scannon

More pictures of Tom's car and of the Gathering of Colorado Sevens are at http://www.usa7s.com/vb/showthread.php?p=40127#post40127

Of the nine Sevens that showed up, there was one original Lotus 7 S3, one Birkin and the other seven cars were Caterhams. The man holding the paper in the third picture is Nathan Down, formerly of the Caterham factory, Caterham USA and presently working for Thomas Vintage Restoration in Boulder, CO where he competed the assembly and detail work on Alaskaossie's Caterham. We have had a betting pool going for a couple of weeks on how much Tom's car would weigh when finished. No one but Nathan knew the weight and guesses ranged from Tom's 1,288 to 1,440 lb. The third picture is Nathan announcing the weight. The winner was Lou Turf with a guess of 1,409, one pound over the actual weight of 1,408. This is what happens when upgradeitis takes over before the car is built. The Birkin in the last picture belongs to Tom Carlin who drove it in from Gypsum, CO about 200 miles over two major passes. He got to withing 15 or so miles and experienced a total electrical failure. We dispatched two volunteers with my truck and trailer to fetch him and the car. The car was blowing the main fuse. We never did find the short but did manage to get it running again and he is on his way back as I write this. I believe his car is the first Birkin with a Duratec engine. Tom is completing the work on Danny Hart's (The Goat) Duratec powered Birkin. Danny showed up in the supercharged Elise.

The weather cooperated with mid 60s temps and a sunny day. We had nine Sevens, three Elises (1 turbo, 1 supercharged) and three Miatas (2 turbo, 1 supercharged) show up along with a number on OTS's (Other Than Sports cars). Tom M. (Alaskossie) had his first drive in his new Caterham Executive Super Light prior to the gathering. As you can see, he is one happy camper. The car is outrageous and an amazing machine. Pictures of the other cars in the next post.

Here's a picture of Tom's and my Sevens side by side in the shop. Not the best of pictures as it was bright outside and dark in the shop. I'll post more pictures tomorrow after the Gathering is over.

The car is now sitting in my shop. I picked it up from Nathan this morning and trailered it here. Zero miles showing on the odometer. Tom is flying in this afternoon and the first drive of the car will happen this evening to tomorrow. The car is simply gorgeous. Nathan's workmanship and attention to detail is exceptional. This is a very special Seven.

Sorry we missed you. The snow will be gone by then, it's not even sticking to the roads and only about 3" on the lawn.

Fortunately, no one but a mouse was in the loo. We thought he was a fatality but he regained consciousness and scampered off into the weeds. I came around a hairpin onto a short straight and accelerated to about 70 mph. When I backed out of the throttle for a banked right hander the throttle stuck on the floor, full boost in 3rd gear. I tapped the throttle once and it didn't come off the floor, knew I wasn't going to make the corner so I held it straight ahead, both feet in. Unfortunately by that time I had launched off the banking and flew about 60 - 70', doing an imitation of a Mercedes at LeMans. People watching thought I was about to do a back flip when the front wheels caught the top two layers of a 6' tire wall. There was a massive explosion of dirt and dust. The car sheared off the top layers (the tires were against a dirt embankment and filled with dirt) and came to rest as pictured. The rear wheels were about 4' off the ground. We pulled it off the wall with a truck and dragged it to the pits. Both front wheels were jammed against the rear of the fenderwells and pointed in different directions. This was neither the first or last time this car left the track on a flatbed. The other three times were for blown engines. I had the car put on a frame machine to determine whether it was worth saving. Turns out it took only one pull of 4 mm to put it back into the center of the specs so I went ahead and had it fixed with all new parts and a complete respray. Cost a little over $8k and I still have the car and still track it a bit. It has a little over 7k track miles on it and I am still a little faster on a couple of the tracks than I am in the Caterham. I think this is probably because I have so much more seat time on the track in the Miata that I feel safe pushing it harder than the Caterham.

Big (dealer) brother is watching you.

As long as we are into outhouse humor, here's one I had a personal involvement with.

http://www.kxan.com/dpp/news/crime/hacker-shut-down-100-cars-remotely I had no idea there was a device like this around. I'd be asking a lot of questions were I buying a new car.

Weather here in Colorado has been great, even hit 71F yesterday. I've had the Seven out three days in a row, didn't even need a jacket yesterday. HOWEVER, an upslope storm starts tonight, the high for tomorrow is forecast to be 28F with about a foot of the white stuff. It ends early Saturday and will be in the 50Fs. The snow should all be gone by Saturday evening and sunny and warm for the gathering on Sunday.

I'll take one too. Lewis, can you lend me the cash?

Hope your day is going to be better than the driver of this Alfa.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/video/flv/generic.html?s=inwi10s22a3q81f

Dear Lord, This past year you have taken away my favorite actor, Patrick Swayze. My favorite actress, Farrah Fawcett. My favorite singer, Michael Jackson. My favorite salesman, Billy Mays. I just wanted to let you know that Obama is my favorite president. Amen

Beautiful! I'll bet you are in Seven Heaven.

Good luck Danny. You are welcome to come to the gathering even if the car isn't running.

Now that's easy on the eyes. I like bright bold colors.

http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/this-is-what-happens-when-sportscar-companies-stop-building-manual-transmissions/

The gathering starts a 2:00 PM. Beverages and light refreshments will be served. PM me if you haven't already RSVP'd and I will send you directions to the gathering. It looks like we have the potential of a dozen Sevens showing up if the weather is good.

Although not caught on video the low pass in this thread should qualify as #1. http://www.usa7s.com/vb/showpost.php?p=39046&postcount=1

http://jalopnik.com/5493601/best-barn-find-ever-two-brand+new-bmw-e30-m3s-and-a-fast-ford

Did that happen on the Tail of the Dragon?

Steve, Do you know when you will be in Denver? Maybe I can meet up with you either at Caterham USA or in Boulder if you are going to the shop where Nathan works. You are also welcome to stop by my shop in Erie.