Croc

Hi Mike - I just want to say congratulations on the gutsy driving on the Dragon. You completed the first rule of a timed event - bringing it home in one piece. And you also completed the second rule - showing that bitch who was boss! Excellent result. :flag: As for Mike's referral of my skills with cameras like GoPros and the like - he overrates me. All I will say they can be the most frustrating animals to work with as I have a high failure rate from trying to get the best sound (also broken a lot of mics). I recommended that Olympus back Jan 2012 and have moved on light years in experience since then. I have broken all my ATR3350's too (about 6). I think I should write a new thread where I am now on this topic and my various experiments. I will say you definitely need a powered mic for the best results and under the bonnet is usually best although I am having a custom furry muff made to re-try windproofing a mic directly next to the exhaust. Sound also varies massively by camera brand - I assume you have a GoPro? But which one?

But I bet deep down you would love to try! We are all looking for the next level of driving thrill.

Jeff - I have had what I think was a stone get between water pump belt and pulley and dislodge it in my earlier zetec. I think that or a piece of rubber is the likely cause for your belt coming off and not anything more serious. That said I would be rechecking the belt for splits/frays and its tension. during your first SCDA session on Mon I was hanging over the fence watching at the exit of turn 5 after the hump. You were fighting your way through the field nicely - passing was more polite. I saw some Miatas squabbling and not playing nice - 2 waved fists observed.

I recall Gary Lutz (cannot remember his profile name g??lutz?) used to tow his Birkin with a Jetta wagon. I saw it at Carlisle show a few years back with his really slick trailer.

Should have packed some ice around those wheels to keep them cool!

I am now 120 miles away from my car otherwise I could measure it up for you. You could look for measurements of a regular Caterham with a the standard cloth/leather seat with a regular roll bar and then add 1.25 for the lowered floor (something that can be added to a car if it does not have it already). If I recall correctly it was then another 1.25" for the regular to tall roll bar difference (again an easy switch over and can be ordered from Caterham UK directly. The height differential for the regular to tall track day bar (with diagonal bracing) can be confirmed easily with a call to Caterham UK parts.). If that does not give you enough clearance then you can switch to a resin bead seat base or tillets for an extra 1-1.25 inches. So if no one has a tall roll bar with lowered floors car available on this forum this gives you a way to roughly compute the heights from someone who has a car handy with the different specs. You also may want to pm Karl (Blubarisax) and ask about his experiences as he is the tallest member on this forum I know of with a seven.

And here was me thinking that Canada had to have a better flood insurance program/concept than the US arrangement where you have to pay the premiums but get screw all back when Hurricane Sandy decides to level your home.

Welcome back Dave! I remember your Birkin and its sale a few years back. I have IRS in my Caterham but looking at it this morning I did not see anything particularly solid enough that would allow a trailer. The IRS is heavier than the de Dion in the regular Caterham due to the uprights but there is only minimal extra chassis tubing. How many pounds do you think the trailer weighs all up? Just thinking about some bracing that runs from the rear firewall chassis members rearwards - strengthening the bars that sit under the fuel tank, but I would not think it would take anything heavy. Below is the CSR chassis to see if this gives you inspiration - look at the parallel bars running from the rear firewall for what I am thinking of: http://usa7s.com/vb/showpost.php?p=48426&postcount=1 I have no idea how this compares to a Birkin IRS? I figure it is possible as I have seen this Robin Hood with trailer in the UK: http://usa7s.com/vb/showpost.php?p=55321&postcount=3 Sorry but I did not take any better photo at the time. From my recollection a Birkin chassis has less bracing than the Caterham one but hopefully someone can chime in to confirm. A Stalker could probably tow a 5000pound yacht given the strength and weight of their construction :rofl: I know a Caterham can. Blubarisax is 6'6" and we shoe horned him into my old zetec SV during the ordering process for my car. The lessons we learned: - go for the tallest roll bar possible - there are tall version. - lowered floors give you an extra 1.5inches - tillets give about an inch over the regular cloth leather seats. Maybe another 0.5 inch if you remove the sliding track. - more height can come from going to a foam bead resin seat. - Caterham can supply a hood that fits. They are supplied by Oxted Trimming and either Oxted or Soft Bits for Sevens in the UK can provide off the shelf using a standard pattern if you were to buy a used car that came without a hood. An off the wall idea - what about going for a SBFS sun shade type of top with the 2 sidescreens and a mesh screen to stop mist coming in on the back of the neck? What temps are you driving in? LOL....I scorch my elbow on the exposed chassis tubes running down the center tunnel. Mine is much warmer than my old Zetec which I thought was rather pleasant. My theory is the allow block radiates heat more creating a hotter pedal box/cockpit area.

Karl http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a354/mjohnson555/seats/CSR/NJMP%20Sevens%20Weekend%20June%202013/IMG_5411_zps472f15d6.jpg

Dave http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a354/mjohnson555/seats/CSR/NJMP%20Sevens%20Weekend%20June%202013/IMG_5415_zpsf18de252.jpg Tom http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a354/mjohnson555/seats/CSR/NJMP%20Sevens%20Weekend%20June%202013/IMG_5408_zps5907c0ac.jpg Michael http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a354/mjohnson555/seats/CSR/NJMP%20Sevens%20Weekend%20June%202013/IMG_5350_zps3af01574.jpg Mike - has that front tire got a little air? http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a354/mjohnson555/seats/CSR/NJMP%20Sevens%20Weekend%20June%202013/IMG_5374_zpsc1f8dfd3.jpg

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Some photos of the weekend to keep you occupied while I play with the video. These were done by the pro photographer who has done some brilliant shots. I had trouble uploading in photobucket so apologies if you see duplicate postings of photos. http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a354/mjohnson555/seats/CSR/NJMP%20Sevens%20Weekend%20June%202013/IMG_7794_zpsf0ffcaed.jpg http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a354/mjohnson555/seats/CSR/NJMP%20Sevens%20Weekend%20June%202013/IMG_7898_zps54fd5fff.jpg http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a354/mjohnson555/seats/CSR/NJMP%20Sevens%20Weekend%20June%202013/IMG_7918_zpscbc8dff2.jpg http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a354/mjohnson555/seats/CSR/NJMP%20Sevens%20Weekend%20June%202013/IMG_1310_zps18a93415.jpg

Good to hear everyone is safe. Wow - the photos coming out on the web are incredible. Downtown flooded. Cranmore devastated. A huge amount of damage and it will take a long time to put back together.

Well it is not as if you would have improved anything by being there!

Martin - Just wait 5 minutes. Tom will be along by then to talk about him being the fastest (false), me spinning twice (true - I have no shame, my video will be shown), Jeff exiting stage right once (true), Stewart's BDA sounding magnificent (true), DaveD's incredible lapping improvements and the very impressive performance by a Superperformance S1 on track (true) and Tom being faster than anybody else on track (close but not quite - I will give it to Karl!). Being sensible for a moment the sevens collectively were beating everyone up. As expected from an illustrious group of drivers and cars with pedigree (well...maybe not all of the drivers have pedigree). There were some off track excursions by other drivers who shall remain nameless but magically the video camera was not working at the time. However, the track photographer did capture it supposedly....off to check...:jester: Stewart plead innocent that his GoPro failed....only to find his friend Gus was videoing him at the corner where he spun...I have the video now :jester: We got lucky with the weather - a brief shower did not affect the 3rd session - it was dry. Kitcat struggled with tires all weekend - back to the drawing board for a solution when he gets home. All he should do is follow Blubarisax's lead and spend money to solve the problem. I have lots of video and photos to sift through. It may take a while to edit down the video into something decent. However the still photos will be available on line when I get a decent broadband connection at home Monday night/Tuesday. The laughs came quick and loud today. Any downtime saw us sitting around under the canopies chatting and joking around with each other. Another magnificent sevens weekend and I will look forward to the next one. I want to thank Tom for the time spent putting this together and all those who participated - Steve, Dave (and Beverly), Karl, MichaelD, Mike, Stewart, Jeff, Ron, Doug and our non-driving visitor - Simon . Without all of you I would not be sitting here typing this with a sore mouth from grinning and laughing so much over the weekend.

Well...it was a busy day on Saturday. First session saw a lot of trains early until we all sorted out who was fastest. Of course the Audi guys thought they were fastest. The BMW guys thought they were fastest. Of course standard equipment in a BMW does not include a rear vision mirror apparently so they could not see the faster cars behind. The sole Miata in our group was driven by another with no rear vision mirror - I resorted to using my truck airhorns to get his attention after two laps of being ignored. However, slowly and surely we started working our way through the field. Passing anywhere with a point by so a lot of the other cars gave us difficult point bys - around the outside on corners. So we did. I had great fun casually motoring 30mph faster than an Audi R8 around the outside of him on the Lightning banked bowl - he had cooked his brakes determined to show that he was faster than me...oops :svengo: The first classroom session started off with lots of testosterone from the regular car guys. The second had us described as a swarm of angry insects buzzing everyone It was a rather charged classroom session with lots of frustrations as they realized they were not the fastest. :jester: By the end of the day it was clear - we whipped everyone out there. The best driver I came across had a Corvette Z06. I caught him, passed him, and started to easily get away before I had an evil thought. So I slowed down, let the Corvette catch me and proceeded to make him work to chase me. After 3 laps I then let him pass me, he had a fist pump and then I was all over his ass (non-sexual please) to show I was faster - after 2 laps he gave in and gave me a point by back so I promptly pitted as it was the end of the session. We all behaved - only two spin - all from Stewart, one of which was nicely captured on video for later editing :smilielol5: The TrackDaze operator had their Golf GTI race car, emblazoned with the TrackDaze paint job, go out in the hands of one of the staff. He had a big moment at Turn 1, found the dirt, overcorrected and collected the wall on the inside. Made for some interesting instruction in the class room later that he was leading apparently....oops! There were some casualties at the end of session 1: - Stewart's new BDA conversion overheated but he fixed it and was able to resume in the next session. - Doug's R500 absolutely tore up the track and horrified some of the other regular car participants with his blinding fast speed. There is a reason he is the fastest Caterham lapper at both NJMP tracks. Alas, end of session one he pulls into the pits and watches the eruption of steam from under the bonnet. Overheating claimed another victim. Stewart kindly helped Doug wire the fan on permanently so he could drive it the one hour home. - The saddest story of the day was Steve's new crossflow. Rebuilt for the event, dyno'ed, run in - it lasted 3 laps in the first session before signs of overheating and failing. Diagnosis remains open but all signs point to the head failing given the amount of coolant leaking out of the exhaust and pumped out 2 of the cylinders. Just heartbreaking. He definitely won the shiniest car award for his mirror finish aluminium (British English please). Weather is perfect. Sunday looks to be a good day.

Well, we mostly all arrived safely last night. Only one more car to arrive today plus a few visitors. We tech'ed the cars last night which should save some time this morning. Weather is perfect. Dinner at the NJMP Clubhouse last night was a happy affair with some keen wine tasters (not me!): http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a354/mjohnson555/seats/CSR/NJMP%20Sevens%20Weekend%20June%202013/NJMP06212013groupdinnerpic_zpsab87252d.jpg From left to right: Stewart (Sabbot), Mike (Croc), Michael (MichaelD), Tom (yellowss7), Mike (Kitcat), Karl (Blubarisax), Steve (Bball), Ron (Redgoose), Gus (Stewart's UK friend visiting), Dave & Beverly (DaveD). Updates to be posted and indiscretions publicized as the event goes on. :seeya: