Croc

Bogart would get my vote as the Keizer website is full of errors and link issues. You click a 5 spoke wheel and the specs come up for a 4 spoke. I like the Bogart SS - reminds me of the old Momo Stars I had on a car once. Maybe a black inner to hide the brake dust? Which style/size are you looking at? I can help you load up your credit card quicker than your wife I have some experience having bought some 13" wheels myself this week amongst other go faster goodies.

Normally they are quite a sensible bunch of guys. I don't know what came over them?

I can only agree with you BigDog. If it was $32k with clean title six months back why would you pay an additional $8k now for a damaged title and chassis concerns. Reading the ad carefully makes me convinced that they are reading USA7s website....

Steve - You are still jealous from my driving at Spa-Francorchamps in the snow - more wrist action than when I was 15yo! :willy_nilly: Funny accent my ass :bs: I am a true southerner unlike you Yankees!

My office is a mile from Teterboro and fly out of there too. So if you are in town let me know and we can arrange to meet for a beer and a burger.

Come on up to NJ Xcarguy - I am sure Mike (Kitcat) and myself can corrupt you! :rofl: :cheers: Sadly the dust cloud video is banned from boobtube thanks to the illegal music Tom used in making it. It was epic though - one of my longer spins I have got myself into and to force everyone to stop in the middle of the track because of no visibility was just perfect :rofl:

Pussy! Thats not an offroad excursion. This is an offroad excursion (start at 7.15): Just remember - men go hard, its the girlies who go soft!

The Tillet R500 seats will fit an S3 chassis or an S5 chassis and are mostly based on the Tillet B6. The Tillet B2s are known as Caterham CSR seats and will only fit an S5 chassis not an S3. However, the B6s are not the same as what Caterham sells for the R500 as the headrest has been kicked back in the standard B6 to accommodate a helmet but this makes it out of position for road use - something to consider depending on your use patterns. The width and other dimensions are still the same between the two. The Tillet website has lots of dimension brochures to check the width of the seat depending on whether you have the cut or rolled edges to the seat. For mounting you can stick it on runners to adjust fore and aft or just bolt it in to the floor using fixed seat mounts. Tillet sell both. Tillet USA were very unhelpful when I tried to talk with them on a set of seats and I eventually ended up talking with Tillet UK who were excellent. Definitely worth calling the UK to get the right advice for your order as they know Caterhams well. http://www.tillett.co.uk Reverie also do a carbon seat for Caterhams S3 and S5 chassis. Lastly, Oxted Trimming sell a really nice seat pad for the Tillets to make them more comfortable and warmer in cold weather.

Skip - that was a good move posting the VIN here. Sadly it is too easy to launder titles these days and it may stop a potential buyer from being unknowingly burned. $22.1k plus the auction premium (5%?) was a good price for the auction - fully valued for the insurance company selling. Not much left in it for the buyer though (assuming no shipping costs) - I do hope it works out well for them.

.................:seeya:

I saw this car in person a few years back and liked the look of it. Immaculate condition and surprisingly the gold panasports work well with the green. I really feel for the owner though - 3 cars and all that flooding through his garage and house - my commiserations if you are reading this. I would consider the Caterham at $10k but it is over that now. By the time you add on sales tax and auction premium and transport home and then allow for the unknown in repair work and then you have the $5K+ in value diminution from having a salvage title (although that can be cleaned away in that part of the US too...legal but unethical in my opinion) then for the effort I am not seeing enough of a payoff for the risk. Quite a good project car though.

Oh come on Mike. Its like Blubarisax buying up the entire global supply of carbon fiber for his car to make it lighter and therefore faster. It is well accepted that lightening a heavy wallet does improve performance in a seven. I have seen it first hand. It also adds extra inches mentally to a gentleman's performance. :cooldude: If you try and justify purchasing upgrades with logic and common sense the male world as we know will explode! :svengo:

Best wishes to everyone for a wonderful Christmas! :seeya:

Guess who has been a good boy for Santa this year?! :blue angel: Have fun opening your crate when you return and enjoying the build!

I will say this was a very distinctive trailer when I saw it at Carlisle one year. Lots of people were stopping to take a photo of Gary's Birkin nicely displayed within. Very well done unit for a Seven. Good luck with the sale!

David - I appreciate the point you are trying to make but I think you missed mine. I have seen too many instances, whether it be cars or other items, where the buyer takes a cost short cut and then instantly complains about the seller when something goes wrong as they used the item in a way it was not designed/intended for. Some types of cost cutting are a step too far or just not a good idea and when it goes wrong it is always the buyer moaning that they were misled or ill-informed - its never their fault. I can just see someone buying a wet sump Seven on the basis that they will never do a track day and then turn around and do just one track day and then blame the engine builder/car builder when the highly possible engine damage happens. There have been enough examples on this forum over the years. I recall Dick Brink getting criticised for some of this. IMHO a dry sump is a prudent investment on a car with as much grip as ours have whether it be on the road or track. Feel free to diagree - opinions are like a55holes and everyone has one. Some even have two...

Bruce, I appreciate your commitment to these cars to explore these options. The wet sump option really is only a viable road option. It needs to come with a strong warning on no track work - the risk is too high with our types of cars with the grip we have. There have been too many cases I have heard of where a wet sump has ventured on track for a day and done some inadvertent damage whether it be Crossflow, Zetec or Duratec. It is a very rare Sevens owner who can resist the siren call of a track in their car for at least once. I suspect another forum owner with many recent frustrating experiences in their car from a Duratec wet sump will be along shortly.....

What is the difference between an official or unofficial USA7s meet? If it is the presence of exalted office bearers then thats ok as they are welcome if they bring the cold drinks and snacks! :cheers: :lurk: By the way...who has the big USA7s banner these days? Tom - did you keep it after last year?

CSR = Croc's Speedy Racer! :seeya::auto:

The one downside for a CSR if you are thinking of a lot of track time is that the standard Avon CR500 tires are quite difficult to get - you have to plan in advance to ensure you have tires when you need them. I usually destroy one set in the 8 month driving season of a year. In addition there are only really 1 or 2 alternative tires out there due to the tight clearances front and back. The rear tires are the biggest problem as they are such an unusual sizing. I am converting to 13 inch wheels this winter - new custom wheels ordered and an angle grinder to reduce the profile of the cooling fins on the rear VW Passat hubs that Caterham uses on the CSR. This will allow me to run a range of tire brands and tires in the future plus slicks if I ever want to.

Or maybe better said, will the wide chassis take larger engines like an LS V8? Congratulations on your new responsibilities for Birkin USA!

Thats ok - some men never achieve that at any age!

Personally I think that would be perfect. The R400 spec is a great package and the CSR IRS is excellent on rough surfaces. While I love my Cossie 2.3, I would not buy Cossie engine again at todays prices and would be doing something like you suggest. You can mix and match the CSR chassis with any of the engines Caterham offers - very commonly done in UK and Europe. You may not be aware but Caterham sells a lot of CSR 175 packages in Europe with a basic 175hp Duratec. Here is a video of one at Nurburgring and as you can see he is not lacking speed!

And you are the one on the right?

Strangely, the foam wrapped mic behind the scuttle just does not work in my car. I think it is because I have such a different dash shape in the CSR. hence I have always been trying to go to the next level. I tried the bowl trick - sounded too hollow. Given I have broken 2 digital audio recorders in the first time I used them I figure I will stick to using the GoPro to record sound. I will be trying next season a splitter for intake and exhaust with dual mics. Should be fun.