JeffersonRaley

Excellent article - thanks for sharing. I thought his commentary on power was probably right on. But for me the thing is that there are loads of cars that are a lot of fun on a beautiful day. A Seven with 5 lbs/bhp (or better) is a unique experience. After 20+ years of racing and driving instruction I've never driven anything like it for sheer adrenalized terror and joy.

Last weekend I put LED bulbs in my existing lights. Huge difference in visibility and, I hope, safety.

I really need to set up a time lapse camera in my garage. I always forget to take pictures or document my builds well.

Yeah, I'm not sure why it is such a porker either. But the Seven is my fast car. I'm building this one for reliability and lack of drama.

Yes, will keep stock. The NB engine isn't a great one to modify unless you turbo it, and that would be tough to fit. Too bad it doesn't use an NC donor.

Anyone else building one of these? The Seven is just too luxurious, what with having 2 seats and a (sort of) trunk. https://tipo184.com/ My kit is on order and my NB Miata donor is already stripped and ready for its new body.

I think an electric Seven under 2k lbs is realistic, especially given that 100 miles of range is probably more than enough and it doesn't need to power AC, power brakes, power steering and all the rest. Plus that weight would be very low and concentrated near the center of rotation. With the insta-torque of electric, it could be even more of a slide monster than my 2.5L ICE Seven. I'll keep the ICE motor'ed Seven for sure because battery power density is way too low for a track rat. But I totally see the appeal of an electric. (And I'll be jealous of the way it would start every time.)

Given how low the weight could be, I think the car could be super-entertaining even close to 2,0000 lbs. It'll never be the same experience as our ICE Sevens, but I think it has every chance to be a lot of fun. I might need to have both!

Nice. I did something kind of similar, but bought the carbon dash from Tom. I only cut the one hole for my digital dash (with a Dremel).

I have a 2010 Birkin with IRS and a 2.5 Duratec, so similar to what you're describing. My 2.5L replaced a 2.0L Duratec making ~180 horsepower. The new motor dyno'd at 240 hp @ 7000 rpm. Since then I put in a bigger cam, so I'm probably a little higher than that now and could go higher if I let it rev to 8k. I am very happy I went with a 2.5L. It is nuts. It can't ever put all of the power down and can spin up both rears at 50 mph. The only thing I'd do differently next time is to just buy a complete motor from Raceline or OMEX. I did have to trim the lip of my nosecone and the oil filler cap to get it to fit under the bonnet. I also had to go with pico injectors to get the fuel rail to fit. I also can't run the Jenvey airbox, so I'm just running the foam air filter without the backing plate. It is a very tight fit. I'm going to go take it for a drive now.

I love my classic cars and my track/race cars. But I also look forward to having an electric car for my daily driver once they make suitable tow vehicles. And I plan to convert my wife's 1966 Volvo p1800 to electric because it will make the car much more useable and convenient for her. I just don't understand all of the emotion around hybrids and electric cars. On top of all that, the simple fact is that it is much easier and cheaper to control emissions from a few stationary sources than it is from hundreds of millions of mobile sources. I'm not at all worried about cool cars disappearing. Caterham (and Birkin and Westfield, etc) built their business selling obsolete Lotuses when Lotus can barely stay alive making Lotuses. I'm pretty sure Caterham is unkillable.

Wow - that is some serious air. Must have hurt on landing.

Those are just for the M-Button. The M-Unit already expects the inputs to be momentary ground signals, so you just need pushbuttons. Or if you want the buttons on a removeable wheel then you can put something like the Cartek Wireless Steering Wheel in the middle. That also let me set my wiper controls to latch. That way I just push the steering wheel button and my wipers stay on. The button sends a signal to the Cartek receiver when then keeps that circuit closed (on) until I push the button again. Now if only I could figure out what to do with my last button. I have one unused button on my wheel with no purpose. I already have automatic logging on the ECU and the AIM, so don't need a logging button. I have a low-rpm rev limit until the oil is hot, so don't need a "pit" button. Maybe I need to add a second horn that play "la cucaracha", but that would add weight...

That is the "ignition" output of the M-Unit. It is powered any time the ignition is on. So I just have that trip a relay that powers the fuse box for everything not directly controlled by the M-Unit (e.g. wipers, steering wheel controls, reverse light, ECU)

I know you asked Steve, but I'll answer too. I just stripped and soldered the wires. Twisting the bare wires isn't as good because the receivers don't hold the bare wire as well, and they can fray and short out.

Got it - It sounds like you're doing something very similar to what I did. I run 1 of the M.Unit aux outputs to a relay. That relay powers a fuse block for everything the M.Unit doesn't have circuits for (e.g. windshield wipers gauges, etc).

Yes, the 2x15 is plenty for my starter, no relay needed in my case. I did use the 1-wire brake/tail light setup. That seemed like the simplest solution that minimized the number of wires to run. It did make my CHMSL (3rd brake light) a little tricky since I don't want that to come on with the headlights. To fix that I ran the ground for the CHMSL into the brake pressure switch. So the brake pressure switch sends a ground signal to the M.Unit to tell it the brakes are being used. The M.Unit sends power to the brake/tail lights to turn them on. The CHMSL gets that + signal, and also ground from the brake pressure switch. A bit Rube Goldberg, but it works perfectly.

That was an astonishing car before the rebuild. The attention to detail was great. The grip and acceleration were both off the charts. I`m sure it is even more impressive now. Whoever buys it is getting agreat car at afraction of what it would cost to build.

There is no need for a fuse before the m.unit. Per the manual it should be connected directly to the battery. I have a keyed switch that triggers the ignition on input of the m.unit. So there are 2 options to start the car. 1) If Bluetooth is on, and I have my phone, then the ignition can be turned on just by pressing the start button on the wheel. A second press runs the starter. 2) Is to turn the key to activate the ignition. Then press the start button to run the starter. I actually Bluetooth turned off on the m.unit right now. I have to carry a key to unlock the gas cap anyway. And the Bluetooth does drain the battery over time. It is kind of a gimic that is neat but has little real value to me. Lots of other features on the m.unit are way more important to me. I've put around 50 miles on the car so far and am really happy with the control setup. I would do all the same things again, but might buy the non-Bluetooth m.unit to save a few bucks.

@Brightonuk - that is basically what I did. The ignition output trips a relay that activates a secondary fuse box. Solid state circuit breakers, like the link you posted, would be even better. It would be great if Motogadget built a car version with just a few more circuits and maybe intelligent windshield wiper control. It would be great for all sorts of hot rods.

My Seven is finally alive again. Celebratory burnout as I pulled it back into the garage.

Celebrating! My Seven fired up again on the new engine. I actually had it running a few weeks ago, but had to take it back apart to replace the AT Power dry sump that never really fit. Now it has the Raceline dry sump. While it was apart I went head and put the Crower Stage 3 cams in. This motor made 240 on the Stage 1 cams, so I'm hoping for 250+ with the more aggressive setup. Anyway, the car fired right up and sounds brutal. Just a few more sensors to calibrate, and a couple of AN fittings that need to be replaced, and I should be able to hit the road. This car was shockingly fast with 170 horsepower. I can't wait to drive it now. Of course, nothing will ever compare to riding in Xcarguy's LS powered Stalker. Wow is that thing is nuts. But mine should be acceptable.

You certainly could do that, but I think it would just lead to more pain and frustration. I think you'd end up with a bird's nest of wiring that would be very hard to diagnose. But I'm pretty picky about wiring and tend to rewire all of my race and restoration projects. I probably put 20-30 hours into rewiring mine. But that was a new ECU, new digital dash, all new button controls and the M-unit. I replaced almost every wire on the car. I did invest in a Brother Ptouch labeler that prints on white heat shrink tubing. That made it much easier to keep track of everything. If your rad fan and turn signal have already failed, then it might be time to bite the bullet. Then again, my car was down for about 2 years while I got my engine rebuilt and I rebuild everything else.

That is how I heel & toe as well. The extra sensitivity of the side of my foot helps me be much more accurate with the throttle blip. And keeping the ball of my foot firmly on the brake helps me keep consistent brake pressure. But I guess "ball and side" doesn't sound as racy as "heel and toe".

I'm trying to determine which Crower cams I have in my Duratec (and confirm for certain that they are Crower cams). Does anyone know if there is a stamping or some other indication of which cam it is?