jimrankin

Sorry to say but most of the dash and cockpit wiring is missing from mine, no plug in point. But I do have all of the original schematics for a complete S2000 wiring harness. it's PAGES long and most of it just ends in "coupling bla bla bla, see next page but it does help.

I don't polish mine, just pick off the big pieces of melted rubber I pick up when I pass those pesky Corvettes and Porsches :driving:.

Thanks for posting the videos. Looks like you were having some fun! Seems so hard to find a 7 on track out here in the west (where you would think the mild winter and sunny summer weather would make them more prevalent). Either West coast 7'er don't post video (I'm guilty of that :-(.) or East of the Rockies 7's are more active on track.

Yep, My Bad, I really blew that quote!! Then again, "serious" usually is "expensive". LOL. As to the comment about Honda power I really do agree. I hate to jinks myself but I have been seriously beating the motor in my S2K for about 5 years of multiple track days and so far it has only needed oil changes and a throttle position sensor. Had quite a few miles (68K?)when it was puled out of a wrecked S2000 and no idea of what kind of treatment it had before then. Before I tracked down the intermittent problem with the throttle position sensor I used a replacement ECU that it turned out was from a 2.0 motor and I went to the rev limiter several times on track before I realized I was way over the limit for my 2.2 and it didn't seem to have damaged it, probably just lucky or Honda was being cautious.

You might also thing about purchasing a set of communicators like made by Fox and others. They come with a throat mike so no wind noise being picked up in an open car and have the choice of one or two ear buds. Beats shouting back and forth especially if you are wearing the attenuators or helmets.

Yes, attenuators are sometimes called "earmuffs" but are designed to reduce noise, not keep your ears warm, and yes they are what you wear at the range. Most police departments do not allow "headphones" on the highway as they are adding inside" sound while reducing outside input making it impossible to hear sirens etc. Attenuators are legal on motorcycles and open cars as they reduce noise less than a sealed car interior, especially if the car driver is playing music at 100DB ;-).

I was at a cars and coffee this last weekend and someone started asking about my 7 and his first question was "is it really a Lotus because I see the Honda badge on the hood". I explained it wasn't and another bystander said "You can tell it's not really a Lotus because it's actually running and not on fire" and then commented "Lotus stand for`Lot Of Trouble Usually Expensive' ". We all had a good laugh and he explained he had bought a pretty beat high mileabe Elan from a used car dealer many years back and although he loved it it did not run most of the time and cost more in two years of repairs than he had paid for it. Even with that he admitted he was sorry when he parted with it.

Forget the ear plugs and go with a good set of attenuators. Try on a few pair to see what works best for you. Not only are they much better at keeping the noise and wind buffeting down on long trips they hold your hat in place so any side draft from trucks and the like won't lift it off and the visor won't want to keep shifting the had because the band over your head keeps it all in place. I use one over a bandana or a hat and it's the only thing that keeps them on my bald shiny head at speed.

This looks like a serious car for a really good price, especially from a dealer. I totally would like it and at that price it's easily affordable, it's the divorce cost that will keep me out of it ;-(.

I have had good luck with the Nito NT01's as a good all around tire. Use them as my street tires but they were also very predictable with good response on track days before I went with track only rubber.

West Texas doesn't seem to be doing much with WCM but you can get any decent automobile racing fab shop to duplicate the later roll bar configuration. The original configuration may be even stronger than the later, just a bit more inconvenient. I think WT still has some WCM parts but don't have a clue as to if he is bothering to still sell.

You are not going to get a lot of deprecation on just about any of the "major" 7 types if you are not in a hurry to buy and shop around for a car that is a value at the price point you are using. I'd second the recommendation to look for a car with enough mileage and use to have had the original kinks worked out and one low enough that it's not starting to wear out, which 7's seem to do fairly quickly. Since the cars are so simple most of the wear is relatively inexpensive to deal with, especially if your doing the work yourself. I would personally try to get a car with electronic fuel injection as once the ECU is dialed in (not even an issue if the motor came with a stock unit) it's usually zero problems with keeping it running perfectly. Very highly tuned motors, especially carbureted ones tend to need a lot of TLC and are more prone to wearing themselves out.

Fridays auction will see a 2014 Lotus C-01 motorcycle go to bid. They are expecting somewhere around $400K for this bike. Since there are several mid 2000's Ford GT's offered for almost $200K less I might have a hard time not going home with one of them and enough money left over to take it to every road course track in the US. It's obviously more of a piece of automotive/motorcycle "artwork" than bike. Kind of the same thing happening to the Ford GT's, getting traded as investments and never driven at speed. Hate that!

I know that NASCAR racing isn't big with the 7's group but tonight (Wednesday) is the one time a year that the Camping World Truck Series runs on a dirt track. Since a lot of the roundy round drivers get their start on short dirt tracks it makes for some pretty fun and competitive racing. Short race so it isn't like watching the Coke 600 where even NASCAR fans need a case of Bud Lite just to get through it.

It's not just the 34 kids, there were two adults in there with them. Good thing those kids haven't heard about the mega big backpacks our local kids haul around!

Didn't mean to double load the above images. Do you know the difference between a Harley Davidson and a Hoover Vacuum? It' where you position the dirt bag :flag:http://www.usa7s.net/vb/attachment.php?attachmentid=11414&stc=1http://www.usa7s.net/vb/attachment.php?attachmentid=11414&stc=1http://www.usa7s.net/vb/attachment.php?attachmentid=11414&stc=1 and now this one triple loaded, and I'm not.

As a group that seems not to mind driving older "archaic" no amenities (but light and agile) vehicles I probably should have listed this here before it went cheap ($5K) on eBay. Neither light or agile but definitely "archaic" it possibly would have found a new home with someone on the blog. Just thought I'd post a photo of it as it's an interesting time piecehttp://www.usa7s.net/vb/attachment.php?attachmentid=11413&stc=1http://www.usa7s.net/vb/attachment.php?attachmentid=11412&stc=1 in it's own right.

Even my thin ones seem to hold up as they are made of decent material. Living in the SF Bay area I don't get many "hot" days and almost no humidity so the heavier weight is more often then not a good thing. I do remember living in hot and humid places, maybe a tank top option for that. LOL.

They offer a heavier T for a couple of bucks more, I just ordered one of those. I have several other T's of theirs from before they offered the better one and they are pretty thin. what my son calls "euro trash T's" as that is the quality sold at the European music festivals he plays.

I take my 7 to the Cars and Coffee events at our two larger local events and am always well received and questioned about the car. The event at Canepa in Scotts Valley is mostly sports cars and classics so its expected but the event in San Jose is mostly hot rods and muscle cars and I always get placed in a feature spot there, probably because I'm a bit off the usual entrants. In San Jose there are a lot of kids brought by their dads and they love getting their pictures taken in a "Hot Wheels" car.

The event has been going on for over 30 years, not sure when the first one was but I've been to about 5 years of them and it's always a real treat. About 99% as good car wise as going to Monterey and without the traffic, cost and all too many rich "collectors" who want the rear wheels up on dolly's so they don't get another 1/4 mile on the odometer of a car that never sees the street, much less a race track. No "Garage Queens" here, just real live car fanatics who aren't afraid to "run what ya' brung". You have to have balls the size of Texas to toss a 1911 8 liter National into turn one, with both the driver and ride along mechanic in period dress and using body English sitting 5' up on a three ton car LOL. And then in the next race watch a Lotus 15 trying to make an outside pass on a Lotus 11 at turn #2 with a Lotus 17 stuck to his rear looking to sneak through with him.

That group finished with 4 out of the 5 first place finishers being Lotus cars, three 7's and one Elan. I think one of the specialty cars came in fourth. There were 15 separate run groups encompassing a really wide range of cars. This event is as much a great car show and enthusiast gathering as it is a race, although quite a few of the entrants take the racing VERY seriously.

I just noticed I spelled Sonoma "Sanoma", got to stop drinking in the daytime! LOL.

I spent Friday, Saturday and Sunday at the event and still didn't really get to see every car there as well as I would have liked. Totally open paddock and everyone is happy to talk shop about their cars. It's always a great event to see a lot of vintage Lotus cars, especially the open wheel race cars from the 60's/70's. Quite a few 7's and a couple of Elans in this group. If this works https://vimeo.com/169609187 Several Lotus 11's and other closed Lotus cars represented in other groups.

Getting by on good looks and a racing reputation was enough to keep Jaguars desirable for oh so many years, even if between the labor unions and Lucas they were pretty unreliable. Once they went the way of the wind tunnel "were all the same" shape they just became another car among so many. Still love my '58 XK150 and always drooled over "D" and "E" types but there are so many better new cars for the money now that the current Jags don't make the list. As for the SUV, well, what do you expect when cup holder size and placement are as important to the average new car buyer as anything else.