nick47

This sounds like a lot of fun. I'm not sure my 45-year-old car would be up for the whole tour, but a NorCal start would definitely get me out for the first few legs.

Agreed. Any state would do well to follow California's SB100 rules. Absolutely painless.

Sounds like the bolt is binding. I had a similar problem with a steering rack bolt last week. I was able to get a thin chisel under the bolt head and lever it out.

The hinges have to be tight. The nylon sleeve TWard mentions would have to help. My wind wings were from a Triumph, and the hinges are very tight. It takes quite an effort to change the angle. They haven't moved in 4 years.

There;s a guy with a Birkin who shows up at the Marin Cars & Coffee pretty regularly.

It's a long drive, even farther than the drive to the eclipse last month, but if it's more than just dinner and a beer I'd be up for it.

I just bought a couple of the McMaster-Carr isolators, the extreme temp version. They seem to last about 5000 miles.

Good luck. My B&L inspector took half the car apart and charged me $300 bucks. And almost failed me for not having side markers.

At first I went over my frame every couple of days with a 3M finishing pad. After six months, though, I couldn't keep up with the rust and started spraying it with WD-40. I washed it with soap and water before painting it.

My porky Locost came in at 1560 empty. Too many LBC parts, I think.

This is my car and the dead pedal works great. You just need that small tab under the arch of your foot and you can put your full weight on it. I've adjusted it forward a little so that I can just feel the clutch pedal under the ball of my foot during normal driving. Moving from the dead pedal to the clutch is effortless and there is no danger of getting a foot stuck under anything. 200-mile cruises are very comfortable, and the pedal even works for bracing myself in turns.

Maybe so, but I WON!!! So I saved him $44. And in just a couple of weeks I'll be blasting along in my 7 with my cool leather helmet and s***p will be just a distant memory.

Price is now up to $44. Darn you, s***p, whoever you are.

On my MG-based Locost

I have mostly MG badges, since everything from the wheels to the gauges are MG, but I did add a couple of nice seat belt pads. $7 for the pair and free shipping.

In all of NorCal, the East Bay probably has the worst sports car roads. Mostly too much traffic. Much better 40 years ago. My favorite back then was Redwood Road, Pinehurst, Skyline, and Grizzly Peak. Also Bear Creek between Martinez and Orinda. There are a lot of great bike roads in the area.

Welcome, MoPho. Lots of cool roads up here.

Congrats Monshoon! I'm hoping to be there shortly, just need my brake and light inspection. Did they give you the plates at the DMV or did they mail them to you?

I don't think you can do this by pros and cons. It's more of an emotional decision. You're either a V8 guy or not. If you like the sound of V8s and you can't have enough horsepower, that's what you should have. I grew up around I4s and never needed gobs of horsepower to have fun in a car, so long as it whips through the turns. The only V8 car I ever owned was a '72 Pantera, and I have to admit I felt kind of embarassed every time I mashed the pedal.

I would only think you'd need suspension mods if you're competing. The handling and sheer cornering power of these things is already way beyond anything else on the road, except another 7. You can corner so much faster than anyone expects, it can sometimes get you into trouble. Power, same deal, although that's at least something other drivers can relate to.

Draw the vectors for gravity and cornering force from the C.G. and add them up. If the vector falls outside the tires, the car will roll. Inside, it won't. That's a static example. In real life you could probably do something stupid that would change the dynamics. That's probably more likely with something stiffly sprung. I've rolled go-karts, so I know what can happen when you do something stupid in an unsprung vehicle. Stiffening the suspension alone doesn't make the car that much more likely to roll, except possibly for the reduced camber compensation, which would ordinarily slightly increase the track.

Nice pictures. Quick question. Do Caterhams not have a center rear-view mirror?

Getting off the brakes moves weight to the rear wheels, not the front. Sometimes a tap on the front brakes can get you a little more front end grip, or just trail-brake all the way in. Definitely stomping on the gas will unload the fronts, and you'd like to have most of your turning done before that. If you're in the middle of one of the eights and still understeering, the classic fix is lower front spring rates or stiffer rear. In autocross you're in transition most of the time, so you can make big changes through shock adjustments. There are some rules of thumb but it's mostly trial and error depending on the car and the course.