Kitcat

I know I am a skeptic but mfg hp claims often are a bit puffy. For instance, Birkin says my engine makes 210 hp, dyno says 165. Caterham said my X-flow made 135 hp, dyno said 95. Wld love to see real world back to back dyno results, you vs. Tom. Your car is fast and your top speed is consistently much more than Tom and me, so clearly, you have more power. Still, I'd love to see a dyno sheet on your car, or Karl's, added to the dyno sheet smack down thread.

I run 18lbs rear, 16lbs front on my 1100 lb Birkin (Toyo R1's). Hoosiers apparently "like" air so maybe a bit more?

Who needs that stuff: Speedometer will be wrong, you can wear a full face helmet and those parts will fall off anyhow, just go with what you have (or don't have:)). Seriously, tho, good luck. It gets harder to wait when you get so close to the end.

Croc: Tom's dyno sheet shows something like 195 hp at the rear wheels (compared to my Duratec's paltry 165 hp). I know you have an amazing Cosworth Duratec, with many demon tweaks, but I suspect it isn't 1/3 more powerful than Tom's hp at the rear wheels. Wld be happy to be wrong (dyno sheet time:))? Also, am amazed that heat makes such a difference in top speed (hp). I know GPS #'s dont lie, just very surprised. I mite have guessed 2-3 mph.

Birkin USA has very specific recommendations regarding alignments, and front end in particular. Ditto rake rear-forward and basically says: ignore at your peril.

Croc: if you do a digital audio recorder, is that plugged into the GoPro unit? Or, is it a stand alone that has to be synched up later w/the separately recorded vid? I mite just keep my GoPro1 and its non existent sound as the vid quality is excellent. Tho, "faffing" around w/synching up electronics is not something I especially have the time/talent/interest in doing.

Looking forward to lots of pics!

Looks fun, nippy tho! Nice to see all you hard core guys out there amongst the mountain roads and scenery in your beautiful cars.

Any consensus at this point on what external mic is best and, what are the conclusions as to powered vs non-powered external mic?. Also, have others tried the "Mofo Fix" to block the internal mic so it doesn't faithfully record unwanted wind noise? And, does his fix work for you?

Can't confirm, but read elsewhere that this car is now listed for sale @ $24.5K.

Yr reading my mind here Croc. And, the deaf and dumb camera can be positioned backwards and provide a different perspective and supplement my new forward facing GoPro w/sound! That way not a precious detail of my future spins, offs and other driving misadventures will be missed!

The problem with the "62% say country is going in the wrong direction" stat is that those 62% do not agree on what the right direction is. Conservatives, of course, believe it's too liberal, etc., but that 62% also contains liberals who are disillusioned w/Obama's perceived "Bush-light" approach to the economy, foreign policy, etc.

Croc: Not to mention the impressive drought-assisted dust clouds CSR's make! The Ferrari guy made a mistake I have unfortunately made several times in the past: losing focus to do something other than drive (here pointing Tom by). Tom: At least you have sound! Is this a GoPro set up and, if so, wh/version? As you know, I cant get my GoPro to record sound but I have the old internal mic set-up.

Billo-Wow, that's pretty thin stuff. I think the Redline MTL is abt 70-80 weight. Your car must shift very smoothly. How many miles on your transmission? I think it might be worth a (hopefully small) trade off in longevity to go thinner than what I have because at the track as I cant consistently get it into the gear I want and the stiffness also slows up the shift. Hurts lap times and end up being in wrong gear occasionally. Since I have a few qts of MTL in basement I wil try it next and work my way thru these suggestions if it doesn't help

On 2/20/10 Hank reported here that the car weighed 1184 lbs w/full gas tank (12 gallons). So roughly 1100 lbs dry (abt the same as my Duratec Birkin). The full cage added 60 lbs and he had a heavy wheel tire combo. Still, not as lightweight as one wld think.

TTom: Any idea what a Zetec can be safely "over-reved" to via inadvertently shifting into a lower gear, rather than higher (as I did yesterday at the track). I caught it almost instntly but wld estimate I ended up around 8000 for a split second. Car seemed fine after that, til the fuel pump died again-3 track days, 2 fuel pumps.

Danilo-when I was an auto-xer, I talked to a Honda guy who said MTL ruined his transmission, for the reason you mention. Hence this post: I have enough se7en mechanical problems without making more:).

Thx Tom. What is the 6sp transmission's capacity?

At yesterday's track day my 6 sp Cat transmission seemed notchy/stiff. What transmission fluid are others using? I put Redline MTL on my T9, as well as my Miata, with excellent results, will it work here as well? If not, what do people recommend? And, does this transmission have a drain plug, unlike the T9?

Interesting results also occur at the track, wh/tests the whole package, as you obviously know. Hope to read your initial impressions soon. It may take a while to get the hang of the car, it will be so much more direct in providing feed back, ideally in a forgiving manner.

When Caterham sent me my Brooklands, I just used the 4 large washers, used for the windshield. I concur that the brackets are better-just another example of Caterham's endless improvement program:).

Listed on Lotus Talk's for-sale section. Randy Chase's personal car (Caterham dealer in CA). Basics: For $50K you get what looks like a well- sorted S3 R400, orange w/black racing stripe and lots of goodies. I will let those w/more technical skills post a link for more details.

JimR- Our current welfare system, thx to Bill Clinton, has a life time limit of 3-5 years, no matter how poor, pregnant or # of kids. And, the recipient must work in a position identified by welfare dept-even if they dont find it convenient, or feel it's beneath them, etc. Exception is for disabled parents. The program is called TANF and it totally replaced ADC. It costs about $16B a year (compare, for instance, to TARP, etc's $1Trillion+). There is some debate about how much flexibility states shd be given in designing work requirements. Repubs tried to make political hay out of the fact that Obama recently responded to the concerns of some governors (incl Republicans) by allowing the states some additional wiggle room in fine tuning TANF. Contrary to the attack ads, he didn't "Gut welfare reform":). He did agree that the nature of the reform shdn't be dictated totally by Washington DC, so granted the states some additional say in how their state implemented the reform.

Just noticed, I lied abt sales price of my '97: I sold it for $21.5K, not $23.5K (wh/I think was asking price). I was just going thru paperwork on it for the new owner and saw this.

Rik: The forum rules prohibit bad-mouthing, or critiquing, cars for sale on this forum, not cars for sale anywhere in the world.