R1 Seven

Even if folks that were not there get the photo...they still can't say they are in it.

Man, I thought you were going to tell us about a sweet dicount on hotel rooms... :jester:

Cool. For a second there, I thought that you had read my mind and were talking about the F1000 car that I plan to design and build for the next project...

You are going to have to help us see a little further through the fog than that.

Kind of late to the party here...I was at the track all weekend, so I have an excuse. It was good to see all you guys at VIR a couple of weeks ago. Like I said in the other thread, you guys deserve to get some sort of extra effort award. Of course, based on some of the one lap stories that I read from this year, extra effort is standard operating procedure for you guys! Hopefully our paths will cross again before too long.

Here are the final results... http://www.nasaracing.net/VIR_July_07/grm_utcc_07_results/Final%20UTTC%20Grid.html

What is the over/under on how many passes those stock bits can take?

Al, Great post! You are crazy though! :jester: Mr. marathon driver! I am not sure if even I would have driven that far to watch us clowns going around the track. You know what I hated the most about Friday? The fact that we all did not have a chance to chat more. I am certain that I spoke with everyone at least briefly but would have loved to have had more time to chat and hang out a bit. We were all pretty busy during the day. Kevin and the Deman crew should have been given and "effort and determination" award because of the long haul they had to get there and the hard work they put in to get around an unanticipated problem. Nobody likes to work on the car when they should be driving it. I was really looking forward to seeing that monster go like gangbusters on the track. But those guys put thier heads together and did the best they could to work through it. This group of folks is really cool from what I have seen so far. I kind of think that it is a brotherhood of seven owners. Everyone is involved because they love cars and sevens in particular, but they have a great respect for each other and the paths that they have chosen. You don't find that just anywhere. :cheers:

It seemed to be running well. As luck would have it we were in close proximity in the session that he ran in when the wheel bearing failed. I was pulling away in the twisty bits, but his HP more than made up for it on the straights. There was about a 1 second difference in our lap times, with the advantage going to the Atom. That was when my car was driving at it's worst...might have been closer with a more sorted car. Coulda, woulda, shoulda...

Man, I have watched coverage from this event for years. Kevin was egging me to join in this year when we were at VIR this past weekend. He even threatened to make fun of me on the internet if I did not come...maybe next year...

Here is a front straight fly-by video that someone put up from the event. All of us make an appearance at some point. http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-730526143781452380 Mazda - DO IT!

Well, the event has come and gone and it was pretty fun. The sevens made a pretty good showing, especially John. He ended up 6th overall and made a solid showing considering the hardware he was up against. I did not realize going into the thing that his car was putting down 400hp... As Al mentioned, several members of the Sevens community came out to watch, support, etc. and it was nice to see some new familiar faces and meet a few new folks as well. As for the event itself, it probably could not have run much smoother. I had some worries going into the thing about weather some folks might act like jerks, or get to red misting real bad. The speed differential in cars was also a concern…26 seconds from fastest to slowest as it turned out. I chose to wait and see before making any judgements and was pleasantly surprised. Everyone’s conduct on track was really good from my perspective. Some folks in the faster cars choose to have a cool down lap in front of me right after they blasted by on the front straight, but it was no big deal, because there was plenty of opportunity for clear laps in each session. After each session, the cars were gridded by time, so generally traffic was not a big issue as the day went on. There was simply some serious hardware that showed up for this thing, and horsepower seemed to be the name of the game. It was frightening to see many seconds just slip away as cars got real small in front of me on the front straight. Grassroots wanted this to be a showcase of trackday cars that turn up at DE events regularly, but honestly, I have never shared the track with so many rocket ships at once. What was the fastest time? Tommy Archer ran a 1:28.4 on the North course in the Competition Coupe…holy crap, give that man the BMF wallet! There were 12 cars that ran under 1:40 as well. To give this some perspective, the average DE cars that run on this course, are probably running in the 1:47-55s range if driven well. So how did I do? My best official lap was a 1:43.2 for the timed sessions, which was a personal best for anything I have driven around that joint. That was good enough for 20th overall (out of 36) and 10th in class (out of 18). The car had lots of new stuff in it as well as new (different) tires. For the most part, the car drove like total ass and we chased it with adjustments all day. My good friend Alan was crew chief and coach for the day and he helped me stay motivated and we learned some things and documented them about the car. Basically in the first warm-up session the car was wicked loose, especially on right hand turns. We attacked it pretty aggressively with a combination of jacking some cross-weight into the car, shock adjustments, and air pressure adjustments. The car got better throughout the day, but unfortunately the track seemed to get slower and slower as it heated up. So the times really did not come down in any significant way. Actually, I ran about .8s quicker in the warm-up when the car was at it’s worst. So, I am convinced that the track got worse from then on. The other thing that I fought with was the brakes. The new rear end got some nice upgraded Wilwood calipers and larger rotors compared to the RX-7 stuff that was on the other axle. Well, I never thought that brakes could work too well, but they do. The rear is real easy to lock up and I ran my balance bar to the max for front bias to compensate. It was still touchy but manageable most of the time. Looks like a M/C resize is going to be in order there. Too bad I did not have a chance to sort anything before hand, because I am fairly sure there might have been a couple of more seconds to be had in an earlier session. I am not making excuses, we did the best with what we had and I am happy about that. On the positive side of things, the new rear end works great. The TRD LSD seems to work well, and the new gearing is awesome. Now I can keep my foot in it all the way down the front straight till time to hit the brakes. It also still seems to pull just as hard as it did before

The new and improved 1-liter monster now features new gearing that is good for 135mph (old gearing limited to 120mph and got there really fast), better brakes, and wider and stickier tires... Sorry you won't be able to make it, Seth. http://www.usa7s.com/aspnetforum/upload/125665434_DSCN2655.JPG http://www.usa7s.com/aspnetforum/upload/1351793354_DSCN2653.JPG

We should be having us some big fun on Friday! I am stoked that you guys get to come play!

A little birdie put something into my inbox regarding this today that was a nice surprise... That is all I am saying at this point...anybody else want to chime in? :yesnod:

My car has a 60% weight bias to the REAR when I am in it. If the tires are the same all the way around, guess which end is going to have more heat/grip? Porsches and many other mid to rear engined cars generally have wider tires on the rear for the same reason. It is a necessity in my case. I don't think that they car based seven is going to be quite as rear-biased as mine is but it probably is somewhat. My $.02 YMMV

I am putting my money on...the car just hopped that curbing a little bit and the rear has not come all the way back down on the ground yet. That picture just "captured a moment". If a RWD car is picking up the inside rear mid-croner...there are serious issues to work out...

That should buff right out...

Al, My buddy says that they usually take 95. I guess that depends on when you would hit traffic around the big cities. If you come down 81, you end up back tracking a little bit to get to VIR which may result in extra mileage on the trip. That is the best I can offer...

Al, you are nuts man! Marathon trip. I think that one of the Stalkers will be there also. So there are at least two sevens to see. Looks like the schedule just turned up this morning: http://www.nasaracing.net/VIR_July_07/event.htm The schedule for each day is located there. Looks like you could catch at least two or three sessions. I have a good freind that lives near Philly that comes to VIR. I will ask him what route he takes...

4x108 or 4 x 4 1/4" is quite common. It is found on many Fords and is the same pattern that Caterham uses. Lots of options for wheels out there.

That may be specifically to make the registration process easier since it is a homebuilt. Many of the other Hot Rod/Replica guys do similar things to get the cars on the road.

From those pictures, that looks like a nice little locost build there. And as far as I can tell it looks completely "book" in it's dimensions and construction. That one-way ticket was probably a good purchase. :thumbs: