Keith

Yeah, that's a pretty Cat. Very nice! I was wondering if this article would ever hit press. As always, well done. I wonder if this is going to get Peter back into a Lotus?

I put those keys on my cars. Not so much for track work, but because it lets me cut out the battery when the car's parked for a long period - or when I'm working on it. Very nice. After having a cutoff switch fail on a car during a 25 hour race, I can't bring myself to use the cheap HF ones. Mine are made by Hella and come from Del City.

Fair enough, that's more or less what Westfield and FFR had to go through. In that case, the kit had to be split into a kit and a "completion package" that was sourced from Canada from what I recall. Since the Stalker relies so much more on other sources for parts, the basic kit could plausibly make it through. It does mean that more complete kits are going to have problems, such as the Caterhams and possibly cars like the Ultralite. A Birkin might be able to come in in stages, as I believe they're offered that way.

Stewart - how are the cars coming in? I'm curious, this is the sort of thing people ask me about fairly often and I know that the law's fairly clear about kit cars. From the BC SVA website: Ah, this is probably it. There's not enough body in a Stalker kit to appear as a complete kit car I've been informed by a private email from a reliable source that the Canadian Caterham dealer is currently being sued by Transport Canada and that a "manufacturer" (best guess, Super 7 Cars) in BC is also being investigated. There's also been a fracas between Transport Canada and Superformance which is still in the courts.

Of course you can join the party! Flyin' Miata Open House, August 15th 2008. Harbor Freight pneumatic riveters. The Se7en owners best friend.

Silly me, I was referring to the law I'm sure there are ways to get Stalkers in. Have any been registered? It's possible to get kit cars in legally, I'm not sure if Brunton has gone through the hoops to do so. Factory Five and Westfield have. basically, you have to come to an agreement with Transport Canada as to the content of the kit so that it is only "parts", and the remainder is sourced from elsewhere. That's to bring it in above board. super7cars.com somehow build the cars in Canada. I'm not sure what components are Canadian-made (the frame?) but the wording on their website is very carefully chosen. I hadn't checked the site in a while, I didn't realize they had anything but Busa-engined cars. It seems they only sell complete cars and not kits, perhaps this is how they get around some of the import rules.

Then how come your turbo Caterham couldn't keep up with a homebuilt or a Westfield at the last Open House? One thing to keep in mind for Canadians is importation. It's not easy to get a kit car into Canada. You can get Westfields there and of course the Deman cars. Caterhams are a bit more challenging and options like a Stalker and Birkin are pretty much out. Used kit cars have to be 15 years old to come in. You could consider a 15-year-old Caterham (or other) from the UK though, there are a lot more to choose from. This will narrow the field somewhat. I'd say, stop by Deman and get a better idea of what you're looking at. Then decide where you sit on the sliding hard work/price scale. The more you pay, the less effort it will be to put your car together. Starting with a frame-and-control arm kit will keep your price low but will require a lot more work on your part to put together, including sourcing parts and probably solving problems. The Deman kits tend to be a bit more complete, but they'll still require more effort than something like a Westfield kit - and they cost less. The Caterham kits don't even make you rivet on the body panels (softies!) but you'll pay more for them.

I'm able to move around the state - if the track day needs to be in Pueblo or the autocross is going to be in Lakewood, I can cope

There's a Rototest dyno sitting about 50' from my desk Interestingly, every single one of our customers asks for a dyno chart after tuning. Driveability is harder than WOT peak power, but it's possible to have both. Of course, I deal almost exclusively with cars with modern adjustable engine management. So we expect full driveability on every car that goes on the dyno. Once you have that, you still concentrate on output - because given the same part-throttle behaviour, the car with more horsepower is going to be faster. My example of a 148 rwhp car pulling away from a "230 hp" Zetec is under WOT conditions, of course. Neither car appeared to have any evil part-throttle behavior. But driveability doesn't have anything to do with drivetrain loss really, which is what I was discussing. Here's an interesting chart for you: http://www.flyinmiata.com/tech/dyno_runs/NC_sweep_times.pdf That's the same car, tested in the same gear on two consecutive dyno runs with no changes in between. What's the difference? On one run, we set the sweep time to 15 seconds. The next, we let the car take 25 seconds to accelerate from 2000-7000 rpm. The difference you see is the inertial losses in my opinion, although we've had some good conversations around here about that.

If it's in Colorado, I can run an autocross and/or track event.

I'm a little late to this thread - but I'm not surprised. I've spent time on the track in the company of a "230 hp" SV, and in a straight line it has trouble keeping up with my 148 rwhp car. Drivetrain loss isn't as simple as a percentage. A lot of people like to view it that way because it exaggerates higher hp numbers nicely. The truth is that it's partially a percentage and partially fixed. I prefer to use a fixed amount for a given drivetrain configuration instead of a percentage, mostly because I'd rather under- than over-report. When testing a 1990 Miata, you see a 26 hp loss at the wheels when compared to the factory rating. 116 hp becomes 90. Grab yourself a 2005 Mazdaspeed turbo Miata, and 178 hp becomes 152. Hmm.

The top pic is a Photoshop job, so don't look for extreme realism. I kinda like the bottom one. And Oregon has a new special Atom law going into effect this year that has special provisions for cars that look like the Atom (pushrod suspension, front and rear roll hoops, etc). This one would ride on the coattails. http://www.leg.state.or.us/07reg/measures/hb3500.dir/hb3527.en.html

That's a good looking build. Good work.

I currently have a Mountney in my car, I don't remember the size but it was originally intended for a classic Mini. We use a Momo Champion in the FM Westfield and we've used other various wheels to play around. I have a 10" kart wheel at home I'd like to try sometime. http://www.cheapsportscar.net/images/DSCN5466.jpg

I've used a real-time OBD-II scanner to track down all sorts of problems. They're really handy. Turning one into a set of gauges is a great idea. Of course, this assumes you've gone to the trouble of retaining an OBD-II compatible ECU but in the case of an Ultralite that's probably true!

Westfield does make an Eleven. http://www.westfieldeleven.com/

I can't say I'm surprised that nobody's asked "So, do you have any factory press photo negatives in your garage?" Excellent stash, I would love to dig through that. Some of it has been reprinted (Brooklands has at least three books of reproduced road tests) but some will be pure unobtanium.

Just FYI - We know this battery is small, and isn't suited to every application. I run a PC680 in two of my own cars and I'm very happy with it. But if you're counting every last ounce, it's a good way to lose 6-15 lbs of weight. I think a Se7en would be a good application for it, while a daily driven car would not. I do appreciate the feedback from people's experience with the battery. If you buy one through Flyin' Miata, then Flyin' Miata will be the one taking care of you and we'll deal with the supplier in the case of any problems.

Here's my original design. I knocked about 1/2"-1" off this later, mostly by flattening out the top. It's laid back about 64 degrees. http://www.cheapsportscar.net/diary.php?UID=663

Holy crap, it's not just the east coasters. It cost me $25 to take part in a Corvette autox yesterday (took FTD by a margin of over 3 seconds, heh heh heh). I'll be at a track day in a couple of weeks with no run groups, so there's a potential for hours of track time - and that's going to cost me $101. So, I get an autocross with a bonus track day thrown in for the price of a California autocross and a burger.

If I drive 20 miles west, I'm in Utah. Does that count? Grand Junction, CO.

Yes, I think that's fair to say If you're in the area, feel free to drop by and have a look at the final result - I'm on Colorado's western slope, just across the border on I-70.

QLD is the abbreviation for Queensland (Australia), but I don't recognise the plate design.

There's a lot of off-roading around here, and most people who saw my car under construction thought it was a rock crawler. One with really poor suspension travel, I guess I love the picture, that's awesome.

I think Tanner's book is a must-have Seriously, it has a bunch of information that should be useful in any car build. How brakes work, setting up handling, bump steer, etc. I didn't want it to be Miata-specific. The technical information isn't included on my website, but the story of the car build is there in a more rambling form. http://www.cheapsportscar.net Champion's book is good for inspiration, but you'll find that once you have the frame built it doesn't offer any information, just instructions on how to put your Escort parts into the frame. Don't have an Escort? Pity. I think a lot of this was rectified with the newer Haynes book, so that one's probably worth picking up.