Croc

I have plenty of Mary in my videos - for a relative newbie she is damn quick! Very impressive to watch. Watch out Jeff (JBH) - she will be chasing you down next!

Hi Glen! :seeya: Good to see you here. When are we going to get you in a seven?

Welcome to the forum Wayne. For Birkin parts I would start with Dick Brink a phone call. He is the official Birkin USA importer and a really nice guy. His website and contact details are here: http://www.texasmotorworks7.com/

Here is some video of the day. First is one of me following Martin (Lotus 7 Club member "Mav" on Blatchat). It gives you a good idea of the layout, elevation changes and above all, how impressive Mav is at pedalling a 140hp Caterham SV around the circuit loaded with him and Mrs Mav. This is not a video for anyone who expects me to be on the ragged edge doing a qualifying lap (after all I want Bookatrack to have me back!). The second short video comes from when my rent a seven was turned into a test bed for a vbox hire business being started this month. Colin at Video & Data Capture was a top guy to meet and I learned a lot about the finer points of data logging and got some excellent ideas. I really hope his business takes off. Anyway, here I am following an Aston Martin DBR1 (a very authentic and expensive replica) being enthusiastically pedalled. The owner said there was no grip - pretty obvious from some of the steering angles witnessed.

Following on from this thread here where I rented a seven for a track day at Oulton Park UK: http://www.usa7s.com/vb/showthread.php?t=8089 Here is some video of the day. First is one of me following Martin (Lotus 7 Club member "Mav" on Blatchat). It gives you a good idea of the layout, elevation changes and above all, how impressive Mav is at pedalling a 140hp Caterham SV around the circuit loaded with him and Mrs Mav. This is not a video for anyone who expects me to be on the ragged edge doing a qualifying lap (after all I want Bookatrack to have me back!). The second short video comes from when my rent a seven was turned into a test bed for a vbox hire business being started this month. Colin at Video & Data Capture was a top guy to meet and I learned a lot about the finer points of logging. Anyway, here I am following an Aston Martin DBR1 (a very authentic and expensive replica) being enthusiastically pedalled. The owner said there was no grip - pretty obvious from some of the steering angles witnessed.

I have the video finished - no surprise but internet connections in Indonesia do not allow you to upload videos! :banghead: Plenty of my "oops" moments included. Absolutely nothing of Kitcat in any video. Because he never needed to warm his tires as much as mine, he was long gone by the time I had some grip! :svengo:

I suspect he is right. Your house will be on the official flood plain maps and as a result gound level cover is voided. Meanwhile, my building right next to the Hudson River is on the flood plain but because the ground floor is an empty basement designed to flood as a former riverside warehouse, the next level up of apartments and lobby is covered. Welcome to the intricacies and silliness of the insurance world. I assume you have already worked with your regular home policy insurer to see what of the shortfall they pick up? Probably none but it is worth trying... My question looking forward - If the waters got to the second floor then what coverage have you got? Structure and contents? What is subject to the statutory $250k policy limit? Have you read your policy in detail yet? (Do you want me to?) Even better find a really good insurance broker to help you work out the details of where and where not you are covered. Right now you are in the post-catastrophe insurance dead zone but you want to be ready to move to up your insurance cover if you can the moment the insurance market comes on line.

Excuse me, but cold tires and my forgetting to button my coat had nothing to do with me turning my Caterham into a Caterpillar dozer by shifting a ton of dirt on the left side of the back straight. And I am pretty sure Kitcat's tires and coat did not play a role in him digging up the right side of the back straight in his John Deere tractor! However, I do believe cold tires played a role in Blubarisax looping his car at the entry to the Jersey Devil on the "warm up" lap! oops! :blush: But all credit goes to JBH for his remarkable composure and grace when his partner tried his "new" Boxster out on the track and christened it with a credible half spin and reverse pike into a wall! (they will buff out!). We will keep a spot open for you Martin next year! Being the closest to the track is a huge advantage for you. Video is lined up for editing on my 19 hour non-stop flight to Singapore in 3 hours time.

Lovely car in a great setting - where were you when you took this photo? I think you will like the smaller headlights - having had both I much prefer the smaller lower set ones.

Can someone in CA please slap Martin silly for me.....just a little...:jester: The sight that is remarkable for me is being able to see clear across 100 feet of building (if I crouch down) as the bottom 3 feet on the ground floor of my building has been cleared of dry wall, cabinets, furniture, etc as all that wet stuff was removed.

Oops! I forgot the daylight savings change.... sorry! I was concerned for you Tom as much as you would prefer not! :leaving:

This is great news - a car that finally goes as promised. Maybe we need to get you out at the june 2013 track days at NJMP? I for one am interested to see how your car performs in a more unrestrained environment!

I got news on my building today - good news - power was restored. Bad news - ground floor was badly damaged in the storm surge (lobby and 6 apartments). A barge loose during the storm punched a hole in the side of the building. Garage is damaged. Swimming pool, gym, maintenance storage rooms, car park office, building office, landscaped surrounds all wiped out. Plant and equipment mostly survived undamaged - it is elevated very high. Damage is mostly insured so not a major concern. No idea what my 8th top floor apartment is like - cannot get the guys to check it out as the ground floor is a major problem for them. If this is the damage in my building then the ones on either side are hit harder as they had lower level lobbies and apartments. One shocker that came to light today - 2 large multi-story apartment buildings in Hoboken were structurally damaged from the flooding as water got underneath and lifted the foundations! On a massive 10 story set of concrete and steel buildings! I struggle to believe it

Was your place ground floor or first floor? Damage looked fairly controlled - the immortal phrase 'it could be much worse' springs to mind. I am staying where I am in London until power returns. Unfortunately that means long days as I work UK and US business hours trying to kick start a business after the storm. Our disaster recovery program was a disaster - the back up work site flooded, our emergency power supply was comandeered, our communication plans and calling trees sucked with bad information/connections and our IT back up facilities only succeeded in getting my back up! :banghead: We are also working out how much we will likely pay on the insurance policies - that will be a 9 figure check at some point. No idea what damage my place took - still no services in downtown Jersey City. Someone did report that the office building across the street from my place has 4 stories of underground basement/garage full to the brim with water!

My luck did not hold - my building is now without power. Best guess is Monday/Tuesday next week for restoration but I suspect that is optimistic - this will stretch for a week or more. I am delaying my Friday flight into next week. Why come back if my home and office has no electricity, hot water, cold water, sewage facilities, lifts to get upstairs, no ability to store or cook food, no TV, no cable, no internet, etc. I can stay warm, dry and fed in comfort in London plus continue to work.

Yes - that got a smile and a laugh!

No its not a GT40 even though I have been shopping them extensively. For the record I really dont fit in a Superperformance GT40R. I tried out an official FIA spec GT40 in Florida and had to twist to sit in the narrow seat let alone being able to close the door with a helmet on. Can close it without a helmet though! The GT40 I do like is the CAV one :cooldude: Fit and finish are superb - better than Superperformance - and even Steve would fit in one (maybe not Karl) as they are designed for taller, more "prosperous" drivers. Also does not have the rust issues of the Superperformance monocoque. Anyway, its not a GT40 - I am finishing off a "restoration" (not Bruce's type - I am keeping the race patina) of............keep guessing.:bigear: Tom - no more clues:rofl: And there are 2 other race car restorations I have started researching for. Oops gone off topic...back to Sandy I still have power at my place - the answering machine works and the building concierge answers. Water was lapping at the doors of the lobby which is 10 feet above mean water mark. My garage was completely underwater - to the roof. Usual leaks in the apartment. Hope everyone else came through ok.

The website is at http://bookatrack.com/ There are cheaper seven track rental places out there but I would rather go with BookaTrack as they run the track event and support the cars - plus they are a fun group. Nomex was there but not in the majority. Lots of jeans and jackets and regular shoes. I travelled just with my gloves and race boots and rented the helmet and just wore docker trousers and a cotton shirt and windproof jacket. Don't feel you have to bring all your kit with you to the UK.

I prepared in advance as I saw this one coming last week. My Caterham is in Millville in a garage far enough away from the water it should be fine. The new toy is out at Frenchtown so that should be ok. My Audi is at Newark airport. And I am in London. However, my home garage is expected to be under 8 feet of water later as the storm surge backs up the Hudson River adjoining the garage. My residence is 8 floors up and balconies are clear so should be fine from flooding. I am nervous about the 15 foot wide glass skyroofs in the living and bedroom though.....

mmmmm.....I could have used the IRS in my CSR to handle the bumps. There is less power obviously (180 FWHP vs 275 FWHP but that was no real loss as the circuit was sufficiently bumpy that I would have had issues putting a lot more power down. I did like the lightened flywheel - pickup of revs was noticeably quicker (along with it being easier to stall at low revs!). The quicker ratio steering made the car a lot more nervous. Put it all together and the car felt quicker but that was an illusion from the darty steering, the de dion not handling the bumps well and throwing the car around more plus the general rawness of a Caterham race car. None of that is bad - I did enjoy the car but it is very different to what I am used to in the CSR275. The differences were far more pronounced from when I had it at Silverstone, simply because Silverstone was a billiard table smooth F1 super circuit.

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I had the good fortune to run into a gentleman testing out VBox Lite equipment on a Caterham in a track environment with a view to renting at future track days. So my car was festooned with cameras and logging equipment from his kit and my usual Gopros/Racechrono logger. Given the hassle of lugging all my kit over to the UK, I think I would just rent it from him next time – much smarter. There was a few technical issues – the circuit was so bumpy it threw the camera aim off. The driver face camera became “Groin Cam” at one point not that there was much too look at given my distraction elsewhere! Then again, had it happened while I was following the Aston Martin.... Another coming over the rise exiting Lodge corner: Now at the end of every track day we all pack up and go home. How about this for a trailer unit for the Aston Martin DBR1 and the Atom? So who wants to do Spa Francorchamps track day in Belgium with me next year with one of the BookaTrack sevens?

Later on, Martin found me on the track once I had learned the basics and we had a more spirited session. For a 140hp engine, Martin showed how good a Caterham can really be around this track. Now one of the exciting pieces of machinery on the track was an Aston DBR1 run by a gentleman who had his son out in an Ariel Atom. I suspect it probably was not original as I think these go for $10m or something equally ridiculous plus it looked too fresh for a car that should have a touch of patina. I had the good luck to range up behind it on track and I slowed down long enough to follow. The owner later said to me it had no grip. Well that was obvious to me as it was all angles going through corners – understeer, oversteer, understeer, oversteer, back and forth working the wheel in one corner, as he piloted it nicely through the corner. Just incredible car control.

Some track photos now. Just starting to turn into Lodge Corner: Coming out of Lodge: Looks like it is in Cascades? Coming down Dentons just before Cascades corner: