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:

Haha, indeed, which is why I asked about shipping. Depending on the cost to ship, my hopefully-not-too-unreasonable offer would be to cover shipping cost plus some extra on top for your time and effort. Full disclaimer I'm considering this very casually. I have one seat that has some minor cracking in the fiberglass, but it's on the passenger side now and not a high priority to fix/replace. But if I can get a bargain priced Kirkey that was already mounted in a Birkin....

I'm in the greater Salt Lake City area.

Are you looking for local pickup only, or would you be interested in shipping it?

It is no longer for sale. I had the privilege of purchasing it last summer.

For continuity and reference for anyone else with similar problems, I'll keep any further updates regarding the bogging/hesitation issues I first experienced in the other thread I started: But I did want to share the dyno results here. It's not the most powerful car I've owned, nor is it much compared to many of the other 7's on the forum, but it makes for a great power to weight ratio and I figure it's not too bad for nearly a mile above sea-level. I don't foresee trying to get more power out of it, but rather I'd like to give my Birkin a weight-loss treatment. I'm planning on removing the windshield washer reservoir, getting a lighter battery, some smaller/lighter headlights, and possibly even removing the windshield wipers/motor and the heater core with its associated plumbing. I'd like to get the car as close to 1200 lbs as possible. Oh, and one other quirk with this car: the throttle cable is actually a bicycle brake cable with the barrel style cable end filed down to fit in the lever for the throttle bodies. I can't imagine that's standard equipment on these cars....

Thanks Croc. I'm the third owner of the car. The first used it for autocross, but the second had no intent to race it, and thus had it aligned to very conservative street specs. I plan on road use, ~10 autocross events/year, and the occasional track day. Autocrossing the car was a learning experience. I only did one event with the car to give it an initial shake-down, knowing that some major changes needed to happen before the final setup and tuning can take place. The car came with Bridgestone RE71R tires from 2018 with about 4k miles of street use. Tons of tread, not a lot of grip. I also still need to get the seating position just right. I'm not a tall person and find the reach to the brakes and shifter just slightly too far. Takeaways from that one autocross event are as follows: First, the car was severely lacking front grip. The amount of understeer was honestly very surprising, but makes a lot of sense considering the front camber was set to -0.5 degrees, the rear sway bar was on the softest setting, and the car likely has a rear weight bias with a driver (I'm guessing here though...). Looking at the photos from the event shows a good bit of roll on the rear of the car. The plan to address this is to start with an alignment with the following specs, and then fine tune with the rear sway bar, shocks, and tire pressures to get the handling just right. Any input on the alignment would be appreciated. Front Camber: -2.5 degrees Toe: 1/16th inch Toe out Caster: ?? As positive as possible ?? Rear Camber: -1.5 degrees Toe: Zero 20 mm rake Second takeaway was the complete inability to trail-brake without the car trying to spin. My initial thought was brake bias, and subsequent testing confirmed the rear brakes locking before the fronts. I like to be able to carry some speed into a corner, having been brought up in the school of momentum-management with all those years in an underpowered Miata, so making sure the Birkin doesn't want to enter the corner backwards is a key point to address. There are two master cylinders and a bias bar for the brakes, so I'll be asking for some advice on best practices for adjusting brake bias later on. Third takeaway was the definite need for some better tires. I'm interested in hearing other's thoughts and experiences with autocrossing their 7's and tires that they've used. As I'm looking to primarily autocross versus track time, I've been looking for tires that turn on quickly, especially considering the lack of mass with the Birkin. I came across a handy guide from Grassroots Motorsports that has helped me in learning about the current tire market: https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/articles/track-tire-buyers-guide/ My conclusion, considering my budget for tires (which isn't much) and knowing I'm going to be underprepped for my class and thus not competitive, is to get the Kuhmo Ecsta V730 in 205/50r15 for both front and rear. Supposedly turns on fast, wears well, and is not too far behind the fastest tires, while also being more affordable, checks all the boxes for me. Anyone have any experience with these tires on their 7? I'm also hoping moving up to 205's from 195's on the front will also help with the understeer.

Time to start a thread about my journey with my car as I prepare for really diving into owning my 2009 Birkin S3. My journey started about 20 years ago as a car-obsessed youth, memorizing statistics but having no idea what it's actually like to drive a car. I remember reading about the Caterham R500, smitten by the idea of a car that can do 0-100-0 mph faster than almost anything. Unaware at the time, but in hindsight very clear, the ethos of 7's has been central in what I find enjoyable in driving. Fast forward to my early 20's, I bought a cherry '96 Mazda Miata from my next-door neighbor, that over the next nine years turned it from a completely unmolested street-car to a barely-legal autocross machine. Before its demise it was about 1950 lbs, with 108 whp from a stock 1.8L, and was just a blast to drive at autocross, despite being grossly underpowered. Unfortunately I was one of those poor souls that had a major accident at an autocross event and crashed the car head-on in a 2.5 ft square concrete block. The car stopped in about 10 ft; the concrete block went about 40 ft. That event led to trying out a couple of other cars over the next few years: a '99 Miata and a supercharged Subaru BRZ. Neither car possessed the same character as that first Miata. The NB was too slow, the BRZ was too big and lazy. I missed the rawness of that the NA, and after much pondering and introspection, I realized that yearning wasn't necessarily for something with more power, but something with less weight. Coming full circle back to my childhood, suddenly the idea of getting a 7 was forefront in my mind. I started searching the market to discover that Caterhams were out of my reach. I tossed the idea around of building an Exocet or other Miata-based kit car, but with two young kids.... that wasn't going to happen. I joined the forum and started lurking and learning, and discovered that Birkins are very similar to Caterhams, but without the "name-brand" price. Then, after seeing a car for sale here on the forum, a chance to drive a 7 here in Utah (thanks @kayentaskier!), a couple of trips down to Las Vegas, and a year later, I purchased the 2009 Birkin S3 seen above. It has a 2.0L Duratec with Crower Cams and ITB's, and thankfully was fairly easy to get registered in Utah. I've put almost 800 miles on it in the last six months, and have some key takeaways that I'll address in subsequent posts: Autocrossing it showed some shortcomings; needs an alignment, tires, damper and sway-bar adjustment, and brake bias adjusted The engine was not happy at the higher elevation in Utah; ended up getting it dyno tuned. Better but not perfect Going to address some maintenance items: fluids, harnesses, new wideband O2 Thinking about maybe getting some new seats?? Going to use the original roll bar and windshield primarily, while keeping the roll cage the car came with for track use. Plan is to remove the windshield from the roll cage and make an aeroscreen. Thanks for reading, look for more posts in the coming days/months as I learn more about the car, and enjoy a few more pictures of the car and from my first autocross with it.

I barely made it into the 80's (born in '89). With the performance capabilities of modern cars, plus all the luxury, convenience, and weatherproofing, I'm not surprised that more people of my generation and younger aren't purchasing 7's. That and the cost of entry is pretty steep unless one buys a non-Caterham 7 (like I did). Why buy an expensive car with little more practicality than a motorcycle when I can get a car that is faster, quieter, easier to drive, more comfortable in every way, and decently practical?? My answer is because I was specifically looking to get away from all the comforts and conveniences that make modern cars so large and heavy, looking for something that was fast because of its inherent lightness rather than having 600 hp, and looking for a raw and undiluted driving experience. Oh, and I have always thought modern 7s are awesome since I found out about them as a kid.

I purchased my Birkin in June, and since then recorded 734 miles between my wife and me. With winter looming I probably wont get many more chances to drive it before spring. The plan for 2024 is to get it dialed in for auto-x and track duty and put a lot more than 700 miles on the car.

Ah, you went without me! I'm bummed the weather didn't cooperate for when we were planning our drive. You can always feel free to send me an impromptu text message if you are wanting to drive and would like some company. Let's definitely find a time this week. Cheers, Gregory