southwind25

hey now,,that last one has a certial coolness factor. not what we would even consider doing to ours..but if we had a spare one laying around sure..

nice road,,,OPPS... sand a bit slippery..about as bad as oil! just so the cars ok,

I just had the chance to watch some of these "ex-driver" anime cartoons.. How Fun! Yeah ok,,it's a CAR-toon, i never believed in speed racers car , the mark 5, could cut trees down and jump over the bad guy..but i loved watching it ! i think it's way cool that of all the cars they animators could have picked,they picked 2 loti's to be the cars of the heros.:hurray: very fun! So much better than some of the garbage i have seen kids watching these days. Hey,,,we are driving the cars of heros!!

Gary...thank you! We would appreciate that..and will take you up on that offer! We are always looking for more ideas and always appreciate others knowlege... uhh..but why are you not using them? just not installed yet? heres a picture of the current ones,,nice looking but i am afraid they wont be very comfy or side supportivehttp://www.usa7s.com/aspnetforum/upload/156076591_BnY S3 PSC.JPG

good point Gary It was the front to back diagonal ones... o / 0.... i have seen i am considering. once again i dont want to take away from the classic looks to make it into a nascar..but we are thinking just something for piece of mind...we will work on it. We found a good looking Birkin and we want to do a bit of personalization and improvement without adding bunches of weight..we dont want to end up with a billy bob birkin. :crazy:

The cobra seats are very nice looking, i especially like the looks of the historic style and they have with the headrest yet. We will be using our car for moderate distances so we want to be comfortable, yet we dont want to add big goobers of weight if we dont have to. are the cobra seats heavy? They have something like these locally at "summit racing" in akron but they seem to be very heavy. intake-airbox...i was under the impression that the main function of the airbox was to have a small ram effect and get cool fresh air into the carbs. I realize some are restricted per regulations but thats only in a strict spec car class.. right? I have run open (with screens) S.U's and webers on my race cars and you while they deffinitly produce some noise, not nearly what the exhaust covers up soundwise...but again those were full body cars. yeah the one on the grey car might have a restricted bernoulli opening for whatever reason and is a bit overwhelming/obnoxious size wise. We will look into the filters as suggested those sound like a great starting point. We just dont want to suck rocks into the webers! We also found a way to perhaps make a classy little scoop using a lost styrofoam and west system method per our sailboat-fiberglass experience.

not a bad idea..

We saw the coolest air intake scoop snorkel on a car on the Birkin australia site. we will be needing an air filter at least but would like to add a functional (but not too obnoxious) air inlet for the Birkin we are getting. maybe something like the grey car? Any thoughts? everything we find pre-made seems to be for a huge dragster or something. :ack: we have seen some smaller ones on racing-formula cars, how can we find one? or..has anyone made one? anyone have a set of molds for one? any thoughts or help?we know a bit of fiberglass working after we restored our sailboat. also, what are people using for Birkin seats...besides birkin seats? The birkin we tried on for size was awesome, but our backs are not the best and we might need something a tad more supportive. what fits without breaking the bank?

John, we need to hold off on this, until we get what we will be recieving up and running properly first. But when we are ready, this sounds like the way to go.

awesome drive...very smoooooth. good for you...:hurray: what was the blue car with orange stripe? very cool right untilll. OG #$^#!! yeah, thank god for the sand...and tire walls are harsh but forgiving. we had a rear hub carrier bust one time while racing the sprite. i was doing great just passed a tr3 when...SURPRIZE...my car wildly spun in the middle of a straight doing about 80.. i was clueless of what happend as a sat there stunned on the side of the track,,till a cornerworker about 100 yards up the track held up my wheel and axle. Later the guys following me came up and said.."we thought oh crap this is going to be bad" when they saw the wheel and axle slowly leaving the car...i never knew it till the spin. but yeah thank goodness for the safety stuff at the track. :iagree:

We have run fuel cell's in our vintage race cars,,and will proably heavily consider this in the birkin we are in the process of buying. Over the years we have seen some wicked accidents racing as well as right in front of our house (we live on the outside of a curve). The fuel bladders do have there cost...but burnt skin is much more expensive. The other advantage is with the foam you dont get fuel slosh, they usually have roll over valves, and i have always saved on the cost simply building my own box (we have a tig welder). i Am not so sure the honeycomb will offer much protection for the cost or effort involved.

the one concern we do have,,is someone tagging us in the side of this car. your elbow is obviously right there, and anything comming torwards you on the side will end up kinda scary.. we saw a 7 here somewhere with a nice bolt on side nerf bar configuration, cant find it again. we dont want to go adding a bunch of weight, just give ourselves a fighting chance :boxing: when grandma runs the red light. any other thoughts or configurations for side protection without looking all obnoxious? :bigears:

Who makes a nice removable steering wheel, or mounting-hub assembly?

We actually considered one of these, before the Birkin.. theres even a couple on e-bay right now. but the Ginetta g4 is a big enough project without starting to build another. also saw a fury and menace...sweet cars as well, and they remake a crossle!! how cool is that?!?!.. but alas...we only had the budget for a birkin!

Someone mention car shows to meet at? there is several really top notch car shows in NE ohio.. the Austin healey club attracts about 200 cars in may, the shaker square show is popular especially with the civilian crowd. The faterhs day show at stan hywet mansion is always great and freindly to all makes and types. There is the crawford show as well. Of course meeting at-during a race at mid-ohio is fun. we hope to make one or so of these if the Birkin happens for us, and perhaps we might even drag the ginetta carcass around for show and tell. it also might be fun to do a lake erie islands tour...take the ferry across to the islands? they used to race cars on the islands..We love to visit with our sailboat,,we have done it by car as well..great fun either way! what about the british reliability runs every year, they would love seeing some 7's show up.

Very nice and neat installation. we did something similar when we made the harness for the sprite. Oh, as we looked through your webpages,,,we could identify with several of the upgrades you did..and would guess we would be following much the same path with ours if we can make this all happen. RK

when it grows up, it wants to be a Panoz.... Well, some of our car friends, have questioned us being interested in the "7" style cars as well, a few car freinds have told us they didnt get what the attraction was with a boxy little soap box derby car... personally, we find the "7" attractive, so each to their own we suppose.:flag:

LMAO..yeah...snoop doggy dog in da camera car. Our kids have these racing video games..matter of fact they got a kick out of setting up a race for me last night,,,where a ginetta G4 and a caterham raced head to head. very cool actually, and they program in handling and very nice graphics. I never could get into the games though...and well i stink at them. they have no real feel. you cant smell the Cam 2, and you cant feel the penny you just ran over..it was heads by the way, and you surely cant hear rap music in my cars... ..yeah, my kids run circles around me on the games. :willy: i guess the games have a place in modern society...but no thanks..i would rather be in the real thing. I find it humorous..how if you take someone who plays the games..and do the same thing in the real thing..you'll end up having to clean out the passenger seat.

wiring doesnt bother us so much...we are used to the prince of darkness-lucas..how bad can a birkin be? as well, we ended up doing our own wiring harness's in the past. not too bad really, just very time consuming.

interesting...i sorta like this, might be good for most of our purposes.. otherwise, gary, we might come and take a look at your top, sometime after the holidays. we also like the zipper idea.. our old brit cars never sealed up anyways...just keep the main rain off..we sail in the rain anyways.. We suspect, the 7 should be pretty much driven like a motorcycle as far as respecting the elements..

Well, a decision has been made.. we will be NOT buying the new ginetta, but instead (attempt) to buy a Birkin "7", and keep the old ginetta we have and rebuild it as time goes on. So this gives us the opportunity to have both a "7", and ginetta that is still vintage race eligible someday.

If all goes well, we will be a valid set of members on this list by the holidays.. We are in negotiation for a Birkin. Question: presently this car does NOT come with a top. As well we have heard that getting in with a top on these cars are pretty much a contortionists nightmare. It is very likely we will want a Top anyways, for those rainy drives. How complex, would it be to fabricate our own? mary is a seamstress, and has made tonnaeu covers, seat covers, and various sewing projects through the years. on our sailboat as well, she has made allot of sewing projects, covers etc.. Does anyone have a "pattern" for a birkin top? are there obvious improvements that can be made to a birkin top that someone might suggest? we figure making a top frame would be very easy! any thoughts?

If and when we get a "7"...it is most likely it will be used in inclimate weather.. since on perfect days we will be sailing as well.. We figure, it will follow the same seasons as a motorcycle, and we have some hearty motorcycle riders here in the frozen tundra of ohio. But yes...salt is the enemy here..and any "7" will turn into a big battery and deteriorate rapidly. This was the downfall of most of the Big healeys...They had 1/2 steel-1/2 aluminum bodies..and the aluminum often turned to dust right before your eyes..on a quiet day you could hear them rust. So, if a "7" is in our future, we will probably simply put on our foul weather gear on occasion....and drive it. but wait till the first rains of spring wash the roads down after the salt trucks come out to play.

We are currently looking at a out of state Birkin, that has yet to be registered. the builder never registered the car and has no title. The car chassis was made in approximatly 2002, the engine is a x-flow type ford. The car is in a southern state, we are in summit county Ohio (emmissions county). what forms do i need? How do i get the car titled? liscensed? What flaming hoops of fire do i need to jump through? car wont do us much good if we cant drive it. anyone been through this that can help?

Gary, thought you might be interested, we are currently looking at a birkin. The idea of the newer ginetta is financially unwise at this time, we will probably keep the ginetta we have, and try and buy the Birkin we are looking at. once again, thanks for the ride.