West7se

They did with the EV1 , thats my point. The public liked that car, so what went wrong? How come they were never able to buy them and why were they all destroyed, there is more to meets the eye with this one. Rich EDIT - wiki link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Motors_EV1#Who_Killed_The_Electric_Car.3F According to GM Chairman and CEO Rick Wagoner, his worst decision of his tenure at GM was "axing the EV1 electric-car program and not putting the right resources into hybrids. It didn’t affect profitability, but it did affect image." Wagoner repeated this assertion during an NPR interview after the December 2008 Senate hearings on the U.S. auto industry bailout request. According to the March 13, 2007, issue of Newsweek, "GM R&D chief Larry Burns . . . now wishes GM hadn't killed the plug-in hybrid EV1 prototype his engineers had on the road a decade ago: 'If we could turn back the hands of time,' says Burns, 'we could have had the Chevy Volt 10 years earlier.'"

Yes slngsht, what you say is correct but I cant help feeling that the auto industries created this situation themselves. By that I mean they produced ever bigger engines and heavy bodywork and said these were what we needed, and human nature being what it is , we all thought yeah this must be better. I watched a very interesting TV proggy a while back on the reasons why electric cars were taken off the roads, I think it was chrysler with its EV1, then after a short period they took them all back and destroyed them all - why?. Everyone who was given one loved it, yes it still needed to be charged up at home and in doing so also used oil via the production of the electric in the first instance, but no way did it use as much oil as a normal petrol car. I may be wildly wrong here, but I couldn`t help feeling that the govt and chrysler saw what was coming and took action before these cars really took off. Maybe they saw the end of oil production or at the very least a significant slow down, thereby reducing the govt`s income. Its also worth mentioning that the hydrogen fuel cell seems to be the way to go at the moment, although I see that battery technology is attemping to keep up. Also for the case of diesel engines, the current fad of using secondhand chipshop frying oil still continues and folks are now growing there own rape seed oil by planting and harvesting. Just my views. Rich

Wont and dosen`t work. Been done to death over here, all it does is put the low earning motorist off the road, our tax is 80% So for every £10 of fuel you put in your tank the govt get £8 - simply not right.

For me reading this thread, it is neither a rant nor trivial. Is the method shown a torture?, not sure without undergoing the same thing, after all the chap says it compounds the natural `fear` of drowning, now sleep depravation is also considered a torture as well. If troops ( ours included) are doing anything like this then is not not in breach of the Geneva convention - I dunno. Whilst back on the swine flu thing, our govt send each and everyone of us in the UK a leaflet (thats around 60 million folks) explaining how to avoid contracting this, now for me I found that a bit premature given that only 107 (yesterdays figue) have contracted it and no one has died yet. The money spent on those leaflets would have been better spent on the general state of our health services, which are on its knees at the moment. Ineresting debate folks.Look foward to reading more. Rich

nope, worse than that http://img29.imageshack.us/img29/5494/ourcars.jpg http://www.whatcar.com/news-article.aspx?NA=232914 "Built from recycled carbonfibre, which is used extensively in making racing cars" LOL Rich

Update. Just ordered these http://www.uksportseyewear.co.uk/product.php/69/aero-5-rx-goggle-with-intrechangeable-lenses---rx-insert not exactly what I wanted, but does provide night/day use all within one unit. Rich

Glad its not just me then, I just HAD to order those new dash clocks last night !!! - read didnt have to at all there was nothing wrong with the ones I have. I must get medical help Rich

Thanks guys, will check all those links out now. Rich

Yes, as an exbiker I can say that seeing was never a problem, I did use rainex or similar product to dispell the water at low speed and a simple flick of the head left or right got rid of anything on the visor at high speed. You should be fine. Rich

Does anyone know of any goggles that are reactive to light, I mean dark during the day and clear at night?. I find I have to wear my clear visored bike helmet at night, because with my shades on its simply too dark. Rich

Yes same here, 10 pages of great posts. as I said already, over here the seven has always had issues fitting into the correct class, even a standard Lotus 7 series one would have to think carefully about where he put himself, without fear of the dreaded `protest`, and infact would for the sake of competitiveness end up in a `classic class` which is based on a handicap system rather than racing on scratch times. Which is why now most of our series dont mention `sevens` but rather spaceframed kitcars. This then opens the entry up to other `homebuilt` and cottage industry Kitcar makers. Rich

This has been an issue over here as well, so much so that the champoinships I used to do split them all up. Separate classes for : Spaceframed kitcars with car engines - further split down into engine sizes. Spaceframed kitcars with bike engines - these generally have one class only ( but can be split up depending on who wrote the rules for that championship). Based on the link you provided its a tough choise, can you not contact the championship co-ordinator who might be able to help?. Rich

A mixed bag of responces to this then. Yes most folks are correct - the early generations of high output units were not good, colors were poor and general light output below that of tungsten units. Its been two years since I last got some new units and I have to say they have come along way in that time, the output is now equal or in some cases brighter then a tunsten bulb. The biggest issue is still the price, there is a huge difference between the two, yes the LED will far outlast the bulb but will folks buy them now??. All but my headlights are LED`s , mostly because I wanted to get rid of the heavy weight of a standard wiring loom and does give you the option of fitting a smaller car battery ( as long as it cranks the engine its fine) Rich

I am interseted in one of these, if you choose to make one yourself - can you take some pics of the build along the way plz.

Without a windshield I wear normal wrap around shades, then sometimes a fullface helmet for long fast blats. I did buy some goggles, WW2 style - not a good look for me. They are for emergency use only now Rich

Again first year of ownership here as well. I had upgradeitus from day one I`m afraid, I already knew what parts needed fitting as soon as I went to see the car, and as such gave myself a very loose budget - something which I now regret. However ( I will try my best at converting this to dollars, please bear with me) Cost of car - £5000 ($7,741.80) Complete rebuild of front suspension - £1500 ($2,323.05) New rad and fan assy - £150 ($232.148) New rear dampers - £200 ($309.405) Rear roll over bar (UK race spec) - £250 ($386.831) new cycle wings - £100 - ($154.543) misc items ( paints and stuff) - £200 ($309) Adding that up, I will not get my money back should I sell it, however I don`t intend to. Time spent around 2 months. Dont mind the wife reading this I`m not married :p Rich

No different here, its 6.5kw for me.

Yes from what you have said, then swapping to a 30 amp fuse will cure it. If I was doing this I would connect up an ammeter in series with the cables a check the current drawn from that circuit., then fit the appropriate fuse. But as the diag says Battery supply, I would expect this to be somewhere in the region of 25 amp draw. Rich

Oh dear, a rather pathetic 11lbs/hp. 550kgs (1210 Lb) 110 bhp at flywheel

Hi, not sure what you seen already, does the Cat site have them http://www.caterham.co.uk/assets/html/technical/download.html If not can you take a pic of the fuse box and point out which one blows, I will see if I can do some research for you. Rich

Yes another question thread, but as I rudely highjacked the last one, I thought it only right to make this separate. If you read the slower = funner thread you will see how this came about. What we would like is your power to weight ratios expressed in bhp per pound (BHP/LB), if you wish to post your actual bhp (flywheel/ rear wheel) and the overall weight then please do so. Will post mine shortly, need my calc Rich

Yes ok agreed, that would be a better system, if its ok with everyone , and due to highjacking this thread anyway I will start a new thread based on the above system, it doesnt give an average bhp figure but would show up what the average bhp per pound would be. If folks want to post actual weights and bhp they still can, but do incude your hp to pound conversion. Rich

Around 1000 so far, got a 3000 cap on it from the insurance

These were taken between 1995 and 2001, the car was my first ever car actually that I owned. Rebuilt it from a heap, the got bored with doing the `classic car scene` so I went racing with it. The car changed almost beyond its original design - as most competition cars tend to. It wasn`t the fastest in the paddock nor was it the best handling but I had loads of fun with this car and got many class records, I think I may still hold the record for some of the hillclimbs for a Spitfire. The following vids are a very brief span of my time with this fun piece of history. The blue/orange car you see is the same car, just repainted ( I was getting sponsership at the time from Gulf - who supplied all my oils) Anyway have a laugh at these. The early days, New Brighton Sprint with some incar stuff, then Loton Park Hillclimb with more incar and a spin at the end. http://uk.video.yahoo.com/watch/4574965/12249104 Prescot Hillclimb, fastest ever Spitfire at the date. http://uk.video.yahoo.com/watch/4574897/12248875 The old F1 Aintree track ( mines the one with GT roof in this one - the other is a car I helped build for my mate) http://uk.video.yahoo.com/watch/4574525/12248002 Got loads more, but need to upload them Rich

Yes sad to say 1 here also, though in my defence I really wish I had `discovered ` these cars before I got into `normal` production cars. Also the old saying of `if you can`t beat em, join em` comes to mind. Rich