slowdude

There are still some out there? Tough part is having to pay. I scored one cheap and have to do some rust work. There is always a trade off.

I'm penciling in MSNE March 19th for an autocross to dial the work in I've done over the winter in a lower risk environment than the track. @NSXguy, Jason is bring his Delta.

Quick update. Got an abrasive wheel (thanks to @MV8's reccomendation) which was much gentler. Touched up some spots with POR15. Will go back and get some more in a bit. Still waiting on redline to ship upgraded spindles. Rear brakes are on their way from bigg red.

Are the commodores similar to the Lotus Carlton via the GM connection in the 80s? Ever since I had an M340i w/ a straight six I've been drawn to the Australian Holdens and Fords. I love the idea of something that is RWD, a super stout straight six and a fairly boring lookong sedan. Add to that the bizarro world that is the domestic Australian auto industry and I am patiently waiting for 2005+ commodores or falcons to be eligible. I'm absolutely fascinated by the Barra engine. Very cool car to see stateside, let alone in NJ!

Hey All, Anyone have a pair of front hubs? I'm an idiot and took a chunk out of one of the hubs trying to separate for a rotor. I've seen spitfire hubs on ebay, but cannot seem to find the exact one for the caterham.. caterham looks like they lightened theirs? -An Idiot (Charlie)

I was able to commute to work a few times ~ 70 miles round trip with the weather in the mid 30s. With the roof up and the back window open and heater on, I was plenty warm. Apparently the de-dion has a deeper trunk than the live axles (I haven't compared), but I am able to store a work bag + small motorcycle tool kit + jump box + misc oil / radiator hose / gear oil and still have plenty of space in the trunk. The car is surprisingly practical. With the roof up and doors on, getting in is a bit of a challenge, but I am pretty short so it works out. Regarding visibility, the 3rd brake light is a must. I find with the roof up I still do not have the visibility I like. I picked up some awning fabric and velcro from Jo-Ann fabric last weekend. I'd like to make some 3M reflective straps which I can velcro over the rear roll bar which will provide some reflective visibility. I will probably do the same on the front cycle wings, or something of the sort as the nose visibility can be tough for the average driver. The cat 7 is maybe marginally more difficult than my Z4... at the end of the day it's a roadster, if you're used to the confines of a small coupe, you won't be as shocked. I think a lot of the commentary I watched and read online about the car being small is true, but there seems to be some hyperbole for YouTube views too.

The new Supra / Z4 platform is truly underrated. I loved mine. Rumor is the Z4 was designed as the last non M-BMW vert to be the pinnacle of handling/power. I think they were targeting mid 7s on the ring for the car. Apparently it was an outgoing board members swan song.. I'm glad he did it as it channels a lot of the older BMW spirit without being too much in your face.

Hey All, Part of my refresh project is a new de dion tube plus some other misc rear suspension parts. Josh is going to order them. I'm paying for shipping to NJ, so If anyone also wants to have their parts thrown in with mine, I'm happy to forward them on from NJ/ we meet up halfway if it's cost effective for you. -Charlie

The NJ slide is infuriating. I felt safer riding a motorcycle in NYC for 3 years as a daily vs a week of driving the turnpike. I'm not sure what it is with drivers here.

His instagram is where the heat is! I saw him do the caterham and was like OK, maybe I can do this... fast forward a month and he has the cossie taken apart etc. He's a machine!

You need to share your carb tuning setup. I should put a sensor like that in on mine.

Sorry to hear about your loss. Covid seemed to really accelerate for a lot of people, the difficult issues we do not want to face, but know we will have to. I hope your sweet wagon gives you some fond memories of the brief time you were taking your parents around with it. Wagons are awesome. I had the chance to get a diesel manual 3series wagon for a company car years ago and still kick myself for not being able to get it. Long roofs are indeed awesome. Throw a hitch onto it for a lightweight trailer and you're golden.

Checking into it too. Looks like I should be able to get it. Dez there is a friend referral program. If we both sign up early and use the refer a friend, we can get $100 off the day. I am assuming HPDE1, so will need a second harness. Going through their tech info at work now.

Absolutely agreed. I'm waiting for confirmation on my suspension order and will pull everything then clean and POR. Thank you for the heads up on the grease. Just a light coating you think?

Topic one: Frame mounts and rust. After the drive from the port of NJ, I threw it up on jack stands in my garage and noted some gunk on the rear frame mounts. Being ever cautious, I grabbed a wire wheel and some POR15.. thankfully a lot of the crud in the first picture was just that, crud. In the second photo, I was able to find good metal underneath.. which is a huge sigh of relief. My plans to track this car would result in a bigger amount of work to be done. So far I am cautiously optimistic! Goal is to get the rear suspension pieces and brakes and then start replacing bits.

Hey All, Figured I'd document some surprises and minor repairs. Saw some similar pages so I won't document some of the plans. Please give me direct feedback if I am doing something wrong etc. It can only help. Background on the car: GBP crashed in Sept, and I took about 15k out of the market in August, so this was my end of honeymoon/wedding gift to myself (came back in early September). I had been looking at cars in the US for almost two years, lurking on posts etc. I came across a de dion for an affordable price and shipped it over. In hindsight I'd probably have someone else check it, but I figured it couldn't be too bad. So far it has not been.

Do you know how much these usually run? I'd do a day or two that weekend. If someone wants a crew to wrench I'd be happy to help. I'm no master mechanic but simple things I can replace etc.

Thanks Dez, Was just going to post a winter build assistance thread. I figure if people need an extra set of hands to do work on their 7, a few minds are better than none on the complex tasks. Maybe we can start up something like that. I do know a coworker has an S4 7 that he needs help with the rear end on, so I may use the 2nd garage space at my place to do two rear ends at once. I've also got a parts list going to Rocky Mountain Caterham & Demon Tweaks so if anyone is looking to order parts, we can pool and save somewhat on shipping.

It's OK if it's an ex racer driven on the street! No one will look down on you for it.. honestly, leaving it as is and street driving it is more awesome -> you're honoring the car's past. I was able to track down the original owner of my car. He had a few stories and pictures of how he took it to the 24 hours of Lemans with 3 other 7 owners. These cars are so bizzare, they have taken on lives of their own, and that's OK. These cars acquire stories of their own, and will probably live past our lives when taken care of. Don't worry about judgement, as a fellow 7 owner, I'd be super happy seeing that on the road.

The people on this forum are awesome. They put up with my intensity / dumb questions constantly so don't feel bad. We are all learning. I went to staples today and printed out the assembly manual for the car.. that wouldn't have been possible without this group of people scanning and uploading etc.

YOURE SPEAKING MY LANGUAGE! I'm far from an actuary, the only thing this is giving me so far is a run rate / average sale count / average listing. All I can illustrate with some certainty is buying season, ie when in theory a 7 should be listed. I started going through and looking at how long the cars are listed for until time of sale. Next step might be price sensitivity- x% or dollar drop until time of sale. Again, this is suuuper elementary compared to your knowledge. In suppose in theory we could look at per period average sale price. Part of the issue as you have noted is quality of data. How do I quantify I wanted a de-dion in green but has the 5 speed instead of a 6 speed? There still isn't enough data. Was my 16k k series worth it when I have some rust repair to do? Does a clean registration have more value? We will never get clean enough data. Look forward to catching up with yall at one of the events and learning from the forum. There is so much knowledge here.

Carvana/Carmax are big indicators for the used car market. If they're buying, the OEMs assume customer demand is strong. I've been keeping an eye on late model Lotus/German cars. Given the stock market performance, these two may be looking to jettison inventory they have bulked up on by lowering prices. Less inventory carrying costs = reduced margin erosion for these big brands. Customer demand has subsided due to interest rate hikes (no shock), so overall the broader market is cooling. Coming back to 7's-> they're very similar to the high end motorcycle market. They're unnecessary to the majority of the population, expensive and impractical. In theory, the buyers of 7s will remain hungry for these vehicles due to the niche nature of the vehicles. I can say that during the last recession, expensive motorcycle sales remained flat. I'd say the average 7's buyer has some form of higher education, thus being more financially successful in a "traditional" sense. Of course there are outliers, but the barrier to entry in the 7 community is quite high. I certainly wouldnt be in it if the GBP did not crash to historic lows, and I grabbed maybe 95% of what I had been looking for a year/year and a half. People who want 7's will buy them. If you have 35k cash to buy a 7, you're doing pretty good in my book to buy a 7. Using the comparison to the motorcycle market (niche, expensive, impractical, but a riot), there is definitely a seasonality curve to the 7 prices, bulk up of vehicles in spring, tapering of sales by sept/oct. I am trying to put together a financial model based off of BaT data, which in theory could predict the price variations we would see from seasonality. When I've got it to a point where it's ready to be tested I'll toss it to all of you. If sales struggle in spring of 2023, and the used car market unloads excess inventory, our 7's may not be worth as much as we'd hope to be able to resell them for.

Best chance might be to watch the running for sale posts. I watched for over a year until I was able to find one I wanted. https://usa7s.net/ips/topic/9351-ebaycraigslisthemmingsmarketplaceetc-ads-lots-of-sevens-for-sale/page/169/#comments

Feels like this to me too. If you had a way for it to be inspected locally to verify it- would help (I'd be surprised if it existed etc). Did you check with the lotus 7 register? If that # is truly out there etc. Would debunk it further if it was crashed/written off.

Probably pretty well. The Cortina perhana had a V6 and I believe the Taunus is also structurally similar. Might go Barra I6 as they're pretty cheap.