Al N.

David, welcome...did you buy that Black one from Jeff Sloan?

This will be my last post on this thread so it does not turn into "the lady who dost protest too much", but I wanted to comment on a few things Maverick1 has written: "You should really embrace the Atom because what it truly represents is the modern day Lotus 7, taken into the 21st century" Funny, I thought the CSR was the Lotus 7, taken into the 21st Century. "The great thing about the 7 today is that you can get it in a kit and build it up very cheaply and I think that's great for people who don't have a high amount of disposable income." You know, I've met many of the guys who own Se7ens, and I'm pretty confident a few of them have extremely high amounts of disposable income. We generally don't talk about money when we get together, how impolite would that be? "There is one drawback to owning an Atom.....everywhere you go people crowd around the car and ask all sorts of questions....the same questions....all the time...never ends." Oh, that never happens to Seven owners. Ever!

SE7ENS AT LRP VINTAGE PHOTO DUMP...too many and too little time to caption, sorry! http://www.usa7s.com/aspnetforum/upload/95349854_Se7ens at LRP Vintage - 03.jpg http://www.usa7s.com/aspnetforum/upload/1512982540_Se7ens at LRP Vintage - 04.jpg http://www.usa7s.com/aspnetforum/upload/1570817832_Se7ens at LRP Vintage - 05.jpg http://www.usa7s.com/aspnetforum/upload/579561453_Se7ens at LRP Vintage - 06.jpg http://www.usa7s.com/aspnetforum/upload/112934966_Se7ens at LRP Vintage - 07.jpg http://www.usa7s.com/aspnetforum/upload/1135660873_Se7ens at LRP Vintage - 09.jpg http://www.usa7s.com/aspnetforum/upload/1125712019_Se7ens at LRP Vintage - 10.jpg http://www.usa7s.com/aspnetforum/upload/518493238_Se7ens at LRP Vintage - 11.jpg http://www.usa7s.com/aspnetforum/upload/1791182080_Se7ens at LRP Vintage - 12.jpg http://www.usa7s.com/aspnetforum/upload/1003782478_Se7ens at LRP Vintage - 13.jpg http://www.usa7s.com/aspnetforum/upload/1317009896_Se7ens at LRP Vintage - 14.jpg http://www.usa7s.com/aspnetforum/upload/1576298808_Se7ens at LRP Vintage - 15.jpg http://www.usa7s.com/aspnetforum/upload/2060549183_Se7ens at LRP Vintage - 16.jpg http://www.usa7s.com/aspnetforum/upload/1226133895_Se7ens at LRP Vintage - 17.jpg http://www.usa7s.com/aspnetforum/upload/1696163628_Se7ens at LRP Vintage - 19.jpg http://www.usa7s.com/aspnetforum/upload/594004203_Se7ens at LRP Vintage - 21.jpg http://www.usa7s.com/aspnetforum/upload/576964416_Se7ens at LRP Vintage - 23.jpg

John H...did you have the camera on the ground when you took that low shot? Wow! You guys should try the Navarro Vineyards stuff (Pinot and Gewurz mostly) if you haven't...really good. For those that don't know, the vineyard is named for the region, not the family.

Dermot- For mirrors, check out the SPA mirrors here: Pegasus Auto Racing The Spa center mirror seems like a must for you. Then yuour choice of sides...those Vitaloni Sebring Mach 1 mirrors look cool. For fuel gauges...I don't know if you have a float type or one of those ones that puts a metal rod down the tank and measures by capacitance or resistance or whatever (can you tell I'm not an engineer?)...but my point is that I don't think it matters, they are all terrible. I thought I had my ATL calibrated correctly (did the thing where you stick it in a full and nearly empty bucket of fuel to calibrate) and I've still run out of gas...guage said 1/2 when I ran out on the Dragon. So, get to know the sound of your fuel pump when it's low (my labors noticeably) and also try driving around with a 2 gallon in your passenger footwell until you run out...note mileage then fill up with the spare tank. This is the best way to go about things so you you know your car's range...of course, I still haven't gotten around to doing this myself... I just keep it topped off at any natural stopping point.

Dave-I heard from someone that the Seven won!-:hurray:

Dermot, I love your car too! I like the config you have (low shield with more aero headlights), though I am a CEC guy... I had a great blat today...driving my buddy's Turbo Esprit back from Lime Rock chasing him in my Se7en...in his words "It's definitely the fastest most powerful feeling thing I've ever driven." The Esprit felt like a Cadillac compared to the Se7en, and I didn't like waiting for the boost to come on. Here's to impromptu blats, new and old friends, and "all-motor" powered lightweights and semi-lightweights :jester:

Guys-THanks so much for keeping us all in the loop. Next year is a little tight for me in terms of having time (think we're going to the Philippines with the fam), but for 2009....who knows? I really think we should think about a centralish location, even if central means Colorado. It would attract folks from the middle of the country and then some die hards from the coasts. Well done Gert and company. I hope to meet you all someday in the future...

A beautiful day at Lime Rock. I think 8 Se7ens made it out today, including some folks I'd never met before who seem interested in the club. Great to meet xflow7 and see his lovely live axle. And Karl D., from my neck of the woods, I finally got to give him the bottle of wine I owed him from a few falls ago - when he saved my bacon when I blew a hose on a local blat with him. Ken G. was there too, with his "farthest driven to 7-7-7" S4. Ken and his group of friends are a fun group. Where was Bruce W? I wonder if he got his car together in time? And if not, I'm sure he would have come in Nancy's Mini anyway....hmmm, I hope he's alright. Mostly Caterhams, with 2 Birkins, including one from NJ that showed up after the "parade" lap. I use quotes because the pace wasn't all that slow. I will refrain from further detail on the grounds that it may incriminate many...let's just say certain gaps opened up in the formation that had to be closed, quickly I'm going to be at the car show tomorrow from 10 to noon, leaving Orange in the corral. Then an afternoon doing something the women want to do. Oh, I forgot to mention there was a photo finish between a Seven and an Aston Martin DB in the 6th race of the day...they traded leads a bunch and it literally came down to the wire. We left before the final result were announced. FWIW, I could see a regional next fall based around the LRP Vintage. Some great country roads up here. No SUPER SCENIC vistas or major elevation changes like PNW, but fun nonetheless.

I'm a bonehead. Nearly forgot my steering wheel in the garage AND did forget my FRS radio. So don't try to reach me via radio. I'll be at the park between 9 and 9:30. Y'all know what my car looks like. -Al

The pix and posts have really intrigued me. Obviously such a trip represents a much larger financial and time commitment from the attendees — so the pool of potential Se7eners would be much smaller, even if it were more centralized. Makes the "every other year" thing a sound approach. I really like the notion of perhaps a few regional tours converging on one more central point for a long weekend like 7-7-7. That way you can get the touring in if you want to, and also the critical mass that we had down in Robbinsville. Tx for coming to that btw. Gert and the West Coasters have shown us all the do-ability and appeal of extended tours, and 7-7-7 showed us that "if you build it they will come"...now we need to just get around to finding a way to offer both (perhaps with a single event) in the years to come. Here's to keeping up the momentum, folks! :cheers:

Okay that's it, the next national meet is wherever Gert plans it! JUST KIDDING, we'll have to take a vote on all that jazz when the time comes. Thanks for keeping us posted folks...Ed, would love to know the deets of shipping your car...you're the only East Coaster out there, right?

Damn you Ed Hudson!!!! (Yelled in the most flattering way...)

X-post from Events...just in case... I got this from the Lotus corral organizers: "Lotus corral Saturday, parade laps scheduled for 11:30 am. You must be by the car at 11:00am. We will have signs in the corral indicating times. Also PA announcements at 10:30 and 10:45 telling all Lotus clubbers to return to their cars. We are on a tight schedule due to other club laps and other track activities during the lunch break. Plan to get to LRP by 9:30. Look for signs to Lotus corral." See you there. Click below for event thread: Lime Rock Thread at USA7s.org

This just in from the Lotus Corral organizers: "Lotus corral Saturday, parade laps scheduled for 11:30 am. You must be by the car at 11:00am. We will have signs in the corral indicating times. Also PA announcements at 10:30 and 10:45 telling all Lotus clubbers to return to their cars. We are on a tight schedule due to other club laps and other track activities during the lunch break. Plan to get to LRP by 9:30. Look for signs to Lotus corral."

A. I don't golf all that much either, but I still have nice sticks. B. Given that it entails both missing church and being away from home for a full weekend day, a season of Auto-X would be harder on my marriage than a new head and cams. :jester:

I'll check again on my car tonight (still on trailer!), but I swear the bar does not cant forward at all. Jon, if you mention mods in front of my wife! :ack:

Thanks all for you tips and insights. I plan on going back to that same dyno place, as it's close to my brother's house AND they are well known for Zetec tuning (albeit for the Ford Focus). So the dyno (dynojet) will be the same before and after. I'd love to see more people's dyno charts...I can change the title of this make it more inclusive if people start to post up. Damn, Skip...a concours winner AND a track weapon. Well done. They claim the 211 will be at Lime Rock this weekend (static display at least).

Steve- We'll have to compare in person next time around...but from what I can tell from the pix, the main bars of scott's and mine appear to be bigger, but our two angle supports are a much smaller diameter. On yours, and yes, I know it's the FIA...the rear support bars look much more robust.

Steve, your FIA bar appears canted forward a tad, and looks to have a smaller OD than my non-FIA (again, from what I've been told/read, it may look thicker through the diameter, but they used thinner metal so it's actually lighter. What's with the variation between the angled forward and non-angled forward bars? We need some some Caterham anoraks to come forward on this... FWIW, the new FIA bar that is currently cluttering my garage has "CAGED" stickers on it...these are the folks that took over from Arch Motors for Caterham new frame fabrication.

Jon-And can you expound on the "angled vs. non-angled" thing? My current bar is definitely not angled forward.

That "r500" on ebay raised a question for me... What is the "standard" Caterham rollbar? As pointed out, the one on that "r500" seems to bee a bit skimpy...and anyone who has seen mine rollbar would know that it at least looks beefier. FIA bars aside (and even then, theres some variation...one diagonal vs. x-brace, higher vs. lower), does any one know what the deal is with the rollbars on Caterham. My understanding is that they made the r500 bar (which although it looks beefier, apparently uses lighter tubing and is is acutally lighter than the standard bar) for the r500 and then eventually adopted it for all the cars. Anyone confirm or deny this?

This has appeared before. Despite what the ad says, there are a few questionable things about the car. For starters, it's not a bonafide r500. No stack dash, not RHD, no Euro motor, no Carbon Tilletts. So right there, I'm skeptical. That it's a nicely spec'd Superlight R I don't argue, but it's not an r500. FWIW, the US Superlight Rs don't exactly sync up with the UK "R-series" offerrings. The Superlight R has carbon at all fenders and a carbon dash like the r500, but not the Stack digital dash nor the Carbon Tilletts (they are an option...Scott L has them, but mine and I think JBH's came with what they call the Composite seats (were these called "Kevlar" back in the day?). And we have roughly the r400's power. Like I said, a mash-up. Still, if one could find out the origin/builder of this car and get it vetted, not a bad value.

:lol: So true about the Seven and so many other of my toys..."But we talked about it..." doesn't mean that she thought it was a good idea when we talked about it.

Thanks Seth...it's a permanent dyno install. Regarding what gear...if the Caterham 6 speed box is 1 to 1 direct in 6th as Cherik states...isn't that the right gear?