JohnK

Was listening to a parts guy at a local Subaru dealership describe how he's turned his VW Passat into a fire-breather and I asked "How are your driveshafts?" He said, "Yeah, I'm saving up for a a set that're up to the power I'm making." Turns out this is a growing industry with all the bolt-on goodies one can buy, and the stock car engineered for just-that-much-torque and not much more. He said there were three different grades he could buy for his VW depending on the amt of power (torque, really) he's anticipating. You might think of your driveshaft too, along with the half-shafts. I'll bet the local industrial driveline place would be of help here (don't wear a coat and tie for the first visit :-) .

I think that in ANY current suspension design, all the links carry load in compression and tension only - no bending, not twisting. The link lengths and their origins and insertions on the chassis and hub relative to one another are carefully designed (hopefully) to make the wheel at the corner in question behave in a very specific manner when there are changes in ride height, roll, and pitch. The goal of the suspension designer is, among many other things, to keep the wheel vertical at all times and ensure that the track does not change when the car is driven - this is, of course, impossible. If one has even a hint of compulsiveness as a character trait along with a fondness for cars that are particularly fun to drive around corners, I would avoid buying a copy of Wm C. Mitchell's WinGeo3. You can measure your car's suspension points, plug in the values and watch what happens to the wheels, say camber change, when your suspension sees a few degrees of roll, and what would happen if you lengthened (or shortened) a suspension member. Try Alan Staniforth's "Competition Car Suspension" ISBN 1 85960 644X for a very readable overview

I find this sort of thing very frustrating all the way around. I read the UK list for years to get an idea of what ownership of a 7 was like; spent 6 months as a consultant developing a bespoke wiring harness for the Superformance S1 and Zetec EMS; and over a year,again in a consulting capacity, tuning cars on a both and engine and a chassis dyno with aftermarket EMS systems. If you've ever worked as a consultant you know that in that position you have a great view of the whole of an operation, and as such I learned much more here than just the tasks at hand. It became very clear that the owner/builder/dealer has an awful job because the product is, with the possible exception of a Caterham, something that's had very little development behind it - read: has all sorts of undiscovered problems. Also, because the cars are produced in small numbers there's no way anyone's gonna develop an ISO 9000 plan for its assembly, i.e., a procedure that ensures a good product. (Sometimes I stop work on my car and go over and fiddle with my daily-driver Honda Civic and marvel at what an extraordinary piece of engineering and manufacturing it represents.) So we're at the mercy of the small-time builder/seller - if that guy has a pretty loose idea of what's OK to send out the door, we pay the price. And, of course we've all got stars in our eyes because the product is, at least in our dreams, so cool - so that 'discriminating buyer' just doesn't apply here - until you've been really burned. The reason a Honda Civic is such a great car is the same reason that a Ferrari or a Porsche costs a lot of money. it takes a huge investment in development and testing in order to develop a really good car. On the other end, you've got the people who deliver the mechanical goods. I had the great opportunity to spend time hanging around a museum-class repair shop here in Cincinnati, and to see how the 'mechanics' approached their work. The skill and experience, and especially the technical understanding I saw was awesome. Such people are few and far between, and invariably overbooked. To me, all of this says either buy a Caterham after you locate a really really good shop that's willing to take your money, or prepare yourself to learn more about being a mechanic that you ever thought you were capable of (I happen to have found that this can be a LOT of fun). I tend to get pretty angry with what I see as the out and out dangerous crap that some builders deliver and some dealers send out the door - but the other side of that coin is that, if the design and manufacturing were done 'right', it would be really expensive and take way too long. So consequently, and from everything I've seen, the responsibility for making sure a 7 is working right ultimately falls on the owner - be careful, you can hurt yourself.

So how many miles did you have to put on your 7 and how hard were they in order to generate so much wear?

Chad, Many thanks for sharing. An inspiration for all the builders-to-be out there. Hope you were having even more fun than the pictures suggested. Congrats on bringing your Se7en into being and best wishes for many happy miles enjoying it.

slngsht; maybe you can have it framed or mounted or bronzed and keep it (with the tear hidden) as a companion near your desk. I had to go upstairs and check - My Paul Dunstall Racing t-shirt is still intact. It marks the beginning of my discovery of all the amazing motorsports creations our cousins across the pond provide us with. Dunstall took the Norton Atlas (a 750cc vertical twin with bunches of torque and great handling) and tricked it out with rearset footpegs, clip-on handle bars, and fiberglass tank and solo racing seat. And the world became all about going around corners. I don't know if he created the racer after-market business, but it feels like it to me. These things certainly take one back.

If you have a welder available, search "General Sevens Discussion", "WCM ultralite seat mounting (ultrashield)", JohnK. Incorporated shock mounting (rubber donuts) and a relatively simple design.

Many thanks for the rationals, descriptions and pics - It's always helpful to see how other people have approached common problems - and have the opportunity to admire nice pieces of work :-) .

The people who make radiators for special applications (Griffin (1-800-722-3723) among others) have values / numbers as to how big a radiator an engine needs, based on power output, coolant volume, .... Possibly you're running at the edge of you're system's capacity and something minor has pushed things over the edge. I've found Griffin's tech help line to be staffed by friendly folk. In terms of procedures and approaches, before I look for anything wrong, I backpedal and double check that the basics are correct. My reference / checklist has been to read and understand the description in C. Smiths's Prepare to Win (see pg 123). I does sound as if something has come awry - unless maybe you've suddenly learned how to drive much more aggressively :-) .

Being a night-owl and listening to the BBC a lot, I've been impressed with how effective those newspeople/interviewers are at getting the politicians et. ala. to account for themselves. I mean, these guys (and the occasional gal) claim to be the movers and shapers of the world we live in, and are telling us that they know what's important and what needs to be done - and if the interviewers, if they're up to snuff, should be able to get them to account for themselves adequately and honestly- and if movers and shapers can't come up with good answers, they should be exposed as, well you can fill in the term of your choice *. Hopefully, people like Russert get people to realize that the FACTS are what we should be paying attention to if we expect things to work well. * The poet e. e. cummings wrote: "a politician is an arse upon which everyone has sat except a man" From 1 x 1 (One Times One) e.e.cummings POEMS 1923-1954 First Complete Edition

Hi Mike, Using the bits I saw in the as-delivered kit as a guide on to how to construct the car, I cut a slot through the Tach and Speedo so they would fit . . . uh oh - you're not gonna buy that, huh? OK, here's some help. The immediate issue: I took one look at the dash setup and thought (insert suitable expletive here)! Because the engine's so tall you wind up with a huge amount of dash in front of your face, which is not so bad if you look at the view of the world that a F1 driver has, and consider the power and reliability you're getting - but running a support tube through the middle of the dash which makes much of that space unusable struck me as just stupid. On top of that, the 'suggested approach' was to screw the dash directly to the frame. With metal-metal rod ends on all the steering and suspension members and stiff springing to boot, there's a ton of instrument-killing vibration connected directly to the dash. Some thought and the advantage of having a distinguished Mechanical Engineer (PE qualified, too) looking over my shoulder, I employed rubber-bonded metal vibration dampers as supports for the dash (these are rated at 45 lbs axial and 15 lbs shear, each - so 6 of them are safe for a std collection of instruments). No one around had a tubing bender for the radius I needed so I cut sections out of a piece of 16 ga. 1" and bent the curve and welded everything to fit (a good afternoon's work :-) ). The pics should explain enough - if not let me know. NO LAUGHING AT MY WELDING- although I'm open to suggestion for how to do it better. Tubing reloaction. http://www.usa7s.org/aspnetforum/upload/519875306_Dash_C_Support.jpg Dash support. http://www.usa7s.org/aspnetforum/upload/421115172_Dash_C_mount.jpg Re. the time to complete: There were things early on in the build that I had to fix that were, to put it very mildly, wrong. They were so wrong, that, not being one to ignore a collection of conspicuous hints. I've approached completing the kit as if it were a final exam in some bazaar race car designer/builder/mechanic/... test. As a result I've learned how to use a TIG machine (an Inverter!). deal with industrial drive train specialists, machine shops, use a commercial CAD package, and understand the true meaning of "weight transfer". By the time I get done, this will have been as much fun and just as satisfying as the work I did that earned me the title "doctor" - AND I'll have a gonzo sports car to drive.

If you're really interested in understanding what's go'n on when you're turning your (whatever size and shape) steering wheel, check out Woodward's technical info at http://woodwardsteering.com. These people make some righteous steering gear.

Finally got the dash mounted. Wheel diameter is 320mm ( 12 9/16" or so) - kinda reminds you of a bus you once drove, huh? Adding more context, the steering ratio is 14 1/2 : 1; i.e., turning the steering wheel 14 1/2 degrees causes a 1 degree movement of the front wheel axis. Just from the numbers, it looks like I could use a smaller diameter wheel. Is there a good source for reasonably priced (smaller) steering wheels besides e-bay? I think this takes a std Momo mount.http://www.usa7s.org/aspnetforum/upload/1245964468_dash_b03.jpg Tackling an upgrade of the steering system I opted for a smaller wheel. SPA 270 mm, suede. Good price at Continental Motorsports. Woodward QD hub cured the rattle problem of the old one. Had to relocate Oil pressure and Water temp gauges.

Yes, size does matter. The setup on my ultralite is 5-link, so your 4-link is what, solid axle? Continuing on anyway in case its still relevant, the configuration on my car is that of pairs of parallel, unequal length A arms- which puts the roll center on the ground. A fifth link runs fore and aft, positioning the hub and angle of the hub in the wheel well space. These links run from 14" to 22" eye to eye. Long links make the instant center of the wheel swing through a smaller arc, making changes in camber less, which is good (ref the length of the links on the front of F1 cars). If you're really interested in understanding and modifying your suspension to make it better, check out Wm C. Mitchell's WinGeo3 (http://www.mitchellsoftware.com/). Being able to take advantage of this pkg takes more than a little work, BUT once learned, you will be able to see and test all kinds of things re your suspension's behaviour from the comfort of your desktop, and to a degree that will amaze you. Of course you'll probably lose all your friends 'cause you'll have actual factual data to show what's happening as your car works - rather than participating in the time-honored tradition of arm-chair hand-waving :-) . (If you get serious about buying this software, I can give you a description of what you'll face getting up to speed on it, before you spend the money).

I didn't realize that I've changed religions... Back in the 60's, learning about motorsports via street-legal road racing motorcycles (we called them 'cafe racers' back then). there was NOTHING lower than a "rice grinder", and the lowest of the low was HONDA (anybody remember what it was like to step off a tricked-out Norton Atlas and try to drive fast through the twisties in your local park on a Honda Dream?) In the "engine weights" topic I rued the facts that the S2000 engine+trans in my car weighed in at 409 lbs. and was TALL, and envied that wisp of a mill that those running Rover engines enjoyed. HOWEVER, the performance of the Honda S2000 engine in Mr. 7even's car suggests that maybe that weight and height of that engine were buying something, and certainly didn't seem to hurt the car's drivability. Now, skimming the results of the very wet Indianapolis 500 for this year, the results state that EVERY CAR ran an engine built by Honda, and that there were NO FAILURES due to mechanical problems - 33 cars, every engine built by Honda, NO mechanical failures*. And that was exactly the same thing that happened last year, AND the year before. "Hey buddy, know where I can find a good price on a rice grinder?" *Update: "In 2009, a total of 40 drivers and teams completed 202,210 miles of practice, qualifying and racing, with only a single in-race engine failure – the result of a broken alternator wire aboard Ryan Hunter-Reay’s car at Infineon Raceway in August. "

I spent months climbing all over S1s doing a consulting project for a dealer here (developing a wiring harness for the stock Zetec's Ford engine management system)and was very impressed with both the quality of the product and the amount of car you got for the money (upholstery, fittings, seats, top, side windows, . . .). I had intended to buy a used one myself but got sidetracked. I also spent over a year tuning several S1s that were fitted in different states of tune and running the Webcon ECU, so I got to talk with a number of owners. One owner is 6' 3" and enjoys taking trips with his wife and has done track days at Pocono. While I don't have equivalent experience with other clones, my opinion is that the S1 is the "best value for the money", if the S1 suits what you are looking for. The reliability seems very good. If you wind up thinking seriously about buying one of this marque, and if it runs the Webcon ECU, find out what calibration is used; the "generation 2, Dr. John" calibration is a very good one - I'm certain there are bootleg copies about. Best of luck in your decision making.

Coming to the issue late: OK, so do you still have the article you mention? I understand that, with the battery connected, you've got a complete circuit for any introduced current to flow through. The voltage isn't high so you can, what, charge your battery a little? If the battery when disconnected acts as a capacitor wouldn't that be, as a capacitor is, a shock absorber? The factories must know about this stuff, so it would make sense to hear about that - "practice" trumps theory. My concern is what is introduced and how. If your TIG machine has high-frequency start couldn't it induce current in your harness, or voltage as in a transformer/coil? Also, if you're welding any aluminum on your car you're faced with even more potential for induced current with the AC. On the other side, an ordinary working automotive electrical environment is horribly noisy not to mention things caused by the occasional negligent mechanic. ECUs must be pretty much bullet proofed for general consumption. I've been removing my ECU and the Immobilizer on the ignition switch when I do any welding out of general paranoia. Anybody here a member of the American Welding Society?

FWIW, when I got to the passenger side, I realized there was less room and did the same thing, but with using axial rubber bits turned 90 degrees. This reduces the width of the seat allowing it to fit the smaller frame width on the passenger side. Glad to see there are other owners who know how to deal using only the existing pieces. Perhaps I spent too much time reading Carroll Smith's books before I got my car.

Go to http://shadetreepowersports.com/ and order a catalog (they don't have an on-line catalog). They have very good prices on replacement mirrors for motorcycles - on the order of $10, depending.

Very attractive set of photos. Congrats on getting digital photography in hand. Are those Paw Paw's in the background of the first shot? The fruit makes a nice seasonal dessert.

Roman, Here's my approach. Mounts are available from Grainger, Reid, .... I chose them because they limit the hi frequency vibration and are capable of lots of load, and distribute the downforce over lots of area. Front mounts use same components used sidewasy, arm length allows adjusting tilt easily as rear mounts accept tilt OK. I spent lots of time struggling to figure out what angle, since the greater the tilt (desirable), the more you have to move the seat to the front (undesirable). Brackets that came with the car were heavy and single shear (weak) so I made mine from 1 inch sq tube (The Metal Supermarket is our friend). Pics are low resolution for quick loading. If you need more detail let me know. http://www.usa7s.org/aspnetforum/upload/930683237_seat01.jpg http://www.usa7s.org/aspnetforum/upload/2079403584_seat02.jpg http://www.usa7s.org/aspnetforum/upload/743905023_seat03.jpg http://www.usa7s.org/aspnetforum/upload/698876506_seat04.jpg http://www.usa7s.org/aspnetforum/upload/2107963406_seat05.jpg

Hi Chuck, We are indeed on exactly the same page, and I saved the edging for re-use too. Rather than cut the wing straight down parallel to the bend, I noticed that the area that interfered with my driving position was just part of the wing, and that that part was unwelded re the edging. I made my first cut as per the attached pic and tried it out and that was all that was needed to give clearance at my elbows. These seats are a bear to cut, aren't they! I was proud of the fact that I only broke 1 jigsaw blade. http://www.usa7s.org/aspnetforum/upload/113505965_SeatTrim.jpg

Thanks to all. Hard to beat Chuck's experience along with Jerry's; longevity under lots of use is proof enough of the mounts' being robust. If I get energetic, I may buy myself an extra measure of maintainability by adding aluminum brackets to the ends of the existing brackets, as per scannon's solution. The white thing upper right on the radiator is a paper towel protecting the (disconnected) top radiator bleed. Why my radiator has one of those requires an explanation of interest to those wanting to learn more about cooling systems and why you should feel OK buying Griffin radiators. I fabricated my cooling system according to the schematic in Carroll Smith's "Prepare to Win", page 123. When I first tested the system, the right side of the radiator wasn't getting hot. I thought about this for a while and then called Griffin. They made me jump through all sorts of hoops before finally saying "OK already! Send us the radiator and we'll have a look at it". As I suspected, there was something very wrong with the radiator and they called me back, mumbled something about the baffles that separate the upper and lower portions of the tank(s) and said they were building me a brand new radiator. They were embarrassed. In the course of the discussions I had with Griffin, it was said that all the systems they'd worked with in race cars had top radiator bleeds, and they added one gratis to the new unit they were building for me. Insurance against air pockets, supported by lots of experience. They also re-installed a bung for the Honda radiator fan switch that I had welded into the original radiator. My install of this bung was sound and solid. Their install was sound and solid and beautiful (welder's envy). Anyway, the top radiator bleed connects to the surge tank and along the way that line tees to a fitting that connects to the top engine bleed. I learned about venting and pressurized radiator caps too: the former go on radiators, the latter on surge tanks. Stant technical help gave a very clear explanation. Also, the (Sirrocco drag race model) radiator that comes with the kit had it's hefty mounts sawed off, and the fittings used to mount the radiator to the frame were designed by Griffin to mount a fan shroud. I found Reid Supply carries rubber mounts that, unlike the supplied bonded rubber mounts, were strong in shear and made some brackets to implement these. Each is good for 75 lbs in all directions, the supplied mounts are good for 5 lbs of shear and basically designed to work just in compression. So if I hadn't gotten a bad radiator, I wouldn't have learned all this usefull stuff!

I got a generic hot-rod electric radiator fan with my kit that mounts on the surface of the radiator with plastic assemblies. These assemblies consist of round plastic strips a couple of mms in diameter, directional barbs run along their length and there is a foot at one end. Thread a strip through the radiator fins and through a hole on a fan bracket. Secure the fan with a plastic washer threaded onto the strip, the barbs preventing it from pulling out. This is simple and cheap. The fan isn't heavy and the plastic seems reasonably stout. So it seems OK. Downsides: Once it's put in place, if you want to change anything you destroy the mounts. Plastic stretches so the fan's gonna move around some, which is less than desirable as things wear and get looser and looser. Anyone know of alternatives to this approach that would make you feel more comfortable if you were in a say a 24-hour road race, or maybe about to start the One Lap of America? http://www.usa7s.org/aspnetforum/upload/1547641996_Radiator.jpg

Hey! What's wrong with ASCII graphics? Um, err, you remember, clever little drawings done using ASCII characters? Uh oh, I'm getting old aren't I. (How'd ya DO that ?!)