rv-4mike

Never heard of a Ginetta until a couple of weeks ago. My background is with American hot rods, not Euro sports cars (how'd I ever get interested in the 7?). Anyway, a couple of weeks ago they held the Coronado Speed Festival which is an opportunity for vintage sports car owners to race on an improvised race course at NAS North Island. There were a couple of Ginettas in one of the groups. One in particular was unbelievably fast. Not the fastest car of the day, but at my particular vantage point (last turn coming onto the front straight) it seemed to be as fast as anything else that day and better sorted than most. I'd love to have one. Only disappointment at the Speed Festival was the lack of sevens. There were none! Only thing I can think of is that they were excluded for safety reasons as semi-open wheeled cars. There were lots of other vintage Lotus types, just no sevens.

Go SB100. The other option of trying to actually comply can be a nightmare. It's not just the engine, its all the emissions eguipment. Sealed fuel tank with charcoal canister, cat, etc.... If you use a modern engine you'll have to pass OBD2 with the computer not spitting out any fault codes. By contrast, with SB100 you take your car to a BAR referee 1 time, regardless of how its equipped. It can fail the smog check, gets labeled as a gross polluter, but does not effect issuance of the registration. Once done, its good for life. The CHP inspection is pretty trivial also, they are mostly worried about use of stolen parts. If you have receipts your good to go. The down side to SB100? Make certain that you have everything in order before you go. Be at the DMV as early as possible on the morning of 2 Jan. There are 500 numbers and they are gone for the year by mid day. My buddy was at DMV at 0400 the morning of 2 Jan 2006, was about the 10th guy in line, and got number 187 for his FFR Cobra. I have property in AZ and hope to register my Ultralite there to avoid all this BS when the time comes.

To each his own I guess. This is the only forum I've spent any significant time on that is partitioned like this and I find it to be pretty clunky to use. Just my opinion. I find it easier to go to 1 place and scan through 100 topics/day than to have to scan through 15 different forums to see the same topics listed. I check in usually once a day in the evening after work and usually just go to the General section. I'd venture a guess that from time to time I would find things of interest in all of the sections so subscribing to one or two wouldnt help much. My example of the Run n Gun thread is the perfect example. I never go to the events section as I'm generally not interested in the typical autoX anouncements. But I definitely was interested in the RnG results and all of Jerry's pictures. I suppose I could subscribe to them all. Using the 10 most recent doesnt really work for someone who only checks in once a day. I'm pretty sure we get more than 10/day. Very useful for someone who lurks most of the day but I cant do that.

I know I've mentioned this before, but thought I'd bring it up again. Am I the only one here who has a problem with all of the different forums (General, Members rides, For sale, etc...)? If Al hadnt mentioned the posts about this year's R&G in a post on the General Forum I'd have never found the thread, seen all the pictures, or seen the results.:nonod: That was a terrific thread and Jerry's pics were awesome. Glad I stumbled on it. I know that having the seperated forums may have some advantage when searching archives. But seems to me that the disadvantages (missing out on interesting threads because you dont take the time to scan through multiple different forums) far outweigh whatever advantages there may be. I'd like to see ALL topics posted to the General Discussions forum. It's easy enough to look at the first couple of posts in each thread to assess your interest.

Yes, it was definitely unique. The car belonged to Dick Laurie over in the Phoenix area. Dick had an original 427 Cobra that he owned for 30+ years that was that color so he painted the Ultralite to match. He ended up buying the Ultralite and selling the Cobra because he wanted something he could drive. The Cobra had become so valuable it wasnt any fun for him to drive it on the street anymore. I saw it way back in January just before Barrett-Jackson. I dont know if he ever sold it. Unfortunately my computer took a dump this past summer and I lost all my email including contact info for Dick. But Brian Anderson at WCM may know how to get a hold of him.

And I thought I might start a trend as the first Seven type with spinners. I guess not.

Thanks Mazda. You are right. That works great. Hard to make out the details on the mirror here, but you get the idea. http://www.usa7s.com/aspnetforum/upload/1616116887_mogollon_1-15-20071353 (Small).jpg http://www.usa7s.com/aspnetforum/upload/937671938_mogollon_1-15-20071348 (Small).jpg http://www.usa7s.com/aspnetforum/upload/88320360_mogollon_1-15-20071352 (Small).jpg

Very nice Cobra! FFR? I struggled with the Cobra versus Seven decision for a year before deciding to order an Ultralite kit. In fact convinced a good friend of mine to build an FFR Cobra. Ultimately it was driving his completed Cobra that forced me to consider alternatives. His car is beautiful and really gets a lot of looks going down the road. For me there were 3 problems. 1) It wasnt very comfortable for me. I just dont fit very well for some reason. 2) It wasnt as much fun to drive as I had hoped. Good straight line performance, but heavy steering, heavy brakes, heavy clutch, etc... It reminded me of several of my hot rod cars from my younger days. Other than the eye appeal, my current MR2 Turbo is more fun to drive than any of those old cars and more fun than my friends Cobra too. This led me to look at smaller lighter cars. First the Ariel Atom (awesome car but too much money), and ultimately to the Sevens. A drive in Loren's Ultralite sold me. 3) Too generic. Now that I'm looking I realize that there are probably a half dozen FFR Cobras within a 5 mile radius. When I went to the Knotts kit car show this past spring there were more FFR Cobras than all other makes combined. I'd estimate 75 Cobras. I have a personality quirk that makes me want to do something different from the crowd (not necessarily a good thing). Anyway, a Seven is certainly different. None of which changes the fact that a Cobra is an awesome looking car with great perfomance and a significant heritage. You've got the best of both worlds going here. One of each!

Roman, The first Ultralite I checked out over in Phoenix had a pretty cool setup. He had a single mirror clamped to the rollbar down tube that comes from the apex of the bar forward. Hard to describe. I have a picture but the file is huge (high res; over 1MB) and I dont know how to shrink it. If you PM me with your email address i can send it direct to you. I'm a little confused on what you got? Is it the S2K or an XR7. I know there was a pretty trick XR7 for sale recently. But I'm gathering from the thread that yours is Mazda powered so I guess its not the XR7 I'm thinking of. Congratulations on the purchase. I'm jealous. I ordered my Ultralite kit way back in december but didnt have the bucks or space to bring it home yet. Getting very close now. I hope to pick it up this month.

I'm with R1 Seven on the term "blat". Just doesnt sound like a very flattering description of what for me was an eye-opening experience the first time I took a ride in a Seven. Besides it's a British term (nothing against the British; one of my best friends is Brit; love to bug him over his pronunciation of aluminum). Personally, when I get my Ultralite on the road it wont ever "go for a blat".

Randy and Doug, Thanks for chiming in with the Atom comments. I dont see a lot of Atom bashing in this thread though you guys may think I'm one of the guys doing the bashing. As I said in my first post, still love the Atom. If I could afford one I'd own one. But as Loren pointed out, the Ultralite (and most other 7 variants) have similar specs, power to weight, etc... And an actual racing pedigree to back up the bragging. To me bang for the buck is a huge part of the equation and I expect to have my Ultralite on the road for less than $30K. Given similar performance capabilities and comparing prices, I have to give the nod to the 7 in spite of the fact that I think the Atom is the better looker of the two. I'll stick with my comments regarding Brammo and their pricing and marketing policies. It's a beatiful car, but no more better engineered than many of the 7 variants. So the only reasons I can think of for the large difference in price is either way too much overhead in manufacturing or a marketing decision to price the car high to promote the exclusivity. Maybe both. I'll stick to my comments regarding my experience in participating on the Atom forum while I was researching the car as well. With a few exceptions my impression was one of superiority. Maybe thats just me. Just one example. I posted on the Atom forum requesting an invite to come and look at someone's car and take a ride. I made it clear I was willing to go anywhere in the western US, just wanted to see and ride in the car and get the owners perspective without any sales hype or pressure by going direct to Brammo. That request was greeted with a total lack of responses. Yes I realize there arent a lot of them out there, but at the time there were several of them in California and the owners of those cars were active participants on the forum. A similar request on this forum got me a ride in a Caterham right here in San Diego, a ride in an Ultralite over in Phoenix, and an opportunity to actually drive Loren's Ultralite in Texas. That drive sold me on the car.

Should have added that your poll wouldnt let me vote twice so i couldnt add my glider pilot license to the list.

I'm a private pilot flying both power and gliders. My power plane is a homebuilt RV-6a (I didnt build it). I have an RV-4 which I did build almost ready to fly (should fly before the end of the year). My glider is a Schweizer 1-26.

Thanks for the link Keith. I was looking in the American Atoms section of the forum and thats why I missed the thread. I noted as usual that since the news wasnt really good that the thread was pretty short and there was no comment on the content of the article. I'm surprised that they didnt also censor out the last post since it wasnt particularly flattering to the Atom. I know from my time on the Atom forum that there are at least 3 of them in the metro Dallas area where Brian Anderson is putting together my Ultralite kit. For all the smack that those Atom guys talk, I wonder if any of those guys have brought their cars to one of the local tracks and gone head to head with any of the Ultralites (or any of the other 7s in the area; it seems to be a hotbed of 7 activity)? When I asked the same question on the Atom forum several months ago the response was - silence.

Had to look. I couldnt find any reference to the GRM article on the US Atom forum. Apparently there was another significant price increase in mid-June. A car that cost about $50K at the start of the year now costs about $65K. It is actually possible to spend $125K for an Atom by specifying the top options Brammo offers. For that amount I could buy my Ultralite S2K for the street, an Ultralite XR7 for the track, and a pretty nice truck and trailer rig to haul the XR7 to the races. And still have money in the bank. Those Atom guys just keep drinking the poison Kool-Aid that Brammo feeds them. But I guess its all good. If you are a current Atom owner, the value of your used car apparently went up again.

I got interested in a 7 type car by way of the Atom. Beautiful car and I loved it immediately. Then started looking into it. Joined the forum and did some research. Unlike this forum, the folks on the Atom forum are uptight snobs. Everything but the Atom is a POS. Could never get an unbiased opinion about anything. Tried to get an honest opinion about the difficulty in registering one in CA. Registration is a topic that will immediately get you censored on the forum. A lot of the guys there are trying to back door them into various states and are paranoid about somebody spilling the beans and their local DMV office finding out. So you wont get any info on that subject. The cars are drammatically more expensive than any of the 7 variants. And the owners actually see that as a positive thing. Protecting their investment. In the brief 4 months I was investigating the car, Brammo Motorsports had 2 significant price increases that bumped the price of the most basic version up over $50K. The masses on the forum congratulated Brammo for increasing the value of their investment and for finally pricing the car in line with its capabilities. :ack: And dont even ask Brammo about non-standard (or even standard) options. If its not on the website its not possible. Want your frame a different color of powdercoat? Thats a $1000 option. In summary, still love the car. Dont like the manufacturer's policies and dont like the attitudes of the owners if the guys on the forum are any example. Looking forward to reading the GRM article - particularly if the Atom gets trounced by a 7.

Mondo, Quick answer is I hope to register in Arizona. I PM'd you with details. Been sending Brian money in spurts since december. Last I heard from him my chassis was in powdercoat. Should be back at his place by now. Probably time to send him more money to keep progressing. Although everyone tells me Brian is always slower than planned. Not a problem for me since I still have an airplane in the garage space the Ultralite will go in.

I'm Back! I had a computer crash a couple of months ago and lost all email right after USA7s moved to a new server. Everyone had to log in and change passwords. Mine got lost in the email/computer crash. Had nothing to post so have just monitored from time to time as a guest. Anyway, finally got around to getting my password back. Still dont have a 7 yet, but my Ultralight kit is coming along in the WCM shop. Hope to scrape together the remaining $ to get it soon.

The car was scary fast before. I cant imagine it now...

Depends on the state. Some are easier than others. Suggest you check with other builders in your state. Might want to ask the same question on the Factory Five Cobra builders forum (just say its a Cobra not a Seven). That forum has a LOT of builders and is very active. Bet you'll have 10 answers in 24 hours (and some of them might even be right). http://www.usa7s.com/aspnetforum/images/emoticons/biggrin5.gif

Cant argue with a good deal on a 9"! http://www.usa7s.com/aspnetforum/images/emoticons/smile5.gif

Did you consider going 8.8" instead of 9"? With the boom in Factory Five Cobras there is huge aftermarket support for the 8.8 and they are dime a dozen. It would be bulletproof in your car.

I agree with Boxologist. If the pedigree is important the Caterham is the only choice. If you dont care about that, there are quite a few choices. What engine do you want? There are choices from motorcycle engines to V8s. There is also quite a wide variety in appearance. What looks right to you is obviously a matter of personal choice. A lot of guys I've talked to dont like the Ultralites - too different from the original. My criteria: 1) To me the concept of an LSIS is dominated by light weight and high power to weight. My LSIS has to be 4 cylinder powered. I like the bike engined cars but didnt think I could live with one on the street. If I wanted a V8 I'd have gone with a Cobra. 2) I dont care about the pedigree. To my eye the Ultralite is the best looking of the LSIS cars. 3) My car will be street driven so comfort is an issue. The Ultralite is wider and roomier than the typical LSIS. 4) I wanted to save some $ by building and maintaining the car myself. Had to be able to get the car in kit form. 5) I want late model running gear and all parts easily sourced in the US. You can probably guess I chose the Ultralite. I love the look and the engineering behind it. Compared to Cobra kits I looked at it offers a lot of bang for the buck with many high performance parts standard that are upgrade options on the Cobras. I have a long history with Honda bikes so the S2000 engine was appealing. Taking a ride in one and hearing that engine rip to 9000RPM sold me. Now I just need to scrape up the $ to finish it (my kit is on order). If you think you are interested in an Ultralite, PM me. I know someone who has one for sale. I'd buy it if I could but I need to go the kit route to spread the cost out.

Well never heard of that one before. Sorry it isnt working for you. I wonder if you got a foam of lower density? They are color coded. The ones I've used are green, blue, and pink in order of density with green being the highest. My glider cushion is 1" of green on the bottom with 1" pink on top. The pink crushes, but the green doesnt bottom for me in the glider. The stuff is heat sensitive so maybe its warmer and less dense in the car? In the glider most of my time is spent pretty high at temps in the 20s - 30s. I'd guess that no matter what you use, with the amount of time you are spending in the car you are going to have a sore butt! http://www.usa7s.com/aspnetforum/images/emoticons/ack2.gif

WesT Texas, Cant help you with the air pad. But if you are looking for a way to add some padding to your seat without adding a lot of thickness I highly recommend Temperfoam. It also goes by the names ConforFoam, Astronaut foam and NASA foam. It was designed by NASA for the Apollo program where astronauts were confined to their seats for extended periods. I've made seat cushions for my airplane and glider out of it. My glider seat is 2" thick and I can sit in it comfortably for 9+ hours at a stretch. McMaster Carr and Aircraft Spruce and Specialty carry it as do a number of other sources. Not cheap but worth it.