scannon

Mike, Tires should have been hot by then, I was only in the pits for a few minutes. As I said in the original post, I confused this turn with another blind and similar looking turn. I came in way too hot and knew before the spin I wasn't going to make it. I just let it go and put both feet in. The extra weight of the passenger probably was a factor as well. I've got to learn to say no to all the requests I get for rides. The track is only two years old and you would have to try real hard to hit something solid although others have done it there. It's a technical track and I still don't have it all down as evidenced by my confusing it with another turn. Lots of elevation change, blind corners and an off camber turn (the one that got me twice this day). I just spent the morning cleaning all the mud off the car. There must have been something acidic in the mud as there are some etched areas that I cannot remove with a cleaner wax. Fortunately, all of the exterior blue paint is covered with clearbra except for the area around the louvers in the bonnet. I can always have the affected areas replaced. This afternoon I will pull the head to see what I can find out about the compression problem.

Here's the video of the second spin. The vid of the first spin doesn't really show anything and the other video I shot is too long for YouTube and I don't have software to edit it down.

Four Se7ens showed up today at Jeff Ball's home in Greeley, birthplace of Alaskossie's new ESL. All belong to members of this forum. Absent today was my Caterham due to aforementioned difficulties at the track yesterday. I showed up in the yellow Miata. Although Jeff doesn't currently own a Se7en he has owned a number of them in the past including one of the thirteen Super 7 SS cars. He actually built two of the four cars shown in the photos, the yellow and BRG cars. We're working on him to get another one. A number of friends stopped by and I think we really spurred one of them to get on with his dream of owning a Se7en. His wife was there and didn't seem opposed to his dream. I think he will be showing up soon on the forum. Alaskossie is in town for the last time to ready his car for the big trip to S. California, up the coast to the Monterrey Classics and then on to Anchorage, Alaska a trip of nearly 5k miles. The cars in the pictures are: Yellow, 1975 Caterham with a Lotus Twin Cam engine belonging to Derek Walker (75twincam). BRG with yellow nose band and stripe, 19XX Caterham with a Vauxhall Swindon twin cam engine belonging to Bob Simon (bsimon). Red and polished Ali, 19XX Caterham with a 1,700cc crossflow engine belonging to Tom Sheng (7veloche). Silver with C/F nose and fenders, 2007 ESL with a Cosworth Duratec engine owned by Tom Meacham (Alaskossie).

That is a go pro camera, first time I have used it. It was on for both spins as well as when the coolant started leaking. I need to RTFM to find out how to download the clips onto my computer. I will post them on YouTube when I get it done. First priority is to fix the engine. Before I left for the day this AM I took the schrader valve out of the hose for the compression gage and fed air into #1 cylinder at TDC. It was immediately obvious to the most casual observer that air was coming out of #2 & 3 as fast as it was going into #1. Further evidence pointing to a badly blown head gasket. I will start the teardown in Sunday AM. I did start the OP with saying I had a great day at the track. I'm not bummed at all about the engine. I've destroyed three engines at the track and wrecked the Miata there as well. Problems like this are part of the price of fun when you track a car. I am perplexed about the suspected blown head gasket. I've put 90k hard turbo charged miles on my Miata with about 7k of those on the track and never had a blown head gasket on any of the four engines. I have used factory head gaskets on all those engines. No one was hurt and my passenger thought it was a cool ride even if we only made half a lap. He even helped me clean off the mud. Mighty Mike, I won't be at the concours on the 8th as that is the weekend of the Flyin Miata Summer Camp, much more fun than a car show and includes a track day. This year is the 13th annual and I have been to all of them. I will be doing the British Motoring Conclave in September.

I don't think that will work anymore. The state government in Colorado and I suspect most other states wants to see an MSO to prove it has not already been a complete car. As mentioned in an earlier post: Kit car means exactly that. Not a disassembled box of parts. I had to prove it was a new kit as well as provide proof the engine and transmission were not stolen.

Still sounds very much like a ground problem to me. Go through and clean all ground wires/cables where they mate to the frame or engine. You might also add a ground cable from the battery to engine block or battery to frame if the car doesn't already have both.

What are you looking for in a front/rear weight ratio? My Caterham has 53% on the rear wheels before I get into the car. I'm far from an expert but I don't think I would like it any heavier on the rear, especially if the weight were added at the extreme rear of the car. Other than if you wanted to make a drag racer out of your car I can see no advantage to increasing the rearward weight bias.

The good news is I had a great afternoon at a half day Test and Tune session. First time out in the Caterham this year. Bad News #1: I was experimenting with tire pressures to see if what people keep telling me about running low tire pressures in Sevens is true. I started with 19 F and 21 R which quickly warmed up to 23 & 25 psi. It felt good so I started lowering the pressures looking for 16 F & 18 R. Handling started to degrade each time I lowered the pressure but I persevered and at 19 F & 21 R I spun on turn 8, a blind, off camber and slowest corner on the track. I not only spun but the dirt off the track was still muddy from a heavy rain the previous night. It was so muddy I couldn't get the car moving. I had to rock back and forth, sliding sideways all the time to finally get back on track. When I got back to the pits the fenders were filled with mud as well as splatters all over the body. I was in my pit stall getting the large clumps off when the track manager came along with the water wagon and said to follow him and he would clean it off. We went to a remote area of the pits that had obviously been used for mud removal before and got the worst of it off. Bad News #2: I decided to go back to the 23 & 25 pressures and did a couple of laps. It felt fine so I took on a passenger who had been waiting for a ride. Off we went and made it as far as turn 8 again. This time I confused it with another blind turn, set up all wrong and went in way too hot. Off we go, backwards this time but clear through the mud. However, far more mud ended up on the car including inside as the pictures show. Back to the pits, the manager said, you know how to start the motor on the water wagon, do it yourself this time. I was ready to quit for the day but he suggested I take a breather once the mud was off the car and get a few more laps to take home a happy memory of the day. O Sh!t News: With a reasonably clean car and good tire pressures I went out again, being very cautious around turn 8. No problem but on one lap as I shifted from 3rd to 4th I somehow got 2nd and over revved the engine. I backed off, checked oil pressure and temp, both were normal and the engine sounded OK and still felt stong so I ran a few more laps. Somewhere around turn 8 (again!) I suddenly smelled antifreeze, didn't see any on the windshield but when I looked into the passenger compartment I saw liquid dropping from under the dash onto the floor. A second look at the temp gauge showed it had shot up from the normal 100C to a little over 120C. I light footed it back to the pits. Upon opening the bonnet, I discovered that the cap for the catch tank had blown off and the tank was empty. I found the cap down on top of the transmission just back of the fire wall. I started the engine and added a little water to the tank. The engine seemed to suck it in reasonably fast and the temp gauge started to drop. I added about 2 quarts total but then I started hearing violent boiling sounds and water was coming back into the catch tank. I shut it down. I let the engine cool while I gathered things up to go home as it was near the end of the day anyway. When I started the car to put it in the trailer I noticed that sickening uneven grind on the starter motor: ruh, ruh, thump, ruh, repeat. The sound of a dead cylinder. I got it in the trailer and home. This evening I unloaded it into the shop and checked to see if there was water in the oil. No indication. I pulled the plugs, all looked the same and normal light brown in color. I did a compression test: 60, 40, 30, 80 psi. My early, hopeful diagnosis is blown head gasket. My compression gauge has always read low so I am borrowing a Snap-On gauge from a friend tomorrow and checking it again.

Equal rights for commas!

DO IT twobone, follow your gut. You won't be sorry. I've owned 9 Porsches and wouldn't trade my Se7en back for any two of them.

+1 on the ground. Also check the connector on the back of the tachometer to make sure it hasn't started to back out a bit.

Kevin, Nice Stalker but I would like to see more of your '56 Ford pickup (or is it a Mercury?). Is there a link to more pictures?

Good one, LOL.

It's in French but self explanatory: http://www.wimp.com/wineshoe

Posting this here in case there is anyone in the area or passing through who is not on my Colorado Sevens mailing list. Skip ----------------------------- From Jeff Ball at whose home the gathering will take place: Tom's (Alaskossie) car is nearing completion and he has bought a one-way ticket from Anchorage to Denver and will be working on his car to finish final preparations for his early August drive to Anchorage via California, Monterey Historics, Oregon/Washington tour and beyond. As a fitting sendoff, I'm planning a gathering of Seven and Seven-minded folks in addition to other gearheaded folks at my place. Date: Saturday, July 24th Time: 11am or so until late afternoon/early evening Place: 1913 15th Avenue Greeley, CO 80631 Light food and beverages will be served and tap craft beers will be available as well. I will also be showing the public debut of "Wannabe Seven's Identity Crisis." It's a powerpoint presentation I've composed for this event. Bring your Sevens, Lotus cars, hot rods, muscle cars, etc and guests are welcome to come with you. Please RSVP via email so that I can be well prepared for you as guests. jeffball@gorge.net Cheers, Jeff Note from Skip: That afternoon and evening is the Colorodans Car Club festival. Main street in Longmont will be officially open for Cruising for the first time in years. Some of us are planning on heading down there to see the cars after Jeff's Gathering. There is also a car show in Longmont on Sunday. More info on the cruise and show are here: http://www.timescall.com/entertainment/entertainment-story.asp?ID=22725

Try Caterham USA. They are restoring Al N's Lotus 7 and will soon be finished with that project. They are in Denver. 303-164-0247. Thomas Vintage Motors is a race car restoration/preparation shop in Boulder, CO and does an outstanding job. Nathan Down currently works there. He used to work at the Caterham factory and is an excellent fabricator. http://www.cooperracecars.com/site/

A doctor in Duluth wanted to get off work and go hunting, so he approached his assistant. 'Ole, I am goin' huntin' tomorrow and don't want to close the clinic. I want you to take care of the clinic and take care of all my patients.' 'Yes, sir!' answers Ole. The doctor goes hunting and returns the following day and asks: 'So, Ole, How was your day?' Ole told him that he took care of three patients. 'The first one had a headache so I gave him TYLENOL.' 'Bravo, mate, and the second one?' asks the doctor. 'The second one had stomach burning and I gave him MAALOX, sir,' says Ole. 'Bravo, bravo! You're good at this and what about the third one?' asks the Doctor. 'Sir, I was sitting here and suddenly the door opens and a woman enters. Like a flame, she undresses herself, taking off everything including her panties and lies down on the table and shouts: HELP ME - I haven't seen a man in over two years!!' 'Tunderin' Lard Yeezus, Ole, what did you do?' asks the doctor. 'I put drops in her eyes!! An y'all thought I was sending a dirty joke!!

Brooklands Screens can be bought from most British car supply houses. Caterham USA sells them. They are not specific to Caterham and have been used on British sports cars since there have been British sports cars. There are other brands out there as well, probably cheaper than the Brooklands brand. AFAIK, Caterham is the only company selling the mounting frame designed to use the same mounting holes for the windscreen. Many people mount the Brooklands screens directly to the cowl. Rod in the pictures above has mounted his to the dash panel. Besides looking great, they do provide less buffeting to the ears but they will not prevent all bugs and rocks from hitting your head. Goggles, helmets with face shields or other eye protection are highly recommended.

Mike, I posted pictures of them here: http://www.usa7s.com/vb/showpost.php?p=35485&postcount=18 Since they were already posted vBulletin wouldn't let me post them again. Jack: How do the Multivex mirrors work? It looks like there are two mirrors on different planes with a sort of diagonal division between them. What is the overall size of the mirror? I had a pair of SPA mirrors awhile back but they were so small as to be totally worthless.

Mike, I installed the Caterham windscreen brackets which eliminates dealing with the nuts and washers on the inside of the cowl. It also makes the windscreen much stronger. They were even reasonably priced for a Caterham part. I had to take a standard width frame and section in the extra four inches to make it fit the SV cowl. This resulted in the frame not following the contours of the cowling closely as it does on the standard car so I have some clearance between the frame and the cowl. The complete car is clearbra'd including the cowl which provides a bit more protection. Once I get everything settled I plan on filling the gap with soft rubber. Which mirrors are you using?

Do you also use side mirrors or is the convex mirror in the middle sufficient? I'm also planning on being able to switch back and forth with the windscreen, four screws and two defroster wires and its off. I have the Mirrors for Sevens mirror mounted on the windscreen with no side mirrors.

GO FOR IT!!! Both of you. I wanna ride in the finished product. Please have it ready by LOG30 so I can get my ride.

It seems strange that the bid history shows you making three bids, each for $20,000.

Anyone imported a Seven from Canada to the USA? I wonder what the paperwork would be like since it is coming in as a completed, used car and not as a kit. If I were in the market, I'd want to have a good handle on that before I placed a bid.

You do need one, you won't realize just how much until you drive/own one. It's not a need, it's an addiction (don't talk to me about no 12 point rehab).