Silber

The cupholder puts a smile on my face. I've never wanted one in my 7, but I guess even an entirely impractical car needs a little bit of practicality?

I've never seen another Birkin in the wild, so I would look forward to comparing ours if you brought yours. I'm planning on participating the whole event, but I won't be staying at the hotel. I can provide some local tips for good drives for the free day on Sunday. I've driven the majority of the best roads within 50-ish miles of Salt Lake City.

Here is a tentative schedule: * Thursday, Sep 24 – Check in, Meet & Greet * Friday, Sep 25 - Helper, UT Field Trip, Lunch, Group Photos * Saturday, Sep 26 – Kirkham Motorsports Factory Tour, Casual Concours & Voting, Dinner @ the Utah Natural History Museum * Sunday, Sep 27 – Free For All Day for scenic Utah drives culminating in lunch @ a TBD restaurant. * Monday, Sep 28 – Track Day at Utah Motorsports Campus

I was searching for local car events and came across an announcement for the Lotus United Gathering taking place in Salt Lake City from September 24-28, 2026. It is apparently an event similar to LOG and the West Coast Lotus Meet, sponsored by Lotus Ltd and the Golden Gate Lotus Club, and hosted by the Utah Lotus Owners Coalition. I have no affiliation with any of these organizations and have no part in organizing this event, but I wanted to post it here to find out if any of the folks on this forum knew about the event and plan on attending. It would be cool to meet some of the people from the forum if anyone comes out to Utah with their 7s. More info here: https://go2lug.com/ and here: https://www.lotustalk.com/threads/lotus-united-gathering-lug2026.559414/?post_id=6401032&fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAc3J0YwZhcHBfaWQKNjYyODU2ODM3OQABHokvgUeSr6VfcgN0GHry6f05jALSmDVsRD-3piSHMhQ1cadm7r3xPRtjszqF_aem_Udaz0vJzssZtApM2hDd93A#post-6401032

It was an NA8, low power due to high altitude here in Utah. I wish I still had it, but I wrecked it at an autocross back in 2019. I have a picture of it over in my thread in the Member Rides section. Apologies for hijacking your thread to start talking about Miatas. I'm looking forward to your build thread here with the 7.

I totally understand. My Miata was about 1950 lbs, but only a meager 108 whp, but it was so fun to drive. Wanting to replicate that feeling is what led me down the path to get a 7. Different cars, different experiences, so I agree that it isn't a clear cut answer. One thing I can say for sure is that I get a lot more attention from people in the 7. Everyone likes that car, little kids, old farts, car enthusiasts, and that makes it fun in a way the Miata never was.

I saw your post over on the MiataTurbo forum and read through some of your build thread with your Miata. What happened to that enginer is a bummer, but it looks like you have big plans with it. Which car do you think you'll have more fun in, this 7 or the Miata with a spicy motor?

The previous owner of my Birkin was probably about 6'2" or 6'3" and fit fine. My opinion with the size is fitting in it depends more on how wide you are than how tall you are (though both are important factors to consider). I'm just 5'7" with size 8 shoes, and I can drive with almost any shoe or boot, and am almost too short to comfortably drive the car.

I was driving the car quite a bit during the summer, even daily driving it for a couple weeks when our old Jeep Cherokee had a catastrophic water pump failure. It was fun parking it up next to the typical monster trucks people around here usually drive. But, the summer did not end without any problems. I was out at a local university for work when I went to start the car and drive back to the office, but the car did something like "chugga, chugga, clunk," and then I had no starter. I tried bump starting it and jump starting it, but neither worked. Hot, flustered, and a bit embarrassed as most of my coworkers were there, I decided to utilize roadside assistance and get the car home where I could diagnose the problem without pressure. I let the car sit for about a month as life with a young family keeps me busy, but finally had the chance to try and diagnose the problem. The symptoms were no starter and no fuel pump, which prompted me to look at all the fuses. Checked every one of them and all was good, but when I happened to turn the headlight switch on with the ignition on, I heard a buzzing coming from the fuse box. The culprit? The ignition relay. The parts store didn't have a comparable replacement, but I could hijack the relay for the heated windscreen, swapped it over, and boom, everything working and engine started right up. I'm so glad it was an easy fix, and happy that it was also fairly painless to diagnose. Could have done it in the parking lot at the university, but alas, you live and you learn. I'm looking forward to a bunch of drives before they salt the roads here and enjoying the nice fall weather.

Due for an update. Had a fun time at the British Field Day in Salt Lake City. Two Caterhams there in addition to my Birkin. I helped set up the "Race Course" with a good friend and experienced autocrosser to allow a course that flowed a lot better than last year, the main requirement was we needed to keep the average speed below 25 mph. I had the fastest time of the day by the end, narrowly jumping ahead of my friend in his Bugeye Sprite according to the "old man timing system" that was a gentleman doing the stopwatch on his phone. I calculated the average speed of my fast time to be 21.03 mph. Mission accomplished!

I suggest going with the R888Rs if you want to maintain a grippy tire in the same size. Another option is moving up to 195 width tires which opens up a couple of Falken tires that would both be adequate replacements for your Star Specs.

I also participated yesterday and today in a two-day charity car show in the town I live in. Last year I had to choose between the Utah British Field Day event and this one, but to my benefit British Field Day is next weekend so I will be able to attend both. Mostly classic American cars, but I had a nice neighboring Austin Mini and a Midget a couple of cars down that brought a British vibe to our side of the show. Imagine what it would be like if all cars were about this size, instead of the 8000 lb behemoths that are commonplace nowadays.

My friend's shop was home to some lovely cars. I only took pictures of the two that were in the shop, but in addition to the Bugeye Sprite and 914 below, there was also another Bugeye, a first gen Camaro, a Nissan Skyline GTR R32, and a nice E36 M3 sedan.

Overdue for an update. Spent a bunch of time working on the cooling system, which you can read about in this thread. Long story short, the car runs a little hotter than I would like, but the cooling system seems to be operating correctly. Once that was sorted, it was time to get the suspension dialed in and some new tires (finally!). A friend of mine offered to help me do a string alignment at his shop and mount my new tires, so I loaded up to drive a couple of counties over to where he lives. I saw at least one person taking a video of me driving down the interstate like this We were able to fairly easily get the specs I wanted. End result! Decided to go with -2.0 degrees of camber in the front, -1.6 degrees in the rear, and zero toe all around. As mentioned in an earlier post, the intention with these specs is to try and dial out the understeer. Initial drives show little change on turn-in characteristics, but the front end has more grip once the suspension is loaded in a corner. I'll need to take it to an autocross to really tell, and I'm excited about the new tires as well. I went with Kumho V730s, 205/50r15 front and rear. I love the nearly semi-slick look, and I think they will be much better than the Bridgestones from 2018.

From what I've seen the thermostat is integrated into the housing, so the whole housing is replaced. It sits on the left side of the engine near the front, and is thankfully really easy to replace. It's more work to drain the coolant than replace the housing. 210-215 °F is still safe, but my preference is to keep the coolant temps closer to 200. Maybe I'm fretting too much over 15°, but I can imagine that in 95° heat cruising down the 1+ kilometer front straight of my local track I will probably see even higher temperatures. Yes on 50/50 coolant and a pressure cap.