jimrankin

Walk in with a bill of sale for the kit, the motor and trans and a few bits of whatever you have bought and you walk out with a tin plate in your shoebox of paper before you even begin to put the parts together. Per Chad up in Wa. Josh, do not go to the authorized state brake and light inspector downtown in your home town of Santa Cruz. Thats where I went when nobody on the S.F.peninsula would do a car they could not "plug in" to their data base. It was beyond "detailed" with even measuring the rotor thickness and trying to call Wilwood to confirm the minimum thickness since it was not stamped on the disc, even thought he could see they were brand new. Even had to stop the car in a straight line with the emergency brake in a limited distance. Good thing I had adjusted the thing so tight it was squeaking or we would still be rolling down the road. Checked to see that I had a warning light on the dash for the hand brake, high beams, turn signal indicators on the dash, automatic reverse light, Checked all the suspension, on and on. Had to talk him into looking at and then beleiving the WCM site weight was under the 1500 lbs. since I had not had the car weighed at a certified weight station. Over 1500 and you start needing even more stuff, like a windshield.

All the materials meet flame spread/combustion standards and they also have to be able to withstand multiple impacts, like bouncing off your roll cage on a quad flip-over. Bike helmets can burn and I guess they figure if your slamming it more than once your already dead. I rode for all the years before the helmet laws without one unless I had to leave Califirnia. Would not now even if the helmet laws were repealed. Got my first Harley in '72 but always used a helmet when off road on smaller bikes. I like my head, even though it was never pretty.

Automobile helmets have to undergo much more stringent testing and production standards than motorcycle helmets so that is part of the cost difference. The other part is "mass production". Any time you can make more of something it gets cheaper. I don't remember where I read it, several years back, but they tested several automobile helmets and the price didn't have a great deal to do with the increase in safety. Lighter on some for sure and more comfortable for others but multiple impact/G reduction test etc. were about the same. The big name brands like Bell did about as well as the rest. Should be some independent test on line somewhere if you look for it. Interesting note in the article about motorcycle helmets. They are tested for a SINGLE impact, so if you fall off your bike don't bounce more than ONCE!

I'm going to check into getting softer rear springs first and then might want to upgrade the shocks after I see what spring change does. I have the bar mounted in the upper bracket and as soon as (or if) I find the print out I'll check what I have for camber but I think it's about where Loren noted he likes it. Still would like to hear from any other S2K drivers if they had the same problem and found a fix.

Hi Josh, Inside tire edge is fully heated so that usually rules out being under cambered. I'm hoping to see if someone has had any of these issues and found a correction. I'd say that my problem was all due to my driving ability but since I'm pretty familiar with the tracks, driving lines and my times from before something seems strange. If the front didn't still feel so planted and the turn in so sharp I'd say it was all due to tires having fallen off. Unfortunalely I can't swap front to rear because of offset and tire size so stuck there. Come on up to the next track day and we'll put my tires on yours and you can take a free skating lesson. LOL. How were the slicks at the Autocross compared to the Nitos?

Even though each S2K is a bit different, and every driver has his own preferences I'm thinking that having a reference point from a "sorted out" track set up car can give me some comparison points to see where mine differs. Has to be better than just "dialing for grip" anyway. I've always had a problem with the car being tail happy, almost frightful with the original tires. Helped a lot when I installed new Nito NT-01's but it was more of masking the problem with better overall grip than curing it. Now that the NT's have about heat cycled out it's getting past the "fun point" on track and i want to try to find the underlying problem before I just get new tires. My S2K is on the "heavy" side at just under 1,400 Lbs and close to 50/50 with the front just a bit heavier. A few details and such. Tires are NT-01's as noted, 17" 235/40 fronts, 17" 275/40 rears. Seem to have no problem with the front grip, only the rears. Initially the fronts seemed to show a little more wear than the rears but as rear grip has gone away the rears have now outworn the fronts. Wear is consistent across all four tires, no unusual on either edge or centers. I can never seem to get the rear tires to heat up past about 130-140 degrees and it's within a few degrees in/center/outside with a probe pyrometer right off track on a warm and sunny day. I'm kind of thinking maybe it's spring rate related buthave no comparrisons to what I'm running. Fronts are 525#, rears are 340#. No anti-roll bars. shocks are QA1 coiul over with non-adjustable rebound and I don't know just where the factory set them. Anyone with an S2K that has been through setting it up and is happy with what they have is beseached to please lend me some advice. Caster, camber, toe, spring rates, anything they can think of will be of help I'm sure. Car was set up with the new tires three years ago but it was a "best guess" four wheel alignment. Thanks for any help. JR

Drive shaft loop

I kind of went overboard size wise but used up some flat steel strip stock I had around. I beleive it was 3" X 1/4". Small world, I also bent mine around an old small starter case. Since the drive shaft was already in place and I wanted to keep the "containment area" as small as possible I made a bolt in piece to act as the "floor" of the loop. The other two holes bolt it to welded in mounts on the lower frame rails so you can take it out to work on/remove the drive shaft if need be.

You can take 92 east from Half Moon Bay to Skyline South and then use your GPS to see where you want to hook up with the other back roads to Santa Cruz or Highway 1. Only one note. Try to do any of these roads shown during the weekdays as the pressure on them from both cars and, even slower, bicycles on the weekends make them pretty, but frustrating.

I have my camera body mic holes taped over to reduce noise. As noted, GoPro (more like GetStoned) has answered the same questions different ways, one says the mics are always on, one saying they turn off when you plug into the jack with outside mics. Could be it's different up grades as they go along. GoPros are worthless as anything but point of view shooting, no way to get "close to the action" unless you "are" the action. One of the things I want to bring up to them is a simple add on lens to allow for something like a 50-60 degree angle so it will work like a standard video camera. Guess we can't have it all but hate to pack an extra video unit to shoot someone else on track while I'm not in my car.

GoPro returned an answer to my questions about the 3.5MM mic port. I'm never sure about the online support being correct because they usually sound more confused about the product than the person asking the question but I kept it simple. Q1: is the 3.5MM microphone port stereo or mono? A: stereo. Q2: do the two camera microphone openings on the camera body record in stereo or do they record in mono? A: stereo Q3: does plugging into the 3.5MM mic port with external microphones disconnect the camera body microphone recording input? A: yes. Take this with a grain of salt because the same querry in December had different responses to Q2 and Q3. The original response to Q2 was basically "I don't understand the question". The original answer to Q3 was "the camera body microphones are always recording to allow for stereo with only one external microphone". In December they confirmed that the mic port was "powered" so no external power for microphones was required. My stereo microphones work well and that seems to confirm the previous "powered" answer as being correct. GoPro is moving over the hill from Half Moon Bay to my town of San Mateo and I sure would like to get to go in and make a few suggestions about their product. I really like it but there are some real problems with operating it in a noisy car with a helmet on so you can't hear the beeps and it being mounted on a roll bar behind you so you can't see the lights. I will have to look into the new remote to see if that helps. Right now I just turn it on before I start getting buckled in and edit out all the dead time before actualy getting flagged on or in some cases, waiting out some long red flag or black flag all stops. Still a lot of bang for the buck though.

Couldn't "not" send a picture of a Jag or a Camaro, my life would be in danger in my own garage! The two shots from the hillside of the paddoc only show about half the car staging area, Cobras and Mustangs were over by turn one and Porsche Club was in an upper lot. LOL.

Lotus cars were well represented, even though only one "7" there were probably over 25 others from the 50's-70's. Lot's of old and newer Morgans (Team Termite) and just about ever make automobile you can think of. Nash with a 3-speed "on the tree" shifter, what a hoot to watch him downshift into corner 11 and then up shift down the straight. LOL. I really love the degree of "driver protection" afforded by car #17. Big car, big balls!

Spent three days at Infineon and still didn't get to really look over all of the cars. Just so many nice examples from 100 years old till the early 90's on view and friendly people (just like going to a 7's gathering, everyone wanted to show off their car). Millions and milions of dollars worth of cars and every one of them being taken on track and in some cases, seriously raced on Sears Point's technical and somewhat dangerous to your bodywork track. An almost three ton, 8 liter, nearly century old car coming into turn 1 at the red line (2000 RPM) with the driver cranking on the wheel to stay on track and ahead of the 90 year old car in hot persuit, that's just what it was all about in the early 1900's and still what brings us to the tracks today.LOL. Not all "old" cars, some fairly modern stuff and some serious racing throughout the whole 15 different classes. I was standing on the turn 1 bridge to see the race leading 427 powered Vette come in too hot, run off and get sideways for the entire uphill to turn 2 entry, missed everything and except for a rather bruised ego and a dust cloud the size of a nuke test he came out fine. Hope a couple of photos load, if not I'll reduce to less and try again.

Just to keep it straight I had the cheat sheet at the San Mateo DMV and they told me all kind of crap even after I showed them what to do. Told me all the "web stuff" was wrong even though it was dead on. Told me it couldn't qualify for SB100 and that only one day a year was open for that anyway, all incorrect info from them, clear up through three levels of "stupidervisors". San Jose CHP office on Zanker road was great, only a fwe minutes of paperwork and asked me just where I wanted the new CA ID number decals and plate installed, my choice.

Have Josh go to the Los Gatos DMV ONLY!! I got totally screwed at San Mateo and almost gave up before I was told on line by a Cobra Club member to go to Los Gatos and ask for "the Kit Car lady only" when you check in. She was a really on top of it and had to spen an hour on the phone to Sacramento head DMV office undoing all the San Mateo screw ups. Really don't remember her (kit car lady) name and the girl at the counter didn't know what I was tyalking about because she was new but as soon as she asked a more seasoned employee I was sent to the back of the building to see the right person and came out all smiles and with a whole new attitude about the DMV. LOL.

and sent you a reply but once again it doesn't show as sent. Guess I'll take it on faith. LOL.

Off this thread topic but I've been trying to send you a private message and it just doesn't seem to post. Don't show as "sent" but if you got it let me know.

Looks like some of the old films from SoCal and the dry lakes in the 50's. I was wondering where all of our vintage hot rod hardware went. Rat Rods Forever!!! Great post and looks like fun but I'm sure a few of the "no air filter" cars took about 10K miles off the engine life that day. LOL.

I have an old set of vise grips I welded a 30" piece of pipe to that I use in an emergency to hold the "other side" for me. You can clamp them on the nut or clamp them on the wrench on the nut and usually you can get one hand on the pipe and one hand on the "tighten" side. It usually works and it's way easier than asking the wife to come out and get gritty laying under the car for you. LOL.

GoPro says to use up to a 32GB card but I have used a 64GB class 10 card without a problem. I don't know why they say max is 32 but if you have a larger card already and it's fast (class 10) it will work. I didn't notice a big improvement in the video quality from my original HD Hero to the new Hero 2 but by using a set of outside stereo microphones I am finally getting some decent audio. No matter what I tried with the original HD Hero up on the open roll bar all I got was too much wind noise and not enough motor/tire at anything over 60-70MPH. Open or closed back did not seem to matter much. Just a reference point: Someone on this or another blog had noted that plugging in the outboard mic's did not shut off the cameras internal microphone. I have placed a little piece of double layer masking tape over the camera body mic holes and that seem to have eliminated anything but the two outboard mic pick ups. I bought a "skeleton" case but just drilled a small hole in the standard case for the mic input instead as I was hoping the closed case would do a better job of isolating the sound to just the outboard mics.

Fiberglass or steel, either way it lived up to its name, reliably sliced the Elan like a sword through butter. LOL

Cheap Skates have more fun because they don't have to pinch the old butt cheeks tight in the seat every time they see a pebble bounce down the road. I am gathering quite a collection of small dings and scratches so now I don't have to worry about keeping it "pristine" so track days and freeways are less worrisome. I didn't even fret over it too much when I came off track missing my right side headlight and front plate. They are somewhere in the woods around the Laguna Seca track (or maybe in orbit, they really flew) and I made new stronger brackets only because I'm becoming a cheap skate and don't want to have to buy any more headlights. LOL.

Looks like the eurosedan that went off and came back to hit them outweighed the Elan and the Seven combined. He probably drove it back to the trailer with a bit of front end damage and ran before he was lynched! Risky stuff driving an Elan (or a Seven) out among bigger steel cars.

I have the entire car covered in the 3M film with rear fenders fronts covered with carbom fiber panels. The film is OK for normal small (SMALL as in tiny) street dust/pebbles but is isn't enough to keep something like rocks from an off by someone in front of you at speed from doing damage. The exposed outer edge of my rear fenders look worse than "chiped" because the film forms ragged "bubbles" when it's realy hit and you can't really trim them close without worry about scratching the paint. I discovered too late that wrapping the outer leading edge with painters or vinyl tape is better/cheaper/easier track day prevention. Film also has the problem of not being hard enough to polish out scuffs. I had to drive through a storm of small/medium fiberglass and plasitic parts from a two car major collision in front of me with no room to stop and I think the film may have stopped some scratches but I still have noticable dull "slide marks" over the hood I have tried everything to get rid of and some big "plastic bubbles" around the nose from the impacts that I don't think would have been chips. My advice, save the film money, tape it up when you race it and just deal with the small chips from public road grit unless you live where you run on gravel.