Kitcat

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.

What an improvement! I didn't realize how dorky the Enkeis were. The improvement in handling with your new, stickier tires should be almost as dramatic.

So sorry Seb! This year I promise to control my instinct to convert the turns at 3-4 into a straight stretch! I don't mind when my overly-exuberant driving style hurts me and my car: I definitely don't want others to suffer for it. I will endeavor to be on my best behavior. I look forward to seeing your dyno results. Do you have pre-ITB results to compare? The 10-20 hp seems realistic: a 5% bump wld be worth 10 hp. The improved sound alone likely makes it worth it.

Quite an adventure, and definitely not for the faint of heart. How much of a hp & torque gain are you hoping to see? I am obviously going to have to add extra stones at all the corners of Lightning to pitch back at you to keep you from overtaking me this year! If confused, just ask Yellow SS to explain my driver's award at last year's event:).

Slomove: What a shot! Hard to believe it is so close to a such a major population center. Escondidoron: Great cars. I esp like the color combo of your Evora, one of my fav auto shapes to begin with and the color really helps it stand out. The original 7 isn't bad either, love the wheels!

Tom: with all that power, esp into the 350 hp range, what mods do you recommend to beef up the power train? I vaguely recall that the original Cat 260's were ripping out the bolts securing their differential etc., and they were rated at a mere 260 hp or so. Also, are your hp#'s on a dyno or at the flywheel?

Out of idle curiosity Croc, what essential Caterham spares did you buy? We all have had the experience of them being out of what we need, ditto Redline parts, which seems to have more Cat stuff than Caterham. As to your other car projects, I dont suppose the local NAPA will have those items, right:)? You are a brave man.

Here is today's question Tom: Would you rather follow me around on the track OR be followed by me (if you know what I mean:))? Croc: In my defense I'd like to point out that I have never gone off in the bowl (the other 8 or so turns, well....). And remember, some of those alleged "offs" were a deliberate part of my driving "strategy"-see Tom's post above:).

I second the 1turbofocus idea, wh/you have followed up on. I had 3 years of fueling woes on my SVT Zetec powered Cat until my mechanic called Tom (many times) and they finally got it sorted. It never would have been resolved w/o his help.

I can't wait! Thx Croc and Tom for what is an event that really has no peer, at least in the stateside se7ens world. The course is exciting but not overly complex and the facility is world class. The fun begins as soon as you arrive at the paddock and ends at the "awards" night 2-3 days later. Tom and Croc are the consummate hosts and do everything they can to see that everyone is included and has a great time. It's worth buying a se7en just to participate:).