Davemk1

56 minutes ago, wdb said:

I keep hearing about bicycle brake cable as throttle cable and in general I agree that it sounds good. Quality bike cables have an inner liner that makes them run very very smoothly. I would caution however to make sure that the liner is made of something that will withstand underhood temperatures. The alternative isn't pretty!

 

EDIT: good bike cables are also flat wound, so no compression of the housing.

Flat wound housing is good but it's not the same as compressionless...True compressionless is different in that the housing is not made up of a circular wound wide but instead it's made of linear wires that run axially. This makes a huge difference in both bike brakes and car throttles. Both will work well but the axial stuff is the real deal.

And of course the housing is teflon lined and it feels virtually frictionless.

I've been using it in cars for a very long time and as long you don't have the housing pressed against the exhaust you should be fine. Give it a inch or two of space and it will last nearly forever.

Just my 2 cents as a bike guy who's worked in the bike biz for decades.

dave

48 minutes ago, JohnnyJayhawk said:

It would either confirm or deny that it had anything to do with the cable. Thank you. 

I think so.

If it idles fine and as it warms the idle doesn't climb it's almost certainly the cable. If you blip the throttle by hand and then the rpm's stay high it's probably in the linkage. If the the idle speed rises when warm it's almost certainly an air leak between the carbs and the head (with the soft mounts being the most likely thing to look at).

If you replace the cable I would not buy a car cable. Most seem to be crap. I would get a bicycle brake cable and some "compressionless" brake cable housing. It will be much lower friction than most car cables and since the housing is compresssionless the throttle will be easier to modulate due to the housing not flexing around when the cable is under tension.

dave

I would be tempted to disconnect the throttle cable completely and then, with the engine cold, start it and see what it does. It sounds like it could be the cable hanging up and running it with the cable out of the picture would tell you for sure.

dave

I have a Westfield with a Sierra diff and it is fit with a Quaiffe limited slip. I autocross the car seriously and it no doubt makes a considerable difference in my times.

That said...if you are not competing in the car...or you rarely, or never, spin up the inside tire coming out of a corner then I think there would be no benefit in fitting the LSD.

In the end I think it's about how the car is used. If it's strictly a street car there's much less need for an LSD. The LSD has had no noticeable effect on the driving experience unless you are driving very hard out of corners and having the inside tire light up. The LSD diff doesn't hurt anything in less than race conditions, but it also brings little to the table.

I hope that makes sense...I've not finished my morning coffee so who knows how well I'm making the point.

dave

I have no idea on your tech question but I have to say that your wife is a keeper!

dave

I have a friend who used a Ultralite for autocross for a number of years and after seeing it run countless times I'd say that one could make it nationally competitive but that it will take a lot of work. I think there are a few challenges -

 - like my Westfield the Ultralite is powered by a Honda S2000 engine. It's a wonderful powerplant that revs to 9000 rpms and that's good. The downside is that it makes very little low end grunt to pull out of tight corners. My S2000 engine makes 250 hp and 150 ft/lbs but peak torque is at nearly 7000 rpms. At 3000 rpm's it makes only 118 ft/lbs, which given the weight of the car isn't bad but I doubt this would be nationally competitive. My S2000 has ITB's, a tubular exhaust, and light pulleys and flywheel to get these numbers.

 - the two Ultralites I've personally seen did not have an provision to use sway bars front or rear so it can be hard to really fine tune the handling. One can add a bar but it's not a straight forward "bolt-on" proposition.

 - Looking at the build of the Ultralite makes me think it would be a real job to get it down to min weight of 1400 lbs with the driver. One issue is that the S2000 engine and trans are very heavy compared to a Duratech or other engines out there. I wonder if there are any Ultralite owners out here with actual real world weights of their cars?

 - I think to compete at a national level I think that one would need to do a lot of work on the aerodynamics. Much of the underside of the car is open and it would need a full width nose so that you could run an effective front splitter. Last year's DM winner looks to have he winning recipe when it comes to aero and I'm sure it wasn't easy to get that to happen while staying close to min weight.


I've been competing in the Northwest for many years in a Westfield and I think if I had a VERY good day I could make the top 5 in my car nationally...or should I say that I think the car is up to the task. I think that the Westfield, Caterham or Birkin would be better platforms to start with....particularly if they used a small engine/turbo/supercharger to boost low end torque. I suspect that these cars are lighter to start with and that the suspensions are easier to adjust and fine tune.

Just my 2 cents.

dave

I'll throw this out there even though it doesn't address the questions originally asked -

If you've never driven a Seven you should drive one before you buy one. I've known more than a few people who have loved the idea of Seven who drove it a few times and then wanted out. The cars leave the driver very exposed and vulnerable and some people don't enjoy that sensation. I had one tell me that they got a ride in a Miata once and they loved that and therefore a Seven will be great. A Miata feels like Lincoln town car compared to a Seven. Your head is at about the height of a semi truck's lug nuts. A Camry next to you at a light will look like an SUV.

If it's hot you'll be hot, if cold you'll be cold, if wet...you guessed it...you'll be wet. A drive will leave you dusty and dirty even with side curtains. The wind noise and buffeting are not like anything else out there.

I don't want to discourage you from owning a Seven. I think they are offer the most pure driving experience that one can use on a public road. I've owned two and have put about 30,000 miles on them collectively. That said they are not for everyone and there is zero shame in that. If you don't like it, you simply don't like it. But buying one without ever driving one feels risky to me. It will be worth every cent and every minute it takes to travel to see the car and drive it.

I hope you end up trying it and loving it...if you don't love it you'll have saved yourself a lot of grief. Good luck to you and enjoy the process.

dave

10 hours ago, Cueball1 said:

Really not interested in wearing a helmet on the street. Is there other less intrusive protection folks use with Brooklands or aero screens? 

I don’t wear a helmet when driving. I do where a full coverage pair of glasses that have 2.4mm thick ‘bulletproof’ lenses to protect my eyes. They are a shooting glass and the optics and protection are very good. I also find that I don’t follow other cars/trucks very closely to minimize the chances of a rock being thrown up at me. 

It’s funny - sometimes you’ll be driving along and suddenly see a large bug like a bumble bee headed straight at my face and then it flows the airstream right up and over my head. It’s like magic!

I owned a Birkin years ago and currently drive a Westfield and I found that with both of these cars that the further back from the front windshield that you sit the worse the buffeting issue is and the harder it is to fix. I'm 6'4" so I always end up pretty far back.

After using wind deflectors and additions to the windscreen I found that this was one case where "less-is-more" is really a thing. On the Birkin I used a Brookland screen and that worked pretty well. On the Westfield I'm using an aero screen with a short lexan addition and it had taken care of the issue. Even at over 100 mph my head stays still without any buffeting.

For me it's by far the best choice.

dave

On 10/11/2023 at 5:07 PM, Stevensonjr said:

After driving a few more miles I settled on 3/32” toe in. Seemed to smooth out low speed turns and center properly with no twitchy feel at highway speeds. Speaking  of highway speeds, it’s a little unnerving to realize you are at the same level as the running boards of the Suburban next to you!

What rear toe are you running?

dave

Good looking ride - do you know what it weighs?

dave

A few simple folds and a Montana plate becomes part of a splitter.

dave

I use 13" x 10" Real Racing Wheels on my Westfield for autocross. I run Avon Avon slicks and love the combo. They are light and strong and I have many hundred runs on them without issue.

It's worth checking with Real Racing wheels. I think they are much less expensive than Kodiaks and he will make them with any width, bolt pattern and backspace that you want.

dave

I've used brush on rubberized truck bed liner and it's done a great job even considering that I autocross the car with very sticky slicks about 20 days a year. I've used Herculiner and was able to pick up a smallish can at my local Ace hardware.

I've used it on the underside of both fiberglass and carbon fenders and never got any cracking even with all the junk thrown up by the slicks. I've used 3 coats. One nice side benefit is that it makes driving a bit quieter with stones hitting rubbery stuff instead of a hard surface.

dave

My 2014 Westfield Mega S2000 being autocrossed in Billings, Montana late summer 2022.

dave

Car makers have been smoothing out shifting with weighted knobs for a long time. It in effect it's a mass-damper that resists vibration. The extra mass also gives it more momentum once moving across the open gate so that it moves into the next gear with less force. It takes more force to get it moving but then it uses that force to move into the next gear.

I have a very light wooden knob on my Honda shifter and noticed it feeling a bit notchier than the stock alloy knob. I use it because on a hot, sunny autocross the metal knob can get really hot...but the wood feels much cooler to the touch. But the heavier alloy knob shifted a bit better.

dave

It looks as if that is a fitting for a fuel tank vent hose. One would typically fit a piece of rubber hose and run it up above the tank as high as possible. The hose can be left open on the end or you can fit a filter (a good idea to keep bugs and stuff out of it) and this will allow for air to replace the space taken up by used fuel without it creating a vacuum. It will also allow the air to escape when the air in the tank expands due to a temperature change.

If you get the end of the vent hose as high as possible fuel should not come out of it.

dave

There are of course three ways to add comfort/compliance to your car -

 - you can change the spring rate

 - you can change the damping

 - you can change the height of the tire sidewall

Springs - One needs to keep in mind that most Sevens have very limited suspension travel and that fitting soft springs might allow the suspension to bottom out more easily. The stiffness of the spring will dictate how far the suspension moves when it encounters a bump and not how easy it will move. This is very often misunderstood.

Damping - where spring stiffness dictates how far the system will move it's the damping that will dictate how quickly the suspension moves and this is something that can easily be felt. It matters little how stiff the spring is if the damping is set so stiff that the system can't move quickly enough to adsorb a bump. A car that is "over damped" will feel hard, harsh, and will lack a connected feel to the surface. Traction will be compromised. If, on the other hand, the damping is too soft the car will wallow and float as the suspension will still be reacting to one bump when it hits the next. This is where the time factor of damping comes in. Also...if the damping it too soft the car will have a greater tendency to run through all of its travel and bottom out.

The system will work best when the spring rates and the damping are working well together....stiff springs and soft damping will suck just as much as too soft springs and too hard damping. The two work together in conjunction and it's best to look at them as a system. A given spring rate needs a given amount of damping to control that force.

Tire sidewall - if we are talking about a traditional Seven like a Caterham, Westfield, Birkin...etc many of these cars will come with 15" wheels and a tire with a low profile sidewall. The height of the sidewall will have a real effect on ride comfort. It makes sense when you think about it...tires are an air-spring and a smaller volume spring will have a higher spring rate and it will be more progressive. One thing that can be done is to replace the 15" wheels with 13's and a tire with a taller sidewall. The tire will be the same outside diameter and this means that the sidewall is a full 1" taller and this does a great job of taking the buzz out of the ride by absorbing road imperfections before the suspension can even deal with it. There are also real-world handling benefits of the taller sidewall with a lightweight car and that is a topic of it's own. One of the best things I ever did with my Westfield was to ditch the 15's and put on 13's with a taller tire...better ride quality, better handling and lower un-sprung weight. A win-win-win if ever there was one.

Just my 2 cents. Have fun with it.

dave

I have two sets of wheels for my Westfield.

The street wheels are Revolutions in the 13 x 7 size and they are fitted with 205/60-13 Toyos. The autocross wheels are Real Racing Wheels and they are 13 x 10 and I use Avon slicks on them.

I have to say that the car corners pretty darn well on 10" wide slicks!

dave

19 minutes ago, ProfGriff said:

Thanks Dave, great looking Westie! That must fly with the S2000. I have my eye on an S2000 powertrain that a friend was going to use in a Bugatti replica, but can't finish due to health reasons. Not that I'm complaining about how mine goes with a ~190HP 2.1 SOHC Ford and T9!

 

Cheers

 

Phil

It does "get out of the way in a hurry" as my dad would have said. I have ITB's on the S2000 engine so it makes 230 hp at the wheels (260ish at the crank?) and I've worked very hard at getting it down to minimum weight for my SCCA solo class....meaning that it weighs 1230 pounds with the race wheel/tire installed.

It's a lot of fun and goes like hell around an autocross course.

dave

I also have a set for my street set up. I've always loved this design.

dave

What a beauty - congrats.

It would be fun to see under the engine cover and of course the interior.

dave

4 hours ago, Alex-Ks1 said:

I  can take the cable hold it up and the inner core will fall to the floor. no kinks any where, no bends, free as a bird when  its not hooked up .

 reinstall it and it binds, only 2 slight bends on the cable housing, and there not hard bends, I know better. Like I posted, its a small diameter cable housing, maybe a larger diameter will do the trick, already ordered one.   

I seriously doubt that a change in diameter will have any effect.

If the cable slides through the housing without drag that leaves a few other possibilities -

 - the pivot on the gas pedal is binding

 - the cable is dragging on the hole where it passes through the firewall

 - a fitting at either end of the housing is tight or has a burr and the cable is dragging though it

 - the throttle body on the intake is biding

 - the place where the cast-on cable end pivots in the gas pedal or throttle body binds and won't pivot freely

 - there's a burr where the outer housing of the cable was cut to length

In the end it's a simple system where small parts slide or pivot under load and something is binding. Go from one end of the system to the other - you'll find it.

dave

3 hours ago, Alex-Ks1 said:

It does it when it's not running or when it's running . I ordered a larger diameter cable , maybe that will help

It sounds like there cable and housing don't have a smooth and kink-free path from the pedal to the intake. Buy a good teflon lined bicycle brake cable and make sure that there are no tight bends or kinks and I'll bet that will take care of it.

dave

19 minutes ago, coffee break said:

" And that it wicked fun."

and in a church parking lot!!!

Praise the Lord.

dave