supersportsp

Yes, because the cavernous trunk of ours can swallow several pairs of jeans and some clean socks. People tour on motorcycles all the time. In fact, I am going to go way out on a limb here and say people tour on motorcycles much more often than they do in Se7ens. KTM even has bags for the X-bow. http://www.shop.britishracinggroup.com/KTM-X-Bow-Driver-Bag-XPP00000390.htm http://www.shop.britishracinggroup.com/KTM-X-Bow-Co-Driver-Bag-XPP00000400.htm http://www.shop.britishracinggroup.com/X-Bow-Steering-Wheel-Bag-X0012050001.htm To me it isn't a Se7en because it is not front engine/rwd. And, it has no resemblance what so ever to an original Lotus Seven.

http://www.autoblog.com/2011/02/24/ktm-x-bow-finally-on-sale-in-north-america/ http://www.britishracinggroup.com/main.html I will be very interested to see what these run when pricing is announced. It appears that these guys also import the Toniq. You could rather easily get 300 hp out of the 2.0 liter VAG turbo. It has 265 hp stock in the Audi TTS.

After more research and fiddling I deduced that it is the De Dion tube itself that is rubbing. JohnCH found this for me on BlatChat: http://www.blatchat.com/t.asp?id=61518 How very Caterham to produce wheels that don't fit without modifying something. Looks like my next step involves an angle grinder.

I bought some 13" Caterham 8 spoke wheels (13x8") to put on my '97 De Dion car. I have the stock 15" Prisoner wheels on it now and wanted some smaller wheels and stickier rubber for some track duty. Put the fronts on, no problem. Put the left rear on and problem, no clearance between the De Dion tube and the inner wheel rim. You can see in the photo below that the De Dion tube is dragging on the inner rim about 1/2" from the inner lip. It is the dark line you see. http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v715/tgodbout/wheel-dedionissue.jpg This is a bit puzzling to me since these are Caterham wheels. Did Caterham change the design of the tube or ear assembly so that the older cars can't run the Caterham 13" wheels? http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v715/tgodbout/Caterham8spokes.jpg

Porker. How about a 400 kg Westfield FW400 with a 190hp/150ft.lbs 1.8 K series Rover. http://www.google.com/url?source=imgres&ct=img&q=http://www.jonrb.com/cars/pics/fw400.jpg&sa=X&ei=YKNZTeKDN4-WsgPMg4i6BQ&ved=0CAQQ8wc&usg=AFQjCNEo6_49P7MZAYMVHtrKB86Y91JUTA

And hence the auto-rake comment. And my desperate need to get adjustable spring collars it would appear. I can't even imagine how low my oil pan is going to be with the new fronts. According to specs on the Toyo and Avon sites, I will be going from 22.7" (T1Rs) to 20.85" (ZZRs). Yikes! I say I am not going to mess with rake until very last because that is going to be the last step in my process. I am not doing anything until I get my wide-track set-up on, new springs etc. No sense setting up the rake, then changing everything. With all the new stuff on, I will corner balance it and set a baseline rake. I am not trying to solve a particular ill so to speak, I am doing some general upgrades to the car's suspension to give me a better baseline to work from.

Adjusting the rake will probably be the last thing I do. I am putting on the wide-track kit, the larger front roll bar and debating on a new spring/dampener solution. In fact, I can't even adjust the rake right now because I don't have adjustable collars for the springs yet. I will have some built in rake from my new track wheels that I just bought from Karl. I don't run a rear sway at this time. Might add that as well.

I have had the car 1.5 years and have had it on the track several times in its current guise. It understeers on turn-in. I understand the if it ain't broke don't fix it approach, but how do you know it wouldn't handle better if you didn't tweak it some.

Hmm. I measured from where the frame flattens totally (right behind the front axle line) for the front, and in the back on the frame bottom right in front of the rear wheels. Front: 133.35mm Rear: 139.7mm Delta: 6.35mm Add my girthy self and I wouldn't be surprised if I had any rake at all. Certainly well outside of the guidance range as you guys are saying here. Seems like 1/2" would be smack in the middle. YellowSS7, I have you beat on sump clearance. I have a whopping 69mm to play with.

What is purpose of the rake? I am assuming it is to put more weight on the front wheels to increase turn-in grip? As I didn't build my car, how does the manual recommend to measure the rake? Where do you measure from? With you in the car? How much fuel in the tank etc.?

Question for Caterham owners or folks knowledgeable about this in general. There seems to be a pretty good deal of variance in ride height in the various Caterham pics I have seen. My car, especially at the rear seems to be low. Perhaps, due to my 200 lbs butt, but even at rest it sits much lower than other cars I see. For example. YellowSS7's car. Granted, he has 13" wheels and what seem to be relatively low profile tires, but look at the difference in wheel centerline on his car compared to mine below: http://usa7s.com/vb/attachment.php?attachmentid=2710&stc=1&d=1296263517 http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v715/tgodbout/IMG_6498.jpg I am running 15" wheels with 195/50/15 tires. Some more variances: http://www.google.com/url?source=imgres&ct=img&q=http://www.seriouswheels.com/pics-2007/2007-Caterham-Seven-Roadsport-150-Side-1024x768.jpg&sa=X&ei=SQBLTd2WFpD6swP1u_ybCg&ved=0CAQQ8wc&usg=AFQjCNFf2yrYlt6XU6PspPj_bSNIr6z4lA http://www.google.com/url?source=imgres&ct=img&q=http://www.sbeuro.com/domhost/locostprime/caterham-1-g.jpg&sa=X&ei=6gBLTdW1DofAsAOdxNyUCg&ved=0CAQQ8wc4SQ&usg=AFQjCNGh59Iw0kedusEJhalfIQWRhO42ug So, why the variance? Since it seems to be the newer, more track focused cars that have a raised rear ride height, I thought it might have something to do with perhaps reducing understeer? But then I saw some race cars that are lower all around like the car above. Who can explain?

I did a lot of research on tire weights when I replaced my original Pile-ups. The only relatively sticky tire that is even close in weight to the CR500's is the Toyo T1R, which is what I ended up getting. About 1.5 lbs+ lighter than any other tire I could find from any manufacturer. The T1R's are great on the street, but I am definitely looking forward to something more sticky for the track. I am hoping the smaller/lighter wheel will offset the heavier tire when it comes to ultimate weight.

What size tires are you running? Those look like about 40 to 45 series rubber.

Aren't these $300-$400 each?

Those Miata wheels are known as being incredibly light. Probably some of the lightest, if not the lightest stock wheels offered ever. Other the some Rial's or Compomotive's, I am not sure there is much available sub 10 lbs.

At $25k, you will be looking at a used Caterham. I bought my '97 with 5k miles on it for right around that amount a few years ago. It has a 175hp Zetec. The prices people ask for them here are all over the board, mainly I think because there are so few, it is tough to judge the market. There have been some good deals on them lately, thanks likely to our continued economic woes. Westfields aren't nearly as common here as you likely have noticed. If you want the low-down on the state of Westfields here in the US you should talk to member JohnCH. After Caterham, Birkin's seem to be the most common Seven variant here in the US. At least those that are more closely based on say an S3 Lotus Seven. They have a good rep, are well supported by Dick Brink and the build quality seems to be quite strong. If you are willing for further departure from the look of an original Lotus, then you can start considering Stalker's and Ultralites. One thing to consider is how much you want to tinker yourself, vs how much you want to just rely on an existing aftermarket. Caterham and Westfield have by far the biggest box of toys you can either get from the factory or aftermarket. But, since everything is built in the UK or mainland Europe, the shipping gets pretty brutal on bigger items. If you are willing to develop parts yourself, the other makes might be a good entry point. For example, if I wanted to upgrade my car (standard Roadsport deDion) to the equivalent of a brand new R500, all I need is money. Everything I need is available via Caterham or an aftermarket company. If you wanted to do the same amount of development to a Birkin or Stalker, then you will be doing fabrication/development yourself. You can certainly make a Stalker and Ultralite boogie on a track though.

I just sent you a PM Karl.

I sent the seller an email yesterday via his Craigslist ad. No response yet. The ad is still active as of a few minutes ago.

I would have bought this in a second had it been available at this price back when I bought my car. Nice spec, low miles and great price.

In the last 10 years there have been several publicity stunts (Ford and Mercedes) where they compared a street car, a reasonably quick race car, and an F1 car on the same circuit. Usually with a staggered start. Even with mammoth head starts, the other cars always got pipped at the line. Ford/Top Gear: YouTube - road car vs rally car vs f1 Mercedes: YouTube - McLaren Mercedes Formula 1 vs. CLK 63 AMG vs. DTM Mercedes vs. Mercedes Benz C350

Beat me to it. I just came here to post this. Blog post on Autoblog. http://www.autoblog.com/2011/01/14/sema-releases-50-state-guide-to-help-you-tag-and-title-your-hobb/

Lola B08/90: http://www.racecar-engineering.com/imageBank/d/DSC_15791.jpg Caterham SP/300.R: http://www.caterham-spr.com/images/gallery/14.jpg

Dang, forgive me for quoting myself, but when your wife is always right, you have to celebrate the little victories. Perhaps I should go into auto prophecy? http://www.blogcdn.com/www.autoblog.com/media/2011/01/web630-caterham-sp300r.jpg

1: http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Lotus-7-Birkin-7-2-0-Zetec-CA-legal-/190488487624?pt=US_Cars_Trucks&hash=item2c59ffa6c8 2. http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/BIRKIN-LOTUS-/250751397715?pt=US_Cars_Trucks&hash=item3a61f2af53#v4-37 No affiliation.

I agree with rule 5, and I broke my own personal rule not to respond about pricing on for sale listings. I too was trying to be helpful. It isn't like you can look theses cars up on NADA or KBB to get current market prices. I posted mainly to give the OP some info based on my 18 month search for a used Caterham.