Sevnn

The previous owner of my S2K built a passenger seat out of foam/vinyl covered plywood for the lower section and a vinyl wrapped foam pad with velcro for the rear upright. It uses the center hump and the frame rails to keep them from going side to side (the harnesses help too). This allows a lot more room than a seat that is usually used. I wouldn't do any serious racing with a passenger anyways so there aren't any big safety issues.

I've never tried to track my gas mileage, but given the lack of weight and greatly reduced load, I've always felt that my S2K had really good mileage. Brian Anderson once told me he tested them to 35mpg on the highway if you are nice to it.

Would you be willing to part out some of the "extras"? I'm interested in the dash, possibly the STi rear end, and whatever parts might help in converting to 5x114.

Nice call on the Top Gear clip, that is definitely where I heard him tell the story. My details were slightly off but not bad for watching it about 9 months ago.

Scott, make sure you speak with the driver of the truck. If its going to be a on a trailer with other cars, he might need to pull it off to remove other cars and then put it back on. Normally this wouldn't be an issue but the pedal cluster is very tight, the seats aren't exactly roomy, and if the pedals aren't adjusted right he could end up losing control of the car trying to get it on/off the trailer. It's not to say he won't be able to handle it, just that its not a typical car.

I don't remember when/where I saw this but Jay was telling a story about his McLaren F1. This is as I remember it and the real story might vary slightly. He was out driving it when 2 men approached him in "street" clothes and looked like gang members. Initially he was uncomfortable but one of them asked about the car and brought up Gordon Murray. The other guy asked informed questions as well. Jay being the car guy he is offered to give them a ride in the car. A few miles away he punches it and gets up to around 150mph when he is clocked by a cop. He pulls over in a major panic wondering how he is going to explain doing 150mph with 2 gang members in the car. As the officer approaches, one of the passengers pulls a badge. They were both undercover cops and got him out of the ticket. He told the story as an example of how you can never judge a book by its cover. I saw the story as an example of how awesome Jay is, to give a couple gang members (as he thought they probably were) a ride in a million dollar car, and took it up to 150mph. You just can't be any cooler than that.

I'll try to get some pics of it tonight and post them up. If you don't see something from me in a couple of days, please hound me about it. Things are very crazy here and I'm not responsible for my own forgetfullness... I've started reading your blog and I'm seriously considering this. My car has some old Azenis that are not up to the task and its time for some new wheels, just because. I am a huge fan of the Racing Dynamic wheels (been considering them for the Mini) but its not the look I want for the 7. I also like the idea of moving to the Sti hubs. I'll need to replace my rear rotors as the builder used an old set of WRX ones with Willwood calipers and they only partially grab the rotor. I posted a comment in your blog post about having a bolt fall out of the rear end. My car is the black 2KR with the double side bars you linked in another post.

I've only ridden in my own Ultralite and another Ultralite before I purchased so I can't speak much about the SS cars. I did see a few of them at Run'N'Gun and they are good looking cars but I really prefer the look of the 2K. I am very partial though to the F20C drivetrain and was planning on building a Toyota AE86 powered by one when the 7 bug bit. It is an amazing motor and really a marvel of engineering. I saw a few mentions of the torque band and wanted to say that with 1200 lbs tied to a F22C, there are no torque issues. It's not going to pull away from a stop light in 6th gear, but it has no issues with a 2nd gear start and will easily drive around at 40 mph in 6th all day long. When you want to drive fast, you are going to want to shift but that's part of the fun. I don't know what the pedal cluster sizing is on the SS but it is very small on the 2K. The steering wheel is often pretty low on the 2K as well. You have 2 options, below the dash brace or above it. The first car I road in was below the bar and it put the wheel close to your legs. Above the bar is pretty high and I wouldn't recommend it unless you are going to sit pretty high in the car. My car is apparently the only 2K with an adjustable steering column. Brian did some special engineering to allow for the column to go up or down a couple inches. The dash bar is braced with an upside down U to maintain control. If anyone is interested I could take some pictures if you wanted to try and build something similar. I'm very glad my car has this feature as it really puts the wheel in the perfect position for me. I'm not sure what the SS uses for suspension, brakes, rear end, etc but the 2K has a very strong setup. The willwoods are easily capable of locking up the tires if I get overly aggressive with my braking. The suspension setup is very well engineered and easily adjusted. The rear end is very solid (WRX setup) and can be built using STi parts if more power is added. My only complaint is I wish the car had 5x114.5 (or whatever pattern 240SX/350Z/etc use) instead of 5x100. You can find 5x100 wheel setups but I'm a fan of the used market with wheels and the other bolt pattern would open up a lot more options for me. I'll throw in another vote for "ride in both if you can". I saw your post on the Yahoo user's group but CT is a long way from OK. If you were closer I'd definitely give you a ride though. Regardless of which car you pick, I'm sure you'll be happy.

I've owned my Ultralite for going on 3 years and the only failures I've had were bolts coming out of the diff on the track (I replaced the bushings and didn't use longer bolts). While at Sonic a few miles from the house, I "showed" my daughter how the hydraulic parking brake works (rather doesn't work) and hydro-locked it. I didn't have any tools on me and had to have my wife bring up a pair of pliers. The reliability is completely up to the level of how the car was built. If you build it or buy from someone who knows what they are doing, the car should provide a very reliable platform for trips. You do have to pay very good attention to what is on the road in front of you, no different than a bike though. In-cabin temperatures can get warm and they are typically loud. I can't use my car as good example though, I have no carpet or insulation. I'm sure one properly built for long drives would offer a much more comfortable experience. I would recommend a windshield and would wear a helmet on anything but short drives.

I don't know if you've had the car shipped yet but definitely look for an enclosed trailer setup and if you can afford to have your car shipped by itself you will be best off. When I bought my M3 it was shipped from NC to OK for $1200. It was on a double car trailer (by itself) and hauled behind a 1 ton dualie Dodge truck. The car was untouched from NC to OK. I was in contact with the driver the entire time and he was very helpful. I've got a big policy with AllState but they wouldn't cover the car. My agent sells Hagerty and set me up with them. The cost isn't too bad, I think its around $600 a year and doesn't have any ridiculous restrictions. I don't know the process for tagging in TX but it is definitely possible. My car came from Tyler, TX and was tagged. Welcome to the 2K owner's club!!

I have a DD Mini that is Auto-X prepped and an Ultralite 2KR when I want to play. The Mini on a road track is short on power but offers so much grip and a ridiculously wide envelope to play. I've always described the car as having Matrix like bullet-time. You can pile drive it deep into a corner, hit the slow-mo button, correct your stupidity, and come out looking like you meant to do it. The 7 is quite the opposite and I love that about both cars.

Jay is on the top of my list of people I hope to meet in my lifetime. He is the ultimate car guy.

I have seen the guy on a video somewhere before, but Sabine was on Top Gear. If you didn't see the video she races a delivery van around the ring and hauls ass in it. Her talent on the ring is definitely impressive. This video looked a bit setup as most of the passes look like they were staged. Good fun though. And I would love to see what Mojito could do on the ring. With your boost and downforce, it would be truely scary. I think that GT2 would lose sight of you a minute or two in.

Wow, I get first picture honors . I was hoping to have the car sorted out well enough to compete in the racing events but didn't have enough time to get it to a point I felt comfortable putting it on a road course. I did get the car on the track for the track experience on Thursday and Friday and had a great time. I plan to be much more "in the mix" next year and am already creating my list of stuff to bring. Brian, Loren, Chuck, Kevin, Jerry, and Paul were all extremely helpful with advice for the issues I knew of, and for making this winter's "todo" list a bit longer. Thanks again guys for your help and support. Jerry got my name wrong in this post but it was correct in the other posts: "Chris Porter"

I'm only a 2 hour drive away in Oklahoma City and will definitely be there in my Ultralite S2KR. As for the track direction, Hallett allowed a private group day I participated in to decide what direction we drove for each session. We chose counter-clockwise for most of the day with the last session in clockwise. It's a lot scarier track in clockwise as turn 1 (in counter-clockwise rotation) has no padded runoff in clockwise rotation. Hallett is a really great track and the Ariel group who met there last October was very pleased with the facility.

I suspected oil pressure might be the cause of the problems. Is your oil pan modified? My S2KR is doing the same thing here and there. I haven't run codes on it yet but plan to very soon. It seems to happen more often as the car gets hotter. It starts around 180 deg though so it shouldn't be too hot to go into VTECH.

I still have the motor/tranny but I'm not sure if I'm going to sell it at this point. I'm working on the purchase of an S2K and if I get it, I'll probably keep the setup as a spare. It does not have an ECU or driveshaft.

Have a helmet and plenty of under shorts!!!

7evin, when will you guys be at Hallett? I live in OKC and would gladly make the trip up there to see the cars run (and maybe get a ride...). I'll be in Dallas this Sunday (7/13) to drive Goldie, check out the WCM facility, and look at the LM body. If it is going to be this weekend, I'll have to cancel my attendance at a local Auto-X but it would be worth it to see the cars run.

If I was in the market for a 7 in that price range I'd be ALL over that. That is without a doubt the most impressive 7 I've ever seen. I'm sure they are very proud, as they should be.

I picked up a F20C recently for a project I planned to build but am considering going a different route. I was told the motor has about 24k miles. It does not have an ECU (I was planning to install an AEM). It does have the header. The transmission shifts are very clean and firm. I also have an ATC lightweight flywheel and clutch for same setup. The clutch was removed after 250 miles by the previous owner (of a different F20C) because he drove the car using his toes and the slight increase in clutch pressure made it difficult for him to drive. Pleaes PM me offers. I will post pics soon.

I definitely understand that reducing the piping size would restrict airflow. Dinan solved this by doing a cone shaped tube that is flattened and curved to wrap around the radiator while increasing its total cross-section. I wasn't able to find really descriptive pictures of the setup but maybe these will help: http://www.dinancars.com/assets/Image/ride%20and%20drive%20010.jpg http://67.18.219.83/image_hosting/web_pages/raymondmanas/DinanM3-24.JPG You would need something a bit bigger than this to handle 15 psi of boost and I don't know if you would be able to get the passenger side tank to wrap around the radiator (perhaps outside the frame rail). Hopefully your setup will work great in hotter weather and you won't have to engineer anything different but if you do, perhaps this could help.

Gratz on getting the car up and running so well. I was looking at the I/C issue and I'm curious if you could move the radiator more towards the center and have the end tanks on the I/C that wrap around both sides of the radiator. Dinan did some very interesting end tank designs on the I/C the built for the e46 M3. It sounds like over the radiator isn't an option but it looks like there might be enough room on the sides if you could squeeze in about 2 inches on both sides.