Croc

Here are the list of potentials that are within a reasonable proximity to NJMP that have not responded: - MichaelD# - JVbtte (Jack) % - DaveD - EvilRomeo - Pinballking2 (Andy) - S1Steve % - Sabbot (Stewart)# - Bster13 (Bryce) - CmaxCliff (Cliff) - Scott L (dont know his profile name here?)# - Boxologist (Jon) - Crewst - Al % The # symbol means they participated by driving last years event. The % means they participated by gracing us with their spectatorship! There are 2 others with sevens that are not on here but I met through NJMP: - SimonW - Doug Have I forgotten anybody? Of this 16 I am sure a few others will commit. There may be more down DC way that want to join in the fun. Mass mailing time to get everyones attention? :bigear:

8 mile commute that can take anywhere from 25 minutes to 2.5 hours depending on the snarl ups. For example - this mornings blonde sterling effort to invert her car on ice in the covered roadway/tunnel on Rt 139.

4. Croc (Mike) We have more cars local to NJMP this year than any previous year - Redgoose and Stig have new (to them) cars, Doug was found, Jack's car is back up and running, Boxologist's car is also running, Dave and Steve want to participate. I think we have good reasons to have a bigger group this year than any previous year. Tom has even promised to buy the bar at the clubhouse on the Monday night. :cheers: Even though it is midweek there is enough advance notice for us all to plan ahead to be able to goof off work at least one to two days. However, I am not expecting Al to have finished Bessie The Seven :nopity: We may get Slingsht though in his new BEC creation.

Hi Dermot, To check my memory I went digging through my library of motor racing books to confirm some facts. In the early 1980s Formula 1 took a ground effects approach of running cars very low, on very stiff suspension with “skirts” around the perimeter of the central chassis tub (including the side pods/sponsons). This gave an area of low pressure that would act as additional downforce on the car improving cornering. The problem with this approach was maintaining the enclosure of the low pressure area so that it remained effective downforce. So the Formula 1 cars had to run very hard springs to maintain the “contact patch” during regular track conditions such as cornering or bumps on a straight. If the air escaped then the downforce was lost – potentially perilous if it was being used in a cornering manouveur. A side note is that I read an interview with Alan Jones and he said these types of car were hard on the driver as all forces were transmitted direct to the driver without absorption by the car. What you are thinking of is a variation on this – channeling air under the car to a diffuser to force a negative air pressure zone. Another analogy is that you are trying to produce a NACA ducting effect but in large scale. Sounds great in theory but how do you keep the air from escaping out the sides? Well, Formula 1 used skirts but they were only effective if they hung right to the surface of the road. Even a hovercraft only functions with positive life if its skirts rub the surface. NACA ducts only work because they can channel the air. While I am not an engineer (and hopefully someone more techie than me will be along to respond shortly) but I cannot see how you make this work in practice on a car that may be used on roads. A track only car could readily take advantage of this but a road car that has to deal with bumps, humps, kerbs, speed humps, etc? Still, the worst case that could happen is that you do not channel the air under the car, there is some level of leakage but still when the residual (after losses out the side) air flowing to the rear of the car meets the diffuser, some of that will flow upwards to create the negative pressure and add downforce. Even if it does not the car is smoother underneath so evacuates air with less resistance. Given the number of performance cars that have this feature and I have to assume they are wind tunnel tested then there is still a benefit from doing this. It may not be as much as you are hoping for. So hopefully someone now comes along to challenge my layperson logic on this! Sorry but I am clueless on answering your suspension question! Cheers

Here is a photo of how they are mounted on my seven: http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a354/mjohnson555/seats/CSR/October%202011/DSC_1989_edited-1.jpg Definitely they should be nosedown to present a profile and provide a channelling upwards of the airflow (i.e. downforce).

Wow! I like it. Nice color scheme of the dark blue and yellow too. The only negative I can forsee is that over 110mph you will be popping a wheelie with that wing Are you auto-xing or tracking? I am not sure a few little whiskers will counteract that rear rear wing and give you any steering but I would put the carbon winglets about midway with the top of them roughly even with where the upper A arm exits the nosecone.

I have seen on a few forums that furry back (refer Mopho's pic) does not work that well but does cut down some noise. As for Eyeofmine - I use their roll bar mount with dual gopro cam adapter and it is brilliantly simple to use and stable on a seven on a track. I threw the Go Pro roll bar mount away as it just was not as stable. After reading Jim's post then I want to try a powered mic as that should improve the sound even better than what I got last time with Go Pro 2 and the cheapy unpowered mic. Bring on summer - I want to try it out!

Oooohhh! 86Sebring has just reminded me on the colonoscopy I recently got for using the NJ Turnpike as tolls doubled. And lets not talk about the $12 cash tolls for the Holland & Lincoln tunnels, George Washington Bridge or $13 for the Verrazanzo bridge. :rant:

Happy Birthday! I ordered the kit with the skeleton housing and there is a pre-drilled hole. I wanted to keep the watertight housing for snorkeling. However, if you do not need a watertight housing then I have read on the GoPro forum that people are just drilling a hole like you suggest. I also sealed up the internal mic hole to prevent any wind noise coming from that angle.

Welcome to NJ! Land of the brave, free and excessively taxed! I have never heard of this type of fine before but it does not surprise me. Was the fine levied on the license or the car? Wait until insurance renewal time!

+1 on Car Builder Solutions. I have ordered stuff from them and it is easy and painless. I have also been to their UK store when playing hooky from the office one friday with a rental car. They are about 2 hours drive south east of London and full of brilliant ideas. I bought my superbright LED slimline reverse and rear fog ligths from them to replace the Land Rover/Caravan jobs that came with the kit. Other catalogs I find a good read: Griot's Garage - thanks to DeanG in an old post for putting me onto this one. http://www.griotsgarage.com Pegasus Racing - useful for the track day hackers amongst us https://www.pegasusautoracing.com/ Demon Tweeks - in the UK but their mail order catalog they send out is an inch thick book of ideas. These guys will ship to the USA and sometimes have Caterham parts cheaper than Caterham...e.g. brake pads. http://www.demon-tweeks.co.uk/ The last catalog that is full of racy, sporty models with fine detailing is this: http://www.victoriassecret.com Certainly brightens my thinking around cars! For example - installing a pair of air bags in a seven... :cooldude: What other catalogs have you found that inspire your wallet (preferably re cars)?

I am sure you are still a young stud at heart Hank!!!

Its a marketing person being a little too creative. The old telephone switchboard image was intended to indicate that Caterham is communicating. However, given most of us are far younger than the technology portrayed then I think the visual imagery flopped.

You know how to make me insanely jealous - beautiful day, lovely seven, perfect road, no stress or worry...:cooldude:. and here I am stuck in NYC with crappy wind, freezing rain, clouds and no chance of taking my seven out. Your seven brings back wonderful memories of my long gone S2. Even down to reminding me how I used to scrape my knuckles on the dash while changing gear. Your garage also looked pretty interesting. Thank you for posting and reminding me winter will be over one day!

Wow! I did not see this one coming! :drool:

It is neat how the Contour camera can sync video with maps. I have just made a note on my European Alps driving tour to include that road - one day I will get around to doing it! Just need to find a suitable car to do it in.

I think Westfield have had the locking boot box option for a while now! Nice find of that article - good reading!

OK I am going to bite. I don't want this thread to degenerate into a "my brand is better than your brand" match here so I am bringing some science to the discussion. I ticked every option box on my recent Caterham build and I do not believe you in an instant it would get high US$70's other than by luck of getting the right purchaser at the right time. I am an actuary by qualification and even I would not bank on those odds. Being an anal actuary with a love of spreadsheets, contemplating the sale of my old yellow Caterham and trying to decide what to do with a new seven project, about 2 years ago I ran the depreciation numbers on Caterhams, Birkins, and Ultralites from all the USA data listed on this forum plus from other state registration databases I had confidential access to. There was not enough data to do Westfields or Stalkers and even then Ultraites sales were limited enough that statistical conclusions are not valid. Locosts cannot be analyzed as each is a individual in its own right. My conclusion was that depreciation between Caterhams and Birkins follows pretty much the same statistical curve. In absolute terms there may be a slight advantage to the Caterham at the 0-3 year year mark but it is statistically insignificant especially given the individual specification variances between all of our cars. Anyway, once you get past the initial depreciation period any of these cars are sound investments in quality of life - they all have a fairly stable value at that point, much better than a regular car. In dollar terms the Caterham has more risk than a Birkin simply because of the scale of the dollars invested is higher. Using some comparative car specs from when I was dreaming up my next seven 2 years ago, a new US$68k Caterham (above avg spec but not top end spec) roughly corresponded to a new US$45k Birkin with similar spec. Today the Caterham is down to US$50k whereas the Birkin is down to say US$27-29k. Nothing much in it statistically as depending on the the right marketplace and right purchaser these numbers could easily be higher or lower. In dollar terms the smart money (at least from my finance background) is on the Birkin as there is less outlay and therefore less dollar exposure downside. So why did I buy a Caterham? The right spec/color/size combination came up at the right time when I had the cash to spend. I was thinking with the heart (or dick?) and not with the head on investment yield or depreciation rates. Dollars are not what Caterhams, Ultralites, Stalkers, Birkins, Westfields, etc are about. If I wanted to invest cash in a car I would not be buying a seven. A seven is about having fun, quality of life and realizing there is more to life than work, chores and effort. No one wants to be the richest person in the cemetary. So back to Joshesh - get out there and have fun shopping around the various specs, trying on the various cars for size and have even more fun driving whatever you buy! :driving: I am sure the California contingent would love to see you on the road next summer!

Excellent post. Good to see you are getting out of Christchurch and away from all te tremors. Also makes me realize that I dont have as easy access to as great roads in my seven.

A Birkin will be a fraction wider than an R500 for seat width like 1 inch or so - there will not be much in it. The one thing that you should do is try the Birkin to work out what seats you want - the standard road seats have a "special" reputation that can only understood by trying them. WCM Ultralites are available in kits, rollers or ready to thrash if you look at the order form here: http://wcmultralite.com/order_S2K.htm PM Loren (WestTexasS2K) here on the forum as he knows all about Ultralites

My faith in mankind is reassured - I just love the way an innocent posting goes politically incorrect by page 2

This is what I used for the Go Pro 2 - worked fine as you could see on the NJMP test day: http://www.amazon.com/Olympus-145045-ME-15-Microphone/dp/B000815CF4/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1325708144&sr=8-3 The bimmer forums refer to this mic: http://www.amazon.com/Audio-Technica-ATR-3350-Omnidirectional-Condenser-Microphone/dp/B002HJ9PTO/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1325708293&sr=1-1 I also tried this one on my POV VIO and it was passable but pretty cheap and the clip broke first time. THe Olympus was better quality sound. http://www.amazon.com/3-5-Computer-Clip-Mini-Microphone/dp/B001N0W2B6/ref=sr_1_22?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1325708363&sr=1-22 The Go Pro 2 is internally powered so no powered mic is needed - just a simple plug and play one.

Nice one Peter! Brings back lots of good memories (and the odd bad one too). What engine is he using in the PRB? Sounded great.

Not sure how I will feel after having stepped off a round the world flight just the day before. Is it the same Starbucks as last time?

Is that where I am? :ack: Head feels like it is somewhere else other than Sydney right now....like under a jack hammer :puke: Epic new years eve in Sydney! :seeya: Nice PRB! Which version is it? S2, Composite, wide body, IRS?