scannon

Nothing. You are having too much fun driving it to spend your time on an AR cleanup. Different strokes for different blokes, as they say. I've only washed mine once when it got muddy, the rest of the time it is the California duster or some Final Inspection. Having most of the body work covered with clearbra makes this quick and easy. Skip

There is a company in Denver that puts Subaru motors in Beck Spyders as well as Speedster replicas. They usually use the regular WRX motor but will also install an STi motor if you want it. Their prices were under $30k for a turnkey Beck with the smaller WRX motor. I looked at both the Spyder and the Speedster and seriously considered the Spyder before I bought my Caterham. They wouldn't sell it as a kit. Skip

At a NASA surplus sale? :lol:

Me too, but I would rather build one myself.

A torsen will make a huge difference in your ability to get out of the corners if you are racing or doing track days. Skip

Its been so long since I've had an open diff rear drive car in the snow that I can't remember what it was. I have an AWD Legacy GT with dedicated snow tires for the winter. I have to get it well into boost before it will spin the tires, even on ice. The Caterham and Miata both have LSD but neither gets driven in the snow. Skip

I can't tell you why because I don't understand just how a torsen diff works. Someone on here probably can explain it for us. I've had several torsens and they all would spin the inside wheel if I lifted a rear wheel in a hard corner. I had to go to softer sway bars to keep the wheels in contact with the ground. If you are on ice, you can gently apply the parking brake and the torsen will transfer the load to the other wheel. Both wheels have to have a minimum amount of traction. Several times when I have parked on a friend's weird driveway, one wheel was off the ground and the car would not move. Until I learned about the parking brake trick, I had to push it a bit to where both rear tires were in contact with the ground. I have heard that some torsens are biased such that this is not a problem but IIRC there is a compromise in how well the torsen performs otherwise. Skip

That car belongs to one of the members of LOCO (Lotus Owners of Colorado). Ross is a diehard Lotus fanatic as you can tell from the other cars in the pictures. His garage is a shrine to Lotus. I've seen the XI in shows, on the street and the track. If anyone is serious about buying it, I'd be happy to check it out and test drive if for you. The fact that he drove it from Denver to Aspen via Independence Pass says a lot about the car. Skip

Would Lexol work? I have that but would have to buy some saddle soap. Maybe my nose is more sensitive than most to that particular smell, but I can't imagine opening 35 of those boxes in my house and then be able to stay indoors with the smell. I put my watch in a closed storage room to keep the smell out of the rest of the house. I'll clean it and see if that helps.

Considering the forces on the fenders from both wind resistance and the sudden changes of direction inherent with following the suspension as it absorbs the bumps in the road, I think those fenders are going to flutter around a bit at speed and eventually loosen and maybe fly off if you use the steel bands or hose clamps. I think you should re-consider bonding or bolting the fenders to the stays. Putting those anchor points between the fender and the stay is going to change the relationship between tire and fender as well. It might not be as pleasing to the eye. Just my opinion, your milage may vary.

Mine showed up this afternoon so they are getting as far as Colorado by now. Looks great but smells bad! Has a very strong mildew type of smell that I noticed before I even opened the shipping package. Do they all smell that way and will the smell go away? Thanks for Mazda and Jeaned for their combined efforts to get these to us. Skip

When I put Wilwood brakes on my Miata people told me that they would never last without the dust boots. They've been on there for about 7 years and 70k hard miles, 5k of those at the track. Never a problem and I haven't done anything but change pads. I would not have a problem running them on the Caterham as well.

It is pretty much impossible to import a single late model car that is not already certified for US emissions and DOT requirements. Cars like the ones you mention are eligable but you have to spend big bucks getting them certified for sale. Some companies have done this, the Smart car comes to mind. They have been available here for a few years after a company spent a lot of time and money to get them certified. They sell for about double what they cost in Europe (not including the currency fluctuations). That market will disappear when Smart cars are brought in as US certified cars in 2008.

I've heard these calipers are a direct bolt in replacement for Caterham front brakes. Can anyone confirm that? Anyone have any direct experience with them, any pros or cons to doing an upgrade from the Caterham brakes? Thanks, Skip

Gert, I'm not familiar with your specific brand of air filters but the K&N company recommends 50k mile cleaning intervals on their foam filters. Their literature suggests that a slightly dirty filter cleans better than a freshly cleaned one. If I could find a quality paper filter in the same configuration as the K&N on my Se7en and Miata, I would go with that and change it when it started looking dirty. I would guess that the excess fuel in the oil is from running a bit rich combined with lots of high rev open throttle (i.e. FUN) driving. Another source of it could be rings that are not sealing as well as they should. Even with all that has been said about extended oil changes and synthetic oils, I still change oil on my turbo cars at 2 - 3k miles and non-turbo cars at 3 - 4k mile intervals. I also change the oil after every track day whether it has the miles on it or not. Cheap insurance for the engine. Skip

A Se7en watch, the first wrist watch I've ever owned. Not sure if I will be able to adapt to wearing it. Tonneau cover, new headlight brackets, brake calipers and a few other things.

Every Miata crankshaft I have seen has through holes. New flywheel bolts come from Mazda with the red sealant on them. Skip

Thanks for the info. One more question, is the body going to be ali as it appears to be in the picture?

The R11 is the one that caught my eye. Went to their website but there is nothing but that same picture and a promise that info will be forth coming. I'd love to build one of those. Will it use the Honda S2K engine? Will it be sold as a kit? Will a Miata engine fit in there? Lots of questions, no answers. :nonod:

Ian7, My SV has frame tubes going across the bottom in two places that will not allow the shaft to drop out the bottom. The tunnel is also so narrow behind the transmission that in sliding in the driveshaft some of the paint gets scraped off the welds at the forward end. The flange on the diff end is too large to remove the driveshaft by taking it forward as I once tried to do with the engine and trans removed. I had to use 2" tubing instead of the normal 2 1/2" tubing on the RX-7 driveshaft as the narrow point in the tunnel is less than 2 1/2" wide. http://www.usa7s.com/aspnetforum/upload/932452072_DSC03199.JPG

I would just take the old, complete driveshaft into a driveline shop and tell them how much to shorten it and what weld yoke you need to connect to the Quaiffe. Then have them balance the result. I'm curious, how does the reversing gearbox connect to the differential? When I had the driveshaft made for my Miata powered Se7en, we used the rear weld yoke & flange from the Caterham shaft, a front yoke from an RX-7 and a weld yoke we found in the shop's scrap pile, all of this welded to a new high strength steel tube. Fabrication and balancing was about $90.

My '04 Caterham doesn't have an aluminum skin on the bottom of the tunnel but I still could not remove the factory prop shaft and install the custom shaft until I removed the diff. Fortunately, the diff had to come out for the installation of a Quaiffe LSD so it wasn't a problem. You can lay the shaft in the tunnel and then "offer up the diff" (Caterham manual words). There is room to bolt the shaft to the diff after the diff is installed.

Sounds like a fun event. No promises, but I put it on my calander and we'll see what happens.

Just what I was looking for. I was thinking about some type of coating for the underside of the car but was worried about adding weight. This product should take care of the problem. I ordered up an aerosol can of it, thanks for letting us know about it. Skip

In the version I got, the above was labeled "For my democrat friends". Below it was "Merry Christmas and Happy New Year" labeled "For my republican friends".