jimrankin

maybe...

As if the cars weren't enough fun someone had to start a fire right behind the track. LOL. Most of the photos are of the 9-10 corners, the "U" turn is the new corner "7".

This is from friday 8-17-'12 at Sonoma (Sears Point-Infineon) at the Indy Car "pre-practice" so the drivers can get a look at the reconfigured track. A few changes since I ran it earlier this year but relatively minor and mostly to open up more passing areas. Almost no one came to watch as it wasn't advertised. Free and really spectator friendly, parked right up against the haulers and as long as you didn't get in the way they didn't care if you watched them work right from the next pit stall. Note the complete lack of spectators in the photos. No video, shot some with my gopro but it sucked. LOL. Did take a bunch of stills though that came out OK. Only real area on the track that seemed to be giving the drivers fits were the reconfigured 9 and 10 corners. Hard right-left after a downhill straight out of the S's and if you braked even a hair too late it was over. Reconfigured corner 7 has so much run off even a spin was just a slide/loop and back on the attack. 11 is still the "same" corner, just moved it 200' down towards the pit exit to make a longer passing straight. I'll load a few pictures and them do a second post as I don't have much luck with getting big post to load.

I used my MINI Cooper S cover when I was forced to park the S2K outside for a couple of days. It fit almost like it was made for it as the elastic came tight right at ground level. Even kept the curious local cats out.

I purchased the original "Prisoner" series on DVD and it was not as much fun now as watching it on TV every week when it first came out. Same thing for old Saturday Night Live episodes. Must be me getting old as I lived for both of those programs when they were "new" and now they seem as dated as I obvoiusly have become. Still as excited about 7's as I was then so I guess there is still some hope. LOL.

You just can't come close to beating this deal on an Ultralite, or on just about any other "modern" 7 make for that matter. Even with the economy picking up over the last few years the prices on good used and sorted out 7's seemed to have been slipping lower. It might be just more of them on the market but right now you can't build one for twice what most good ones are selling for. If I were in the market for a 7 and on the "wrong" coast I'd really look seriously at the trailer and car buy Mondo mentioned and have it shipped out here. Probably still be well under the cost of anything as nice here.

Looks like the steering and brake inputs are too quick and jerkey on the Stanford car. Seems like sitting right in the middle of silicon valley they would have better access to both programming and super accurate step controlled electric motors. As for two and a half minutes around Thunder Hill, my MINI wouldn't dare show it's little black bra in the paddoc if it couldn't beat the s--t out of that. Good thing they had the track to themselves or all you would have seen out the windshield was blue and yellow stripe flags waving. LOL. Actually, since anything involving a computer past programming my DVR is one step past my grade level I should probably quit hitting on the Stanford program, especially since I see worse car control by "live" drivers on the freeway every day.

Should have gone with a later all aluminum LSV8 with injection instead of the positive pressure carburator system that is no where as good at making consistent power, engine life or even milage as injection. Big power does not have to mean big weight anymore. Nicely done though, just not in the spirit of a "7".

Are the wheels 5X100? If so, what brand, size and off set? Really clean look.

A friend of mine returned from working in England and told me about an experience he had that described the weather where he was living. " I was walking across the village green one afternoon when the sun actually came out from behind the clouds. Every child under five years old ran home in fright, having never seen it before". LOL.

I have the clear bra on the endire car and while it does its job of protecting the paint it is "non-repairable" if it gets scuffed. I have a couple of places on the hood and top of the fender where some plastic car parts from a wreck ahead of me came sliding up and over. I've tried everything to get the scuffs out to no avail. Also two spots on the lower section of the nose where the same debris left large "bubbles" in the plastic film. The top scuffs would have buffed out of paint, the two on the nose would probably been less visable on paint and touched up. As for protecting the lower outer edges of the rear fenders, all but gone and looks worse than nicks would. I'd be 50/50 on doing it again if the car was ever refinished again to a solid color. With metalic paint I think it is probably a good idea as repairs are harder to match.

I use a probe on my pyrometer as the surface readings are too apt to be changed by either air cooling them rapidly or having the temperature evened out by the cooler padock surface as you drive back to where you have parked. It's important to get the probe point all the way in at each reading point as the tire is "hotter" the deeper in you go. All the way in keeps the depth even.

Starting "cold" at about 14.5 rear and about 15 front. That is at around 65-75 degrees. With the cold track days I wasn't even raising the pressure more than one degree after a session, probably because I wasn't generating enough traction to work the tire body enough to get any stretch in the core where the heat is generated. The readings were fairly consistent across the whole traction patch with centers so close to the edges that dropping the pressure to get more core flex would probably have just cooled the center and raising the pressure might have taken away any edge bite. With your 205 width and a tall sidewall your going to need quite a bit more pressure to keep the tire contact patch and sidewalls shaped. I didn't buy a pyrometer until last year. If I had had one three years ago I would have known after my very first track session with the new tires that I was just riding on the centers. I started tracking these tires (NT01's) 3 years ago with full tread. Having seen just how long they have lasted I should probably have had them shaved to start with even though I also do a little street driving with them. I'm sure that on almost anything but a "7" they would have heat cycled out or corded a year or more ago. When I first changed to these "big" tires I did two complete spins on the first day, both through snap oversteer at corner exit under too much throttle. I had started at 25 pounds cold and that was WAY too high. Dropped to about 18 hot by the end of the day by taking out a couple of pounds after each session and that seemed to be pretty good, no more power spins. I think that if Josh does a track day with his 235-255 stagger he will probably find it more ballanced. The fronts of these cars seem to be able to use anything from a 205 to a 235+ without any issues. Possibly more rear brake lock up issues with the larger front tires fitted but that can be dealt with and who doesn't like all the "stop" they can get. I had to change my rear brake master cylinder to a larger bore, set the mechanical bias to full front and crank the hydralic bias to the least possible rear pressure but it now feels like the fronts are at least approaching lock when the rears get there. Took me a while to reach that set up and I still find myself lifting or breaking too early because of past issues being tatooed into my mindset. Also, I have 12" rotors front and rear and for anyone building a "7" at this point take my advise, that is too much rear brake.

Thanks for the offer and I may take you up on it. Also a great way to get you up to the track one of these days and see what your car does on the new slicks. Since RNR's car has been out with engine problems I've been the only "7" at my last three track days.

So if a Hummer and a "7" were dropped from an airplane the Hummer would win the race to crash into the desert floor? I propose we drop all of the Hummers ever made from about 5,000 feet and then find the slowest elasped time and post it. Then instead of wasting a perfectly good "7" we just concede the race. Maybe we can get the SPEED channel to spring for the airplanes. LOL.

All 500 available SB100's used to be gone in the first 3-4 hours of the year. Guess all of the backlog of kits and scratch builts have finally gotten plated and the general state of the economy, although getting better, has put the skids on new builds. I really hope it isn't a sign that a large part of the younger generations who have grown up with cars that only a dealer or fully equipped shop has the electronic test equipment and special tools to work on haven't been lost to the specialty car/hot rod ranks. Joke all you want about hairdressers driving Miata's but they probably allow more "underfunded" young (and older) people to get into the fun of racing/track days than any other car ever built. I wish they and all of the different ways to get onto a real racetrack without breaking the family budget had been around when i was younger.

I think the basic suspension set up of the S2K provides for lift oversteer and it might be that the larger rear tires some of us run might overcompensate this a bit making it hard to rotate. When I was having the "cold tires" problem earlier this year I was getting snap oversteer with lift which really compounded the induced (with very minimum power)oversteer. I could over-rotate the car with minimal power or a lift and really had to feather the power to get the car back "in line". My rear tires have much more wear than my fronts and now that they have "gone off" a bit and I was running them in enough heat to get them up to temp I found the car to be really balanced, much more so than when the tires were newer. I am running a staggered 235-275 and probably should have gone with less rear tire. I had a set of 205's F/R to start with and found the car so easy to oversteer that I probably over did the rears for that reason. "Too much of a good thing" syndrome. Just as a point of reference, the front end stuck like glue with both the 205's and the 235's. I've never had to worry where the front tires were going. LOL.

I've been dealing with a really huge drop off in the traction, mostly rear wheel, for the first four track days this year over the last one last year. I just did the fifth track day and what a difference 40 degrees+ makes. Both my Laguna Seca and Infineon days were all COLD, like padded ski jacket cold. I was getting rear wheel hop/lock up under braking, loose to the point of heart stopping half spins at what used to be 80% speeds for me and was beyond frustrated as tire pressure seemed to make no difference and everything else was unchanged. Was at ThunderHill yesterday with the Golden Gate lotus Club and the temperatures were well above 100 degrees early and climbing. Whoopee for heat, all my problems seemed to have vanished! Started to realize that I hadn't done any early season track days in '11 due to my wife having been injured and me being a good hubby didn't just leave her to fend for herself. I thought that three years and probably over 100 heat cycle have about done in the NT01's but they sure got sticky again. I had never gotten my probe pyrometer above about 115 degrees at the first four events but was well up into the 160's yesterday and everything was working. I guess I'm running too much tire for cold days so it's now either wait for hot weather or go "skinny" on another set. .

It looks like both you and I had the "local idiot at the DMV" problem to start but thankfully both of us found someone there who actually cared and was also intelligent enough to clear it up for us. Going to see you at any track days in the near futute? I know you like autocross but tracks with a 7 are a lot of fun too.

that I'm not a born-again christian fundamentalist so don't have a housefull of guns for the islamic sluts to steal. Think I could trade my 1870's rolling block single shot 45-90 for a couple of hours with one of them though? We all know how sneaky those Islamic sluts can be so she shouldn't have too much trouble sneaking in whan the wifes not home. LOL. Have a great day everyone, just stay away from the drones.....

Compared to the other two choices coke and hookers aren't evil.

Wow, I spent several years living in central Maine and now won't even go somewhere if they have cold weather, and you all decided to do that snow trip AGAIN! Your braver men than me, or maybe slightly less sane. LOL. Beautiful pictures, even if I did get the shivers just looking at them. Going outside now to sit in the nice hot sun and get very warm.

You could never get through more than one government office and meet at NOON, probably be sitting in a waiting room or standing in line till at least 2:30. LOL.

1957 Corvette with the original Rochester mechanical fuel injection. I was still pre-teen when they came out and it was the first car I ever really wanted to just stop and (as noted previously) "leave drool marks all over". Were pretty fast for their time but didn't stop or turn well, but in America in 1957 that just wasn't a deal breaker. LOL. Have always liked Corvettes and driven quite a few but just never owned one as they always seemed to lack something. These two latest generations of Vettes has pretty much kicked the "plastic pachyderm" nick name to the curb. I've driven my friends ZO6 at speed a few times and it goes, turns and stops right up there with the best. But would still rather have the '57.

Had this info three years ago when I was going through all this but have had a new hard drive (total crash on the old one) since then and don't have any old info. When I had it it came off the web from the CA. DMV rules and is in the same section that exempts needing fenders etc. on under 1500 weight cars. All this stuff is linked off DMV main site but it really takes some looking as nothing is really laid out where you think it will be. I'm sure someone at an old fashioned "street rod" shop will have it all, and probably has the exact link as they have to get around all the stuff that kit cars do. If I get a chance I'll go up on the site and see if what few brain cells I have left can retrace where I found it. That exemption rule is what lets some of the street rods you see go without fenders and full windscreens. I do find it amazing how one DMV and one CHP station can be so different from another one. Redwood City CHP wanted an appointment two months out for my inspection, San Jose off Zanker Rd. said "come on down" we'll take care of it whenever you get here, and they did.