Silber

Admittedly not as well as she would like, towards the bottom of the timing sheet instead of the top. We took a bit of hiatus from autocross when we started our family, and she is still getting used to the 7 compared to the Miatas we drove before (this was her first SCCA autocross with it), so we are working on building the speed back in. The emphasis this time out was on having fun and being safe, and without me there in the passenger seat tempting her with "MORE GAS" "BRAKE LATER" "GO FASTER!", she erred on the conservative side. But she can put down some good times. This was her in my D-Prepared Miata back in the day:

One of the many things I love about my wife is that she participates in the "gotta drive cars fast" thing that I've got going on. I got to spend the day with my two little girls, and my better half got to take the 7 out to Utah Motorsports Campus to participate in the annual Utah SCCA Oktoberfast auto-x. The mountains aren't quite as pretty this time of year, but provide a nice backdrop to the track located near Tooele, Utah.

Took Bones to the Wings and Wheels car show/air show at a municipal airport about an hour south of where I live to participate in a non-competitive, showcase-style autocross. There were about 25 drivers from the UT SCCA, and we were offering to any spectator who'd sign a waiver the chance to ride along. There was a bit of showboating, lots of slides, and the course was short and simple, but it was fun. With only 25 drivers in a casual environment, I would say I got somewhere between 30-40 runs on course, 99% of them with someone who has never autocrossed before in the passenger seat. I'm terrible at getting pictures and videos of such things, but luckily my wife recorded a couple runs: The event also include static aircraft and cars on display, air show demonstrations (including some serious pyrotechnics), and a half-mile drag race for the local supercar-owner crowd. I heard some cars were around 190 mph in the half mile!

Others have pointed out some good points, but to answer this question, I would say yes, deflectors make the buffeting tolerable. I've had a couple of Miatas and daily drove one for years, and I doubt one could ever get the 7 to be as comfortable wind-wise as a Miata while still keeping the cockpit relatively open. Go with the wind deflectors and if that isn't enough for you add on the half-doors. Beyond that just embrace it as part of the unique experience of driving a 7 :)

I just usually wear a full-face helmet if I know I'll be driving more than just around town with a windscreen and factory Birkin wind deflectors on my 7. It's quieter and I barely notice the buffeting, plus I don't care if it looks goofy. I can say that the wind deflectors make a noticeable difference, but not a significant difference. It's still windy with the deflectors.

Thanks for the replies @JohnCh, @theDreamer, and @Croc. The consensus is that I was indeed being overly cautious, a little bit of rain won't hurt the car, and in the future I shouldn't be worried about driving it in a rain storm.

You make a good point, but as much as I love science, that is not an experiment I am prepared to conduct. I concede that I was probably overly cautious. I'm still curious to hear if anyone has been less cautious and found that they can drive in fairly bad weather with an exposed intake, or if everyone else just chooses not to drive their 7's in the rain like I did. Another thing learned: The boot space doesn't have a drain hole, so any water that gets in there needs to be mopped up.

Went to an SCCA autocross today. How it started: How it ended: It's tough to get pictures mid-deluge, but long story short, the "15% chance of scattered showers around 3:00 P.M." weather report turned into hours of persistent, heavy rain starting about 11:00 A.M. Lessons learned: 1) Don't trust weather reports 2) The tonneau cover works surprisingly well to keep most of the water out of the car 3) One really does get drenched driving one of these in rain Serious question for those who have ITB's or carbs with exposed intakes: what do you do when there is heavy rain? How effective are these air filters at keeping water out of the engine? I wasn't sure, and opted to better be safe than sorry, meaning not getting any runs in the event and leaving the 7 at a friend's house a few miles from the autocross site. I wasn't about to get caught out in another big storm on the freeway trying to get home. A disappointing day to say the least, but another good story to tell.

I would offer to let you try on my Birkin, but it is the same size as the S3 Caterham if I'm not mistaken. One thing to note though is that the Birkin can accommodate taller drivers over 6' tall (I have the pedals adjusted as close as they go to the driver and the seat fully forward for me at 5' 7"), but it's the width of the cockpit and pedal box that is limiting. The previous owner was over 6'.

Regarding shoes, I believe it was already mentioned earlier in this thread, but you should consider some wrestling boots from your local sporting-goods store. They are built very similarly to a racing boot, just without any of the fire protection. Bring you Pilotis along and compare the two in-store. Regarding covering the car when parked, I just use the tonneau cover. I don't have/use side curtains, so I just keep the tonneau in the "trunk" and put in on when parked in public for an extended period.

FWIW, I didn't put a charger on my battery this last winter, nor any fuel stabilizer in the gas tank. I think I pulled the car out to start and idle in the driveway once over the winter, but it probably sat 1.5-2 months at a time. I didn't have any problems with the car starting and running. Battery type is a standard flooded lead-acid. My experience may be the exception, but I agree with the sentiment above to just treat it like any other car and not overthink it.

Took Bones to the British Field Day in Salt Lake City today. Met up with @Frankie and had the chance to really compare a Birkin to a Caterham side-by-side. It's interesting how similar the cars are, with really just very minor differences. This car show also has a very little autocross course. I had the second fastest time, but was definitely hampered by a lack of steering radius on such a tight course. The fastest guy was a friend of mine who is a very good driver in a heavily modified bugeye Sprite.

This thread is due for an update. Sorry I don't have any pictures. Over the last two months: Installed new 5-point harnesses with pull-up style lap belts. So much easier to adjust. Found out that the seat slider on the drivers side was gunked up and has much more range of motion than first observed. I've got the seating position almost perfect now. Changed the oil. Raised the rear ride height a smidge and stiffened the rear sway bar. The sway bar has five mounting points on each side, giving a wide range of adjustment, so I set it halfway (center hole on each side) as a starting point. The goal with these adjustments is to get the car to understeer less. Took a look at adjusting the brake bias.... that's worth going into more depth about, see below. Attended a low-key, test-and-tune style auto-x event to test everything out. I knew the brake bias must have been off after the first autocross, but when I finally got around to adjusting the brake bias bar I was shocked with what I found. The lock nut on the bias bar was loose, and the bar was sitting about as far rear biased as it could go. There was my problem! I set the bar at an arbitrary point much more forward biased, didn't adjust the pushrods at all, and then didn't drive the car for a couple of weeks. Turns out it was still rear-biased. So several adjustments later, including fiddling with the pushrod lengths, I have it very close to ideal but still with the tiniest rear bias. I've almost maxed out how far the bar can be adjusted for front bias, so I'm a little perplexed as to why the car has such a rear bias, but now the car stops so much better and doesn't instantly lock the rear brakes under hard braking. Success! Testing the car at the auto-x confirms that the adjustments helped alleviate a lot of the understeer, but I think it could still be better. A big part of it is probably tires, which I decided I'm going to burn off these old Bridgestones before getting new tires. Another contributor is probably alignment, but I'm also going to hold off on the alignment until I get new tires. Thus, I'll stick to shock and tire pressure adjustments and just enjoy the car as is. Next step is to test it on a race track now that I have the harnesses, seating position, braking, and handling pretty close to where I want them. Looking forward to getting the car out on track at Utah Motorsports Campus to see how it does.

That was just a picture pulled from a google search. Pictures of my car (but of the interior) can be seen here: I'll send you a text message and we can continue there. Thanks! Gregory

Thank you. I appreciate it. I do have original Birkin seats. They look like the taller seat in the picture below: