11Budlite

Per request for brake drum weight. After a bit of research these are the drums that were drilled to 3.75" PCD to work on this chassis: https://www.thezstore.com/product/195/aluminum-rear-brake-drum-70-78-240z-260z-280z

Check with Tom Carlin at Birkin USA: https://birkindirect-usa.com/

Nice, congrats John!! I'll be interested to hear how the dyno session goes.

Some more photos. The Autometer gauges in the second to the last photo have been used on another project and are not included.

I never met George Hilliard personally, but he was a very active, enthusiastic, and well-regarded member of the Birkin community. Like Croc, I don't remember George being on USA7's, but he was probably active on the old Birkinowners Yahoo group.

The rear suspension on this car has the stock trailing arms. I'm sure on track the stock setup worked fine, but the upgraded heim-joint setup definitely made a difference on the bumpy New England roads I drove. One other thing I noticed from the photos Kitcat posted, is the aftermarket oil pan. It looks like the ARE version for the Zetec motor. The car also has the Birkin sump guard.

These are the best photos I have of Woody Harris' trailing arm kit. With all the input to this car we probably should have had a separate thread on this.

The 5 link should consist of 2 trailing arms per side and a Panhard rod to control side to side movement. The Woody Harris version replaced the trailing arms, which had metalastic (sp?) bushings in them, to rod ends with aluminum adjusters. The Panhard rod stayed the same. This allowed the trailing arms to move more freely and had different rate springs to compensate. The rear suspension was more compliant so it wasn't as harsh and handled better over bumpy roads. I had AVO shocks on mine but I'm pretty sure other people used them with Carrera shocks that were popular at the time too. I have photos at home that I'll post after work showing the setup.

I owned a 2001 Birkin from 2002 to 2015. The Birkin you're interested in seems like a pretty good spec. From the factory it has the improved wiring harness/fuse box/relay setup, the easily-adjusted upper control arm (it looks like wide-track too), Outlaw 4-pot calipers, and the improved seats over the torture devices in my 2001. There could be more factory improvements that I'm forgetting. Oh yeah, Birkin's came standard with airfoil-shaped control arms in the front too. Another positive with the Birkin is it uses the 4x100 PCD so you can use very common Miata wheels, although you do have to watch the offset and might have to run spacers. The wheels on that Birkin are a very common upgrade in the Miata world. The aftermarket upgrades look like the same upgrades I did to my Birkin. The Raceline (Jenvey) throttle bodies, Raceline water rail, Emerald ECU, are the same parts I purchased thru Woody Harris in Ca who was a dealer at the time. All good stuff. I also installed Woody's trailing arm/heim-joint/spring upgrade rear suspension on my live axle rear end and was impressed with the ride/handling compared to the stock setup. I couldn't tell from the photos but maybe that's been upgraded too. Kitcat can look for that when he checks out the car. One thing I ended up replacing were the heim joints on the live axle Panhard bar after 10k miles or so because they had some play in them. I believe they were Metric and I think I got them thru Pegasus. If the fuel cell is a Fuel Safe unit it was probably purchased in a group buy that we did around the 2005-06 time frame thru Woody. If the bladder has been replaced that's a positive. The foam blocks hopefully have been replaced at the same time. I have a Caterham 310 now and I love it, but if I could have purchased my Birkin back I would have done so. I put a ton of time and effort into that car and it was a blast. I'm probably forgetting a lot but hopefully this helps. Also see if he has the pedal cover for over the master cylinders. If you get caught out in the rain you're feet will get wet!

Edit - After much deliberation, we're keeping the car in the family. Sorry to those who have inquired recently. I bought this rolling chassis from Automotive Restorations/Vintage Racing Services back in December of 2018. It was fabricated from original Series 2 plans with some of the typical reinforcements to strengthen the weak original design. They built it to be a track rental to be used in SVRA Group 8/BP to use a x-flow or twin cam. I had hoped to build it up as a vintage racecar but I've been satisfied doing track days in my Caterham, so I'm putting this up for sale. Chassis: Series 2 RHD replica, single hoop rollbar Body: Caterham nose/bonnet/scuttle - new, 8" rear fenders (BRG) - new, aluminum panels with some work still to be completed, hard boot cover w/dzus fasteners Caterham RHD aeroscreen - new in original packaging Front Suspension: Koni Classic shocks, fabricated control arms, Spitfire spindles/hubs, .700" sway bar Rear Suspension: Fabricated trailing arm with panhard rod, Spax shocks? Steering: RHD Rack & Pinion, Caterham collapsible steering column - new Caterham Motolita steering wheel - used Brakes: Girling 3/4" master cylinders with balance bar - new (F) Spitfire calipers with slotted rotors - new. Needs pads (R) Finned aluminum drums, 9" , brake shoes, wheel cylinders, hardware- new Rear End: Alfa Romeo, 4.10:1, 80/20 LSD, narrowed, custom machined Moser axles Wheels: 6 x 13 steel, 3.75 x 4 PCD - used Tires: Hoosier Street TD, 205/60-13 - used Fuel Cell: ATL FC160, 6 gal, Billet Cap - new, never filled with gas. Gauges: Stack Classic Tach - new Seat: Modified Kirkey, with head rest that attaches to rollbar. - new Price is $8000 for everything, or $7500 without Kirkey seat and Stack tach. Contact me and I can provide more photos.

Beautiful! Check out this video:

It' looks like both models are going to make their debut at the Goodwood FOS next weekend. Should be interesting to see how they do: https://www.goodwood.com/grr/event-coverage/festival-of-speed/2023/6/new-cars-you-can-see-at-the-2023-festival-of-speed/n September.

Looks nice, congrats!

I can see there not being a drain plug but there has to be a fill plug somewhere. If it's not on the rear cover there should be a fill plug somewhere on the cast center section of the rear end.

Sorry to hear of your misfortune. Just wanted to add my experience. I've been using an Anti-Gravity ATX12-HD-RS for three years now and so far it's performed flawlessly. Hasn't had any trouble cranking over my little Sigma, and seems to hold a charge for extended idle periods. I've removed the Immobilizer to get rid of that current draw and use an Optimate lithium charger only. Weighs a little over 3lbs IIRC.

At least you rec'd one. Mine was missing completely!

I thought this was an interesting race with the OEW/red Healey door issue and the Lotus 7 front fender issue. True British quality! I've seen that Healey in person and it was a beautiful car. It must have been fun driving the whole race trying to keep that door closed!

@Bruce K - I've always been into sports cars, but my recent track day experience started 2 years ago when my son gave me the gift of a Father's day present by letting me borrow his Miata to do an event at Canaan, NH. Since then I've completed building my Caterham and have been able to do around 6 events a year. So it's my son who's ignited the spark for getting me on track. My youngest daughter (and her husband) are both a bit crazy and would love to do some trackdays. I'm hoping the Exocet will be a nice 'family' track day car and who knows, maybe one of my grandkids will drive it some day! Your off-track experience sounds like a wild ride. I'm new to this and trying to avoid that scenario! A little explanation for my forum name. My last name is Wiser so growing up I was always referred to as 'Bud'. As the years passed I was fortunate not to gain many pounds due to my activity level. One day after shooting hoops or riding my bike at lunchtime, one of my friends said that they couldn't call me 'Bud' anymore and they christened me 'Budlight'. It was around that time that I joined USA7's and decided to use my sports jersey number '11' (and also one of my favorite Lotus models) and 'Budlite' because I didn't drink Budlight anymore, as my forum name. With the recent events at Budlight maybe I should put a coozy around it!

@Croc - I can't guarantee anything but I'm going to try to be there. I should have a little more free time coming up so that should help.

Thanks Steve. I don't know how much seat time I'll get in it, but I've been in an almost identical car on track and it was definitely faster than my Caterham.....while it was running anyway. I went out twice in my friend Tom's Exocet, and the first time he blew the clutch and the second time he blew the engine. In fairness to the car, he had done almost 10 years of autoX and track events, a trip to the Tail of the Dragon, and had the boost turned up pretty high. Regardless, we've decided I'm not going to ride with him a third time!

My latest addition is an Exocet 1.8 Turbo that I part own with my son. My son, and his friend and YT channel partner Quinn, had purchased this as a wrecked project with the goal of using it as a dual-purpose track and rallycross toy with an Exocet/Paco motorsports kit. More details of their build here: https://www.youtube.com/@TheSlipAngle I just bought out Quinn, and my son and I are going to be converting it into a strict track car to have as a back-up car for Matt and I, and that my youngest daughter and son-in-law can also use to get involved in track days. Our first track day will be at LRP on 7/3 and it should be interesting with the suspension setup that's on it now. Thankfully we'll be taking off the rallycross wheels/tires and have another set of more appropriate wheels and tires to use for the track day. Not the prettiest of cars to look at, with similar aero to a Caterham, but they do have the benefit of having the whole spectrum of upgrades that's available to the NA/NB Miatas. They have a ton of interior space compared to a Caterham and are very easy to work on too. Future upgrades could include a K-swap but for this year we're going to concentrate on the suspension and getting it dialed in. It should be fun but my Caterham is not going anywhere!

Welcome Henry, I don't think this question has been addressed. All Duratec and Sigma powered Caterhams (270/310/360/420/620) have the exhaust on the passenger side on LHD cars. Earlier Zetec and Kent Crossflow cars had the exhaust on the drivers side on LHD cars. I've owned a Zetec powered Birkin and presently have a Sigma powered Caterham 310 and prefer having the exhaust on the passenger side just for the reduction in noise. No heat issues with my car. The carpet on the tunnel with insulation on the inside, combined with the insulation on the forward footwell, does a good job of keeping the heat out. Your consideration of a 420 model is a good choice. When I ordered my 310, it was considered by many to be the best all-around Caterham model as a dual-purpose machine. So far I've only used mine on track and it's been almost perfect for my needs and skill level. The only real time I've wanted a little more grunt was on the back straight at Watkins Glen where I was running out of steam long before the inner loop. All the other tracks I've been to it's been ton of fun with very low usage of consumables (gas/brakes/tires). If I had known how much I was going to enjoy track days, I would have stepped up and ordered a 360 or 420.

That's a nice find Ian! I don't think they were painted from the factory, but I've seen several painted black (wrinkle finish?) with the ribs/name natural aluminum. Check out this photo: http://www.lotus7register.co.uk/images/l7s2pix/s2coseng.jpg