pethier

You were pushing the finger-in-the-ear and corner-of-the-mouth a bit, eh? Or didn't your CO use that standard?

Obviously, he does not know how to take off the roof.

I thought I was a member. Must have missed the notice to renew. Only the two Caterhams I described were/are mine. I sold the yellow one to a gentleman on Cape Cod. It now has been passed on.

My first Caterham was a 1979 1600 Kent with twin Dellorto carbs, yellow with green center stripe. Current Caterham came to me all Ford Moonstone Blue. I have had the nose and fenders redone in Caterham Firecracker Yellow. This thread is for non-Sevens, but you can view an album of my Caterham stuff at https://www.flickr.com/photos/pethier/albums/72177720312826035/

I spent the late 1960s and early 1970s as the #1 grid marshal at Donnybrooke/BIR (and sometime nobody-special grid marshal at Road America). I was present at many CanAm races in the midst of these cars. At Donnybrooke/BIR I was always at the front of the grid and thus got the full audio experience of every car that started the race. I have absolutely no idea why I am not deaf. (The spell-checker does not recognize the spelling of Donnybrooke. It thinks the track was named for the suburb of Dublin. Nope. It was named for Donny Skogmo and Brooke Kennard, two gentlemen who had died at Road America.)

They paid me 100 bucks to drive a Slingshot on a track before it was marketed. They would not tell me who made it, what they were going to call it, where the engine was, what the engine was or anything else about it. I told them I thought a Seven would be a better deal, partially because 3-wheelers are not generally allowed on autocross tracks.

thanks.

It's not how tall you are, it's how long your legs are. I can tell you a fairly-boring story about how some BMW promotional people ignored me pointing this out and caused a ridiculous situation in their ridiculous competition. I am 5'8". I have Caterham black-leather bucket seats in my car. I drive with the seat well-forward on its tracks. I do sit a bit tall in the saddle. OK, I have shorter legs than people expect. I knew a guy named Duane Johnson (actually I knew several guys named Duane Johnson, including a guy who changed his name to Duane Warren because there were just too-damned-many Duane Johnsons about) who was way shorter than I but had longer legs. Duane built us a single-seater out of my old SAAB parts. When he put the seat in to suit him, I could not reach the pedals and the roll bar was too short. We solved that by making the seat re-positionable so I was in the "Lotus position" and he sat upright. I suggest you get the bucket seats with seat tracks unless perhaps you always drove your Elise with the seat all the way back. BTW, I just turned 75.

This photo was shot at Road America. I drove it there from the Twin Cities and it shows the dead bugs to prove it. It actually has the Bridgestone autocross tires on it here. Since then I have picked up a set of twist wheels for a set of "Porsche approved" Michelin all-weather tires.

I have a 987.2 Cayman. Love it as a 3-season car. I'm going to put it to bed for the winter in about 10 minutes. I could drive it through the winter, but why? My F-150 4x4 will be fine as a winter vehicle. The Cayman has the 2.9 with the reputation for reliability. I purposely got one with the PDK because I figured it was about time I tried a dual-clutch. I like it a lot. I swapped out the steering wheel for the Sport wheel with proper paddles. The shifts are lightning-fast and solid when in the Sport Plus mode. So unlike conventional automatics. It's a great cruiser and fun at autocrosses when the weather is not Seven-friendly.

I still don't understand how a pad wears concave.

Glad to hear that avonNOVA ( I like palindromes too) are currently concentrating on hillclimb tires, since they are the ticket for USA-stye autocrossing a Caterham. The Yokohama 052 works well-enough for a dual-purpose street/autocross tire on a Caterham, but it does not not give the stick of an Avon hillclimb tire. I could not heat Hoosier A7 tires autocrossing my Elise, so I can't imagine they would work any better with a Caterham.

I see what you did there.

The cupping of the pad looks very weird. I don't see how it's possible.

Shoot. I am a member, but in the USA.