3-Pedals

After tinkering with the 7 and getting to know it a bit better, the front grille just didn't fit with all of the carbon fiber and black paint. Also, it really looked like a grill you cook on and not a proper grille for sports car. Here is the factory grille...nothing wrong with it but, it just looks, well, like a Webber Grill. I decided to go with my old standby for air intakes - aluminum 1/4 hex mesh 0.065" thick. I use this specific material because it has the highest free area of the 1/4" screens available. At 77% free area, it is 20% better than standard #4 SS wire mesh. This time, I used hex mesh that was powder coated black so it would truly fit in with the Carbon Black Edition 7. Here is a sheet of the material with painters tape on the section I am preparing to cut and the cardboard pattern for the new grille. The painters tap protects the powder coating and provides a surface to mark the pattern on. Then carefully cut the panel from the mesh sheet. This is tricky material to work with as it does not cut evenly or smoothly. The freshly cut edge is also very, very sharp. Yeah...there was blood....lol After numerous test fits and subsequent cutting and trimming to finalize the shape of the new grille, I wrapped the sharp edges with a special U profile rubber molding to give the grille a finished look and to allow it to seal to the body around the grille opening. The panel now looked like this: Moving on to the next challenge: Support and installation. To add strength and to provide means to fasten the new grille to body, I decided to make some carbon fiber mounting brackets. Using the painters tape trick, I cut, drilled, sanded and shaped the brackets. They are light, strong, and the CF matched the other panels on the car: And now for a test fit with the new grille: Everything fit, was secure, and ready to remove all of the tape. It was time to add a little Seven bling to the front. I found a company in Scotland who laser cuts stainless steel into the classic 7 grille logo. They looked great on line so, thought I would get one. After de-burring the rough bits from the laser cutter with a diamond file and checking fit on the new grille, it was time to decide on the finish for the logo as I didn't care for the brushed ss look. Not ready to commit to paint yet, i decided to cover it in the same blue vinyl I used for the stripes. OMG...wrapping that was not fun. Slow progress, tedious, and hella time consuming. Just had to go one section at a time, make extensive use of the heat gun, and be very thankful no one will see the back of the part! skipping way ahead - I finished up the wrap and then painted the connecting links between the inner and outer triangles black to make them vanish against the grille. It came out like this: Last step was secure the logo to the grille with safety wire (also painted black) and now the 7 has a proper grille: Overall a tedious but entertaining project. Looking forward to seeing it out in sunlight but that may be a while as our "snowcrete" is just not going away anytime soon.....

Valid point! I do always exercise caution when I'm out and about. I just like building crazy stuff. Going for 900 on my current project but it has been a challenge The C8 is such a nice car and so very capable. I am a vette fan too but one gen earlier.

Indeed it is! A white-knuckled ride for sure. That is what makes it so much fun. LOL

The term "back seat" in an air cooled 911 is quite generous. LOL. "Jump seat" is more accurate!

Not this one. It is not a robust enough build for track duty. I have a dedicated race car that handles that! The white Carrera is intended for having fun on deserted roads and C&C meets and such. I may even put in the electric AC from that guy in the UK so wifey might go for a ride in the summer. It is also designed to obliterate rear tires. LOL. My RSR is the lightweight. I stripped everything from the chassis including unused brackets, captive nuts, pulled unused wiring, removed all of the sound deadening, etc. With an all steel body except bumpers and duct tail and a 400+ HP 4,0 Liter NA engine, it weighs it at 2,180 lbs ready to run. However, it is kinda like driving a beer can...

Here is another project we just completed last fall. It is an '87 Carrera outlaw I have been working on for 3 years. Stock body (for now) but suspension and brake upgrades, 17" wheels, fresh gearbox with a quaiffe diff, interior mods, and a fresh 3.4 Liter twin turbo with a whole new flex fuel system and some interior mods for the new engine and fuel system. We dyno'ed the engine at my buddies shop and he did the tuning of the primitive factory ECU (that was a pia). I am likely going to convert it to Motec this summer to get it running better. At full boost, it makes 725 HP and 650 FT-LBS of torque. With the close ratio 5 speed box, 2500 lbs, and a narrow body, it is terrifying! It was a tight fit and, sadly, I had to abandon my custom fabricated duck tail engine lid and swipe the engine lid off of my '79 930. I fabricated a console for the factory 935 boost control and added a console for the alcohol percent gauge and the combination dual bank lamba and fuel temp gauge. Using these gauges ensures that you don't run too much boost if the flex fuel alcohol content is lower than 70%. If I have no choice and have to run gasoline, I have to run the lowest boost setting and keep my foot out of it. It really needs the alcohol to keep it cool. It runs pretty well but the modified ECU from 1987 really struggles with this extensive of a mod. Still, its a blast to drive but it will run so much better on a Motec ECU. Still deciding if I will be taking my sawsall to the body - It really needs some wide fenders to get something a bit larger than the 255's in back!

That came out nicely! Looks great! I just finished up the grill for my 7 late last night: And on the car:

#6 is pretty small. At high speeds the smaller screen can begin to block airflow so #4 is the minimum we use. However, hexagon mesh has the highest free area of any screen (the 1/4" hex mesh has a free area of 77% compared with 63% for #6 screen). I have used it at very high speeds and seen no degradation in airflow to the coolers. The 0.065" thick hex screen is great for radiators and coolers, is light, and strong. I get it from: https://www.customcargrills.com/proddetail.asp?prod=Perf-Hex in the large sheets and cut it to each opening. You can also get it powder coated black. Just a thought.

WOW!!!

OMG! That's amazing. Not something you see very often, let alone 3! Dang..... I have always been a Porsche fanatic and build my own outlaws. Just something about the air-cooled cars!

Great to see other road racers here! This is what I drive - getting it ready for some vintage events later this year. 3.6L twin turbo de-tuned to run 93 unleaded at 630 HP and 600 ft-lbs. Weighs in at 2550 lbs. It's a handful... s

Oh wow - love that burgundy 911!

I too make my own shift knobs and various configurations of this theme are on all of my builds. Starting with billet aluminum, I typically machine the base first as that is the trickiest bit and each base is specifically designed for the unique application. The shift knob base for my Vette took me over a week with operations on the lathe and on the mill to get it right! In this case, the threaded shifter shaft of the Ford T9 gearbox required the center hole to be tapped to match the shaft - pretty easy. Here is the lower section after threading the center hold and drilling and tapping a set screw hole: Over the years, I've learned that a test fit is always a good idea before continuing. Good to know if it is right before making the other bits. Happy with that so, skipping a lot of next steps, the rest of the pieces were machined and ready for assembly. After the epoxy cures, for this car I added a Super 7 decal for a little bit of color and then sprayed it with a heavy coat of 2 part automotive clear. It's in the lathe so I can rotate it while the clear cures to prevent drips or sags as I us a pretty heavy coat. And in the car! Works well with my 7 as the whole interior is carbon fiber. Yes, the interior is pretty dirty....been working on several issues with the car and will clean it up after everything is done (which I hope will be soon)!

Those are gorgeous!

it would be time and $$ well spent IMO! My eyes are glued to the mirrors when I am at a light so being more visible can never hurt!

That is an amazing collection! Wow!

Agree 100%. Fortunately it has a super bright LED strip across the horizontal portion of the roll bar. Almost hurts to look directly at it! Looks amber in this photo but it turns bright red when you are on the brake.

Thanks! I bought it for mostly fun times on the street but may Autox it a bit. if I do, the spare tire and mounting bracket will stay in the garage. Not being used to something this small, I kinda like having the steel spare tire bracket and the wheel/tire between me and whoever is behind me!!!

Thanks! It was a lucky find through a friend of a friend. I have fixed/upgraded most of what was wrong with it over the past few months. Compared to the cars I typically work on, this has be a bit more economical but, it has consumed much of my very limited quantity of free time! Should have it fully sorted by spring. Then its time to figure out how to make some power out of that little 2.0 L Zetec engine! Also, it would be really helpful to have tiny hands to work on this....which I do not. LOL

Hello all - new to 7 ownership as of a few months ago when I lucked into my new-to-me '99 Birkin S3 Carbon Black Edition. It had some issues that I have been sorting out but it runs great and is so much fun to drive. Working on a few more upgrades and it should be ready as soon as the gross winter weather moves on and our roads are drive-able again. Always like 7s but never really wanted one. That is until one of your members insisted I drive his. I blame him...LOL You have seen some of my "other cars" so here is my 7 (yes...it already is sporting some new aero bits) and my garage is also a designated disaster zone:

And, for you rear-engine fans, that is my passion and I build those too. My solo II ride in action:

Thank you for the kind words! Got in a bit over my head on this one and took twice as long as anticipated. Still, it is a one of a kind and beyond exciting to pilot. Only bit of frustration is that I am the only one who can fix it when it needs attention. Up until my fuel cell bladder failed last year, the Lister has not let me down one time after the de-bugging phase. I sourcee engine parts directly from the engineers at the Corvette GTR racing team HQ in Detroit. They were awesome and set me up with the cam and fuel injectors for that motor. Mahle light weight pistons bumped the displacement and compression ratio and....instant monster motor. Oh, yeah. It is wicked loud and sounds amazing. Although, my wife and I came back from the 250 mile British Reliability Run with our ears ringing and almost deaf!!!

I pretty much quit racing, went to work, and built the Lister. Took 7 years to complete and another very frustrating year of de-bugging and some re-egineering. That is when I learned just how bad the aero was on these cars, LOL. Lots of late nights designing and fixing the aero issues. Happy to share some of the other builds. Agree 100% about variety!

Thanks for the suggestion John. Just posted a little info on the car in that section!

While I just picked up my 7, I have been a sports car nut since I was a kid. Most of my "other" cars have the engine in the opposite end so I thought this, being "British", might be of more interest here. It is my rendition/tribute of a 1958 Lister/Chevy scratch built over 7 years with an additional year of de-bugging. It is constructed on a steel tube frame based on the original Lister but with major structural improvements. Body is hand laid carbon fiber. The profile of the car is pretty much spot on but took liberties with the width (about 2 feet wider than a real Lister). The paint is early '70's Porsche Signal Yellow with a Carrera Blue center stripe. Interior is all custom fabricated and I learned how to do upholstery work on it so don't look too closely. Of course it had to have the classic Britt style wooded steering wheel to finish it off. No heat in the car but, I installed electric seat heaters which really help in the winter. It is a true roadster and has no top so having a good weather app is helpful. Even so, been caught in the rain and t-storms several times and, well, it just plain suck but I am guessing you 7 folks are a bit more used to that than me! I used some corvette suspension pieces and lots of hand fabricated custom bits. Power is from a modified 7.2 L LS7 making 640 hp and 550 ft-lbs to the rear wheels through a Tremac T-600 5-speed manual road racing box to the C4 corvette rear limited slip diff. Car weighs 1,980 lbs wet w/o the driver. Lots of hidden aero tricks under the car that make it far more tractable at high speeds than the original. The way the drive train is geared the theoretical top end at red line is just over 260 mph. Not likely to get there with the '50s style body but it gets to 120 in a few heartbeats. Several passengers have mentioned it does has a high "terror factor".....LOL A few pics below: