inchoate

A while ago I posted about looking for a replacement for my 7. It's become abundantly clear that there is no replacement for a 7 other than a better 7 so I'm definitely keeping mine for the time being. That said I'm still looking for a slightly less suicidal car for Sunday drives with the missus. I've been through a couple of 987s and they're really great cars but by wife refers to them as "fat cats that are good mousers" and I can't really argue with that. Someone suggested that I look at the Alfa Romeo 4C recently. Honestly it was never on my radar before but after a little research I'm officially intrigued. Anyone here ever drive one? How does it compare to a 7? How does it compare to an Elise or Exige?

"The Magnificent 7" is a lot of fun. Someone should put together a list of the various 7 related books.

Tony Weale's book is great. Chris Rees' "Caterham Sevens: From Conception to CSR" is also a fantastic reference for this sort of stuff.

good lord, you weren't kidding about the aircraft spruce cigarette lighters. if you want to smoke underway in a 7 just put the roof up.

I'm sort of thinking about doing exactly the same thing. I've started tuning using an Innovate Motorsports LM-2 and it's working well for idle mixture but I'd sort of like to do some road tuning as well. A 12v outlet in the cockpit would make that a lot more convenient. What are you thinking about for the outlet? I've yet to find something that I like.

in my experience e10 is ok in older cars/bike as long as it doesn't sit for any length of time. If I know I'm going to use the gas I happily fill up with gas station 93 octane e10. If I even suspect that something is going to sit for more than a week or two I drain the fuel system. I'll put some race gas in the tank if I have some around or if I'm feeling fancy. I've cleaned and rebuilt so many carbs that I'm entirely sick of it. The extra work and expense with the gas is well worth it for me.

I've ordered several items through the Caterham parts website: https://caterhamparts.co.uk/ They've always been great and I've never had any issues whatsoever.

yes, and because it's a mini ratchet you can position it at any angle you like. my fasteners are a little stiff, so the extra leverage is nice to have.

Those push buttons are cool. I ended up making a dzuz tool with a #3 hi-torque bit and a mini hex ratchet. Works much better than a snoopy tool.

sigh... So jealous of people that can get ethanol free pump gas. Absolutely zero availability near me. I now have to run VP Racing gas in my old bikes because I got tired or rebuilding carbs every time I want to go for a ride.

I would suggest doing a lot of research before going down the dry sump path. I spent a lot of money before I figured out that there was no way to fit the oil tank in my car without moving major stuff around. YMMV and dry sumps are super cool but I've come to the conclusion that if it ain't broke, don't fix it. I replaced the Caterham oil cooler that was on my car with a similarly sized Setrab setup. Everything dropped in with no issues. I'm now using the Setrab thermostatically controlled oil cooler sandwich plate, so if the oil gets hot enough it goes through the cooler. Seems like a good solution to me and no problems yet.

My oil pump didn't clear the engine mounts. The BDs are built on Kent blocks, so you may encounter some issues...

if you search there are a couple of threads about this. I did something a few years ago and I'm happy with how it turned out.

Prowire USA has a large selection of automotive and motorsports electrical stuff. Not cheap, but it's the good stuff.

it's a phone camera effect. the height is correct.

I got some new seats for the car and getting them to work turned out to be a much bigger job than I anticipated. Because of that little job the 02 sensor thing has been on the back burner for the last little bit. I did get the bung welded on and I've got a gauge ready to go. I really should put in a 12v outlet somewhere in the car but that sounds a lot like work so I'm procrastinating. I'm holding out hope that Innovate makes another batch of LM-2s which have some capabilities I'd like and is a self contained unit. Anyway, the school year is wrapping up so I should have some time and good weather in the near future. Here's the bung welded in.

imho for the few hundred miles per year that you're going to drive it's not really worth going crazy.

i ordered one but i didn't think to post here. they have 7 related shirts from time to time, i'll post up the next time i see one.

I had the headers on my very built mini Jet-Hotted and it was very effective in reducing under hood temperatures. If you look around you can find ten people who will tell you how horrible Jet-Hot is and ten people who will tell you it's great. It's where my research let me and I was happy with the whole process from start to the end product.

+1 for Kroil

Should be able to. I've got a small box of RAM mount parts and I'm pretty sure I can cobble something together that will allow me to suction cup it to the windscreen or something like that. If I want to get fancy I'll set up a camera that can see both the gauge and the tach. If I really go nuts I can set up some datalogging on a laptop, but that kind of defeats the purpose as I'm trying to keep this as simple as possible. Also, as a general FYI, the Innovate sensor comes with a mild steel bung. I'm mildly dead in the water while I wait for a SS one to show up.

I went with the 3 foot. It's not getting installed permanently anywhere and I can always get a longer cable if it becomes necessary in the future.

I ended up going with the Innovate kit because it was slightly less expensive, it comes with a 4.9 sensor, will read in AFR or Lambda, and has a lot of extra data capability. I don't think I'll need datalogging or anything like that for the 7 but it might come in handy for some other stuff.

I'm leaning toward the Innovate MTX-L at the moment although AEM and Autometer are also possibilities. Whichever one you look into you can find equal numbers of people that love them and hate them.

I was thinking to mount it as close to vertical as possible. The plan is to only have the sensor installed when I'm actively tuning. I'll run it with a plug for day to day use so it's not too obtrusive. Currently trying to settle on an AFR gauge. I don't need a whole lot of capability but it's tempting to future proof by getting a fancy one. Lots of options out there.