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I attended the Porsche track school at Barber and it included a far too brief tour of the museum. It does indeed have quite a collection of Lotus vehicles of all kinds, from early cars to 7s to F1 and Indy cars. It claims to be the largest Lotus race car collection in the world.

I sssoooooo craved one of those back in the 70's. Couldn't afford it, ended up with a Cortina GT. Sorry to have missed you.

Fun day, cool cars. (I left before they rolled the 'Tourist Trophy' cars outside for Demo Day.) Here are the 7's, or nearly so: Here is the latest addition to the collection, unveiled for the first time today -- Lotus 30 with 289 Ford power:

Saturday is actually looking better. Bad stuff is holding off until late in the day.

I live roughly an hour west of the museum and have been there several times. It's worth a visit even if they weren't currently filling the hall with Lotus history. Dr. Simeone was far ahead of his time in desiring to preserve race cars rather than restore them, and the collection just drips with authenticity. As for the Lotus contingent, Ray of R.D. Enterprises fame will have his Elan there, maybe also his Lotus Cortina? That said, the weather Saturday is supposed to be atrocious! I wanted to attend but will have to wait and see.

Those mounts do look a bit longer than the ones in the picture below, which is from this thread: https://usa7s.net/ips/topic/15043-ford-kent-engine-dry-sump-mount-bracket/ However I wonder if that difference is due to block width. My understanding is that there are various widths in Kent blocks. Also I doubt it is a 6 inch move even if they are longer; to move the block that far back and still clear the oil pump, there would need to be a pretty big curve in the tubing.

Good heavens! I'd be tempted to change the valve cover just to get a cap that is more securely attached. From what I've learned so far while trying to stop oil leaks on my twincam, Kent engines are well known for blowing oil out of the crankcase. Twink folks even add a breather on the valve cover to give the pressure someplace to go (catch can). Doesn't seem to matter how well the piston rings seal because even the top engine builders will add that breather. Or I guess they could be building intentionally loose engines... All that said, if this car has PCV it should at least be giving all that pressure someplace to go besides the catch can, which leads me to believe there is something wrong with the PCV side of things.

What I think of when I see a BAC Mono:

My engine builder recommends the following sequence. In 30 years of engine building it has never let him down. DO NOT prefill the oil filter. He is convinced that creates a pocket of air on both sides of the filter, which is bad. Turn the key to start the engine but shut it off the moment the engine catches. Repeat until oil pressure is seen on gauge/light/whatever. Should take no more than 4-5 repeats.

Seller also has a Lotus Elan and Lotus 23 in the auction. Recommended only for the strong of stomach.

Original-Owner Westfield SEiGHT https://bringatrailer.com/listing/1998-westfield-seight-3/

That looks beastly. You're not far from NJMP...

Also hijacking. I used to work in the garage at a dairy, on trucks that delivered milk. Yes I'm that old apparently. We inherited a 1967 International from an acquired dairy. All of the wires in the entire truck were black, with numbers painted on the ends in white. It wasn't funny at the time...

Or perhaps for the OBDII crowd, PIWIS is bliss...

You need CAD.

That link does not specify whether or not that person's axle has the flat reinforcing plate (indicated in red) running lenghtwise across the back of the housing. Are axles with that plate also affected?

Wow, I just left everyone hanging. I guess the siren call of the Elan was too strong. That is turning into a real rabbit hole. I have zero information on the seats. I've never seen any like them in any other Caterham. There's also a fiberglass race shell that is even more cramped than these seats. I doubt I'll ever use it, so if you have any interest let me know. I never did look for a spare tire bung. My tendency would be to cut the tire loop off altogether if I'm honest. As for the dry sump, there are more pictures earlier in this thread, plus there's a video on youtube showing everything pretty thoroughly. I'm happy to post specific stuff if you let me know what you are focusing on. Here's a funny story -- I may have accidentally bought a LSD for the Elan. A few years ago when I first got the 7 I was scouring eBay for stuff and came across what was being advertised as a "Cortina limited-slip differential". I bought it, thinking I could put it in the 7, assuming that everything in the 7 was Ford. Ooops. Well, now I have a car with a Ford rear, and the LSD might fit! I'm going to take it with me when I visit Don Butler for the strut tube replacement work. If you are planning a conversion I may have some stuff you can use. I'll put together a list and take some pictures. I assume your oil tank will be on the LH side somewhere, which would leave room on the RH side for the catch can I bought but can't use. I have some other bits too that might work for you.

I wouldn't discount finding a TR7 rear axle in the US. Triumph was selling 20,000+ cars per year in the US during that time. Not all of them were TR7s of course, but I worked at a BLMC dealership at the time and they sold quite a few.

Did they add lightness?

My car is a '95 and still has the Ital axle, so that may have been what was in the car originally. OP does mention "Ford 9 inch", which if so does lend itself to the car having been given a HP upgrade. Agreed that pics would help. (If it really is a Ford 9 inch rear, I am dying to find out how those wheels were fitted...) Snap some pics of the transmission while you're under there!

Am I the only one picturing the parts manager staring at the procurement guy and saying, "You ordered 1,000? Oh, great, you got a discount! But what in the bloody h*ll are we going to do with 1,000 badges?!?"

You've probably heard this before but you are likely giving up some performance with an air cleaner that shallow. There can't be much in the way of velocity stacks under there, and what stacks there are will be very close to the outer cover. I'd be tempted to find a domed unit that would allow air in over a larger surface area, particularly directly in front of the carb throats.

On BaT -- Original-Owner Westfield SEi Super Seven https://bringatrailer.com/listing/westfield-sei-super-seven/

I think "flared" = clamshell.

I have to admit to having a tear in my eye as I read about the terrible Weber carburetors. Ever since I was a teenager I craved having one (Mini Cooper) or two (MGB with crossflow head) hanging off the side of the engine under the hood of my car. Yes they're fiddly. But when they're on -- as I have the great good fortune to experience in my Caterham (thanks Al!) -- they are just sublime. And they look like nothing else ever has or ever will in an engine compartment. I now find myself with three pairs of them and I intend to keep them all. My Weber education awaits! That having been said, and I might be a bit daft saying this, but I've always found SU carbs to be the simplest way to feed fuel, and about as hard to set up as falling out of bed. Get the right needle in there, fiddle with linkage balance if you have more than one, and off you go. Keep the dampers topped up every couple of weeks. If I ever find myself fed up with Webers, I will look into replacing them with SU's.