat ran great on Toyo RA1's. I used 15/205/55 all around. They were decent in the rain when they had tread. After they wore down to being "slicks", they were terrific track tires. And since I only drove on sunny days, they continued to be great street tires. Since they are sticky, you will get lots more debris tossed into the cockpit than with harder compounds.

In '03 or so, Autombile Magazine did a comparison of the best track cars at Barber. The hottest version of the Caterham back then, the SVT Zetec powered Superlight, was the giant killer, knocking off the Viper, a Ferrari, and a Noble among others. I think the lack of straight stretches played to the Cat's strengths. With almost double the power, your Cat wouldn't suffer as much on tracks with long straights. Glad to see you out there mixing it up! Sorry to learn of the spin/damage! I did the same thing at Mid-Ohio last year. Much harder on my ego than the car tho. I was able to continue in spite of the rumpled rear end. I still haven't fixed it, it is a reminder of what happens when my "talent" is not equal to my car. You should consider joining us at NJMP for our annual 2-3 day event! It has RV sites as well as great race tracks.(Update: whoops, now see you are planning on coming to NJMP, great!).

A new supercharged Caterham is $100K plus. This car has to be $30-$40K, assuming Tom Carlin and others have resolved the usual TMW assembly issues.

Yellow SS is the proud owner of an orange SV that he purchased from its original 6'7" owner. As I recall the only significant modification was the addition of a taller roll over bar.

I have taken a sacred vow to minimize or eliminate the flying rock thing this year. I am all for pushing the limits, but not to the detriment of fellow se7sers. We shall see. As Randy Pobst once said:"I am the nicest guy in the world-when I am not in a race car:)".

NVP-interesting, I live close to a small airport so availability is not an issue. But, while I dont have a cat converter, I do have O2 sensors and I suspect they would suffer if I used LL aviation gas?

Interesting. I'd guess 0-death in under 10 seconds:). TurboTom (1TurboFocus) is not a fan of E85 fuel as octane is so variable leading to engine failure, as here. Nonetheless, my mechanic really wants to convert my Zetec to E85 since compression is low enough that octane doesn't have to be 100+. Big advantage is E85 might be $2.00 a gallon and 100+ octane race gas is $14.00 a gallon.