pethier

Graham, Did the Sierra cars in England come with LSD? I have been told that the diff in my de Dion 1700 Super Sprint is from a Ford Sierra. If I remember, I can shoot pix on Sunday. I was told that the car came from Caterham to a UK buyer as a Complete Kit. I was also told my car has a plate-type LSD, which seems to be true. I was wondering if Caterham: bought both open and LSD diffs from Ford or Ford's supplier? or bought Sierra open diffs and Caterham themselves installed LSD units for buyers who had checked that option? Let me know if this needs its own thread. I tend to cause thread-drift...

Duane Johnson, the one who built a single-seater out of SAAB parts, had a VW gas heater in his Datsun 1600 roadster.

No choice on that in Minnesota. Studded tires are illegal for road use.

Just curious: Why is there a wheel cover sitting on the engine?

Check the Cam Angle Sensor. It is at the back of the left camshaft. If it leaks oil, it is a cheap fix. A simple trick when buying used Miata cars is to check this and when you have oil on your fingers, make face and offer a lowball price. See my pix on Flickr. Important step: Scribe the housing before you move anything. https://www.flickr.com/photos/pethier/albums/72157594256422537 These pictures have over 10,000 views and folks are still looking at them today. One other thing that likes to go wrong is the clutch slave cylinder. Easy replacement. Hint: Even though there is a bleeder, you don't need to bleed it. Just sit in the driver seat and keep pumping the clutch pedal like a mad fool and it will eventually bleed itself.

15 in a day would be very-light. People who were not trying to get a lot of runs would get that. When my club runs a practice day we run cars for 6 hours. Entrants under 70 years old are required to work for two one-hours shifts. Entrants 70 and older are not required to work shifts. There are no run groups. There are no classes. There are no breaks for changeovers; cars run continuously. Usually we are at a community college with a police/trucking training area. At that site we run two courses. In the morning you sign up for two shifts, perhaps 11 to noon and 2 to 3, for a particular station. You are expected to be on-time. Some jobs need doing outside the running hours and signing up for one of those can count for one of your two hours. You can skip out on work altogether if you bring with you a qualified non-entrant to work your shifts. And of course if you have been on this planet for 7 decades you need not work at all. During your non-work shifts you can do whatever you want (well, you can't drink alcohol). Drive your car. Drive the three cars you arranged to have onsite. Drive someone else's car with their permission. Go into town and get lunch. Ride in a car. (You don't have to be an entrant to ride. Anyone 18 or over, or 16 and over with a permission form signed by a parent/guardian can ride in cars and/or work the course.) At these two-course events, you just get in line to run either course you like. When you complete the course you can look at your time on the display box and get in line for either course you like or drive back to the paddock. If something happens that would normally trigger a rerun, we don't care. You will get lots of runs and there is no need to keep track of how many you get. Workers don't call in cone hits. The radios are for safety issues. If a driver goes 4 wheels off the pavement, that is called in and the driver gets a warning from an official. If it happens again, they are passenger-only for the rest of the day and they still must work their shifts. Timers are set up on each course. If one of the timers gets out of sync, we don't stop running. Somebody will fix it. Meantime, you get to choose whether it is worth it to you to wait in a longer line to see a working clock. The temporarily clock-less course will likely have no waiting at all. Our next practice event will be at the Minnesota State Fairgrounds. I expect we will have one course. I believe we will still be able to autocross our brains out. I know that when I was at a one-course event like this at Miller Park I got all the runs I needed and also rode in my Elise while national-champion Adam Barber drove.

The real payoff is finding an autocross practice day. Like how does 50 runs sound?

I'm an autocross instructor. When I got the 1979 1600 I took it to an autocross with the Dunlops. I grabbed my buddy Dave out of the instructor pool to give me some serious instruction. Fat chance. He laughed hysterically throughout the run and thanked me for the entertainment. It was LOT of fun, but the clock was not impressed.

That tire on the green Caterham wheel is a Dunlop. They were hard as rocks. I bought 7 x 15 Panasport wheels for autocross. The Panasports didn't make it to the present owner of the car.

I'm with you there. Back when I had my Europa, I tacked together an exhaust system, then unbolted it and brought it to a shop. The owner there would have one of his guys weld small jobs for me if I would bring pop for his crew. I actually gave away my welder to a great guy in my autocross club.

BTW, my 1979 Caterham did not have a mounting bracket. The spare tire simply sat on the tire-rack/number-plate-holder and a loose strap was passed around the car tubing, through a slot in the car body, through the wheel, over the tire, and joined its other end with a buckle.

I have had good luck with several UK suppliers shipping with FedEx to the FedEx office near me in Minnesota. As Ed points out, I have not had to pay the Value Added Tax that UK companies show in their catalogs.

Yeah. I have made that mistake before. I forgot to make them "public".

Mine is on a 1991 1700 Super Sprint with 6.5 x 15 Prisoner wheels. https://www.flickr.com/photos/pethier/54547173692/in/album-72177720326434104/ https://www.flickr.com/photos/pethier/54547173687/in/album-72177720326434104/ https://www.flickr.com/photos/pethier/54548050756/in/album-72177720326434104/

I think you are on to something. If you see the photo album, you will see that the measurements are virtually-identical. https://www.flickr.com/photos/pethier/albums/72177720326311251/ Here is the album for the original Birkin tank: https://www.flickr.com/photos/pethier/albums/72177720326317327/

This Fuel Safe brand fuel cell was used in a Birkin car. One thing I know for sure is that it will NOT fit in a Caterham with de Dion rear suspension. I suspect that this is not a custom-made cell. Fuel Safe does list both a 5-gallon and a 7-gallon tank for Lotus 7 cars. I theorize that companies selling live-axle Seven clones used the same sort of tank as the factory Lotus tank. I feel there is a strong possibility that this cell will fit in Lotus and Caterham live-axle Sevens, and maybe other Seven clones. There is what looks like a factory sticker on the cell, but all printing has faded from it. Fuel Safe does not show any photographs of the actual tanks for Lotus 7 cars. This fuel cell comes with what purports to be unused foam blocks to replace the used blocks now in-place. I also have what I believe to be the original Birkin tank. I'm not ready to offer that one yet. From the Fuel Safe website: ========= Fuel Safe®'s Lotus Super 7 racing fuel cell delivers optimal safety and fuel performance in two sizes: 5 and 7 gallons. Both sizes of racing fuel cells are built to fit within the location of the factory installed fuel tank. The Lotus Super 7 racing fuel cells from Fuel Safe® are made of the highest grade materials available designed to win races. Each Lotus racing fuel cell includes: TIG welded aluminum container Safety baffling foam Factory 4x6 fill plate Part No. Capacity Information SA113 7 gallons Lotus Pro Cell® Fuel Bladder in an aluminum container SA113B 5 gallons Lotus Pro Cell® Fuel Bladder in an aluminum container Pro Cell® Lotus Super 7 Complete Fuel Cell 7 Gallon, SA113 Sale price $2,871.00 Pro Cell® Lotus Super 7 Complete Fuel Cell 5 Gallon, SA113B Sale price $2,825.00 Current Lead Time: 8+ Weeks ========= My Flickr album has several photos of the fuel cell and measurements. https://www.flickr.com/photos/pethier/albums/72177720326311251/

I'd like the tail lamps, please.

I am keeping mine. I can shoot photos and take measurements if you want someone local to fab you one.

I am an autocrosser, and I have to have a car engine. Don't think the Polaris engine will squeak by. I am installing a Zetec in my Caterham because I had an opportunity to get one that had already been in a Birkin. It has the fuel injection from a Suzuki Hayabusa on adaptors to a manifold previously used for Weber 40DCOE carbs.

As I recall, a 1400cc automobile engine with a supercharger would be legal for DM. What are Jeremy and Jeff using for an engine? IMHO, this discussion could be moved to https://usa7s.net/ips/forum/11-autocrossing/

IRS sounds limiting, but I like the de Dion in my car. I like that the Chapman-designed location system gives a low roll center. I am just now undertaking the change to a Zetec with Suzuki Hayabusa Keihin/Denso injection controlled by Megasquirt.

It would be great to find a "bubba ring" of car freaks that have a big shop and buy in. I know there was one of these insouth Minneapolis. Don't know if it is still going. I would have joined them, but was lucky enough to have my own space. The advantage of the "bubba ring" shop is that you can work on each others' projects be they circle-track, drag, autocross, road-racing, all mixed together.

I put a Quaiffe torque-sensing dif and 411/1 gears in the Ford live axle in my 1979 Caterham. Worked very well. I think my current 1991 Caterham 1700 Super Sprint de Dion has a Sierra diff which I believe came in the kit from Caterham with the plate-style LSD. I t seems to work fine on the road and in autocross.

As Is, it is not drivable yet. But your suggesstion echos Brian's. in fact, when we get it drivable, we will drive it around Isanti without the front fenders, nose or bonnet.

The donor car was apparently a Ford Contour.