Croc

That was a lot of sevens with a huge variety of styles and customization. Thank you for posting - I see the Hay Plain has not changed in 20 odd years when I used to drive trucks across it. Chateua Tanunda looked the same as well. Really nice photos. If we held a Nationals I doubt we would get that many?

Terry - I know where you are coming from as I usually are the same way - no whitewalls. However, in person on this car it seems to work out. Anyway, Bruce was a pimp and now just does select movie work when he feels like it. :jester: Congratulations Bruce - Here is to seeing you with better weather in June!

Ian - With that paragraph I was referring to the post above yours...

Hi Terry - The actual ad is here - still does not answer your question though! http://www.usa7s.com/vb/showthread.php?t=7116

To save Doublesnaggle the pain of breaking it what he spent, let me explain how much it would cost today for at least the major pieces: $46,125 Kit from Caterham USA $1,500 Shipping and customs (kit only) $17,000 Cosworth Duratec 260 with the roller barrel & ancilliaries $5,000 Caterham 6 speed transmission (motor and trans incl customs) $5,000 Assembly (excludes shipping to Denver & back for susp. set up) $1,850 Non-metallic paint $1,400 LSD (not sure if this one has it or not?) - needed in this model $1,700 Full weather equipment (sidescreens, hood, hood sticks) $79,500 At this point. I have not listed some of the other options that are advertised and I bet there are others that are not listed. I would not be surprised if there is another $7-10k in options not mentioned that I could not glean from the ad and pictures. If you tick every option box on the CSR list today you get to $95k region excluding assembly and suspension set up. Because of the complexity of the CSR kit, they do not generally sell it for individuals to construct without professional assistance. The real issue with the price of Caterhams is that their price varies significantly with the FX rate to the UK. Between when I bought my Cosworth engine/transmission in Dec 2010 and today there is a $5000 price increase, almost solely due to foreign exchange fluctuations. As for the asking price of $67k, I will say it is just about the cheapest CSR that has come on to the US/Canadian market that I can discover. The Seven & Elans CSR was advertised at $69k with less options and sold for slightly less than asking. So you may not be able to justify the cost/value for money equation yourselves but that is fine since it is the potential buyer and seller that have to rationalize it, not us in the peanut gallery. Please refrain from being publicly critical just because he has more car than you can justify. :grouphug: Now if people are trying to understand why a CSR is so much better than a regular seven, then you have to drive it yourself to understand. It is not all all about the Cosworth engine. It is more about the incredible capacity of the car with its inboard front suspension and independent rear suspension. It is light years ahead of my old 2004 SV in abilities and was tested as faster than a R500 around the Top Gear UK test track with essentially the same horsepower and a small weight penalty. The addition of the Cosworth engine is just icing on top of a very tasty package.

It was good to meet in Crewst in person along with S1Steve. :cooldude: Next time, with better weather, I will be there with my seven.

Well I turned up at the Bucks County Exotics mentioned in here: http://www.usa7s.com/vb/showthread.php?t=7102 And I found S1Steve and Crewst standing around trying to keep warm while their S1's glowed nicely with the irridescent paint they have. I was in my tin top as it was just too cold to make a run that long this morning. A nice selection of some Ferrari's, a few Lambos, a very nice De Tomaso (first edition), a new Rolls Royce, a good looking Whale tail Porsche and a tricked out 928. I was a little late but it was a good crowd.

John - Interesting statistics. How is an "active" member defined?

PM sent

Fortunately they are Tillets.....easy to clean up after accidents!

They also specify cotton or natural fiber clothes - they checked my label at tech inspection. Clearly I was not as fashionable as Tom! :cooldude: Best place to find racing gear other than at NJMP is Driving impressions in Dover NJ (ring first as they screw around opening times regularly) or Stable Energies in Clifton NJ. Stable Energies was really helpful for me replacing my helmet last season. We will probably try to organize a sevens event for next season say May to July. Tom and I were dreaming up plans this week. I have you on my regional sevens contacts list so I will PM everybody plus post here when we know what we are up for. If you want to try for a track day ahead of that then you are looking at signing up for something with SDCA or other organized group member days where you will need to demonstrate past experience (resume of racing history) to get into an intermediate passing group. Tom and I are trying to coordinate calendars when the 2012 schedule comes out as it is more fun to run with another seven - so we can rope you in at that point.

That is a very helpful link to the rules. I think The Stig hit the my problem squarely - I have a road car that was converted to racing use. It was never "manufactured" as a race car. Making it even murkier is that it is a 1985 body shell with everything else upgraded to 1989 manufacturer homologation specs. And of course the engine paperwork looks like it was 2006 as that was when it was rebuilt after I grenaded it. Tom - I dont think you need to worry about getting out on the track with me. After all you are not in my class! It looks similar to this (not my car): http://my105.com/ListingDetails/tabid/65/p/2/k/group%20A/id/3587/Default.aspx And some correct period racing footage with a best driver around racing them:

Is anyone on here an expert on importing cars to the US? I have an 1987 race car in Australia that I want to bring to the US so I can use it more often. 1987 is 24 years and therefore does not meet the 25 year rule. However, as it is not a road registerable vehicle anyway does the the 25 year rule apply? Of course I could just go ahead and wait another year....:hat:

I believe MA is a pain in the posterior to register a seven these days. Xflow7 (David) is now living in VT I think so if he does not chime in here you may want to send him a PM. As for NH and ME, I am not aware of any sevens located there but as a former resident of ME, I can say it is a gorgeous place to drive a seven (and in NH) in the all-too short summer they have.

I must be having my senior moment as I cannot remember any pretty lady!:rofl:

Dermot - PM sent with contact details. To respond on aero matters - In June at Silverstone I was having significant challenges with high speed understeer in a standard R300 SV race car anywhere above 120mph. At our mid-year escapades at NJMP when I was in my own car, I was getting wheelspin and squirelly in 4th gear on the back straight hump at Thunderbolt and front straight hump on Lightning. So I added the CSR chin spoiler and a Reverie rear diffuser. I was privileged enough to put my CSR into a university wind tunnel in August for 5 hours to see what the results were but am not allowed to publish or comment on the test results as some academics want that privilege to get their doctorates. I do not even have a copy just some notes on percentage improvement. Other cars that went into the wind tunnel as part of the same study included a Toyota Camry, Ferrari 430, Chevy Malibu, Prius, Dodge minivan, and a Tahoe. There were others but I was not privy to them. Simply put the test showed incremental downforce improvements provided by each unit (chin spoiler or diffuser) once you were over 100mph, steadily increasing as you got up to 155mph (theoretical top speed of CSR even though it would be reduced slightly with diffuser addition only). The two additions were below a 4% improvement in overall downforce (not sure how far below). The chin spoiler was a "appreciable" difference in its own right. I think Busa's front air dam design would work even better than my standard Caterham CSR unit. The diffuser was not a clear cut choice if you thought about the cost. There was no benefit to having a diffuser with or without the vertical strakes. There was zero benefit below 100mph for anything. On the track in November confirmed with seat of the pants - no wheel spin on the humps on Thunderbolt or Lightning and car felt a little more planted so I felt more confident on high speed corners. Feeling more confident is half of the issue sometimes. Busa - Everytime I see some more details on your car I am more impressed. I can see the development you have put into your car. I guess you just went back to plain old Busa power eventually and gave up on the turbo idea given the heat issues (wow!) you hit?

you can read the article if you print it out on to letter sized paper. At least that is what I did to read it. The same article is also on page 3 of the blatchat link I posted.

For those with a little more ooomph in the wallet looking for Christmas gift ideas, I stumbled over this store while wandering around Singapore this afternoon. http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a354/mjohnson555/DSC00093.jpg Lots of goodies to buy. There was a replica F1 steering wheel at $3800. If you wanted one that was signed by Massa following an F1 race then you could smell the sweaty palms on that wheel if you put up $8000. There were a neat desk top set of 4 valves and a piston that had been given the Alonso at some race for $800 and $900 respectively. There was a nice F1 engine on a stand with a certificate of authenticity by Ferrari marked POA. And of course if you wanted to buy the 2007 F1 car in the window it was strictly marked price on request. Since I would have had to ask, I could not afford it and did not bother.

Sure it was not Maria Shriver wishing Arnie Schwarzenegger happy birthday?

way O/T so sorry in advance.... Hi Dermot :seeya: I am interested in hearing more about the Hayabusa turbo you are planning. From seeing one of these in the UK absolutely monster regular K series and zetec sevens around Brands Hatch circuit, I think you have a winner on your hands. Was this to be on a sevens chassis? If so then read the link here which discusses what happened at MIRA when they stuck a seven in a windtunnel http://www.blatchat.com/t.asp?id=192693&pn=1&ps=15 If not on a sevens chassis then we probably need to know what vehickle we are working with.

Betsy is a sweetie - tell her you will sell the orange one and upgrade. Also point out that sevens do not depreciate the same as regular cars so it is a good investment in money and lifestyle quality....err...is she believing me yet? :rofl: Thanks for the offer at the table however, this week I am in Singapore. Coming home on the Saturday flight.

When I was spec’ing the CSR late last year I explored the Hartley V8 and stopped being serious when I finished totaling up the price of engine, transmission, ancillaries, wiring harness, testing, tuning, fettling to make the thing actually go in a seven. I was $40k on an all in basis once I added everything up. It fits in a Caterham S3 chassis fairly well, an SV or CSR chassis was going to be really easy. John Hartley did his seven when he decided his Zetec just did not have enough poke! I did have residual concerns that it had not been in enough installations to prove to me that it was sufficiently reliable over the longer term. Also it was just a little bonkers for the road. Despite that the workmanship was just awesome – like a work of art. The other package I explored was Russell Savery’s RST V8 which first saw light in the Caterham Levante. I dropped in late last year when in the UK on business. Well since then they have developed a V6 version. Noticeably lighter than the V8, the V6 developed about 340 something HP in normal aspiration. Fits a seven much more easily than the V8. When you drop turbos on it you comfortably get to 500 something hp in what was described as an unstressed installation. Given the track record they have of putting the V8 and V6 in sevens or atoms in both normal aspiration or turbo’ed installation this would have been the way to go. Alas it was also too expensive – well over $40k with everything added up. With some hindsight, the smart package if you want a V8 and bulk grunt then go buy a Stalker and stick an LS into it. Probably the complete car would be the same as just the engine/transmission package of either the Hartley/RST. The other option is do Skip’s (Scannon) method of turboing a Miata – easily into 300hp land there for reasonable money. Flying Miata makes it fairly turnkey. Of course you could also supercharge a Duratec if you do not want to go a Miata or LS way. Despite all this, I discovered that a seven just does not need huge horsepower be very fast. With my relatively small Duratec (compared to a V8/V6), I can still spin wheels coming out of pretty much any corner on every racetrack I have tried so far and I have 10 inch rears and the best rear suspension that has come out on a seven in production. More horsepower and I need much more rubber to control it. The natural evolution in that development is to go to Stalker land where they are designed next level up heavier with bigger rubber to control it. The Stalker LS package is really a good bargain when viewed this way.

Come on Steve - place the order and join us next year! Happy Thanksgiving!

I would agree with you normally but seeing Tom actually there and how much speed he was giving up on the corners (30 session old slicks), with good fresh tires I think he has at least another 10mph to gain down the straights with a good run through and out of a corner. He also has still another 1500 revs to use before the red line. Even with this it would have been a little scary to go through the high speed corners with the lift from the clams.

I agree with you both that the video does show which lines work better than others. I found it a better learning experience than going out and lapping by trial and error. It is interesting to compare what I am doing with Kitcat in the front or rear cam. Turn 4 works as I am following what Enrique (the instructor in June) said. I think there is a lot more speed in all corners as I am only lapping at 70-80% - I do have to drive the seven home for 3 hours remember. I believe Turn 3 on the back straight and the last turn onto the straight are capable of being taken flat out. So there is another 10-20mph in those corners. On Turn 1 and 2 I am being too cautious....not a lot of run off room to recover on Turn 1 if you balls it up. On Turn 2 the blind sightlines require additional confidence to go for it there. You will also notice that I just hung around in mostly in 5 and 6 gears. I could get much more time by dropping to 3rd and 4th more in the slow sections but there was enough congestion that more speed did not really matter. When I did drop down the gears (e.g. fish tailing with the mustang) it was hard to get the power down without wheelspin. So the lesson here is that more power becomes a marginal improvement exercise. The speeds you see on the dial are accurate GPS data. I had readings 10 times a second from 9-10 satellites. The dial on the car shows 140mph at the end of the straight but the GPS data shows 128mph. I believe the GPS and not a Caterham dial. I also had average speed data, throttle/braking, lap time, lap number data but I did not show it. The other thing noticeable this time is that I was not getting wheelspin on the hump on the back straight and I am faster this time. The car unloads the suspension but does not lift up. The question I have is 1) is it the aero mods I did (chin spoiler, diffuser) or 2) is it the better weather? I bet it is the weather. The aero mods still look good though!