scannon

http://auto-racing.speedtv.com/article/indycar-lotus-back-to-indy/

I, for one, am totally tired of hearing those never ending apologies from Toyota. Spend the advertising money on a real fix and get on with life.

Any opinions as to whether loops should be added to this frame or would the frame itself would contain a failed driveshaft? I'm wondering if I should loops them to my Caterham SV which is the same chassis except it has deDion rear suspension instead of the CSR's IRS. Edit: I talked to Ben at Caterham USA and asked if any Caterhams came with driveshaft loops. He said the only ones were R400s with sequential transmissions. Those aren't a loop like we have been talking about but rather a steel plate with a hole for the drive shaft which is riveted to the transmission tunnel. Ben said the only Caterham driveshaft failure he had heard of was a 300 hp Cosworth with a sequential transmission. It didn't have the plate or loops and the chassis tunnel contained the driveshaft. It is the shock of clutchless shifts on the sequential transmissions that cause the U-joint failures. I don't think I am too worried about a driveshaft failure on my car. Even with the quickest shifts I can manage, the sprung hub of the clutch disk will cushion the shock. I have an RX7 front U-joint and the stock Caterham rear U-joint connected by a high strength steel shaft. I mentioned MightyMike's Birkin with no chassis tubes around the transmission or driveshaft and Ben said that the Series 2 Lotus 7s were that way and in fact the live axle Birkins were direct copies of the live axle Lotus 7s.

Just don't blow it all out of proportion.

I'm using the stock Miata sump. AFAIK Raceline doesn't make a sump for a Miata engine. There are some dry sump systems out there for Miata engines but very pricey and they only gain about 3/4" clearance over the stock sump. I will put the Caterham up on stands tomorrow and take some measurements and post them here. I'll be looking at the distance below the referenced frame tubes as well as the distance between the OD's of the two frame tubes. I suspect if that distance between the frame tubes is different either new holes could be drilled for the U bolts or the guard could be made a little longer.

YouTube - SwissTechnology

Mike, I will take some measurements on my car. Since you can make a shallower one for Tom, could you also make a deeper one for my car? I'm pretty sure my sump is more than 2" below the plane of the frame rails. If you can, I will buy one.

The cars in the collection are mostly owned by the people who got together and started the museum. A few belong to their friends. The Ferrari is owned by one of those who started the museum. The red Daytona started as a regular Cobra and was modified in England to drawings supplied by Shelby. The black one is an original open Cobra with a rare removable hardtop.

The Rocky Mountain Handcrafted Automobile Club (RMHA) hosted a visit to the collection located in Boulder, CO this morning. As I was pulling into the parking lot I saw a truck and trailer pulled up in front of the building. There was a definitely non-Cobra car about to be loaded into it. The car was a 1955 Ferrari 410 S Carrera PanAmerica race car. This car was raced by Shelby and Phil Hill with great success. It is one of four built with the 5.0 V-12 engine. Later versions had I6 engines. The car was being sent to Amelia Island for the concours. It was cold and snowing lightly with some snow on the ground and the car idled and sounded like a big V-8 with the lumpy idle of big cams. It was having trouble getting traction to get up the ramp and no one was pushing on the lovely but fragile aluminum body. The collection has 15 mostly significant race and street Cobras and one AC Ace (predecessor to the Cobra with a Bristol I6 engine). There are three 350 GT Mustangs including the first one built and found in Mexico a number of years ago. It is awaiting restoration. One Ford GT40 Mk IV J-7 which competed in the 1967 LeMans but DNF'd. J-6 won and J-5 placed 4th. One Lola CanAm car used by Shelby to test engines for the GT-40s although it now has a Chevy 350 engine. There was a Ford Falcon sedan delivery owned by Pete Brock who used it as a tow vehicle, part chaser and daily driver. It has a full up 289 Cobra engine in it. The building also contains many of the molds, parts and memorabilia from the Cobra and GT-40 racing years.

Must have been quite a ramp system to get that low slung Lotus on and off the VW pickup.

Hey "Dirt" Gert, Did you actually write this or was someone forcing you to say that? I had never driven my Se7en on a dirt road until shortly after you showed up at my place last Summer. And you had already been nicknamed Dirt Gert before you got here. That said, you and the rest of the band of crazies on this forum are the best car people I know.

Here is some info about accommodations a friend gathered at last year's event. First off, there are no good deals--with advance reservations--for the week of the Historics and Pebble beach Concours. We stayed in the downtown Travel Lodge last summer and paid $300 + a night and the place was a dump, with a lot of traffic noise all night long. (You know how annoying those V-12 Ferraris at full cry can be at 3 A.M.!) If I were going to the Historics this year, I would be inclined to go and take my chances on finding a room. After checking into "the Dump," we went into Carmel for dinner and found two great small motels with vacancy signs (had never seen that in past years) offering much nicer rooms for a lot less money--and in Carmel! With the current economy, you should be able to find a decent place and pay half the price of an advance booking. It's kind of a pain in the ass to go there without a firm reservation, but I think the economy is working in your favor here. It's real hard for me to justify the room rates for this weekend, especially since you're only there to sleep. With regards to the Miata weekend, that Doubletree or Embassy Suites (I can't remember which it is) you mentioned as the headquarters is a nice hotel and in the best location for access to the track. It's also pretty expensive. We really like staying out of Monterey, specifically in Pacific Grove. There are some great older motels on the coast there (very pretty and away from the hussle and bussle) that are much more reasonable than rooms in Monterey or Carmel. Here are several in P.G., all along the coast on Asilomar Blvd.: a.) Rosedale Inn 800-822-5606 b.) Bide-A-Wee Inn and Cottages 831-372-2330 c.) Pacific Gardens Inn 800-262-1566 d.) Sunset Inn 866-550-7550 There are also several great B&B's in the town of Pacific Grove, but I don't have that info.

rnr's signature line: "Car Lovers drive Lotus Elises, psychopaths and crazy people drive Se7ens." - Mr Know on Jalopnik I resemble that remark.

I knew the springs & valves rotated by design but it never occurred to me that they would spin that fast. I wonder if the valves are spinning as quickly as the springs and retainers.

YouTube - BMW S1000RR Technical Video - Valves in Motion High RPM

It doesn't hold a candle to a '68 Mercedes Benz I used to own. The previous owner installed aircraft landing lights in place of the upper pair of headlights and moved the hi/lo beams to the lower position. You had three levels: low, high & fry their retinas. A two second flash of the landing lights at someone who wouldn't dim their high beams in response to a flash of the regular high beams usually resulted in the oncoming car pulling off and stopping. It momentarily hurt my eyes when I used them but it turned night into day when I did.

Here are comparison pictures taken this evening. http://forum.miata.net/vb/showpost.php?p=4356622&postcount=136 http://forum.miata.net/vb/showpost.php?p=4356629&postcount=137 I'm not planning on canceling my order.

Welcome aboard Chaits. Does she have any sisters??? Or maybe the two of you could adopt me after you are married.

Great looking parts Mike. I like that sump guard. How far below the frame rails does the raceline sump drop? I'm wondering if it would work with my Miata engine. I'm also interested in the rear body pan. Is it sized for an SV or the standard width car? How is it attached, is it easy to remove to service the diff and rear suspension?

If you think crowd control is a problem at contemporary rallys, check this out. As shown below, the meaning of the flags used during the 1904 to 1906 Vanderbilt Cup Races changed every year. NASCAR is worried about potholes on their tracks...Vanderbilt was concerned about trains and runaway horses! -1904 Vanderbilt Cup Race Instructions to Special Officers at Highway Crossings: "In case a runaway horse gets on the course, use your red flag to warn the racers." "Waving your white flag, or keeping it in view, serves to remind them the course is clear." -1905 Vanderbilt Cup Race Instructions to Contestants: "Bear in mind that the RED FLAG means "Everything All Right." "Bear in mind that the YELLOW FLAG means "Danger," and therefore use extreme caution." "Obey promptly the YELLOW FLAG signal, which will be given at the "Start and Finish" line at the conclusion of the race." "Evey turn and crossroad will be guarded by flagmen, whose "ALL-RIGHT" signal will be a RED FLAG, and whose "DANGER" warning will be a YELLOW FLAG." "Contestants are particularly warned to give prompt heed to the YELLOW FLAG at the two railroad crossings, and be prepared to come to a full stop. "Again, keep in mind that the RED FLAG means "ALL RIGHT," and the YELLOW FLAG means "DANGER". -1906 Vanderbilt Cup Race Instructions to Special Officers and Flagmen: "In case a runaway horse gets on the course, use your YELLOW FLAG to warn the contestants." "Waving your RED FLAG, or keeping it in view, serves to remind the contestants that the course is clear." "Bear in mind that the RED FLAG is a warning to spectators that a car is coming, and is a sign to contestants that the course is clear." "Bear in mind that the YELOW FLAG is a warning to the contestants that there is danger ahead, and to use extreme caution or stop." The use of the white flags (and two horses!) during the 1904 race can be seen at the 35 second mark of this remarkable film: The use of the checkered flag seen at the end of the 1906 race was not mentioned in any of the official instructions and did not even get a mention in articles describing the race. Unfortunately, it was not seen in the film of the 1906 race:

This was just posted by Keith Tanner concerning the group buy of E code headlights: The guys are shipping them as fast as they can. It's going to take a week just to ship the orders we have. Looks like the two pallets that have come in are spoken for, so we're going to order more. However, when I inspected the lights I discovered that they are not marked with an E code. Instead, they have DOT motorcycle markings. According to what we've been told, they are identical to E code Bosch lights. I'm going to do a beam pattern comparison between stock, Hella E code, Hella DOT and the Bosch units tonight when it gets dark. If you have a problem with this, please let us know ASAP so we can cancel your order.

Swanson, Welcome aboard. As Jerry said, Colorado is a great place to have a Se7en. I know of at least 8 Se7ens in the Denver area. Where in Colorado do you live? I'm going to an event put on by the Rocky Mountain Handcrafted Automobile club on Saturday to check them out. It's at the Shelby Cobra Museum in Gunbarrel. Are you interested in going?

Flying commercial air is very difficult and expensive for me. I still have to have supplemental oxygen and they won't allow my equipment on board. I have to use their oxygen and they charge $100 extra per leg of the flight. Then I have to rent equipment at the destination. I have several other trips planned and I think one to the east coast is enough so it will probably be LOG30. Everything has gone extremely well since the surgery. I have now shed 89 lb since August. Still losing slowly and building up strength and stamina with 3X visits a week to the gym. I'm using less supplemental oxygen and hope someday to be free of that necessity.

It's a long haul from Colorado and I am also considering LOG30. Probably can't afford to do both of them. Are there any other car shows, runs or track events close to Carlisle I could attend while I am there?

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2010-02-17-california-plane-crash_N.htm