scannon

Congratulations Martin, That's a smokin deal for a '93 Black and Tan. A fairly rare combination. It makes a great daily driver and is still fun in the twisties. Be careful, upgraditis is about as strong in Miatas as in Se7ens. Don't ask how I know... You should be able to get a good sew in rear window installed for around $200. You might want to wait a bit before buying the Porsche. I know many people who sold their Porsches after buying a mere Miata for a "2nd car". They all found that the Porsche sat in the garage for months at a time while they used the Miata for a daily driver, track toy and all around driver.

I agree, I don't crank the straps down super tight, just enough to snug the car into place. I want to have the suspension working, not overloaded by the straps. Nathan said he preferred not to tie down through the wheels but I cannot remember his reasoning for that. I have been giving some thought to permanent wheel chocks for the front wheels, partly to make sure I place the car the same each time and partly to prevent forward movement of the car once it is tied down.

I haven't installed new tiedowns in the front of the trailer. I've been using the left and center MC tiedowns but they are too close to the front of the car. I bought a length of E-track and cut it into four sections. I was planning on mounting it in the V-nose roughly where you see the end of the cable on the right side in the picture. It would be pointed towards the opposite side of the trailer. The plan was to put one piece of E-track on top and the other from the under side of the trailer to add strength as I think the floor up there is thinner than in the rest of the trailer. It would have caught the edge of a steel piece underneath. I tried to attach the pictures but it won't let as they are already posted. See page1, post 3 for the pictures. I am rethinking the E-track and am now leaning towards the standard tiedowns up front in a similar position so it will be clear of the area for extra tires. I will make a doubler for the underside for this as well. You can see the rear tiedowns I put in. If I were to do it again I would move them to the rear a bit more if there was some metal under there to drill through for strength. I don't have a spare yet but plan to get one. They are fairly narrow tires and it will be at the bottom of the stack when I get around to making a hold down in the V-nose. I don't know if the trailer will be towable with one tire removed. I had a conversation with Nathan Down yesterday about tiedown points. He is the fellow who was responsible for the design of the Caterham SV. On the front he recommends the forward part of the lower A arm, just outboard of the tube that runs between the front and rear inner joints. Run the straps crosswise to keep the car centered in the trailer. On the rear he recommends the area where the plates are for mounting the rear exit exhausts if you want two straps or around the deDion tube if you want to run just one strap. You would only need one tiedown in the center of the trailer for that. Nathan also recommended leaving the car in neutral with the parking brake on. He said that if the transmission is in a forward gear and the car moves backward, the Zetec engines can jump a cog on the timing belts as it releases the tensioners for a moment. Not a problem with my Miata engine as they are locked down after the spring sets the appropriate tension. I use short axle straps on all four places. I can get the car in or out of the trailer in about 5 minutes including tied down and ready to roll.

Robert, Sounds like a good plan, let me know a little in advance of when you will be coming through and we'll go for a blat. I have a spare room if you need a place to overnight.

V-Robb, If you ever get to Denver, stop by and I'll take you for a ride/drive in a Caterham SV with 300 RWHP.

Cruise America + U-haul car hauler + your own Se7en = what they are offering for less $$s. Even cheaper if you have your own trailer for the Se7en.

The heater on my Caterham SV has a pull knob (similar to the old choke cables) to shut off the hot water to the heater core. Make sure it is closing the valve. Some people put a piece of cardboard over the heater inlet to prevent any air from entering the heater core. Others just remove the heater. As stated earlier, sealing and insulating the cockpit from the engine compartment and transmission tunnel goes a long way towards controlling the heat. The pedal box cover seals are where I have the most problem. For jacking points, I use the joint in the center of the de Dion tube to raise the rear and the frame just forward of the engine sump where there is a large cross member plus two smaller tubes that make an X. I have to remove the bonnet and nose cone to get clearance for the jack as my nose cone has the chin spoiler hanging down there.

A very nice four page article on the Flyin' Miata Westfield in the new issue that arrived today. They even got a small picture of the car on the front cover. It's good to see another Se7en in a magazine mostly devoted to Cobras and Porsche Speedsters. Skip

Derek, I put it on the calendar and plan to make it. Alaskossie: Any chance your car will be finished by then? If it is and you are not in town to drive it to the event, I'm sure I can find a volunteer or two to drive it there for you.

I started with a 2" drop hitch but that gave me quite a forward rake on the trailer when it was coupled to the truck. I now have a straight ball mount which makes the trailer almost level, still with a slight forward rake. I might try reversing the 2" drop ball mount to see if I get the trailer closer to level. I measured the receiver on my truck. It is 17" to the top of the receiver hole. The ball is 3" for a total of 20" unladen. I leveled the trailer and it measures 19 3/4" to where the ball meets the coupler. The rear of my 2WD Silverado (with towing package) drops about 2" when the trailer is attached. I cannot find anything in my owner's manual or the more detailed on line manual to tell me if the trailer should be nose down, level or nose up. The previous trailer's manual specified a slight nose down attitude but it's wheels were more centered on the trailer. I don't understand why they put the trailer wheels so far back past the middle of the LoHauler trailer. This is only made worse when you load a couple of Harley Davidsons as the provided hold downs position the bikes very close to the front of the trailer. At least my Caterham puts more weight towards the rear of the trailer and weighs less than a couple of HD full dressers or a pair of Goldwings. It tows very well but at night my low beams seem to disturb some of the oncoming drivers. AFAIK I haven't dragged the rear of the trailer on the ground. The trailer sits lower than most due to the Torflex axles and the design of the trailer. My driveway is gravel and has a very mild slope. There are built in jacks on the rear of the trailer for loading if the trailer is not attached to a truck. Their pads make good skid plates. The axles being biased towards the rear of the trailer does make it more difficult to scrape the rear of the trailer.

Go for the V-nose. Besides the small increase in efficiency, the extra space is welcome. Wish I could have found a yellow one. Skip

Yes, it is there in case the car cannot be driven in on it's own and I don't have any pushers available. However, having hauled two broken (other people's) Miatas back from the track so far, I can report that three people can push a Miata with driver into the trailer with no problem. You do need to fold back the mirrors or they will hit the cables. I bought this trailer used from a CL ad. It is a 2008 model only used to move furniture from Phoenix to Colorado Springs. It never had a car or bike in it before I bought it. It sold new for over $7k and I paid $4.5k for it. There were new ones on ebay last time I checked for about $5.4k. I used this fact to bargain down the seller's price. Haulmark has factories in about 5 different locations and dealers all over the country. It is a good quality trailer, Featherlite makes one in this size but it costs nearly double the Haulmark. Skip

I went through five trailers to get to the Haulmark Lowhauler I have now. I think I am finished buying & selling trailers unless Haulmark makes one 6" wider than this one. It is a 7 x 14 Lowhauler with a V-nose. It fits my Caterham SV wide body Se7en perfectly with little to spare. I have hauled several Miatas in it but you can't open the door enough to get out so you climb over the door and edge your way out. It is 80" tall, that's 20" shorter than the last standard height trailer I owned. The factory says it weighs 2,200 lb. I haven't weighed it myself so I can't verify that. With the shorter height and the V-nose the gas mileage went from 7 mpg with the tall trailer going to Kansas City and back to 12.5 mpg on my last trip over the mountains to Grand Junction, CO. I tow with a Chevy Silverado extended cab pickup with the 5.3 liter engine. I have no problem maintaining the speed limit up I-70 to the Eisenhower tunnels or over Vail pass. Just set the cruise control and let the ECU take care of the down and up shifts of the transmission. It tows far better than any other trailer I have had experience with. Several people have used it and they all make the same comment, it tows like a dream. The rubber mounted Torflex axles give it a smooth ride, watching it in the mirror over the bumps it seems to ride better than the truck towing it. I had to add new tie downs as the eight supplied are for a pair of motorcycles and not in the correct position for a car. Besides the fuel efficiency advantage of the V-nose the extra space allows for a stack of wheels and tires or anything else you want to stuff in there. The low ride height along with the beavertail (sometimes called a dovetail) allow my car with it's 2.5" sump clearance to drive right in with no scraping at all. I see a lot of trailers that have to use wood planks along with the back door ramp to get cars inside. The only clearance problem I have is the tight fit of the rear fenders between the cables that counterbalance the ramp. There is about an inch on each side and I have reached out from the driver seat a couple of times to push out the cable on that side to keep it from rubbing the fender. I keep that piece of cardboard in the first picture to lie on as that ramp can get really hot when the ramp has been down all day at the track. It's a great trailer and I highly recommend it. Skip

Great color combination. Congrats on the new Se7en. Skip

The Ultimate Car Wash*Video

John Deere yellow? I've heard that John Deere yellow and green are very close matches to the original Lotus 7 BRG and yellow. Skip

Gert, Whatever the color is, it looks great! All new paint and a fresh polish job on the ali. Stunning. Is it the yellow from the Cobalt SS? Skip

Great fridge magnet, I want one too! Pleaseeee. Skip

Sean, Did you reset the base timing after replacing the magnetic pickup? Skip

The woman who was coordinating the rides did have a clue, she knew what the car was and said she had raced against several in the past. I did have a great time, just disappointed at not getting on the track as well as earning some money for the track fund towards completion of the facilities there. I spent a couple of long days getting the car ready but that's OK as it will stay in the trailer until I head for Grand Junction for the Flyin Miata Summer Camp on Wednesday. I have dyno time scheduled to get the water/alcohol injection dialed in, a track school and a track day to look forward to this week. If we can get the water injection working correctly, there's another 30 - 40 hp in there just waiting to go to work.

Our new track held a grand opening Straw Hat Gala (whatever that means) today. High Plains Raceway is located about an hour East of Denver and is a great replacement for the three tracks in the area we lost a few years ago. I took the Caterham out having volunteered to give rides for donations to the track fund. Apparently they decided my car wasn't exotic enough so I didn't get any track time so I put it in the car show instead. I was parked with a Lotus M100, Esprit and two Elise/Excige across the way from us. A Ferrari F430 Spyder parked next to me, beautiful car but sitting there watching the world go by I noticed that my car was receiving far more attention than the Ferrari. There would be 5 - 6 people standing around my car most of the time and 0 - 2 looking at the Ferrari. There were a lot of interesting cars at the event, 3 Ford GTs, 1 GT40, probably a clone, 2 Nobles, 3 ZR1s, an Ariel Atom, a McLaren CanAM car, Lola CanAm car, 9 of the new Camaros, a few hot rods, a rat rod and a Morris Minor pickup with a 302 Ford V8 stuffed in it. Many others that don't come to mind at this late hour. There was also an old Lincoln with a V12 engine. The cylinder heads appeared to be carved out of a billet of aluminum and polished to a high shine. What looked weird on that huge engine was a single two barrel carb. Rides in the McLaren CanAm car were going for a $250 donation, the Ford GT was $100 and the others were $50 each. The owner of the Ford GT is a friend of mine and he informed me today that he has a 2010 Corvette ZR1 on order to be picked up in September. I asked for a ride in it and he said no, you will have to drive it. OK, I guess I can live with that. He has a number of interesting cars and tracks most of them. He has driven my Miata on the track and had a ride in the Caterham and I have driven his Ford GT, Porsche 911 Turbo S and Ferrari 360 Modena.

Steve, You got the second one. PM or EM me your mailing address and I'll get in the mail. I decided to cover the minor costs of postage myself so don't worry about payment. Kitkat, same goes for you. Both are now spoken for although if anyone else wants one it would be easy to make copies. Skip

Check out the engine in this car it is a four cam Indy car engine with a turbo. The fast back styling is interesting but not something I would do.

Looking though my Caterham parts shelves this evening I found two copies of the "Installation of Engine/Gearbox, Ford 'Crossflow' - DeDion" Assembly Guides. 13 pages, stapled in the upper left corner. Since I don't have a crossflow engine I will part with them for the price of postage, whatever a priority mail flat pack costs these days. Anyone have need of one of these? Skip

I think it is asinine that the rules do not allow someone like MS (or even more pointedly, the new rookie with the unpronounceable name who started at the last race) a chance to familiarize them selves by actually driving the current cars on a track. Will they make MS take a two pass run on a straight road to get his super license as they did for the rookie? His old one has expired. Welcome back Michael, an interesting season just got a whole bunch of spice dropped into the mix.