powderbrake

I used to build RC models, here is one I scratch built. It's an F-15 ( sort of) It is a ducted fan model. I bullt the fan assembly by machuining down a Bob Violett fan, and enclosing it in a 4" plastic pipe.It registered 157mph on a radar gun.This was #2 of 3 that I have built of this design. http://www.usa7s.com/forum/uploads/20061119_164911_F15.jpg I also did an F4 in Blue Angels colors. All paints were to Mil Spec color chips to exactly match teh Blue Angles colors. I crashed the lane on the second flight. Oh well, it looked good for a while. http://www.usa7s.com/aspnetforum/images/emoticons/nonod.gif http://www.usa7s.com/forum/uploads/20061119_165210_skyhawk_Medium.jpg

1)There is no such thing as too much horsepower. 2)But there is too much horsepower for your traction. When in doubt, observe rule #1

It sounds like you are loosing electrical power. I suspect it may be a bad ground. ( I am a ground fanatic, I suspect a bad ground all the time.) I alawys use a separate ground wire for each circuit. Lights, ignition, fuel pump, brake lights, fan,computer, etc.. I run the ground from the battery to the frame, making sure the paint and rust is cleaned off the contact point, then run a flex cable to the engine block,( to allow movement of the enine without stress on the cable or battery post, and to by-passs the rubber motor mounts) then ground each circuit individually on the engine block. I have replaced a couple of bolts on the block with studs, and I bring all grounds to the same points. Yeah , this is a little paranoid, but I know my electrical problems won't be ground related, and you can't run a fan and a headlights and a fuel pump on one lousy 12 or 14 gauge wire.

I had seen those pics, and I firmly resolve to look as far ahead as possible when I drive the TOTD. I was on a similar road last year in South Dakota, on my way to Mt. Rushmore, when a truck ignored the warning signs, and took out 50 feet of guardrail on a tight curve, and blocked traffic for a cuple hours.

I am looking for advice on the best route to the Dragon. I am coming from St.Louis, pulling a 16' enclosed trailer with a Tahoe, and I don't think I want to drive that combination through the Tail Of The Dragon. It appears to be very tight for a car-trailer combination, and I don't want to tie up the traffic in case someone is making a "Banzai" run. I am staying at the Fontana Village, so if I come at it from the south, through Chattanooga, then hwys 64, 129,74,and 28, I can avoid the Dragon. Can anyone advise me if this is a good route? My Microsoft Trips & Streets says this is 606 miles for me, which is about 50 miles further than coming from the north through Knoxville and via the Dragon, but I want to experience the Dragon for the first time in my Se7en. Any advice would be appreciated.

They did , and I broke a couple fender braces until I reinforced them with a rib welded on. http://www.usa7s.com/forum/uploads/20061109_072555_IMGP5031_Medium.JPG

The high drag coefficient , coupled with the light weight, make it feel like I popped a drag chute every time I lift from the go-pedal. The high compression ratio of the Honda engine plus my 4.44:1 differential probably have something to do with it as well. The exit off the interstate near my home is a 1/4 mile long right , then left sweep to a stop sign. I generally hit it at about 70 and lift, then coast to the stop sign. One day a guy pulls up next to me at that stoplight and says,"your brake lights don't work". I told him,"yes they do, I just didn't use my brakes".

I have an enclosed trailer. Why you say? While they are more expensive, I am primarily running a "street" car, and if I am taking it somewhere for a cruise, it will arrive with dry seats if it rains. If I am taking it to the track, it has room for tools and supplies. see pics I don't have a pick-up, so it comes in handy for moving large items, or for moving a daughter's furniture. like lots of tools, the longer you have them, the more uses you find. I have a Haulmark 16' Kodiak, enclosed trailer with rear ramp door, and the Seven fits perfectly with room in the front for tools. I have an extra 6" in height, which I do not like, due to additional air resistance, but I needed a trailer in a hurry, and that was available. Aside from that the trailer is great. A note on trailering and electric brakes. When I picked up the trailer in northern Indiana, and towed it home to St.Louis while empty, it was a BEAR to tow. It oscillated side to side, and getting near a tractor-trailer was PUCKER CITY !! This is where the electric trailer brakes really help. If an oscillation starts, DON"T put on the car brakes ( unless you have to on an off ramp), you reach down and apply the trailer brakes manually, and the trailer straightens right out. I later added a weight transfer hitch, and it helps the trailering under all conditions, including an empty trailer. I have a Tahoe, so the extra weight is within the capacity of the tow vehicle. I understand why a small trailer is desired for a seven. http://www.usa7s.com/forum/uploads/20061105_132051_DSC_0239_Small.JPG http://www.usa7s.com/forum/uploads/20061105_132111_DSC_0240_Small.JPG http://www.usa7s.com/forum/uploads/20061105_132132_DSC_0241_Small.JPG

WestTexasS2K: Welcome to the USA7s forum. It was great being with you at Run & Gun 2006, you should tell these guys how many trophies you won http://www.usa7s.com/aspnetforum/images/emoticons/hurray.gif I will see you at 7/7/07. What the heck is Fireball Run from Florida to California?? Is that another 4,000 mile run in a week? http://www.usa7s.com/aspnetforum/images/emoticons/ack2.gif

Great report, thanks Mazda and Al, for putting in the time and making the scouting trip. It surely has whet my appetite for the TOTD. I wish I could have made it, but I had to make a choice between my daughter's wedding Friday night, and a run with you to the TOTD. I made my choice, but my wife suggested strongly that I stay home for the wedding... http://www.usa7s.com/aspnetforum/images/emoticons/biggrin5.gif Did you guys get to the Fontana? I was wondering how it looked?

I surely hope this discussion as to "What is a Seven" is for the purpose of advising SCCA as to classes, and does not spill over into "What is a Seven as it relates to USA7s" They are all Sevens.... A Fable; Three sevens are parked next to each other, the first one, a stock Lotus series 1. The second is a Caterham with slick Panasports wheels and Khumos with two little grooves, the third is a Viking with 12inch wide Hoosier slicks, and a 440 RWHP 3 rotor turbo wankel and a carbon fibre body with lots of downforce. The first guys thinks to himself...."If only I had those Khumos, I might be able to beat him". The second guy thinks to himself..." If only I had those Hoosiers and that engine, I might be able to beat him" The third guy might be thinking..."It would be neat to have an original Series 1 Lotus."

Here is a post from USA maillist by Dennis Brunton.I hope he won't mind my quoting him, you can see he was having a good time. It contains some good video which you may have to paste into your browser, as I don't know how to link it directly. -------- > "Sevenesque cars were the cars to beat with Chuck Spera in his Ultralite > winning the autocross outright, he was also very fast on the road course and > drag strip." > Hey Michael, Chuck and I had a superb competition....he nipped me by 6 hundredths of a second in the AX and I nipped him by a 1/10th or so on the Road course..John Meyers was 5 secs faster than us on the road course, 2 secs slower at the AX I ran two @ 11.9 secs at the drags and John Meyers got down to 11.4 or so...There were only a handfull of cars that broke 12 secs. John ended up ." King of the Hill." It was really nice having the Stalker and WCM guys together...great competition and comraderie. The cars have very different characteristics...but both are FAST !!! Run and Gun is a great competition...I did 239 miles on the track in 3 days. Had a 3 run AX in about 45 minutes..and around 10 runs at the drag strip.... Here are a couple of videos.... Some very stiff competition >http://www.bruntonauto.com/hitters.wmv And a superb roadcourse.... >http://www.bruntonauto.com/snake.wmv Don't be fooled by the lack of engine sound on the banking...speed is over 90 mph ( unless you are John Meyers, then it's over 100 mph !!! )...My speedo is bust... >http://www.bruntonauto.com/lap.wmv these may take a bit to load.... We will be back next year for sure... Chrs, Dennis Brunton -------------------------------------- I had a party for all the Se7ens people and their pit crews on Thursday night at my home. It was great to meet all the Stalker people and have them mix with the Ultralite guys. Both Dennis Brunton (Mr. Stalker) and Brian Anderson (Mr. Ultralite) were there. We all have new friends with different kinds of Se7ens.... the whole reason USA7s was formed. I was not nearly as fast as the SuperStalkers on the drag strip, I turned 12.68 with Street tires. The slicks really make a difference on the road course and the drags, but I could not match their 11.4 and 11.9 even with drag slicks, I'd need a rocket in my trunk.slngsht2006-10-16 11:45:33

Report on the Se7ens at Run N Gun 2006 Run n Gun was held Oct 11 to the 14th, in Madison Illinois ( across the river from St. Louis) at Gateway International Raceway, and there were about 40 cars in the event. The cars ran in many classes, based on tires ( Street, Prepared ( sticky tires) or Slicks), as well as on engine size, (Big Block, Small Block, and 4-6 Cylinder) and Naturally Aspirated or Power added ( blown, turbo or nitrous) Most all the cars there were Cobras, Cobra Daytona Coupes, or Se7ens. There were 9 Se7ens there. 3 Ultralites, 4 Super Stalkers, 1 Viking, and a Stalker belonging to Cliff Flath, who was working the event and did not compete. The owners are: Chuck Spera Michigan, Ultralite Loren Edwards Texas Ultralite Jerry Eddens Missouri Ultralte John Meyers Illinois Super Stalker Dennis Brunton Florida Super Stalker Paul Whittle Georgia Super Stalker David Seybold New Mexico Super Stalker Cliff Flath Illinois Stalker Jerry Fink Pennsylvania Viking Gateway has a 1.6 mile road course which uses half of the oval , and is a great track. We got to run between 150 to 180 laps over two days of lapping sessions. The use of transponders in each car gave us our best times for each session. Wednesday the 11th was an added event, where for $100 we attended a nearly 3 hour session on car set up, including suspension design and theory, spring setup, car weighting and all aspects of getting a car to handle correctly, put on by an expert, Morris Clement. After the session, we all got a chance to put our cars on the corner scales, and had Morris help us with corner weight and ride height adjustment. Then we all got to run the road course for several sessions. Thursday was cloudy and cool, and while the Novice and Street classes ran the course for 3 hours, the Prepared and Unlimited classes ran a great autocross which was set up by the local SCCA team. After lunch, the groups switched locations and Novice and Street ran the autocross, while Prep and Unlimited ran the road course. Friday was a little warmer, and sunny, and all 4 groups ran the road course from 8 am to 5 pm. I ran so often I skipped a session or two because I was so tired. James Yates had a new Daytona Coupe with a big block Ford that produced 485 horsepower, and he ran in street class. We were the two fastest cars in street class, and as a result, he and I diced back and forth all day. When he was in front, he could pull me by about a half to one second per lap, but when I was in front I could stay there, based on the distance I could pick up in the twisty parts of the track. That evening we had a great dinner at the track, and watched a video of one of the Cobras that raced up Pikes Peak. There are no safety barriers there, and going off the road means going off the side of the mountain. Saturday was a little warmer and bright sunshine. It was drags all day. You got to run the strip as many times as you wanted to, to establish your best time, and to set a bracket time. They then ran head to head for each class champion, then the quick 8, and then the bracket drags. The quick 8 was the Daytona Coupe, wh

My 2004 WCM Ultralite was 1420 pounds, with about 8 gallons of gas. I went to a truck scale, and that was what it read. This is about 100 lbs over the advertised weight. I don't have a lot of faith in the truck scale reading accurately at that level, as it normally reads over 40,000 pounds, and likely has a rating of twice that. That means my measurement was within 1 1/2 % of the capacity. Likely the friction in the scales is a significant number relative to the cars weight. I am going to Run N Gun in October, and they will have a corner weighting seminar, so I plan to get a better reading at that time. Regarding density of gasoline: Water = 62.4 lb/ cubic ft or 1000kg/cubic meter Gasoline = 737.22 lb/cubic meter so gas is 73.7 % of the weight of water. since 1 gallon of water = 128 fluid oz which is approximately 128 oz of weight, then 1 gal of water = 128/16=8 pounds so, 73.7 % of 8 pounds is 5.9 pounds... or... gas weighs about 6 pounds per gallon.powderbrake2006-09-26 07:47:38

I have found that a set of motocross "Over the Eyeglasses" goggles work in warm and cold weather. In cold weather, it's a leather jacket, scarf, baseball cap and leather "flying helmet" that does the job. I can recommend http://www.carolinaleatherworks.com/bikercaps.html for the leather flying cap at $16.95 http://www.usa7s.com/forum/uploads/20060916_101927_PICT0035_Medium.JPG http://www.usa7s.com/forum/uploads/20060916_102103_IMGP5151_Small.JPGpowderbrake2006-09-16 10:28:06

Tensile strength and brittleness are not necessarily related. The Grade 8 bots are the proper ones to use. I have had grade 8 bolts bend in the suspension, and there was no cracking. A bolt , by it's very nature of use would not be the proper application for a brittle material. The tensile strength/ brittleness relationship is true for some steels that are quenched from heat treat, but subsequent tempering restores toughness.

Is anyone else besides me going to Run N Gun 2006 this year? Let's hear from those who plan on going.

I believe that brand specific sections are needed to allow specific questions like " where do I get a Master brake cylinder for a Caterham ( or Lotus or Birkin)" This will allow specific questions on items unique to a particular brand, without having to search the Tech Section

I am surprised that more people have not commented or raised questions regarding this event. I am adding to this thread to bring it back to everyone's attention before the September 1 price increase. This event is a wonderful opportunity to get your Se7en on a track, and to see what it really can do. Since it is not really "racing" you can go as fast or as slow as you feel is safe. You can get a lot of track time, and the track was not crowded the last two years. There have been about 10 to 15 cars in each of the three categories, Street, Prepared, and Pro. There is a novice class this year for first timers. Also this year you can come a day earlier, and for $100 have your car put on the corner weight scales, have some professional advice on weighting, and run it on the track. The Gateway road course is over 1/2 of the oval, and then through the infield, so it has both fast and slow turns. The course layout is onthe run n gun website and at the gateway website. This is a great facility, which has had several Cart events, and hosts the Nascar Truck series and I believe a Busch series race, as well as NHRA Nationals drags. The people there are very friendly,and we have the entire facility to ourselves. While the Se7ens are not as high a speed rated car as some of the Cobras and similar cars, you will be pleasently surprised at how well you can do on the road course, autocross and the bracket drags. Yes I know it is the same weekend as LOG 26 in Fort Worth, and it was the same weekend as Log 25 here in St Louis last year, But it is WAAAAYYYY more fun driving the snot out of your Se7en, than looking at them. register now , or call Jay Nordstrom, the event director at 972-742-2594 I'm talking this up because it is simply so much fun, and the more Se7ens, the merrier. >www.runngun.net

I am ok with dues, and we must take into account that the attorneys who set this up must be paid. like slingshot, I am a Corvette Forum greybeard, and I know how invaluable a forum with 1,300,000 threads and 18,000,000 posts can be. In the meantime, USA7s is on it's way to becoming THE website for 7's I am a Lotus Ltd. member, and see no conflict or reason to abandon them, perhaps we will get some of them to join this group. I believe the electronic newsletter is a better choice for this club, to keep costs down, and whatever the name chosen for the club....... I like it.

I am a Mechanical Engineer by training, and was a business owner and president of a manufacturing company for many years. The company manufactured magnetic particle clutches and brakes, and tension control systems. I have designed and patented powderbrakes and strain gage load cells, hence my "powderbrake" moniker. ( see >www.magpowr.com) I am retired now, and when I decided to build a car, I knew I wanted a Seven, so I checked out the available kits, and decided on an Ultralite for it's roominess and it's Honda engine. It has been very reliable. I was fortunate to have my car featured on Kit Car Mag's cover last year. See >http://www.kitcarmag.com/featuredvehicles/0509kc_ultralite_s2k_kit_car/ I mostly use the car a a semi-daily driver in good weather, and my wife and I take cruises by ourselves and with the local Lotus club. We have a lot of good twisty roads in Missouri, and we recently did 600 miles of twisties over 3 days with three other sevens guys. I have had it on the track at Run & Gun twice, and once at Motorsports Ranch for the 2005 Southwest Sevens Festival. and I am looking forward to Run&Gun 2006 this October.

I am running Heim joints on all the suspension components. All Ultralites are ALL heim jointed. No rubber anywhere. There is a little rattle on the street from the joints, but the rigidity, and the ease of suspension set-up are a definite bonus, if they wear out , they are cheap to replace and available. Here are some pics of my front and rear ends. http://www.usa7s.com/forum/uploads/powderbrake/2006-01-19_221450_005_2_Small.JPG http://www.usa7s.com/forum/uploads/powderbrake/2006-01-19_221517_017_14_Small.JPG

North American Sevens Club both says where we are and what we are all about. It is all inclusive and definitive. I would not worry about Caterham, as even if they have copyrighted the word "seven" as applies to their product in the US ( which may or may not be true), we are not building, selling or marketing a competitive vehicle of that name. We are merely a club which is interested in seven inspired vehicles, just like a Ford club, an Impala club, or the Corvette Forum. Our organization will embrace both Lotus Sevens, and Caterham Sevens. USA Sevens Club is also a good name for the same reasons as above. Once a name is selected and the club is incorporated (you might want to investigate incorporating as a "Social Club" to avoid onerous tax details that come from a non-profit which provides a service to a non-member), the entire name could be the website address, and anyone Googling "Sevens" will be able to find it. I surely hope this great website remains as the "home" of the club.

Tapoco was filled up so I registered at the Fontana Resort. They said they had room for the trailer near the Lodge. looking forward to the trip.

Chris: Terriffic car, it must have been a lot of fun to build it. I missed the sevens festival this year, maybe see your car next year. Like Al said, there is nothing to apologize for, you have a seven. Lotus stopped building Lotus Sevens years ago. Notice I didn't say Real Sevens, since as as far as I am concerned, they are ALL sevens, no matter the marque. ps Check out the post in Nationwide events, maybe you can make it to Run N Gun this year. powderbrake2006-08-09 12:12:19