CarlB

I want to see how you stiffen the seats. I considered foaming behind the seats. Other than making a mess, that didn't stiffen the head rest. I got some Tillet FIA legal seats. They were a very tight fit and I had to remove some of the trim to get them to fit, but they are very stiff.

I wish I could drive a F/C car. I am 72 and haven't raced in way too many years. Leslie hadn't raced in 25 years and that was regular F/F. Three races back and he is turning competitive times. This past weekend he set fast lap in qualifying and finished second. Starting to get comfortable. Still needs some time for things to slow down.

I do not have an SVT. If the SVT oil cap is different my measurements will not work.

I have some pictures for you to look at from my car. I believe we have the same car. Mine is a 1999 or 2000 S-3 Zetec. I measured the oil cap on my car and got 3 treads in 7.64 mm. I think that is how you do it for metric. Imperial is threads per inch. Anyway, that would be 2.55 so I am guessing 2.5. Perhaps someone can jump in who actually knows how to measure threads. If your oil cap is at the intersection of the hood and the nose the engine might not be far enough back. Here are some pictures. The picture of the crank pully shows how low the engine should sit. I spoke to Gus yesterday about that. This picture was taken with a level on the camera, and the little tit sticking up in the picture is the jackstand the car is on.

Thank you - It seemed to be the way it should work, but I haven’t seen that before.

I have a stupid question. The parts did not come with any instructions. I am installing the 4 pot A/P / Caterham calipers and a little confused about the pins that hold the pads. They have a band for lack of a better term at the end of the brake pad pin. I assume that is what retains the pins. I assume you push them in and the band compresses and holds the pin. Is that correct?

I had my dif out this year for the first time and I didn't measure the hole. The places I have, Caterham used a metric hole were the part being attached used metric bolts. The difference between 1/2 inch and 12 MM is 28 thousands of an inch. The hole clearance would be 14 thousands around. I do not believe you have a problem.

You might want to consider replacing the U joints. To remove the driveshaft, you have to pull the differential.

I am very serious about wanting one. Hope Gus is able to get the car done for the event at NJMP. Please come even if your car isn't ready. You will have a good time meeting everyone.

That looks like a really interesting event. I would love to participate but will be in Europe. I will try to go downtown to see the finish.

I saw your cage yesterday in the shop. I am more than impressed and want one. Really nice and the bumper is a great safety improvement for the gas tank.

The transmission shop he probably used was Quantomechanics. The owner is John Esposito and the number is 203-463-8299.

This is very timely for me. Last year at NJMP going into one I was getting brake fade. I do not use engine braking. The car has the standard spitfire front brakes with solid rotors and ford rear brakes. I was using a Porterfield pad R4-1 that is a great autocross pad. They sell it as a vintage racing pad. It has lots of bite with a .56 average coefficient of friction and is done at 600 degrees. I am installing the Caterham AP upgraded brakes and they come with Ferodo DS street pads. These pads have a much lower coefficient of friction, and it sounds like they would not work well with the Ferodo pads. What I do not understand from the discussion is what front pad you all are using. Are you using the Ferodo DS street pad with the Mintex 1155 or are you using The Mintex 1155 all around? What are the part numbers for the front and rear Mintex pads?

The AP rear brakes do not have parking brakes. Wilwood makes some, but you need to make brackets.

Finally, over COVID and got to go play with a new toy. The real new toy is still not here. We are supposed to get a new Ray Formula C car, but like everything else it has been delayed and delayed. We got this car, a Van Diemen, and my best friend who hasn't been in a race car in 25 years is jumping in the deep end. He raced Formula Fords and now has a car with full ground effects. First weekend he spun out a few times in practice. Last weekend he is starting to get it figured out and the times are coming down. A few more weekends and he should be ready to go to Formula Racing Promotions a group that host Formula car races.

My car has a Zetec so the engine is a little longer. I use a Load leveler so you can change the angle of the engine as it goes in and out of the car. https://www.harborfreight.com/automotive/lifts-cranes-stands/2-ton-capacity-load-leveler-60659.html

I am not familiar with the company you are sourcing the tubing from, but I have some suggestions. Most people use Stainless steel, steel with some type of coating for protection from rust, or nickel copper. You can't use normal copper because of the pressures in brake systems. Nickel copper is much easier to work with than the other two. Stainless is the best looking but very hard to work with.

The variable resistance sensor shown in the same picture with the Bosch sensor are known to fail when mounted directly to a 4-cylinder engine block. I have seen them fail electrically and start to leak on small formula cars. Thank you for the information on the Bosch sensor. I wish I could find a piezoelectric sensor in 0 to 10 OHMs. I want to compliment you on your car and your fabrication skills. I wish I was as talented.

If you want it to be compliant with SCCA rules it has to be accessible for the driver and from the outside.

Brock Yates was a gifted writer. Nice article that expresses my view of the 7. I knew Criss and got to drive his first Rotus when he wanted a brake proportioning valve. I had an extra one and he came in the Rotus. I can verify he told me the name Rotus was because the Toyota people could not pronounce Lotus correctly. Originally the cars were supposed to be based on all Toyota components.

I wouldn't say anything definitive about the correct position of the cams because we have no idea what they are. A good cam grinder would have used the stock cam positioning reference and ground the cams so the slots in the back of the cams were parallel to the head. If the cam isn't a whole cam belt tooth off you can get close by setting the intake cam to the highest cranking compression. If you think you are way out of the ball park put a degree wheel on the crank and measure the opening and closing points of both cams. Look at a custom cam catalog and find similar cams. That should get you close enough to run correctly. D

The clutch I installed last year is fine. It is the pressure plate used in 2 L applications. That is not what Caterham used. They had a smaller diameter clutch. I didn’t have to do anything to the throw out bearing. Everything worked. I do not know if the clutch master people made the fingers sit lower or not. I did not have a stock clutch to compare. The only thing I do not like is the clutch disengages at the top of the peddle. That could be fixed with a smaller master cylinder. I would get in contact with Bruce Beachman. I know he was trying to get the correct clutches from the UK.

I do not have direct experience with your engine, but generally this is what you should expect. Expect the power curve to be improved some. The length of the runners will determine were. Long runners add to the low end, short runners to the top end. The cam has the largest effect and if you do something outside the range of the cam it will not change much. The engine will be more responsive but low speed will probably suffer. The big thing on that is if the system uses a map sensor. even with a map sensor it will not be as smooth as a stock set up at low speeds.

If you can't figure out what the brake shoes are from, Porterfield will re-line them. You might also find a truck place that will re-line brake shoes. It would be an old truck place. Porterfield will have better material.

I didn't like the switch plate I was using, and I wanted a carbon dash. Making the switch plate was very time consuming but I like it.