wdb

I'm not an insurance expert, nor do I play one on TV. In my experience my insurance company pays me, and then they go after the other guy.

Meanwhile on the east coast I managed to exercise the 7 in between Saturday's road-salt-cleansing rain and Sunday's snow squalls. Drove it all of 20 minutes, froze my face off.

Are your wheels hub centric?

I have two cars with antique tags in PA. Rules sound about the same. I drive them when and where I want, the exception being that I don't drive them at night. Knock wood, never had a problem.

"Fast enough to scare the s**t out of you, guaranteed." Maybe not in pure acceleration or straight line speed, but there are other ways...

"What's a Cat-Er-Ham? Never heard of it..." Even google pronounces it that way, at least for us yanks. Okay, I give up. It's a Lotus.

Regarding what might have been done to the engine, here are some links to 948 engine mod discussions. It is important to determine exactly when any race prep took place because some of the stuff discussed is from later engines, which may or may not have existed when your engine was prepped. https://board.mmoc.org.uk/viewtopic.php?t=71367 https://www.ahexp.com/forum/the-sprite-forum.6/mild-tuning-for-948cc-engine.197511/ https://www.mgexp.com/forum/mg-midget-forum.3/a-series-rebore.1232128/

I'm not having any luck finding the 1962 SCCA class specifications, but from what I have been able to see a 948cc engine would put the car in F, G or H Production classes. Given the tendency of governing bodies to put the 7 in classes above its engine displacement it would probably be best to look for the car, rather than the engine size, to determine where it may have been classed. For example a Lotus 7 won the C Production national championship in 1962, which I believe had engine sizes above 2 liters.

803, 848, 947, 948, 970, 997, 998, 1070, 1097, 1098, 1275, but who's counting...

You are correct on the shift lever location. It will come out just under the edge of the dash. My car originally had a long lever that was bent to clear the lower edge of the dashboard. It worked but one had to watch one's fingers. I wanted to cut it off but I wanted to be able to reverse the process if the shortened lever turned out to be too much of a reach. (I will tell you now that shift levers for that tail housing are VERY hard to find.) But it works just fine as a little stubby under the dash. It feels like a long reach at first but I got used to it very quickly. All that said, I am contemplating putting the shifter extension back in the car. More details and pictures on that, and on the lever lopping itself, can be found here:

That looks like the gearbox in my 7. Here is a picture of the gearbox, bell housing, and twincam engine. Sorry I don't have casting numbers for you. The car is laid up for the winter and getting dimensions etc. would be tough as well. But if they'd be helpful I can give it a go. As far as the gearbox is concerned, it's definitely a Ford unit of some kind, very closely related to the Elan gearbox. I used an Elan gasket set and seals when I resealed mine. The innards are just like the other 3 rail gearboxes as well. It's the tailshaft that differentiates it from, say, an Elan gearbox.

My experience with Hagerty isn't great but one thing I did learn is that what they will cover seems to vary by agent as well as region. It really makes me wonder.

The Lotus Elan folks are pretty big on having the suspension arms parallel to the ground. Using a measure such as suspension arm angle eliminates tire size as a variable.

They must be for different versions of the carburetor. They each have 5 holes but not in the same place. I think you will figure out which one fits your carb pretty quickly.

No patterns but lots of pics in this thread.

Barber Motorsports Park is a BEAUTIFUL location, and a great track! I did a 2 day Porsche class there. I'm jealous of you doing it in a 7. I hope you saved time for the museum, it is a must-see.

Superformance S-1 on BaT: https://bringatrailer.com/listing/2001-superformance-s1-3/

There's a fellow on the Elan forum who decided to try this because his Webers were acting up. He quickly became overwhelmed. It's doable, but it is not as simple as bolting on throttle bodies. Which is what I think the other fellow may have had in mind when he chose the path! Fuel system changes, sensors for control, an ECU, wiring... it adds up. That said, I believe there are kits that can get you pretty much everything you need, and I would love to follow along if you decide to take the plunge.

Closure, ish. The shipper and I finally threw our hands up in the air with trying to deal with UPS's byzantine bureaucratic bullsh*t and agreed that I should refuse delivery of the item. So I did. The part continued to just sit there, on some shelf or whatever, at the nearby UPS depot. A few more lengthy wait times on the phone yielded the arcane methodology to make UPS actually return the part to the sender. Which they did. When the shipper received the original part he immediately dispatched another one, this time using some type of code that indicated it was a replacement for a defective unit. Here's a dose of irony for you -- no tariff. The UPS guy arrived and just handed me the box, without asking for any payments. All good, right? Almost. UPS still considers me as owing them the substantial and incorrect original tariff amount. Plus late fees. So some of the saga continues.

I inherited cheapo 13" all-season tires when I got my 1995 S3. They hold the car up just fine and are a hoot to toss around. I'm sure a high performance tire like the Toyo etc. would provide a whole heap more traction though. The problem with both of them is how they affect my eye. The Toyo etc. look sexy and fast and capable, but (to my eye) look more modern than the car. The cheapie all-seasons look like all-seasons, which don't fit the obvious sporting character of the car. For the sake of my eye I am leaning towards a set of classic Pirelli Cinturatos, which come in 185/70VR14 size. Link below is from Lucas Tire, from whom I have ordered and had good results. Others may sell them as well. https://lucasclassictires.com/tires/185-70vr14-pirelli-cinturato-cn36/

I pulled the transmission on my S3 after reading somewhere online that it was possible. It's possible. Don't do it. I ended up separating the bell housing from the transmisison case in situ, then finagling and wrangling very heavy hunks of iron that were dangling precariously above my physical self, all while the engine hung from a sling contraption that was not as confidence inspiring as it should have been. After all of that I knew there was no way in hell it was going to be a reversible process. Pulling the engine and transmission together is a far simpler task.

Size 9.5, Euro 43, and I need skinny shoes to properly drive the Caterham and Elan. Yes I can operate the pedals in bigger shoes, but I have to do stuff such as depressing the clutch pedal before hitting the brake pedal so I have enough room. I also adjusted the pedal locations in the Cat to make it better for heel/toe. I concur with the opinion that if you don't need racing shoes, don't buy racing shoes. There are also a lot of regular 'driving' shoes that cost more than they should. I found a pair of lightweight trail running shoes a few years ago that work great. They are very form fitting, the heel is nicely curved, and they're dark gray so it doesn't look like I'm wearing advertisements on my feet. (Maybe that's just me.) They're also a good enough shoe that I can wear them all day in comfort. Sadly I can't find them again lately.

The dimensions are in one of the pictures. 34.53" lengthwise, 4.33" in height (including bracket).

Those wheels need to go. I'd be willing to take them off your hands...

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