Al N.

Misc. pix from the trip.... Some ex-post-facto captions: A) View from lobby of Lodge at Grand Teton B) Skip's Caterham SV C) Gert's "Slomove" (I can assure you that it moves quite quickly) D) Bill G's almost new Super Stalker E) View of hill near Cody Rodeo at dusk. F) Beartooth or Chief Joseph, I forget... G) Cars at the crest of the Beartooth H) Exhaust hanger bracket "fix" I) View of Jackson Hole main street J) Lower Falls of the Yellowstone

We are alive. Monday, our day to drive from Cody, WY to Pray, MT via the Chief Joseph Highway, Beartooth Highway, MT Route 78, I90, and MT Route 89 and MT Route 540 was pretty amazing — though Skip lost an exhaust mount bushing on the Beartooth (and eventually a mounting bolt for his turbo manifold). I'll post pix and some vid when I get home (in the SLC airport right now). Davemk1 was kind enough to try to find a replacement part before he came down to have a drink with us down at Chico Lodge. Great to meet Gert, his wife Rosie, Skip C., and triple-seven owner Bill G. and his girlfriend Chris/Kris? Special thanks to Skip for letting Laura and I helm his blue SV with Miata-power for a few hours. I know that some of you might be interested in what it was like to drive Skip's car vs. my old Orange Superlight R. So here it is in a nutshell: whereas my old car was a great 0-50 car, Skip's (like Mazda's) is a great 50-100 car. I won't kid you that it didn't take some getting used to initially...it's sprung more softly than Orange is, and much to Laura's delight, has padded seats. The brakes too, took a bit more pressure to slough speed off....not as grabby as Orange's. And the sounds of the turbo and wastegate were so different than Orange's "ripping silk" ITBs. Eventually I was able to get the hang of it and managed to keep tempo with Gert and Bill on the backroads. On the highway, the buffeting over 70 kept my pace down, and Skip was able to hang with me in his truck/trailer rig until I felt the urge to tickle the loud pedal to keep up with other vehicles passing me. As I said to Skip, although I know he tracks the car, it made for a very comfortable tourer. And at highway speed it has amazing passing power in reserve. We should really rent a dragstrip sometime to see what would win out for "fastest se7en" between Skip's SV, Frankense7en, Kevin & Loren's car, and anything Dennis Brunton and company want to bring. Through in a couple of older, sub liter cars in there and it would certainly be entertaining. Great roads out there, too. In a way, because of the scale and scenery, that east coast roads are hard pressed to match. I could easily see a national at Jackson Hole. Alas, Ed, we did not go to the restaurant you recommended but tried a very nice Thai place. Next time. Thanks to Gert for planning another great tour, and for letting us tag along. I highly advise everyone with a Se7en who can spare the time and $$ to join Gert the next time he organizes a tour.

Met up with the gang yesterday. Explored Cody, which tuckered me out, but a nap and Mexican dinner later, Laura and I caught the local rodeo. Pretty amazing in person. Today is our big day - Chief Joseph and Beartooth. It rained very hard this AM...enough to wake me up. Hopefully it will stay clear for us today.

Just arrived in Cody via Jackson Hole. Tired. I'll give you guys a ring in the AM.

Go to the Events section and see if you can join the Beartooth/Chief Joseph tour this Sunday-Monday-Tuesday....

I thought your car had the Caterham-issue widetrack?!? If the car you are talking about has shocks you can't see...it may have the Freestyle ultra-wide track stuff with inboard shocks. I think Ed H. has them on this car.

No probs with this on my Honda Pilot rig...we have the large round plug set up and the flip out cover on the tow vehicle portion of the coupling has a notch to keep the plug in place. Also note that I run the electric cable through the "safety pin" that keeps the runaway brake line...so it is supported at some point along its run. Bruce, thanks for the tip. I'll have them look at this when I bring it to the trailer place for more e-track (down the sides) and lips/chamfering for the ramps on the ground. side of things.

All kidding aside, I would advise looking into the Raceline water rail. After exactly 3 hose clamp failures in my first 6 months of ownership, I went this route for the car that Morgan now helms. A very sano set up, IMHO, and not that expensive of an upgrade, all things considered. Many of the Birkin guys run them, due to an issue with engine ancillaries fitting in a certain frame config. Note that whenever I've mentioned the Raceline kit to the folks at RMSCI/Cat USA (I still love ya, Ben!), they've felt that the rail had issues of its own, including temp spiking and/or lack of a bypass valve (remedied by drilling a few holes in the thermostat valve) ....but other owners I've spoken to say these issues may only be a problem in race conditions.

Man, I can't wait to get into my rental Mazda 6 (not to be confused with Mazda's 7 -- or is it 8?!?) and join you all in Cody. Just a few days away now....

There was also that project out in LA area with the BDA. Looked fairly complete, down to the "rare as hens teeth" steering wheel.

Notice that I didn't say what vehicle! I'm pretty sure it was with a mountain bike tire that I had this experience!

Here is what I suspect...cut in the tire (or crack in rim) that only manifests itself when the tire is loaded with the weight of the car. Hence, you would not get the leak to replicate by just putting the tire/rim in water. I once had a tire that seemed to hold air when off the vehicle, but not on the vehicle, and this ended up being the case. The shape/nature of cut was that it "healed" enough upon inflation to appear to hold air, but it wouldn't continue to hold it in actual use.

Kyle, please don't sell until I come take a look (next week, probs) for a friend. No, that friend is not named "Al Navarro".

Gert has my info. See you all soon. Note that I'm bringing a door prize, so Gert, please think about criteria for award. -A

I love that idea Tom! Here's another: In the spirit of the UK Club's event at the Santa Pod dragstrip, what about a "US's fastest Seven" drag contest? I know it's not really what these cars are about, but that makes it all the more fun (in my opinion). Two more: - A contest for erecting a Se7ens top in the shortest amount of time...and half hoods don't count! - Best Tamiya 1/12 scale Seven model (with a prize of a NIB Tamiya Seven...those things go for big dollars on eBay) - I've always liked "Best Spirit of the Club (Lotus Ltd. or USA7s) as a potential category...you can't nominate yourself, of course.

Sorry to hear that, Kyle. Odd that Mike and Jack's cars got through relatively easily and yours got hung up. As I've noted in some thread somewhere, after I brought in Orange, the rules changed. It's definitely harder to get newish cars registered here. So after you sell this, I know you're going to start looking for vintage Lotus S2 or S3 (including period Caterhams) cars that skate by on the QQ Historic plates, right? Chin up.

CT341 was definitely very nice. And all of this, just south of Lime Rock. Vintage weekend anyone? (Tom, I am of course, trying hard to ignore you....though I am still very thankful that you and John let me hang with you guys at LOG 29. Hope to see you again before LOG 30!)

The "proper" (what the UK owners use) term is "blatting" . Notice my use of quotes in the first part of that sentence.

Scott's a lucky guy....great wife a nice Series 4 racer, and more recently...a very nice Elite. Great to see both he and Christine at LOG. Bruce, I was in Connecticut last weekend and nearly pulled a drive by on you! There is a road there that we're going to have to rip up someday...7 South from Lime Rock to 45 into New Preston.

You know what's one thing I love most about this site and the club members that participate in the forums? That someone could post something with questions, and BANG, someone is there to answer...in DETAIL. Someone buy this thing, quick!

Jim- that shot makes your hood look looooong.

would be a good short piece for the next club newsletter...."What Se7en is it?"

Wouldn't be a bad idea to have people raise their hand here, with perhaps the topic and approximate length of piece — I'm sure you'll be shooting to have a mix of things and not just 6 articles on why Avon ACBs pwn all other tyres. FWIW, you can count me in for at least one longish article about the cars/club in general. Hopefully we'll get other to contribute pieces on the meets/drives we have so far this year. Thanks for reviving this idea!

Great to see everyone again (Bruce, it's been like what, at least 8 years). We have some nice roads up our way, no? I could host the next USA7s national at my house, if people are interested ;-P For the record, we took home the top prize in the chili-cook off. With a very "dark horse" I might add: Chicken with roasted poblano and posole. Bruce, if your water bottle is too leaky, I have a few spares at my office. Just shoot me an email. And thanks for organizing and becoming an official club member (you too, Kyle!).

Mazda, when you get a sec, can you run a traffic report for the past 12 months? Ask John V. if he minds posting it (I don't mind) publicly, or send via email or in officers section.