Automoda

I'm currently fiddling with the tune on my ZX3 with ITBs. I use a MS2. I'm getting it to run better, but it is all for naught. I think I'm going to take it to the local dyno expert and pay the $$$ to get it done. I'll post the tables and settings and even the MS2 file when I"m done.

Wow! Fantastic. My dream is to build my own car from scratch, too. Good work! I'd love to see your build photos. Close ups of the little touches and the difficult things. The shifting, the suspension, etc. I'm really curious.

Sure sounds like a great idea. I had planned on doing something like that a couple years back but never got to it. I'm sure I could make it. I may end up mostly camping though, depending how the money situation is by next year. I could spread the word to some of the local lotus guys too.

I used to be able to control my RC car's angle in mid air by adjusting throttle. Looks like he ran out of gear before the end of the jump since it was so long. When you let off the gas it'll dive forward like that. His big fat wheels would carry a LOT of energy and I dont think that any kind of little wings on the body would be capable of countering that.

Um. Hasn't anyone told him about the pre-race ceremony? You know, the one that you MUST do before racing a vintage car or else you anger the Lotus gods and a piston goes through the oil pan?

You know, I'm not a fan of expanded metal grills, nor am I a fan of hexagon stamped metal grills. Seems too home-made to me. My Birkin came with one that looks more like a camping grill, so I got one of those Caterham style laser cut 7 grills and I like it. I have to admit though, it doesnt keep crap from messing up the fins on my fancy little radiator. Radiator mesh from the hot-rod sources like Summit is a hideous orange! What were they thinking? I don't have a great solution for this. I'd like to put some kind of somewhat fine mesh behind the laser cut grill but I havent found the material I want yet.

Wow. From what I've seen so far, it looks fantastic!

To be honest my 7 doesn't ride all that hard. Yeah, I bounce a bit on the highway at speed, but its not like I'm getting dropped 3 feet to the cement and landing on my butt. Its more like some kid is kicking the back of my seat on a flight. I've never thought "dang that was jarring!" The Birkin has plenty of suspension travel. The reason I think it feels a bit rougher than other cars is simply that the car is so light. You might be able to put softer springs on it and smooth it out a bit. I think your bigger problem is going to be getting IN the car more than the little bit of roughness driving it.

The hole for your exhaust is a very tight fit. Is the engine mounted so solidly that it will never move enough to let the exhaust pipe contact the fiberglass and crack it? Also, isn't it going to be kinda toasty on the paint and glass just right there where its soooo close? I really like Westfields and I think this is a great build. Thanks for taking the time to make a build-thread about it!

I'm jealous! ANY old car in that condition is worth something. So awesome and it'd be quite unique at any car show.

Sure is a lot safer than any of the OTHER Arab drifting games. Do they wear gloves and knee pads? I sure hope so!

Awesome! Thanks for posting the exploded-kit pictures. It really helps visualize what the car is made of. You know, the way the body is broken into manageable segments, I think it would be an easy car to wrap rather than paint.

I love that car. The only thing is the price. I wish it was 25K They're talking about how affordable it is but honestly.... what are we talking here? 500 dollars per square foot of bodywork? Its not THAT affordable compared to a Birkin which is in the low 20s and is an equally amazing car.

Now that would have been a great time for me. So much awesome stuff! I always wanted a Stratos but they're just too expensive to put together. A few of those cars I dont recognize at all and they're pretty good looking. And of course there's the ones that um. Need some style tips just like this guy: http://marcuspcannon.files.wordpress.com/2012/01/herb-tarlek.jpg

Mmmm. I like the idea of a bigger seven, since the seven is really an 'experience' more than an exact design. I have plenty of friends and family who will NEVER get to take a ride in my Birkin and a Z4 wouldnt allow them to get the seven experience. Of course I agree with ultraslow that at some point, yeah, you have to give up. The human size constraints on an original sized 7 are seriously restricting though. So something one or two sizes up would be appreciated by lots of people. I'll keep my little Birkin as motivation to keep going to the gym LOL!

Yeah this is some kind of 'sport' over there. The goal is to drive fast, preferably in traffic, and floor the car while at the same time stomping the brake and zig-zagging down the road. Its like street racing except from what I have seen nobody wins. And like you may have noticed, seat belts seem to be as rare as brain cells in money-land. The spectators are under the same spell as the guys crowding around the corners in Rally Racing. I have little to zero sympathy.

Dont use epoxy. It'll be slightly better with the rock chips but good luck to the guy that has to paint it next time! Paint on these cars is going to need to be redone every 25,000 miles. Due to rock chips, the old paint is going to have to be mostly stripped. Now, on my car I made the leading edges black. When the nose and fenders get too chipped I just sand much of the clear off the whole piece, strip down the bad areas to primer, spray a little black basecoat and re-clear the whole thing. I can get away with that 2 or 3 times before having to start over. I use clear-bra on the back fenders' leading edge and also have the usual aluminum plate. Imron is for trailers, oil rigs and such. It'd be great for the frame but I'd leave it off of the bodywork.

Just stick some playing cards in the spokes and we're back in biz.

Here's how I see it: When someone wants to know what the car is, I say "Copy of an early 60s Lotus Super Seven". The average Joe doesnt care who built the copy. They want to know what kind of car it is and it is in fact not a copy of a Dodge, nor an MG, nor a Bugatti. It is a rather faithful copy of a Lotus and that is the information that the guy asking the question wanted. Frankly, everyone assumes it is a kit car just because of the cheap sheet-metal look, and I think their view of the car improves when they hear the word Lotus. If a badge is to inform the passers-by, the Lotus badge is expedient. I have a Birkin and I don't use any badges at all, since they don't work with my paint scheme. Only the nerdiest car guys like myself want to know the details about who made the kit... and what kind of computer is running the engine, and what kind of diff it has, and what shock settings you like..... Lets face it, these cars are more or less Lotus' design. Its not like putting a Ferrari emblem on a rebodied Fiero with a 4 banger under the deck lid. An original 7 showed up at the big car show last fall and it was hard to tell it apart from the Birkins and the Cats... and in fact it had been upgraded to a Zetec and wider tires and cycle fenders using some parts from the kit car world. Kinda blurs the whole thing eh? At car shows I put "65 Lotus Super Seven (Replica)" on the top, and a nice description of the car below, including Birkin of South Africa as the maker of the kit. People love to read that stuff at shows because they're all car guys. I think it'd be weird to put "Birkin S3" at the top.

Hahaha! Wow. Great idea pulling air from inside the car. It sure solves a lot of problems in a very simple way. But it is not the first time I've seen the idea of pulling your intake air from inside the car... http://www.ronpatrickstuff.com/images/VW_Rear_Dr_Open1_PScopy.jpg http://www.ronpatrickstuff.com/

If that was enough to make a noticeable difference, they have larger problems IMO. So if a butterfly gets stuck to your radiator, your car starts to overheat in a measurable way? Wow.

That blows my mind. That thing pulls harder past 160 than my car does at 25. Wow. If I had a car like that, I'd rob banks. Who could catch me?

Yeah its fake.

I'm not a racing driver, but if my tires were making a noise like that as the race progressed, I'd be scared shitless. Screeching on every single turn and losing grip in the way they do makes me wonder if he's got tires capable of handling the kind of punishment he's dishing out.

Its cool. But I think its frame is a bit over-built. In reality the design looks to be more for looks than engineered for triangulation. What I'd like is a lighter version of that concept. Something 1/3 the weight but with all the clearance. I knew a guy that was working on something once, but I never saw how it turned out. He wanted it to be able to drive off of an 8 foot cliff and just smoothly continue onward. He did sand rails as a hobby and he was working on some kind of new design that we 7 owners would appreciate, I think.