craig chima

Quick shift assembly now sold

Have a couple of items that may be of interest to folks with A-series powered Lotus 7's. These are both for Sprite gearboxes and one is an extended shifter housing that moves the shifter location rearward by about another 4" and gets the shifter out from under the dash into a much more user-friendly location. It is a direct bolt on piece. $300 and it even comes with an original wood Lotus shift knob! The other is a "quick shift kit" for Sprite gearbox. It changes the fulcrum/pivot point and shortens the long, stock shift throw to about half. Again a direct bolt on piece. $100. Pix attached

Nelson Ledges has what they call Wonderful Wednesdays. Usually a couple of each month. Run all day long for $250

Prints are sold.

Set of four drawings/prints of a complete original Lotus 7 S2 frame including every conceivable bracket, mount, tab, pickup, etc. Includes individual radii of specific bends, tubing sizes and wall thicknesses. I have pictured just two of them but they are suitable for framing/wall display or technical reference. Each print is 24" W x 18" tall. $65 for all four including shipping to Continental US. Call, text, or email (330) 807-0738 or chima97@aol.com

I have a pair of 10" x 200# springs in 1.875" diameter that I would sell cheap ($50). The spring rate might be a little high on a street car but doubt that most people would notice the difference. FWIW I run 250# on the front of vintage race cars with conventional S2 front suspensions as a point of reference

Sent you a PM and I have one that is extra to my needs and am willing to sell.

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.