pethier

Makes sense to me.

We autocrossers are dealing with smaller-radius turns and elements that change direction more-quickly than in road courses. I knew a guy who traded in his "Magnum" Ferrari on a new Nissan Z-car because the Ferrari steering was impossibly-slow for autocross.

You all are correct. There is a hose straight down at the bottom of this device. I did not expect this to be fuel but I see now that it certainly is. From what I learned about connecting the Hayabusa injection on my Caterham, the fuel line comes from the fuel pump at the back of the car to the rear of the fuel rail. From the front of the fuel rail it goes to the fuel-pressure regulator and from there it goes to a return line back to the fuel tank. I noticed there is a small-diameter hose fitting on the fuel-pressure regulator with nothing attached to it. Since I see a similar fitting in in the photo from S1Steve, I expect this is nothing to worry about. Still, I am curious. What is the purpose of this little fitting?

In case it matters, this Birkin is fuel-injected.

I need to know what this device is. Is it for controlling the heater? I'm standing on the left side of a 2003(?) Birkin with the Zetec engine, so the left side of the photo is towards the front of the car. On the left of these photos are the spark-plug wires heading forward to the engine. On the right of these photos is the heater core with two heater hoses coming out of it. In the middle of these photos is the gizmo I want to identify. It's in my way. If it is needed only for the heater, I would like to make it go away. I do not need a working heater. I can bag it and tag it.

see below

So, you are saying that the Caterham triangular dry sump tank will fit in front of a Duratec in a S3 imperial chassis?

I thought Scott was asking if there WAS an off the shelf and well tested solution.

Why would you want to put more mass in front of the engine? Your passenger does not need room for pedals.

I feel an urge to measure the front camber.

Raining pitchforks and hammer handles today. Rainy days and Mondays. Well at least it IS Monday and nobody was planning on autocrossing around the Twin Cities. Probably tomorrow I will look into replacing that battery in the Birkin. The easiest way would be to get the same size battery. Would have to be an AGM to mount it the same way, as it is lying down in there.

Yeah, the fictional TV show was different, They were out in the countryside somewhere. DIdn't even talk to the guards, just ran it at high speed. Another actual escape was folks who manufactured their own balloon and flew out of the country.

I recall an episode of Run For Your Life wherein two guys ran a border crossing in a sports-racing car (sans rollbar). One guy was crouched down and steering while the other guy was stuffed in backwards holding a mirror and giving directions to the driver. Zoomed past the border guards and under the turnpike.

Did get a drier Sunday. Raining when we arrived at the site. Managed to wait out the rain and get annual tech inspection on the Birkin. Then I put the car in the trailer in cse it rained while I walked the course. Not raining when it was time for my first 3-run heat. I was not getting traction on the dodgy surface of Canterbury Park's overflow lot. Ever since they sealcoated this lot, it releases aggregate we call "Canterberries". These tires may wake up with a better surface and warmer temps. When I went to start the engine for the third run, I needed a push start. Cranking slow. After the run, I found a place on the paddock lot higher than my rig. Turned off the engine to see if it would restart. Nope. Pushed it down the hill to my rig. Removed the air filters. Removed the hood. Fired up the F-150 and hooked up the jumper cables. After a while, I was able to start the Birkin. Let the big Ford charge the little Ford for a while. Turned off the Birkin, disconnected the cables and tried to start it again. No go. Hooked up and let the big Ford charge the little Ford again. As time approached for my three runs in the afternoon, I started the Birkin, refitted the hood, reinstalled the air filters, and drove the Birkin to its spot in grid. DIdn't turn off the car until I had completed my runs and driven the car behind my trailer. Winched it in and tied it down. I carried passengers all day. My best was 39.859. FTD was 33.405. Not exactly great. Still was fun. Now I will have to figure out whether the battery is toast or the alternator circuit is not working. My money is on the battery.

It rained Saturday morning. I took the Cayman, still on its all-weather tires. Hope runs high for a drier Sunday.

The weird part here is that 1/4-inch for roll radius on the front would have a heck of a lot more significance than on a solid back axle.

Well, it's autocross eve. It will be a bit chilly tomorrow. A little warmer on Sunday. For reasons I don't understand, there were 1/4-inch spacers under the back wheels. I took them out. There were no spacers at the front. The hub on these wheels just clears the front caliper. The studs in front would not be long enough for spacers. So it goes. You buy a Birkin that has who knows how many owners, you find stuff.

What wheels-tires are you going with? As part of my drivetrain swap, I bought a set of 15x8 wheels that fit the Caterham. The Birkin and Caterham have different bolt circles. I just yesterday got the Birkin aligned and the take-off Yokos on. Double autocross weekend! Hope the weather is ok. If it's raining, I'll take the Cayman. Caterham mired in significant details just now.

In my shop, getting a perfect reading on each camber is iffy. Since the front camber on the Caterham is not adjustable anyway, I figured i could just check the total negative camber for both sides and divide by two. I zeroed the electronic gizmo that measures angles on the RF wheel. Then I brought the gizmo to the other side and read the difference. Bang on 5 degrees. Therefore, I surmised that Caterham were probably shooting for 2.5 degrees of negative camber. Got the front of the Birkin set to 2.5 degrees negative camber and zero toe. The caster is not adjustable, and measures 8 degrees. Dogtracking does not appear to be a problem: The thrust angle is -0.02 degrees. I'm not ready to buy new tires for these 7" wheels. I have 8" wheels for the Caterham, which will be a faster car when it's finished. I got the secondhand Yoko A052 205-15 tires mounted. These don't seem to have any flange-side voids, unlike the Prisoner wheels and the 8" wheels I have for the Caterham. If the weather cooperates, I'll take it around the cones this weekend. It appears that I can adjust the front swaybar without crawling on my belly like a reptile.

For some reason, I have not been able to find them. I had no reason to pass them along, so they must be hiding somewhere in my attic, basement or shop. I will look again.

I was going on > The 22% “fast” steering rack was replaced with a new 8% rack and rod ends but I can't pretend to know what 22% and 8% mean in this context. Is the 22% rack faster or slower than the 8% rack? How do each of them compare to the standard rack on a Caterham?

So the 1475 is the pounds with driver for the original class? Do you still have the fast rack? I'm an autocross freak...

I have a 4:00 appointment tomorrow with thealignmentguy.com to swap tires and set the front alignment on my Birkin. Lucky me that there was a cancelation. He was all booked up in the week before our first double-autocross weekend. I assume that a live-axle Birkin has no rear-alignment adjustability. The front camber is adjustable via a system I have not come across before. I intend to shoot for the same area as my non-adjustable Caterham has. The tires I am going to put on are takeoff Yoko A052 205-15 from a friend who is a national champion. I was a bit disappointed that the bolt circles on the Caterham and Birklin are different. The wheels on this Birkin are 7x15. Well, I'm off to measure the camber on the Caterham.

Last night I finally got around to affixing the right mirror to the Birkin. Went as smoothly as the first. Having a 17mm open-end wrench handy for adjusting the mirrors seems like a good idea for a while. You can see in the catalog pictures that each mirror has three joints, and two of them have big jam nuts. I have a 4:00 appointment tomorrow with thealignmentguy.com to swap tires and set the front alignment. Lucky me that there was a cancelation. He was all booked up in the week before our first double-autocross weekend. I assume that a live-axle Birkin has no rear-alignment adjustability. The front camber is adjustable via a system I have not come across before. I intend to shoot for the same area as my non-adjustable Caterham has. I'll be taking this discussion of tires and alignment to the autocross area.