Croc

The Award Winners from this year's events "Uh Oh" Award Shaped as an old grenade from Grenadier fighting days - round with a rope wick. Intended to award the person and their car most likely to blow up or otherwise maim a driver. Vlad's @Vovchandrepic monumental saga of woe, coolant bubbles, Exxon Valdez sized oil leaks, corrosion in coolant pipes, etc., fully documented in his own thread towards 'how not to improve resale value of a Caterham', proved the only winner. I mean, how the hell does anyone blow the threads off a accusump cap in a pressure vessel designed to retain pressure up to many many atmospheres? Best Motions in a Moving Vehicle The Oscar statue went to Justin @DatsunRBZ for being new 1) to the event 2) to the track 3) in a new to him car and not just staying on the track but dealing with dive bombs from John and Simon, debris from Jim and others, smoke screens, etc., and still managing to drive fast and have a great time. Debris Rock A real authentic rock from Tom's @yellowss7 garden with red and yellow stripes painted on to resemble a debris flag. A worthy winner was Jim @FE07 who, just to keep us on our toes, left his bonnet on the back straight, just over the top of the blind crest in the middle of the track. It was exciting to pop over the crest to see it right where I would normally place my car. We all missed it fortunately so we did not add to its damage. The rock is also a reminder of the debris flag that the track never showed along with no yellow - presumably because the closest flag station was asleep or stoned? Top Banana Award A banana on a plinth. Intended to reflect either fastest, best driving or just indicative of a banana peel incident, Blake @BlakeJwas a worthy winner. He returned faster than last year and never put a foot wrong all weekend in a very nice looking white Caterham. Golden Skidmarks Award This is a recurring award of a golden commode on a plinth intended to commemorate the person with the most spins, most lurid spin or just fantastically epic off track excursion. There were some good contenders. Jay managed a good demonstration. Someone else did well to go off on the cool down lap - maybe Carl? Simon's son had a lovely rotation at turn 5 where he saw the appreciative waves from all the drivers of the cars following. But the worthy winner was John @John B with a lurid death defying save after the limits of rear tires were reached. It was so good that 3 flag stations radio'ed in their appreciation of the driver skill to bring it back from loss of control. Thats a good win! Gold Rock Award Mike @Kitcat has been at this event from the beginning 11 years ago. He is a multiple winner of Golden Skidmarks and Debris Rock Awards. His feats of off-track excursion are legendary - for example, the one memorable year where at roughly 2pm on the first day, he told the track founder, Don Fauerbach, that he had spun his Birkin something like 8 times already that day! Because this may be his last year as he contemplates selling his Caterham and migrate to opening a hairdressing salon by buying a Miata, Tom and I thought we needed to jump the start and get in early with an award. So instead of a gold watch, he gets the Gold Rock Award. A rock, carefully selected from Tom's garden, gold painted and then gold glittered. It came prepared in a plastic tray as I did not want that gold glitter in my car when I transported it. Tom supplied extra glitter just in case. He then handled that rock at the awards and patted Mike on the back to congratulate him, sadly dooming him to years of finding glitter in his laundry, his car, on his face.....that stuff gets everywhere!

At some point I will get the pro photos from Mike and will post here plus email a group photo around. Patience as he is a busy guy.

Now I have had sleep and slightly recovered, I can write this. I covered over 20,000 steps on each of the two days. It was a great event. Perfect weather. Sensational track conditions on the Thunderbolt circuit. With only 15 of us on track at any one time, there was plenty of room to play, experiment and learn our cars in the environment for which they were originally designed. It was a a good group of fun people having a great social time over 2 days - the dinners are always a highlight to chat, tell stories and laugh, a lot. Some of us are going home with things they want to fix, change, or upgrades to make. Some are going home with items they have to fix from breakages or oops moments. Time on track always sorts out our mechanical preparation and there is always a level of surprise as to what issues surface. - Me with an overflowing oil catch tank - shares in Scott Towels went up two days ago - Vlad's accusump blow up - shares in Scott Towels went up yesterday - Justin with a fuel pump gasket leak - Blue Hylomar to the rescue - John concerned about his new engine and was always monitoring oil pressure - as long as he did not let his son drive I felt the engine would stay in one piece - Jeff with some light high temps - judicious throttle application and a couple of holes drilled in a thermostat this coming week will fix this - Me with a new gearbox and shifter mechanism not playing nice - gentle application of burly mechanic and brute force improved the situation...except for 5th.... - Tom with a yellow car that would not start despite being charged up the day before - solution was just hop in the orange car - Simon - misfiring car from ECU/harness issue - send son out on track to spin it - Kitcat with failed rear shocks - continue driving but lets have the rear end pogo around to test his driving mettle. - Steve with the world's shiniest car - solution is for all other drivers and flag workers to wear their sunglasses - Kevin - the huge smile for his car being great on track cracked his helmet - nothing to fix there! I want to thank everyone for attending. Its the social element that makes this a step above a regular track day and its the people attending that make it social. Lets see what 2022 brings!

@FasterThanVov Paige (Vlad's better half), I love your humor in choice of profile name for this forum. (why isn't there a crying with tears emoticon?) I need to explain this backstory so everyone gets the joke. Sorry Vlad.......sort of.....anyway.... in Vlad's first year at the event on track he did well and completed safely. Back then, before NJ State Police banned instructors taking out passengers, I took Paige out for a session in my car. Needless to say "we" found an opportunity to overtake Vlad. At the end of the session I said she consistently lapped the circuit faster than Vlad. She has never let him forget it!

Morning on Day 2

Congratulations on your new car and welcome to USA7s! Here is to a long driving season before winter kicks in! I read your other post on cleaning up title issues - I cannot help you there but feel the pain from my own experiences in other states. Good luck!

In new and exciting territory for Vlad mechanical maladies, he has blown out the threads on his accusump canister. Bypass underway.

@CarlB Carl Zetec. Originally MichaelD's car but now comprehensively overhauled and updated and in the later stages of sorting and setting up. @wemtd Paul. Zetec John @John B Duratec. Kevin. Locost

Blake @BlakeJ Duratec Simon @simon450 Duratec @DatsunRBZ Justin. Zetec SVT @Vovchandr Vlad. Zetec.

Jay @Black Hole Duratec @yellowss7 next two cars. Yellow Rover K Series followed by his orange Cosworth Duratec @CrocCSR Cosworth Duratec

@bball7754 Steve. Crossflow @Kitcat Mike. Zetec Jim. Zetec. @FE07 @BlueBDA Jeff. BDA Ford.

Vlad has crocheted warmers for his clutch and brake fluid. Adorable! One of our number forgot to latch his bonnet which made a successful bid for freedom on track Luckily, he bent it back into shape to continue. The good fight.

Diagnosing electrical gremlins - not Vlad for a change.

Seems apt?

Vlad survived the first session!

Drivers briefing happening now.

@yellowss7 Please start posting in the photo thread. Photo Thread - 2021 USA7s Event at NJMP - National Events - USA7s

We are off and running. People started arriving today. Just broke up after dinner. We will add photos here as the event proceeds. Today saw a small gathering at my garage. Goodwood live on the TV. Some cars being stored downstairs. Then it was off to the NJMP Clubhouse for dinner outside. Perfect evening. Only slightly massacred by insects. We were slightly interrupted by Simon @simon450 who ran out of fuel on the access road. Who would have thought a Caterham fuel gauge was inaccurate? Sadly his son was following in a Tesla but could not find the gas cap to siphon some gas out? Tomorrow kicks off early. Breakfast at 7am (full cooked all included in the fee). Then tech and registration commence at 7.30. Driver briefing kicks off at 8.30am. I guess we will be second or third session out. Vlad @Vovchandr made it. Wish him luck as he may need it.

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@Vovchandr If you have no obvious leaks from hoses or radiator then I would look at: 1) failed heater matrix 2) water pump cavitation. Low revs and amount of symptoms makes 2) seem remote. For a test, can you bodge a bypass of the heater matrix completely? Leave heater there and just bypass it with a hose. It does not have to be great but just confirm if heater is the source of the bubbles or not.