DavidL

And she, then her daughter, have won national championships in the car too!

And here's a write-up by Pat on Simple Sevens: http://www.simplesevens.com/1090/1090.htm

Although my wife has driven mine, there is a locally-well known long-time Lotus seven owner and racer, Pat Kelly. She was in her 70's and still autocrossing it almost a decade ago. Her husband raced it too, but it was very very clear that it had always been her race car since the 60's. She and her husband published North Amercan Pylon, an autocross newspaper. Here's a pic of her yellow S2 Seven (scroll down), although not sure if she or John is driving. http://www.sfrscca.org/solo2/photos.html

Vankleek Hill? Wow, never thought that town would come up here! One of my best friends lives there. It's a one traffic light sized-town! ---David

Hi Otto, Yup, I had a Europa TwinCam Special for 12 years. I bought the car with the servos removed, but all the plumbing was still present. As I got it, the brakes were terrible, impossible to push hard enough to lock the front wheels. The master cylinder was the stock unit, and the servos were bypassed by simply adding two short lines in the engine compartment that replaced each servo. So The front brake line ran from the master to the back of the car, through the brake light warning switch, then back to the front wheels. I eventually fixed the brakes by doing two things. First, I added EBC GreenStuff brake pads, which helped a lot. But the biggest improvement was going to a smaller bore master cylinder, same bore as the non-boosted S2 europa. this made the brakes work properly, and I could now lock the wheels. I got the new master cylinder from Rich Kampena, who has a Lotus shop in the SF Bay area (now up at Sears Point). Hope that helps, -David

The hose to the catch can should vent to atmosphere, so should generally not make a tight seal. I made that mistake when I added a catch can to my X-flow.

I drove a TR4A from 1982-1986, and a TR4 from 1986 - 1999. These were my "good car", and included a 5000 mile cross-country road trip. I went through many sets of tires, and frequently drove the TR4 from Oregon to the San Francisco Bay area (500 miles each way) for a weekend. I love TR4s, although they are a bit crude. Compared to an MGB, they have more torque, but don't have as nice a handling chassis. However, I would frequently slide mine around familiar corners, and really enjoyed driving it. The chassis flexes, but so what. I didn't enjoy it much autocrossing (completely stock suspension), much preferring my 64 Cooper S or my later Europa TCS. But for the street, the TR4s were great. I actually preferred the solid axle '64, as I found the rear IRS on the '67 mushy, and it squatted too much. But I was out West coast on good roads. Also, stiffer springs and tube shock conversions would no doubt benefit the IRS. I did have an overdrive on the 4, which I moved to the 4A, which made long distance trave lquite peasant, about 3500 rpm at 80 mph I think. THey of course dripped oil, even the rebuilt transmission, but not too bad. The generators and battery tended to die every couple of years. The generators probably because they were rebuilt poorly by the chain auto parts store, and the batteries suffered from vibration. If I had one today, I would probably convert to an alternator. Anyway, I loved the TR4s, fun to drive, and I liked the style. Hope that helps, -David (current car, '90 Caterham)

this car was on bringatrailer.com....

Emerald makes a conversion for reasonable cost. But I have no experience other than seeing the website: http://www.emeraldm3d.com/ecu/generic-throttle-body-conversion-kits-for-4-cylinder-engines.html Another option would be to sell the car and buy a Zetec or duratec-powered one.

very amusing, and as a former Europa owner, I can relate! ---David

Has anyone heard of Coveland? This is a new one to me.

Update. After initially getting nowhere with K&N, I got a hold of someone more knowledgeable and amazingly, ordered a front cover only for 8 bucks! I was sure I was going to have to order the whole assembly. Thanks re the invitation to the get-together, I'll see what the family schedule looks like. ---David

After finally getting my Webers and ignition tuned, the test drive went great. At least until I lost an air filter (and then my hat!) as I accelerated up an onramp. I retrieved my hat, the filter element, but not the chrome metal end plate that has "K & N" embossed on it. Does anyone have an extra? These fit 40 DCOE Webers on the 1700 Supersprint Cross-flow. Thanks, -David (1990 Caterham SuperSprint 1700)

To update this thread... after much head scrtatching, and help from this community, I figured out that the base-plate in my distributor was installed 180-degrees out. I flipped it, and then the Pertronix unit installed the right way around, now looking like the pic from 11BudLite. Because there are 4 magnets on the spinning magnet sleeve, and the baseplate moved 180-degrees, the timing did not change (would not have been true with points). Thanks everyone. However, the timing, measured with a timing light, is wacky. It idles (600 rpm) with 20-degrees of advance (way too much), and doesn't move much with wider throttle. I checked that the timing marks were right by finding TDC on #1 by sticking a plastic tie wrap into the cylinder with the plug out. Hmm, maybe the advance mechanism was also installed incorrectly. Thanks for the help, -David

What I do on hot days is to run the heater fan but not turn on the heater. This does help, although footwells still get warm. This was a recommendation from the previous owner. Of course only works if you have a heater. ---David

Hi Bruce, Thanks, that's really helpful. My wires run around above the top plate and exit at about 1:00 o'clock on your photo. I don't have a vacuum advance, so I think all the advance is via rotation of the cam, not the top plate. I'll also call Pertronix.

Can anyone comment on the best way to install a Pertronix electronic ignition in a Lucas distributor? I'm the second owner of my 1990 Caterham, 1700 Super Sprint X-flow, with a Lucas distributor. As far as I can tell, the car was originally equipped with the Pertronix (the car was originally purchased from Chris T. at Sevens and Elans), but the old one failed because the wires to the Hall-effect sensor were abraided inside the distributor. The wires from the sensor have to do do 180-degrees around the inside of the distributor before exiting through a rubber grommet. The wires were pinched at that exit point by the plate the sensor sits on, and may have been worn down by vibration. The wires may have also been rubbed by the rotating magnet sleeve. Has anyone run into this? Possible improvements would be to file a relief in the sensor plate for the wires, and to somehow clamp them down to prevent them touching the rotating parts. From staring at diagrams, I'm assuming that the centrifugal advance does not move the top plate of the distributor, but rather the cam, is that right? Thanks for any advice, -David

David Vizard's book is awesome... it is genuinely scientific, meaning he shows the data behind his modification ideas. Not just wild claims, but solid conclusions based on experimental data he collected. ---David (scientist and 7 owner)

Nice looking installation. What does "running 2 inlet cams" mean? Thanks, -david

There is a "cars and coffee" type event and open house at Canepa Design this Saturday, June 9, 8 am - noon. THey are a high end dealer of exotics and really interesting race cars etc... Canepa 4900 Scotts Valley Drive Scotts Valley, California 95066 I will be there with my '90 Caterham. ---David

Just to complete the thread, I fixed the problem by replacing the plugs. Number 1 was oily, seem to remember the previous owner mentioning it did that sometimes. Car just hums now! Thanks for the suggestions.

the spare wheel has the early 80's factory Caterham wheel style.

Thanks for the help. Re the valves, I had contradictory info on the settings. The factory assembly guide says: "valve clearances (cold), inlet 0.022", exhaust 0.024" ", whereas the assembly guide supplement from Sevens and Elans (came wit the car) specifies the same clearance, but hot. I did the adjustments cold out of convenience. The pulley has matched notches on both rear and front faces, so I think I'm looking at the correct marks. I think I should make sure the timing light is working correctly, find TDC as you suggest to check the markings, and reset the valves hot. Not sure if the distributer is an Aldon.

Hi all, My car, 1990 Caterham with the 1700 Supersprint crossflow, has developed a bit of a stumble at about 3k rpm. It was running perfectly until I adjusted the valves, so I figured OK, time to reset the carbs (Weber DCOEs) and check the timing. Although I had rebuilt and set the the carbs before, this was my first time attempting to set the timing. I found the timing marks on the front cover and the crank pulley, but at idle my timing light claims that there is about 45 degrees of advance, which is of course silly. So, a couple of questions. - Is cylinder #1 is the one closest to the front of the car? I was assuming that. - Could the crank pulley be positioned incorrectly? - Are there timing marks on the flywheel? I didn't see any obvious way of seeing them if there were. My plan was to follow the Sevens and Elans instructions that came with the car, which says to set the total advance at >3500 rpm (36 degrees) using a timing light with a variable advance feature. Thanks for any advice -David (Menlo Park, California)

Haggerty covers my car (1990 Caterham), agreed value $30K, cost is about $550/year. Assumes you are not commuting to work in it, and storage in a locked garage. I'm in California (Bay area). ---David