jwduncan

Gary, Acclimitized = completely numb ;-) Glad you enjoyed it! Just the thought of the wind chill at speed is making me cold.

Geran, Welcome to the group. I'm in Reston and I have an Ultralite S2K. It's a little cold for drives right now but I'm happy to talk to you about the car.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year all. Looking forward to 2010 and some warmer weather.

Danny, I'm sure you'll enjoy autoxing your 7. I have an Ultralite S2K so I'm not sure how much of the setup will directly carry over but I run 15x10 wheels with 5.5" backspace. Tires are 23x9.5 R25B which I think are Formula Atlantic fronts so they are easy to find used. I took the inexpensive route and bought a set of Diamond Racing wheels which have worked well. I'm glad to share more setup info if you'd like but I'd recommend getting as much tire as you can. Even with the 9.5 slicks, the back of the car is easily influenced with some more throttle. The Cumberland Pumpkin Carve is this weekend if you're looking for a place to try it out.

Thanks for posting. This is cool and its much better than having to wait until they appears on Speed in November. Now I can see F1 qualifying on TV while watching the runoffs -- gotta luv technology.

results are up: http://www.nationalroadrally.com/sizzler_09.html The Reynards are extremely hard to beat not to mention the crazy fast Cobras, and a heavily modded Subaru. Another bike engined LSIS made it's debut but has some suspension teething pains. It will be interesting to see how it does as it gets sorted out. That makes 4 7s which is double what we had last year. It would always be great to get a few more to come out and join the fun this year. Maybe we could target the Pumpkin carve in Oct and show up en force.

Mazda, Glad you and Arya made it on Sunday. I had to bail early to head out to FLA so sorry I missed your last run. With the run/worker setup it was hard to find time to talk to you guys but it was good to meet Arya. You looked good to me from what I saw. Tires make a big difference and I'm sure you have no problem finding the limits of adhesion :-) Gary, The competion sure does feel like it has stepped up another notch. Lots of different people/car combos in the top 10. Maybe we should offer to spray people's tires down between runs at the next event with a 'special formula'. ;-)

Yes, I used to run there in the '90s and there were definitely some places you didn't want to go off. It was a fun fast track from what I recall but not the nicest facilities you'll come across.

Mine lives in the garage so no water issues but I'll add the drain hole just in case. Thanks for the recommendation Bruce. I've had no issues with the plug staying attached. Still very satified with the trailer.

Nice Job Chuck! http://www.usa7s.com/vb/images/icons/icon14.gif

Mazda, Glad you made it. Check out Ben's write-up on the Cobra Club site. Saturday He does a great job capturing the event. Nice picture of you and the Rotus. http://www.usa7s.com/vb/images/icons/icon6.gif "Adding flavor to the usual crowd of misbegotten Cumberland racers, the much discussed LS1 powered Lotus Seven clone of Mazda Ebrehimi made its Cumberland debut, joining fellow Lotus worshippers Gary Hughes and Jeff Duncan. It looked just plan nasty with its protruding V8 and no hood or windscreen as it rolled through tech. " Looking forward to doing it again in July. If anyone else is interested in playing later this year let us know. As Gary mentioned it would be great to show up en masse with a bunch of sevens.

Gary and I run in heat 3. I usually try to get there around 7:30 which is the same time registration opens. That gives me enough time to unload the car and change tires. Driver's meeting is usually around 9:30 and the course is setup well before then for walkthroughs. I'd say the course is usually ready for walking by 8:30. See you up there.

Yes, that's right. They may be able to move you into 1st heat if you can't stay all day. That way you'd be done by 3rd instead of 4th heat.

It all depends on how smoothly things run during the day. They usually cap entries around 100 and split them into 4 heats. If you run heat 1, you work heat 3, run 2, work 4. If things go quickly with no issues they could end as early as 3:30. But the can also run as late as 5:30, 6:00 again depending on a number of factors. The shortest day would be to run heat 1, work 3 and you're done. But once you're there, you'll want to stay as long as possible.

I'm sure he'll help keep an eye on them while you're running. Good luck with baseball this weekend.

He's 13. We've been there with the spring baseball schedule. Now it's been replaced with inline and ice hockey. It's always something. :-) Maybe in a few years it will be autocrossing.

Mazda, I'll most likely be bringing my son too. We usually head out before the sun comes up on Saturday (5am ish). Btw, there's another Cumberland regular building a 7 clone with a bike engine. It won't be ready by the June event but he hopes to run it in July. It would be great to try and get some more 7s out for one of the events this year. There's also a SCCA event this weekend (Sun) at FedEx if you're interested. Gary, No WD-40 necessary, just be sure to bring the right car ;-)

Hank, I installed that same shift light in my Ultralite last year and I'm very happy with it. It's easy to see in the sunlight and you can program which rpm the lights start to come on.

Mazda, I've not had the opportunity to run A6s and R25Bs on the same car so I'm only guessing but I suspect the R25Bs will have a slight grip advantage over the A6s on most surfaces/temps. Again only a guess and the A6 is a very competitive tire. I suspect some folks have had the opportunity to test them back-to-back and could answer with more real data. As Dave mentioned if you can fit 15" wheels, you could probably find some slick sizes that would work.

Mazda, If you can't find a R25B in the right size, another option could be the Hoosier A6 DOT tire. It looks like they have 17" and 18" options

Tom, I have a set of R888s for the street and they are no where near as sticky as a Hoosier R25B compound. IMHO the R888s would be significantly slower than the R25B on an auto-x course. That said, I'm also not sure a R25B would survive a lot of track use. The only track day I did last year was with the R888 and it was raining. Why don't you do the track days on the R888s and auto-x with the Hooisers? The other option is a harder compound Hooiser for the track but then it will be a compromise at the auto-x. YMMV.

Happy birthday Mazda. Great way to celebrate the milestone.

Mazda, Glad you took the plunge and welcome to the fun. It will be great to have another 7 in Cumberland this season. I can already hear the chatter about your monster V8. :-)

Thanks for the description. It's worth a try. I'll also pursue the SEMA-backed VA replica legislation Gary mentioned. And I found a waiver option if you've spent $680 or more :-( in emission repairs... from the VA DMV site If your vehicle fails an emission test, you must take it to a garage for emission-related repairs. The garage must be certified by Virginia's Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ). If your vehicle fails again and you paid $680 or more in emissions-related repairs, you will qualify for a waiver. The emissions-testing facility will provide you with the paperwork to apply for a waiver. Hopefully one of these roads will work.

I was flagged for not having an fuel evaporation emission system when I went for my emission renewal today. Seems like everything else was fine. Anyone had luck with a simple version that could be hooked up? Trying to retro fit one from a stock s2000 doesn't sound like a quick job.