Davemk1

I doubt you're interested in going this route but I wonder if you've considered using a Honda S2000 engine and trans? I have one in my Westfield and it uses Omex control and works very well in a Seven. My concern with it would be that the package would be too tall to fit in the Birkin bodywork.....the Westfield has a bulge in the engine cover to give the needed room. Just wanted to toss this out in case you never considered it. dave

You are of course correct - it's not that the front wheels passing the pivot is the only issue but it's by how far and with how much weight. My larger point, poorly made, is that one needs to be mindful of the length of the wheelbase relative to the length of the behind-the-pivot portion of the bed. The only way to be 100% sure it will work out is to roll the car on and see what you get. dave

I looked at Aluma a few years back (there's a local dealer making it easy) and I was serious about buying one until I had a realization......if when driving up onto the trailer the front wheels go past the pivot point of the bed before the rears start rolling on it won't work. If the fronts pass the bed pivot before the rears are on then the weight of the front of the car will push down in front of the pivot and the rear of the bed it will pivot and will rise up hitting the bottom of the car before the rears can roll on. I measured the beds at the local dealer and none were even close to long enough to allow the rears to get onto the bed before the fronts pass the pivot....so i ended up going in a different direction. I'm sure glad I had that realization before buying it and getting it home! So double and triple check the distance from the rear edge of the bed forward to the pivot to see if it's shorter than your wheelbase. I think most ATV's and side-by-sides will have such short wheelbases that they will work but very few cars will. I hope that helps. dave

The SCCA typically limits sound to 100dB for Solo. As I recall this is measured at 50' perpendicular to the path of the car when the car is at WOT.....typically tested just after the start where drivers will be using WOT. The idea that any officer could tell the difference between 95 and something like 97 is a joke. I totally get the need to limit noise and support it but this seems like it's ripe for bringing to court and challenging the basic law based purely on the subjective feelings of a well intended cop. dave

I didn't try to PM you.....jcerier was sending a PM to me. dacve

I doubt they are what you are looking for but i have a set of 13 x 10 wheels with a 4 x 108 bolt pattern. They are lightweight steel and were used for autocross for 2 seasons. If you'd like more info or photos just let me know. dave

Welcome to the club....I'm 6' 4 1/2" and I don't fit in a small Seven. I do fit in the big Birkin and the Westfield that I ended up buying and building. dave

I just got my copy of the magazine in the mail and I like the way it came out. Simple and clean. I've attached the 5 photos I submitted for the contest....they used 3 of them in the layout. Well it's back to the grind now of making stuff and getting my shop dirty again! dave

I wish the car/bike cross over was larger and that things like this would aide the cause but 99% of my customers have never heard of the magazine and 99% of the magazine readers think an expensive bike costs $500. But this whole thing has been fun and I won some cool stuff. Not a bad result considering I entered on a whim as I had nothing better to do on a cold but clear winter day than clean the shop and take a few photos. Good stuff. dave

Cool - I look forward to my copy arriving. Are you a subscriber or did you pick up a copy on the newsstand? dave

The tank you have there is the long range tank. The luggage trays are all stepped now as I understand it. dave

It's now track/autocross season and someone must need these. Free up the space in my basement and get some serious grip. Make me an offer. dave

It's spring and time to get these nice wheels out of my basement and on to someone's car. Make me an offer. dave

Very nice. Good job saving it from the crusher. dave

I own a 2014 Mega S2000 with the classic body. I love the car but never had use for the parcel tray so I removed it to save the weight. I replaced it with a thin sheet of carbon sheet. So....I own the car you are looking at but don't have it set up with the tray. dave

In Montana we have no inspection. The law does not state that you need a windshield but it does say that if you have one over a given size that you need to have wipers. It's legal to use small personal 4-wheelers on the road here and use hand signals - it really is the wild west and if it rolls people will use it on the road....at speed....with a beer in one hand and a cell phone in the other. I've had cops look at and admire my car but they've never mentioned the lack of windscreen. dave

Pick up some Lexan polish and get rid of the scratches and you'll be all set. The stuff works well. dave

I'm using an aeroscreen on my Westie and I like is so much more that the windscreen. I assumed I might swap back and forth but I've never put the windscreen back on. In my case I'm able to use the holes already in the scuttle for the windscreen for the side mounts and I drilled one hole in the center that would be covered by the stock windscreen if I swapped it back. dave

This is my favorite. dave

And now for something completely different........ I'm a fan of the magazine "Grassroots Motorsports" and almost always like their take on car stuff. Late last year they sponsored a "Show us your shop contest" with three categories - small, large, and commercial. One of the prizes was a welding machine and I would love to be able to weld car projects so I cleaned my place up, took a few photos, wrote a description and sent the whole mess in. I was surprised and pleased to learn that I won the small category and a new welding machine, along with some other cool stuff, is on its way to Bozeman. I look forward to the print article coming out in a few months so I can send a copy to my mom! If you'd like to see the online article you check it out here - https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/ar...ers-announced/ Now it's time to go back into the shop and make it dirty....dirtier maybe? Dave

It will be interesting to see if Caterham can design a true Seven using an aluminum chassis....it will be a serious design challenge to translate the existing proportions of a Seven into an aluminum chassis. The only practical way to do it is to follow the path set by the Lotus Elise and use large cross section extrusions bonded together. This will of course not work with the shape of a Seven. Just think if the sides of the car adjacent to the driver not being a bit over 1" think and instead being 4"- 6" thick and how that would completely change the proportions of the car. This would happen every where. A space frame can be incredibly small and thin in cross section and anyone that's ever slid over the 6" wide sill of an Elise will know that the bonded ally design is not the same way. Don't get me wrong....the bonded aluminum chassis could be vastly superior to the existing space frame design in terms to stiffness-to-weight and safety but it will get bigger and not look the same like a traditional Seven. I'm excited to see what they come up with. dave

Westfield makes a specific model that uses everything from a donor Miata right down to the gauges. It's worth seeing what they did. dave

I'm sure you know this but just in case.....be sure to have the car set up with your weight in the seat. If they can't align it with you in the car then it absolutely has to have your equivalent weight in ballast in the seat. These cars are so light that your weight is a large part of the package weight everything will be off if it's set up without the proper weight. I'll bet the ride height in the rear changes by nearly an inch when you sit in it so it's a waste of time/money to do it without ballast. I've found that many shops tell you that they will put ballast in the car but many don't so buyer beware. dave

Do you know what your spec's are now? dave

I owned a Birkin years ago and it too had a live axle so the only thing to take care of in the rear was to be sure the thrust angle was correct. In the front my Birkin had a huge about of caster and all this caster meant that it needed little camber to make it grip very well. I autocrossed on bias ply slicks and ran .5° camber in front and zero toe. I now run a Westfield S2000 and it has an IRS. I run zero toe in front and 1.5mm toe in per side in the rear. I have it set with 1.3° camber all around and it grips very well on the bias ply slicks. dave