slowdude

My car is still being worked on at machine shop, but I'll bring tools, and some spare dust seals and bearing grease for people to use. I have some brake fluid as well, and a Flux welder.

NJMP always has a wierd weather bubble around it too.

Echoing croc, looking at sport bike i4's, they have peaky powerbands and lower torque to HP ratio. You'd get your 16k rpm, but there might be other engines which can provide that RPM sound. Regarding the weight of the car.. I've always thought a motorcycle I6 would be great. Benelli sei / Honda cbx / bmw k1600. They're all used for pushing 5-700 pound bikes, they have significant power and displacement etc.

Welcome, if it's a BDA, sheesh. I'm jealous. Since you're a machinist, nothing here will be hard to work on. I'm an excel loser and I still have figured out how to do some work on the car. They're a blast and welcome!

Camshaft seals came in this evening.. going to machine shop tomorrow. Hopefully they were also able to get the piston rings in, then it's just assemble and easy for green run. Worst case I'll have tools and extra jack.

I'm dumb and wrote in the 2022 thread. Engine is still in pieces and I'm harassing the shop on a daily basis to make progress. Hoping to at least drive down and run support for ya'll, not sure if I should be breaking a new head in on the track.

Engine is still out.... hoping to keep progress going. May not be a good way to break in new valves on the track so I may drive down for the day and run support for people etc.

I see 8-10% of every step class as women. On the motorcycle side, it's significantly less. Can't say if this area is a higher or lower percentage than the national average though.

Agree with you on some points, especially the risk of a starting your own company and having a safety net come from a world of privilege. You're spot on with some people being in corporate dealerships that aren't wired to work in those sorts of systems. I think the greater situation is that there are too many people in the world and society/powers that be are forcing people into boxes they're not made for (and never will be). Why do you mention troubleshooting and repair as non-capitalistic? I see the current replace mentality due to a few things. I'd just like to understand your thought process, not poking you, it's an interesting thought. I have a a few thoughts from what I've seen working in industry. 1. Customers do not want to spend more money than they feel they need to. 2. Vehicles (especially modern cars), are designed more to be replaced at the dealership, with large parts being reconditioned on the OEM side of things. So the new transmission I just had put in a 10 year old BMW, was actually a reconditioned transmission. Dealerships run lean because they're designed to pump throughput. 3. Dealerships, while charging a lot for the customer pay, trickle very little down to the actual service tech, which is why they go elsewhere. 4. Techs are paid hourly, but the dealer job is paid by the task. if another dealership is offering a few dollars more an hour, and the foreman at the shop is a PITA, you'll lose talent. The system isn't made for them.

I was on the fence with Greg, problem is he is 6 hours from me. I can't pop into the shop and check on the work. The shop I found in greater NYC area is predominantly a Lotus Elise shop, but knows the K series. It's been really touch and go but it seems more of an oldschool shop where I needed to check in and prod. The prodding is starting to work, engine should hopefully be back together this week. (Hopefully).

Step program is a good program but a lot of the guys go back to dealerships where service writers/advisors need training. The motorcycle market is even harder. We are paying $2,500 a head for a tech to go to a dealership after the STEP classes. Very hard to find talent out there. Combine it with a dealer network that can't get out of its own way (realistic estimates, charging full pop on parts instead of working with the customer to build a dealership base), and you get a lot of turnover.

We struggle to find qualified students to go through OEM training, where we literally pay for everything except room and board. You can come out and write your ticket at a dealership. I fear (and I am still young, in my early 30s), that many younger than I are too fixated on the "get rich quick hustle grindset" mentality I see permeating social media, precluding a long setup for a successful well earning career. Back to caterhams though, it's been a bit of a nightmare to find a good caterham shop in the metro NYC area. Valves should be in today, then bringing to the shop this afternoon, hopefully the head will get back together this week, then tested out the week after for the 10/15 date.

I regged on property I have in another state as I am RHD. You have the MSO from Birkin as it was never titled correct? It shouldn't be too bad. Really depends on which DMV you go to. I'd imagine emissions and inspection would be harder..

@TobyinNJI'm up by Morristown. There's an orange 360 in bergen County I've been trying to find. If my engine ever gets put back together, I've got some good roads in the Butler area we can get together for, if you're not too far away.

Hey All, Took the radius arms off the cat with the expectation they were bad. I'm trying to find projects while I wait for my engine work to be done, so I dug into the old radius arms. I ground off the majority of the grungy stuff with a wire wheel and then hit with some rust barrier paint. Free to good home, welds looked good, will need bushings. Idk if I'd throw them on track, but should be fine for road use. Will have them at the event in October.

Hoping for you too!

Awesome, I'm still at the shop and need the time to do some more suspension work and verify the head is OK. Looking forward to this!

Did you book on sight? Just coming back to this now. I may bring a tent and earplugs and sleep in the tow rig. I'll probably bring a stove and some food in a cooler and do a small breakfast for myself. NJMP is a great track and very curious to see how a 7 handles it. I just have to replace my A arm once I pick the car up from having the head work done, so should be on track.

You had good comments, curious to see what they come back with. Seller also mentioned corrosion but no pictures. I would have expected pictures of the a frame mounts (was a surprise for me there too).

https://www.softbitsshop.co.uk/the-half-hood-classic---includes-storage-bag-820-p.asp The easy in zips are what you want. Here's a screnshot of it.

Marine vinyl would make sense due to weather concerns no? Certainly ok getting occasionally wet. Nice job!

Softbits has a half top with a zip cutout, it looks like it has solved the solution to what MV8 has indicated. Last winter I had it out (before salt), and the roof up and doors on with a heater and it was quite toasty.

@rider. Glad there is another biker on here. The checks you do before each ride (chain, tires, charging etc), will still have to be done on the caterham. Regarding the work and simplicity- I'm an excel nerd and I've been able to do a lot of work with with a $100 craftsman tool set and some NAPA jack stands. You'd be surprised how easy it is. As many have said, you'll have to learn quickly how to adjust things. I keep a spare tool kit and fluids in my car just in case. I figure each winter, something will come up which needs addressing, so plan to do certain items as they come up. These are very similar to an older motorcycle in that they need constant loving, otherwise they become a bit petulant. Thankfully, parts and consumables are cheap. Full brakes (calipers pads rotors) ran me $700 or so and a few weekends of slow going. It's certainly doable.

If you get the chance, try and watch a California Superbike school video on YouTube. While the vehicles are different, the logic is the same. Target fixation on a motorcycle typically means hitting something, so setting your angle / trajectory through the corner before the corner, keeping your eyes up will help keep the car in the lane. Staring at the center line means you'll run it over. Another item I like to carry over is throttle-> smooth throttle through the corner to avoid upsetting suspension (and grip). I'm a bit wierd so take from this what you want. It's like riding a motorcycle. No one sees you, defensive driving is a requisite: lane positioning as many have mentioned to optimize what little visibility we have. I've found with the 600 or so miles I've put on the car, the RHD gets a bit easier. I stay close to the shoulder of the lane, by default the car is a lot smaller than the lane, so I know I have minimum 3 feet from my front left wheel and the center stripes. The toughest part I am having are left hand turns, not because the steering is on the right, but due to how low and long the car is. Need to nose out. Again, very similar to a motorcycle where you need to be very cautious with all intersections. Another youtuber to check out is Dan the Fireman. He does a lot of analysis of poor motorcycle riding, but his threat evaluation of dangerous situations can really help -> I always am cautious in intersections etc.

Update, replaced plugs, ran liquimoly engine flush+ new filter. Put new oil in +marvel and the engine is a bit quieter. Quieter to notice the the rear a arm bushings need to be replaced. On a side note, I'm burning oil a little bit under heavy acceleration (4k and above). Cheap $20 amazon boroscope is showing some gnarly carbon build up. Send photos to engine builder, he said pistons look good, so reccomended valve stem seals. He's sending me an emerald K6 with some tunes as well, as I am stumbling at idle with the rover MEMS, then I can run diagnostics. This weekends plan is a leak down test to confirm suspicions. Then it's just new tappets, head gasket, valve stems and getting the car to the mechanic. I'm hoping I can get the car buttoned up while I am overseas, so it's ready when I am back in August.