craig chima

Suspension is free except for no pushrod/pullrod. Required to keep stock wheelbase, track can increase up to 10% and must also keep original diameter rotors. Must use original block, head and valve sizes and overbore can be up to .047 but internals are free. Trans is free but must keep original # of gears and cannot be sequential.

Robertson's car is in the Barber Museum and is for all practical purposes the suspension is essentially what you see on most vintage race prepared 7's these days. Stiffened chassis and upgraded springs, shocks and anti-roll bars. My current SCCA car has front a-arms that are more than 2x longer than stock and meet at the chassis centerline, has a Formula Ford steering rack, triple adjustable Ohlins shocks, blade type adjustable sway bars, and full floating rotors. Rear end is 3 link design with horizontal watts link and is de-cambered for 1 degree negative and uses full floating axles, floating rotors and Wilwood calipers. An entirely different animal than my vintage car.

Clamshells actually have very little detrimental effect and the "high speed front end lift" is mostly a wives tale. I've run my car with and without them on the same test day as back-to-back test and straight line speed was virtually the same. Also confirmed by the CFD analysis of the car. The much bigger problem on a 7 is the drag caused by the flat leading edge of rear fenders. About 10x the drag of clamshells.

Per the title, I'm looking for a 1500 Ford Kent block. Standard bore preferred but might consider nominal overbore and block needs to be standard deck height. Casting numbers 701M, 116E, 120E, or 2731 are what I am looking for. Craig Chima, CC Motorsports, Akron, OH. (330) 807-0738 or chima97@aol.com

The spring rates are obviously reversed but otherwise accurate. As for SCCA, my 7 is still "nominally" competitive at some tracks primarily because thanks to SCCA, it is now a 1600 pound pig racing in F Production with a 1500 pre-crossflow on 34mm chokes racing against 1800 cc Acura Integras, Honda del Sols and CRX's, Mazda Miatas and the like. I've done a full on CFD analysis on my car in order to maximize straight line speed (126 down into T5 at Road America) but that still leaves me 5-7 mph slower than the "modern" (4 valve DOHC) cars. As for the MG Midgets, like virtually all of the other "classic" roadsters they haven't been even remotely competitive for at least the last 15 years. The Runoffs are next week and amongst the 3 Production classes there are a total of 9 what you would think of as traditional Production cars entered. One in EP, one in FP, and 7 in HP and of those 9, there is only 1 that has a reasonable chance of winning and maybe 2 others that have a chance of being competitive.

Understeer is much more controllable and far more desirable than oversteer for beginner/intermediate drivers.

I have a beautiful set of very lightweight 10" wide rear fenders that I just removed from my Lotus 7 that I would like to sell. The width is realistically 9.75" to the inner lip. They were made by Motorsport Composites in Wisconsin and are basically perfect condition and have never been repaired. Aside from the mounting holes in the flanges, the only other holes are at the rear for a Wingard taillight setup. $300 for the pair plus shipping which is less than 1/2 the new price. (330) 807-0738 call/text or chima97@aol.com

Couple of more pix to show the quality of the car, plus I neglected to mention that the paint is stunning and is as nice as you will find on an original Lotus 7 or replica. Also, EVERYTHING works as it should (mechanicals, electrics, gauges, etc). No stories, no excuses car.

I did a ground up restoration on this car about 6 years ago and in my humble estimation it is as nice of an original Lotus 7 as exists in North America. The car belongs to a close friend of mine (Rob Shriver - he is also local here in Akron, OH) and he has enjoyed it for several years but he is in the process of moving, and therefore thinning his car collection. He is most definitely a car enthusiast but since I did the restoration and his knowledge of all things Lotus is somewhat limited he has asked me to post the car for sale for him. And for "full disclosure" the car has also been listed for the past couple of months on John Donohoe's simplesevens website with an asking price of $40,000 but there hasn't been much activity as a result of that ad (John concedes that traffic on his site is way down these days). We have also reached out to BAT and have initiated the listing process with them but there is a 2-3 week lead time before the listing goes live so I suggested to Rob that we place an ad here in the interim. BAT will only agree to a $31,000 reserve price and while that is less than what Rob would like for it (and far less than he has invested in the car) he is still moving forward with them. Accordingly, he has asked me to list the car here for the same $31,000 price, meaning that this is a great opportunity to get a superb S2 Lotus 7 at what I consider to be a great value without paying an additional 5% commission to BAT. Here are a few of the key details on the car and also a link to the simplesevens ad that likely will answer most of your questions: https://www.simplesevens.org/2078/2078.htm Frame off/skin off chassis restoration and powdercoat Rebuilt original 1500 pre-crossflow motor Rebuilt original 3 rail transmission Rebuilt original T-10 rear axle housing, a-frame, differential and brakes Rebuilt front suspension Spax adjustable shocks all around Gorgeous original interior/gauges Wonderfully detailed engine compartment and boot (trunk) Original soft top and side curtains in good useable condition Panasport wheels Jet Hot coated header/exhaust Please contact me with any questions or for additional details or pictures (we have a bunch as required by BAT but I have included at least one photo from all key angles in this ad). I will gladly provide Rob's contact information for those with genuine and significant interest in the car but please know that he is going to be FIRM at the $31,000 selling price. Please also know that I will not be involved in any aspects of the financial transaction. Thanks for looking and you can reach me via PM here, or email me at chima97@aol.com or call/text (330) 807-0738

I have TWO of the highly desiraable 116E "GH" casting heads as used on 1500 Pre Crossflow Ford motors.. Both are bone stock and ready for porting, etc. The GH casting heads have the most material, are the most crack-resistant and can be milled and ported more aggressively than other castings. $300 each Craig Chima, CC Motorsports, Akron, OH. message me here or email chima97@aol.com or (330) 807-0738 call or text

Henry, thanks for the inquiry but sorry they are on their way to Dave. Cheers, Craig

Was doing some shop cleaning and found the shifter, bolt, bushings, and nylon block that are used on a "remote" housing on Ford 3 rail gearbox on original Lotus 7''s. This was obviously a replacement kit that I sourced at some point in time for a Lotus 7 restoration that never got used. The block and bushings are common "wear" items resulting in sloppy shift linkage and "feel." These parts are free providing you pay shipping (will likely fit in a small USPS flat rate box at under $10) so let me know if you can use. Craig Chima, CC Motorsports, (330) 807-0738 or chima97@aol.com

Sold.

Looking for a pair of narrow track, late model Caterham lower wishbones. Perhaps someone has converted their car to a wide track front suspension and the original lower wishbones are now extra to your needs. Let me know if you can help and what you might have. Thanks, Craig Chima (330) 807-0738 or chima97@aol.com

Doing some shop cleaning and found a nice set of original uprights as would have been fitted to original Lotus 7's and early Caterhams. As you can see in the pix the uprights have the original stub axles installed but I also have a new pair of billet stub axles and will include those as well. ($125.00 for all including shipping anywhere in the continental US). Craig Chima, CC Motorsports (330) 807-0738 or chima97@aol.com