Vovchandr

You're not adding lightness so surrender your 7 badge on the way out :seeya: In all seriousness however I have a feeling you're over thinking it. Fairly certain you wouldn't care about adding the spare wheel back once you have it gone. Mine has been cut off prior to my ownership and I have no intention of ever trying to mount it back. Granted I also don't have a square setup which makes it even less useful for my application but all things considered I'd say cut if off, have your AAA members ship and not dread it too much. Only counter point, where it could be really useful is if you have 13's, square setup and plan on doing very long cross country type trips. That way even if you get towed it would make it hard to source a replacement and the spare could come in quite useful. To answer the actual question, I haven't come across anybody who's made it a removable/replicable setup, but I'm sure it's feasible.

I've been checking in to this thread for the better part of the decade, and even though I have a 7 old habits die hard!

Neat! So there will be a gallery? I thought there was some comments about not having one due to bandwidth reasoning. If there is a gallery I do have a comment towards that. One of the issues I've had with galleries is that they are just "too hidden" and not referenced enough. Usually people would upload for personal use but nobody would ever browse them. I used two plugins to help that among other things. 1) I had random feed of the gallery between the header and the forums 2) The gallery itself was an endless scroll Again not sure how feasible this is on the software but sharing opinions and experience Example drafted below

Oh? Very neat! Just so we are clear, I had no less than 20 plugins used to achieve all the things that I wanted. Obviously I can't recommend that for reasons of robustness. Your software choice seems to allow/includes A LOT of features in the native interface which is fantastic! One of the huge things I wanted I was never able to achieve and I've only seen one forum achieve using custom coding - garagejournal.com. They are able to have threads as part of the landing page with direct embedding/linking between the two. Just talking out loud, I thought it was very neat and a great way to feed content to landing page as well as a way to highlight threads of high importance to the landing page while keeping it as one chain of replies instead of the two being separated.

Alright since I don't know when/if I'll ever find an old picture of the forum, I mspainted a brief preview of being similar to what I had setup. Obviously it's no a 1:1 representation of the packaging that I've had but you get the idea of the concept. The thread preview pictures would pull a preset number of pictures from the thread and display them underneath. You could change whether it does first pictures or last, could change sizes to make it a more prominent part etc

John, thank you for all the replies. I'm looking forward to it, sounds very promising. At this point the forum is down and waybackmachine doesn't have an archive on it but I'll try to dig something up and see what I can find to share. I was personally very happy with the result achieving what I set out to do IE to have a lot more organic picture content in the new posts/forum feed wall.

Well.. Since you ask I'll share my thoughts. All depend on what your goal/drive is for the site. #1 thing to have is means of driving new content and for it to be available to visitors as we all know. We all go to ~6 regular sites when we are on the computer, see whats new and if there is nothing new, we move on. When I go to USA7's and click "new posts" and nothing pops up, I go off to check other forums. One HUGE thing that I wanted to have and implemented to make the forum more upto "modern times" of visual browsing is to have pictures from each thread show up in the feed. It was the best of both worlds IMO of keeping it a forum but also having pictures in part of your feed. So you'd see a title and any pictures that the post might have would be posted below the title for you to preview. Don't have examples on hand but can find if necessary. Landing page is nice to have but it requires upkeep. If nobody is motivated to do it, everybody's better off without it. Tagging a person - likely is part of the new interface when you can "@" somebody in a post and it will ping the person. Giphy integration - discussed above Copy and paste embedding of pictures. I know you're trying to keep data costs down and by default you become the host when you do that but it's a nice feature. Good auto resizing - I've fought with this for a while on my forum but when it works its very satisfactory. With so many huge pictures and phones taking huge pictures it's nice when there is an auto resize that will ensure you never post a huge picture, plus it makes it nice to browse when all pictures are consistent. Easy phone uploading - huge issue. No idea how that gets handled by the new system. Very annoying to share content that we all have on our phones if it fights you over it. Tapatalk was a nice compromise for vB but was still hardly ideal. Endless forum battle. Things that won't work for this community IMO Likes/dislikes/reputation Tags - they work in theory but they won't be used enough to be useful Chat box Gallery - not needed if there is an easy way to upload from phone Different title rankings depending on posts/etc I can think of more as time goes on. It's been a few years since I wrestled with this. With all that said, I'm well aware how much work it is to volunteer your time and implement and troubleshoot any new implementations. You asked and I shared some opinions on the matter. I had an idea of what I wanted out of the forum when I was in the design stage and worked towards that vision. I'm not sure what you've got in mind overall. If I had to narrow it down to 2 biggest targets 1) easier phone upload implementation/posting 2) more visuals such as picture preview in the thread listings.

Excellent. The internet paradox is that a few extra clicks is equivalent to a monumental task that discourages most people from doing that work, I fully support in the future having a more native plug. (google isn't too friendly for gif searches/picture links ever since they disabled DIRECT linking the picture, but rather they relay to the source link) If sourcing from https://giphy.com/ directly will still embed them, it could be a temporary compromise. :rofl:

Personal opinion: IF it fits the theme/direction of the forum I do advice adding a GIFFY type plug where you can easily search and embed reaction posts into gifs. Between most messengers, Facebook, slack and other main stream social media platforms it's a nice addition that people are used to and tend to expect to have. I know I personally enjoyed having it when I tried the Xenforo.

Without knowing any particular details between the two myself, I rather have a question about you and how you like to do things. Will you buy this and leave motor more or less alone indefinitely or will you always tinker and seek upgrades for more power? If you're the latter, from much personal experience I'd say spend as much money up front as you can and get the most you can. No matter what power you will have you will almost always get used to it and want more, but at least you won't have to deal with downtime and work etc while trying to upgrade and spend the same money or even more in the long run. If you want to save money and you don't plan on tinkering I'd say 270 will suit your needs. Again no personal experience between the two but straight line power etc will be essentially unnoticeable between the two especially considering these aren't straight line cars. The 5spd vs 6spd and final gearing will by far have a more drastic difference than those two engine choices. Do these come with Duratecs as well? According to the builder I think Duratecs start with 360 but I don't think they sell Sigmas in the states? Found this thread for some more opinions https://www.lotus7.club/forum/chitchat/310r-vs

Thanks for chiming in! Are you SVT to begin with? Did it sound like that before the build? (I'm not sure if the build happened under your ownership or prior) As far as exhaust sounding different due to variations of hood cutouts and camera etc, while thats true, a drastic difference is a drastic difference. For the sake or argument: In motorcycle terms a 4 cylinder and 2 cylinder will have distinct sound note differences that can be told apart regardless of any other circumstances. The exhaust note of Brightonuk's 7 is so distinct from mine it makes me curious as to what makes that difference coming from a similar engine block. Thanks for all so far who shared their opinions and contributed videos etc.

Kitcats and Brightonuk sound similar enough. Almost "fast/raspy" if I had to describe it. Kitcat is SVT maybe Brighton is as well? I didnt see a VCT on the valvecover in the instagram video. Maybe he will chime in at some point. Duratecs seem to have a similar sound as well. I'll provide sound video of mine once the weather permits, I don't think I have anything on hand.

This is something that I've been pondering on for a little while. I've had this video in the back of my mind for sometime of another Zetec member's car being tuned (Brightonuk) https://www.instagram.com/p/B0FDHVcnkhA/ His Zetec sounds drastically different than mine even though it's also ITB and I presume very similar exhaust setup which are pretty standard on Cats. It also revs different which could be due to gearing and appears faster due to reasons (and the very nice build he's got) Can other Zetec members on how theirs sounds in comparison? Different or similar? I'm not sure if this is an SVT motor, I know mine is a slightly different variation due to position of oil filler cap. Mine is likely from a Cougar being a VCT Zetec. Edit: After another look we might have the same model Zetecs even.

We started the discussion here http://www.usa7s.net/vb/showthread.php?13005-Caterham-Nomad But yeah great episode and the little 7 did well. I don't think they ever showed them in use but all cars including the 7 appears to have off road traction ramps stuck to the side of it

It's your thread, it goes wherever you want! It's also only a minor detour as the Volvo/7 discussion is relevant to trailering it seems. Manual/R swap is involving but I wouldn't say difficult per say. Hybrid axles due to it being an XC and having different geometry and control arm sizes than the R makes it more difficult. Would have been easier with regular V70. Part of the reason for the swap is that I've towed stock upto about 2300 lbs. Enclosed steel 6x10 with 3 bikes and other equipment in it. It did it but I wasn't too confident in brakes and other things. 6spd will help counter the weak point that is the automatic transmission and R motor with more power never hurts. The Brembo brakes will be sufficient for stopping and I've added weight distribution hitch and 7pin trailer harness with brake control to help more. I'm shooting for comfort towing around 4000lbs which should be my aluminum enclosed with the 7 in it. It WILL NOT be as good as a truck but when I only need to tow a few times a year it shouldsuffice. With that said dimensionally you have the right idea of trying to find out to test fit. It's quite necessary. Me and my wife are very small people and it's a tight fit for us. On the web tall and slanky people tend to make it happen (especially if they have somewhat small feet) by doing lowered floors, removable steering wheel, driving shoes etc. But if you're girthy there is little to help that other than different seats for starters. Chassis very narrow. Here is my car towing the steel trailer and the trailer I'm planning to tow in future

It's lowered too, so not much ground clearance winning. It's essentially an R without a few downsides like the 4c and the price. As well as stock wide "flares". I've had the XC for 9 years. It served me well. Quite over 200k miles. It was time to do some motor work and I had a parts 6spd R sitting around so the swap only made sense. I already swapped most of the interior, sway bars, brakes, wheels, etc. With the motor swap I also swapped the speed sensitive steering but we shall see how it works (by default it should lock into the firmest setting in error mode, which I'm fine with. Stock harness doesn't have a pigtail to it, nor does ECU communicate to it). Otherwise the XC is just a perfect daily/tow vehicle. Planning to tow my Caterham with it without needing a truck. As far as Caterham is concerned, I'm a bit too far away to be of use to ya. We can do pretty good estimate asking your body dimensions and preferences. S3 is TIGHT especially with Tillets. . I'm 5 7 and ~150 pounds. I have many friends that physically cannot fit.

If I was local, this would be the one I'd take you up on. Sincerely an owner of 2 Auto R's and an XC70 that's in the process of being 6spd R swapped....

Came across this online and then came across this thread So a bump for any new members which would like to consider this option Although I cant vouch for logistics of Japan import of such a thing

Because I was taught that I should let ladies go first... :boxing:

Entertaining read. I'm personally always up for a good $h1t show argument on the forums, it's part of the appeal. Wonder what the equivalent of that would be here? "Follow my Caterham Nomad build"? "Why 360R is faster around the track than 620R"? "How do I add/plumb AC to my 7?"?

I'm under the opinion that if somebody isn't paying enough attention to see you to begin with, a little bit of color isn't going to help. It's not a "blending in" problem as much as people not seeing you at all problem. Best advice is drive defensively. If you ride a bike you're very familiar with the concept. You can't be hit if you don't put yourself into a position to be hit/not seen. We are so low and small people just don't see us. Bikes get cut/off turned into all the time with people saying "I didn't see him". They aren't just making excuses, their eyes saw them but their brain physically didn't register them as an object to avoid. For that reason it's particular dangerous to be riding bikes at the start of the season when people gotten out of use of seeing and expecting motorcycles. I've had a bright red Miata and somebody turned into me while being right next to them. They just weren't thinking paying attention and the thought of missing a turn caused them to react immediately without thinking of consequences or safety.

The behind the scenes hard work is appreciated. Looking forward to new interface. Thanks all!

We are 2.5 hours apart. With more and more active NE owners and pending pandemic resolution I'd look forward to some kind of meet, cruise or joining others in an bigger event.

Welcome fellow Zetecer to NE. You have an identical Zetec model with VCT like mine. I believe Cougar was the source for these. East or West MA?

This touched on that