Croc

Yep - neutral and balanced all the way up to when you went off the circuit: http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a354/mjohnson555/seats/CSR/Sevens%20track%20day%20Nov%202011/NJMPSE4.jpg :jester: Being sensible for a moment - I will also say the CR500s are good. I have to use them on my car (nothing else in my size wheels) and luckily they work well. I like how they communicate grip levels well and progressively let go when you exceed their limits.

Xcarguy on this forum is building a Rotrex supercharged Duratec Birkin. No idea if they can do something similar for a Zetec but I bet there is something out there for a Zetec. That would give you a hp boost. I think try the aero options first with the switch to aeroscreen and cover over the passenger side of the cockpit. It would not surprise me if that gave 8mph extra top end speed alone. Certainly the car feels more responsive without the airbrake windscreen. At that point you can evaluate how far you have to go to reach your 130mph target.

Edited to remove incorrect post

A T-9 box was designed to get a Ford Capri (a UK model not the POS sold in the US as a convertible), or a Ford Sierra/Mercury XR4i. So first gear is useless for us in a seven. The UK Caterham racers using a Type 9 gearbox and a 3.62 diff will generally modify the gearbox with help from BGH with a long first and a close ratio gear set of the following ratios 1st - 2.39 2nd - 1.54 3rd - 1.21 4th - 1:1 5th - 0.87 For comparison the Caterham 6 speed box has the ratios of: 1st - 2.69 2nd - 2.01 3rd - 1.59 4th - 1.32 5th - 1.13 6th - 1:1 The ratios tell the story how your standard T-9 box is holding you back from accelerating quicker and from keeping the engine in its power band. I have seen on Blatchat that a 3.92 diff ratio is more commonly paired with a 5 speed T-9 box whereas the 3.62 diff ratio pairs with a 6 speed box. Here is a thread on Blatchat discussing the pros and cons of this further: http://www.blatchat.com/t.asp?id=208870 http://www.blatchat.com/t.asp?id=201170 Switching gears (pun intended ) - Other aero tips from the Caterham UK racing series - cover up the passenger side of the cockpit so that air flows smoothly over. You can do this with the tonneau or buy a fancy cover from Caterham, Fluke, etc.

The Lightning circuit at NJMP is well made for Crossflows as you can still monster any car - demonstrated last year by Kitcat and Sabbot. Even if they get away on the main or back straights you are back giving them a colonoscopy at the first braking area.

I assumed you had the standard 3.62 diff ratio - my fault. The 3.36 ratio that you have is more for touring. I chatted with people when I was deciding this point on my current car and landed on 3.62 as it was the best compromise. There is a 3.92 but that is going to hold you back on top speed although you should get there quicker but it is a pain for road use. The UK R300 duratec with 3.62 is geared for 135mph area. The 3.36 will gear you higher but as you discover you are running out of track and maybe "oomph" to get you higher. The 3.92 will lower the top speed down to around 125mph - I am guessing 10mph as that was the change impact it had in the spreadsheet for my car. Also going against you is the 5 speed box. 5th is the overdrive so you have just the first 4 gears to really get you going. The six speed box adds two extra ratios to help you keep in the power band. That would help you accelerate quicker to vmax in the limits of the straight length. Roebling is a fairly open circuit that is always going to disadvantage a seven since it has one very long straight where the big cars will disappear instead of a tighter circuit with maybe 2 straights to break up the top speed potential. On your circuit you are always going to have difficulties. By comparison, at Lightning circuit at NJMP which is fairly tight and has two smaller straights, the sevens group in June 2011 was molesting everything in sight, including several Z06s. This included Kitcat in his old crossflow which is down 100hp from you. By contrast on Thunderbolt circuit at NJMP the more open layout (more straight) allows the higher speeds to come out from the higher horsepower cars. But with aeroscreen, 6 speed box, and higher diff ratio you should be starting to match what I saw in the UK in the same car 135mph. That is probably not enough for what you want? Supercharger time?

I think NJMP mandates full face SA2005/2010 helmets even if the track day operator does not. Expect an update to happen at some time on the SDCA website.

I think you are understating your car here. Looking at the NJMP video on Thunderbolt main straight shows you ahead of me maintaining gap when I am in the 123-128mph range. This is from the RaceChrono GPS datalogger in my car. I think you will be more like a 135mph top speed?

Getting rid of the windscreen for an aeroscreen (I think that is what you are changing to?) makes a huge difference especially over 100mph. The car definitely feels more responsive with an aeroscreen on. I swap my windscreen to an aeroscreen once I get to the track. The windscreen is nicer for avoiding bugs, stones, etc. I find that the tracks I drive dont allow me enough straight to get to max speed. I have GPS data logging showing me I have reached 131mph whereas the speedo dial was reading 141-142mph at the time. So your 120mph may not have been a true 120 if you were relying on the Caterham speedo? In theory my car can make 155mph at redline 7500 in 6th but I am yet to see it. I believe it can get close to 150mph as I am still accelerating strongly at 130mph when I have to throw the anchors out to brake for the next corner. My engine is a Duratec Cosworth 275hp. I drove a UK spec R300 2L duratec SV race car at Silverstone GP circuit last year which was making a claimed 195hp (probably what yours is really making). I was able to hit redline in 6th gear on the longest straight which translates to about 135mph. If you have the standard T-9 5 speed in your car then your 4th gear matches the 6th gear in the Caterham box. So if given enough straight you should be able to match my Silverstone speed.

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.