RGTorque

tom your lucky. i have not hada chance to take the 7 out in a few weeks. perhaps i should take my pedal head deflector off and get the leather jacket out.

good to know there are more 7's in our area!

its cool, been like 5 months and i have not gotten my scca members card yet.

best wishes!

rally drivers get more respect from me then any other driving sport. the balls and skills these drivers have are immense. i have never had the opportunity to see one live but i do always follow WRC on the net. hows does one get the opportunity to become "meat in the seat"? this is one of my life's aspirations

just got word from BJ at classic competition. he says the car now setup as as possible (shocks came in late friday). we swapped out the advanced racing oil shocks and went with a smaller gas shock, which im told is better. a few other things noted was that the rear end is still very stiff and that the 280 spring i have is just to much. he is recommending a 225 spring with a bump stop on the shock to keep it from bottoming out. all in all the best news ive heard in weeks. i am picking the car up at 7am tomorrow and going right to the autox yayayayay.

i generally reply: Its a Super 7 - if i get strange looks i bring up "the prisoner" and usually get an O YEA!. Its a lotus 7 replica - this is generally for the younger peoples.

i would honestly say you are correct, the responsibility falls on the owner. i would however like to point out that, in my case, the issue was to many shops/people working on the car before it was setup correctly. the issues i have experienced are due to non experienced hands trying to accomplish more then they know how to. as i learn i will be able to maintain the car better and recognize issues prior to them cost small fortunes as in the current case. regarding the caterham vs WCM ultralite issue, i would say that the caterham may have the finishing work that the ultralite does not have but the build quality and engineering behind the car is quite good and has proven itself to be on the same level multiple times.

i do know have many miles on the 7, 1000 miles give or take...? the spedo was not hooked up until this past week . i think a lot of the problems came from poor assembly by the previous owner and my ignorance when i bought the car. i just drove it and fixed problems as i found it instead of fixing the entire car at once. also i did not have anyone in my area knowledgeable enough to really tell me what needs to be done until now. shocks are not good - aldan eagle shocks were not great to begin with, which is why WCM no longer uses them heim ends are worn - i imagine this is from the road use in humid weather and bad shocks cause the suspension to move and travel way more then it should. steering rack is worn - this is just bad luck wheel bearing is bad - this was not tightened down correctly to begin with so it has to much play. the cage was broken and the bearings were ROASTED damaged suspension spacers - could have been prevented with 4 washers but i did not know... the spacer was aluminum and one side pressed against the knuckle and the other on the heim end. as i tightened the bolt the aluminum would crash and mushroom which mean the end link on the other side was always moving around (yet another work out heim end) and cause my alignment to change as i go over bumps . i have replaced this spacer with a chomroly piece and added washers. most of these issues could have been prevented if the PO or myself could had capable and knowledgeable techs to spot these issues before the car went on the road.

best wishes to bill and his family!

thats where i was getting my suspension from, i am about 2.5 hr from Baltimore. i dont think tom brings street tire to the autox plus i dont think he would let anyone drive, especially after the flying fender incident.

BEWARE, RANT BELOW :rant: A few weeks ago i dropped my 7 off at Classic Competition in Dublin PA to get the car aligned since i was coming up to my first track day (aug 29th) about half a day later i get a call from BJ McDonald (owner) that my car has... several issues. shocks are not good heim ends are worn steering rack is worn wheel being is bad damaged suspension spacers im asked what id like to do and i tell him to go ahead and do the wheel bearing since it was not safe to be driven. i took the car back and said i will get the other parts while he is on vacation the next week and bring it back for the alignment. the first thing i did when i got the car back was order the steering rack. the first and second place i ordered from both called me back within a day telling me that its out of stock so i ended up paying top dollar and ordered the rack from flaming river direct... ok shit happens while i wait for the rack i count up all the heim ends and figure out what hole/thread/shank i need. i also order shocks and springs from QA1, and spend an hour on the phone with FKrodends regarding what rod ends to use. while i wait i take the suspension rods off the car. 4 days later and i have the rod ends with teflon inserts in my hands, great product. a day or so later i get my shocks/springs from qa1 but my jewish luck steps in... springs are to big. unless i do some fab work, which i dont know how to do, this will have get sent back. the next few days are spent replacing the rod ends and on the phone with qa1, hypercoil, a1racing, Loren and Kevin (mojo) and a few others trying to figure out what shocks/springs i need. we figure it out and i order my new qa1 non adjustable (no adjustable offered in my size). my jewish luck steps in again and i get a call 3 days later only to be told the shock i need is on back order until mid september which is past my race date. a hectic call to advanced racing shocks and Cory says he can have me the same setup as Loren and Kevin use via next day air (today). this is great because BJ said he can align, corner balance, and set up suspension today. so today i got my shocks and springs. i was as happy as a jewish kid getting his first gift on Hanukkah. i quickly got the suspension on the car and drove it to Bj's to get setup for race day (tomorrow). 1 hour after i get back jewish luck sticks again. the shocks are to short, nothing to do now but send them back to Cory at Advanced racing shocks there goes my friday track day and sunday autox live and learn that is all, thanks for reading.

i think some belts are 5 year, and there are also companies out there that will re-certify their dated belts multiple times.

nice truck! and cute daughter... wish you were on the east coast :blueangel:

i finally got the chance to send in money. i was thinking about a change to the forum here. why not under your name it list what car your have (wcm ultralite, caterham 260, etc)

do we have a paypal setup yet so i can send in my $

i spot a rabbit in the garage! a fellow vw/seven guy!

this is what i get for not checking usa7s every few hours! run 6 i knocked over the timing box and got away with it.. scared the little bugger and it gave me a second off my time (sorta) also knocked off ANOTHER fender... this leaves me with one originally mounted fender on the car. run 7 i avoided the timing box (since i was informed there is no spare and i would be murdered by all other heat 3/4 drivers if it was blown out) and ended up in the grass after a 360. the last run was not that hard but the falken rt-615 tires were HOT. i was not spraying them between runs and im running only 235 in the back. also the concrete at the end was not as grippy as i imagined it to be (tom). for now i will blame it on the tire but Pat says it was driver error :jonautox:

yea that name sounds bout right . im not so sure i can replicate this at warminster but we shall see! another issue i noticed is that coming out of the turns i am at to low in my rpm range. to correct this im dumping the throttle and the ass goes out. if i had slightly lower gears i think i would be able to exit the turn better but a trans rebuild wont be happening soon. perhaps with slicks ill be able to keep it on the ground while i come out of the turns.

the guy im thinking of was possibly the driver of that red solstice. i did not beat him, he still got me (31.8xx to my 32.056) the instructor that drove with me took the car around at 31.4 so... i still have a ways to go.

i actually enjoyed boeing a lot because it does not hid my mistakes as much. im starting to think the cars oversteer has something to do with the suspension because it still happens when im off the gas. i also think i may need alignment because when i hit the brakes hard the rear tends to push at an angle. the evo that was running was an instructor driven car and i did not get his name. hes a taller guy in 30's-40's with very short hair and always has a big smile on his face. hopefully i will not forget what i learned at boeing for warminster but the instructors told me that it will remain a challenge for me as long as the car remains touchy as it is now. also regarding the surge tank system, do you have any pics of the setup?

so i finished the novice school today. this was a BLAST. I had a lot of seat time and the few instructors that drove my car with me were very thankful. + learned to enter turns wide and exit BEHIND cones + learned not to jamb brakes or rear end will push and swing out + learned to always be on break or gas, never coast + leaned that my 7 can keep up with a scary fast grey mitu evo with skilled driver (tom i think you know who i am speaking of) - leaned that pop rivets that hold my front fenders pop out when subjected to slalom in Boings second lot. - leaned that repeated hits to my rear fenders will also pop the rivets holding my rear fenders - leaned that i need either a) new fuel cell or b) some sort of way to keep the fuel near the pickup. i found myself starving the car when accelerating straight shortly after a sweeper. - learned that everyone running falken rt-615's is regretting they did not spend the extra money on slicks (doe!)\ - learned that miata 6spd trans really blows when coming out of a hard corner in 2nd gear (no power around 2k)

wow, i love that color combo, reminds me of a anniversary caterham in my area. as mentioned above ..... http://www.srt-4mation.com/images/smilies/worthless%20thread%20without%20pics.gif

funny u say that because ive bought many cars from nj and ive noticed the same thing...

right now its just regular pipe hammered down in places to it. i will have the flat/oval nascar type pipe installed soon.