bball7754

Tom - Adding on to Mike's post above, are passengers allowed during the sessions? As I remember, the organization used for last years gathering didn't allow passengers. Oh, and I'm not feeling the love from you for Crossflows. Steve

The Middletown BDA has been on Race-Cars.com for quite some time - maybe 2 years? The Memphis one is, I think, a relatively new posting. Bit out of my price range (wild understatement) though.

Actually, I'm just jealous. Missed out on 2 BD's last year, or I'd be there with Stewart.

Andy - Sounds like you might have a Crossflow? Since Stewart converted to the dark side/BDA, I was the sole Xflow representative last year. Would be great to have company! Steve

Skip - my understanding was that it was also a federal regulation. Purchasing everything from one source would force the car to comply with current safety regulations, etc. From conversations with Ben, I actually thought that Rocky Mountain was formed specifically for the purpose of complying with the federal regulation. I've been surprised at this new direction. I hope everyone has done their homework. Steve

Tony - I won't bore you with my distributor story, but I ended up having it refurbished and recurved by Advanced Distributors: http://advanceddistributors.com/index.htm I'm pretty sure he (it's a one man operation - can't think of his name off the top of my head) can install a Pertronix ignitor in the distributor. I'd give him a call and discuss your distributor and situation. Steve

You should be able to join the forum. I live in Missouri, and they let me join.

You probably should post this information on the California Caterham Club forum: http://californiacaterhamclub.com/ Some of the CCC members are also on this forum, but I believe some/many are not. Steve

Maybe we should take an optimistic approach and assume that the existing Retailers are not SOL. Beachman appears to still be in business as a dealer. When this story broke, I went out to the Caterham USA site and the retailers page was still there. I actually found a new retailer, Turn 7, who is located at Autobahn motorsports park outside Chicago. http://www.turn7motorsport.com/ Believe that Randy Chase's firm is still active as a retailer ([url=http://www.theadrenalinegallery.com][/url]http://www.theadrenalinegallery.com) and there is George Alderman at Mid-Atlantic (http://www.midatlanticcaterham.com/). Know there are a few others - Sevens and Elans in Boston, one in Texas, plus a few more. Steve

I signed up on the Zenos website 3-4 months ago, and immediately received a semi-personalized email from Ansar Ali. I responded to him, and asked about bringing E10 to the US. He actually did reply, and stated that the US was not in their plans. Of course, things always change. Steve

I guess it's a special 40th anniversary edition, and that accounts for the grey dash and grey chassis? Steve

My experience with Caterham USA certainly changed after Ben left, and I'm going to leave it at that. I wonder if this change is being driven from across the pond. Tony F. certainly seems to be changing things at Caterham, and it would not surprise me if he wanted to increase brand recognition in the US prior to the introduction of the planned new Caterham model(s). Time will tell. Steve

Skip - Good call on the VIN being from Missouri. The original owner lives here in St. Louis. Seven was purchased from and built by Rocky Mountain Sports Car. I drove it once when it was new, and it was much quicker than my Crossflow. Steve

Tony - A quick search on Blatchat seems to indicate that the BCD is a "thinly disguised" Kent 234, and would use the same clearances. http://www.blatchat.com/t.asp?id=69820 Here is another link that discusses setting the valves. http://www.blatchat.com/t.asp?id=132298 Steve

Believe the 2003 should be "underslung", with the mounting blocks attaching to the lower frame rail. My 1998 is "overslung", which is more complicated to install post-build. Steve

The Caterham electrical oil pressure senders are known to be wonky. Mine was, to the point that I just ignored it. It would work, then not, then work, etc. Finally replaced it with a mechanical gauge. So, certainly a good chance that nothing out of the ordinary happened. Steve

Tony - As I remember, the only thing I didn't take apart/remove were the butterflies and shafts. I didn't need any special tools. I used the Pat Braden "Weber Carburetors" book, and the Des Hammill "How to Build and Powertune Weber and Dellorto Carbs". Think I also purchased the Haynes manual, but didn't really use it. Steve

Tony - Rebuilt my Webers about 3 years ago, and it's really pretty straight forward. I purchased a few Weber books, took notes and pictures. But, it's really just take it apart, replace the perishables, and put it back together. Nothing too tricky. I borrowed an Ultra-sound cleaner for the parts, but it wasn't large enough for the carb body. Took them to a carb repair place that did Ultra sound cleaning. Don't remember who I purchased the repair kit from. Pearce Manifold is good source, as is Dave Bean. It's a good winter project. Steve

Mike - In addition to being born on 7/7, I weighed 7 lbs. 7 oz. Steve

Karl - Even though St. Louis is west of the Missisippi, can I come again this year? This will be a great warm up to my 60th b'day on Monday, 7/7. Steve

Tom - It is. He rebuilt the engine, and the only real change was he used a thicker head gasket to lower the CR from 10.5 to 9.9. It ended up producing almost the exact same HP on the dyno. He only charged for parts, but since I needed another set of pistons, it was still not exactly cheap. I also took his advice and for track days have been using a mix of race and regular gas, to get the Octane up to the upper 90's. Seems like the prudent thing to do, and certainly cheaper than another engine rebuild. I've done two trackdays (one a 2 day, the other a 1 day), and no real issues - except for it spitting coolant out into the catch tank. Sound familiar? Think I've solved that also. He had removed the thermostat, so put that back in (new one), and I also think I underfilled the coolant amount. Also replaced the pressure cap. Anyway, since I've made those changes it seems to be fine. Should be good to go for NJMP next June. Steve

I had my Aldon distributor re-curved (as well as other general maintenance), but did not replace the Pertronix ignitor (http://www.pertronix.com/prod/ig/ignitor/default.aspx). After reinstalling, I had a miss, stumbling, and general erratic running. I replaced the ignitor, and all the issues vanished. Steve

Here is a link to a thread on my trailer. FWIW, I tow it with a Volvo XC60. http://usa7s.com/vb/showthread.php?t=6535 Steve

Falling through the floor is an actual possibility. Lots of posts on Blatchat about the rivets on the floor pulling out. I had read about it, but hadn't checked. Then about 2 years ago I had my Caterham up on stands and happened to glance over. At least 5-8 of the rivets were totally out, and several more were loose. Believe several other members here have had the same problem. Steve

Sort of like a resto-mod Seven.