jimrankin

Earthquakes give you a feeling you just can't explain to someone who hasn't been through a big one. Primordial fear in the pit of your stomach when the planet you have lived and walked on for years seems to have become very angry with you. The only consolation I can offer you and your family is that like most disasters it makes you even more aware of whats important to you and what doesn't really matter. Our best wishes for your continued safety.

I just figured out why you cold weather guys actually get around to working on your cars, too nasty to drive so your "forced" to pull them apart. I just started my "winter" mods last week because we finally got some bad weather and it looked like driving was going down the tubes. OMG, nearly freezing in the morning and water falling from the sky!! Now I have to race the clock before "summer" gets here again in a few weeks. Don't cry for us California guys, were semi-tough, but then that's just from our tax rate and home prices... LOL

Not only were the cars he designed great but the work bench has been like a third hand and also saved my back soooo many times. The original ones, before some bean counter "improved" them were near indestructable. I still have one original left and it was purchased right after they came out and except for all the rubber feet having worn out and off it's still perfect. Wish I could have shook his hand.

God got a bit whacked out trying to create everything in a few day, discovered he'd made two alike so to tell them apart he gave rats a brain and squirrels a fluffy tail.

Met the owner of Blastolene at the track last year (he and his dad have a handbuilt 7) and he is an "ex" californian who moved to southern Oregon. He said it was like moving back in time to the "old" California. Since half of the people from Oregon that I've met over the years were also from California originally that is probably true, took the old NORCAL mindset with them and left to take it where it wasn't being strangled. Let's just hope for Oregons sake that the next wave of Ex-Ca's does as well by them. We have some big problems here but it's still a great place, just not quite what it used to be. Or maybe I'm just gettin' too old. LOL.

I'm getting a decal made for my trailer with the logo and weblink for WCM on it. Also previously mentioned to WT about some literature when he had it because as RNR can confirm you can't park one of our cars at a track without drawing a crowd and the second question after"can I get a ride?" is usually "where can I find out about these?" The few who already know anything about 7 clones are surprised you don't have to pay anywhere near "the English import" price to get one made here.

Hi WestTexas, I'm not the one requesting the fender brackets but I did inquire about the collector for your stock exhaust system since my muffler keeps cracking at the welds. RNR mentioned you were also working on an equal length system. If that's not something you already have worked out and are in the process of producing I'm in need of the original four-into-one cone if you have one so I can build new from there and keep the original complete system for a spare. It looks like some of the stock units sold by the aftermarket header companies will work but since you may have some original sourced items I can start designing from the cone back and know it will work. Thanks, jim R.

Hank, All the great roads you mentioned have now become overpatroled speed traps due to the Rice Rockets mixing it up with about 10,000 out of shape Lance Armstrong wanabee's riding side by side down in 21st gear. Sunday was nice on 280 and over to Pacifica but bailed on using Hwy 1 as it was already slow. Did as much backroad as I could but was really just out burning up fuel and enjoying some "open car" time. Had hoped everyone was home getting ready for the Superbowl but I guess nobody cared since both our bay area teams sure weren't "super" again this year. Back in the 70's the Highway Patrol used to make their last run over 92 at just after midnight on weeknights. By 1:30 AM I'd be up there in my Amped up MGA 1600 (later my Jag) hunting up someone to run with from 280 to HMB or up Skyline all the way out to 9 and back. Gone are those days, tickets and cars both got too expensive and I got older if not a whole lot wiser.

I hate to rub it in (not really!!) but had the S2K out on sunday because it was well over 70 and sunny and I just couldn't resist one more blat before I pull it apart for some mods. Crusin' on 280 and then over to the coast in a T shirt with my sweatshirt tucked away under the passenger side belts, where it stayed for the whole ride. Tried to burn up all the fuel in the cell but even nailing the hell out of it and driving reved up in 4th instead of 6th still had a gallon or two left to drain when I got home. I lived in the far frozen north as a kid so I feel for you "snowbound" 7'ers. Have faith, spring will eventually come and you can make fun of us Californians driving around topless with an unmerciful sun baking us at 110 degrees. LOL.

I still have a set of your slicks and wheels for the Elise held hostage in my trailer so 'let's make a deal". LOL. Aren't you going to need those to keep your new smokin' hot S2K motor stuck to the track?

Got set with my street and limited track use wheels and tires late last spring but now I'm looking more towards track only wheels for slicks. S2K with 12" 4-piston Wilwoods front and rear so looks like 14" or 15" (?) minimum wheel size. Any comments about what has fit on an S2K and also what widths of tire and slick gets to be "too wide" to be a gain on an added weight to added traction ratio? Examples from other "7" marks will probably be helpful. Thanks, Jim R.

(1) I know that just about everything that goes through a wind tunnel during design comes out looking about the same but isn't the body on the new Cat just a Diasio with a top chop? (2) Am I missing something or does that Flying Miata supercharger dump right into the intake without an intercooler? It's early and the coffee hasn't kicked in yet so I'm probably not quite focused....

Hi Mondo, You Socal desert drivers have it pretty bad in the summer but we Nor-cal folk get a few rays too. I got stuck in traffic behind a multi car accident out in the Valley on a 100+ degree day, sun straight up with nothing but a bandana (my baseball cap had decided earlier that day to learn to fly) to cover my bald head and would have paid any asking price for a shade top. Chrome gear shift lever got so hot you couldn't touch it and traffic was moving at 0-1mph-0-1mph-0 so had to keep shifting in and out of first. When I finally got back home to the Bay Area I looked like a boiled crab from the middle of my forehead down, clown red nose and a white skull cap. I'm still undecided about adding more side/roll protection cage but once I figure that out I think some shade and wind/rain protection might be in order. I plan on longer trips next year but have found that 300 miles is about all that is comfortable in one blat with the wind buffeting I'm getting now. Windshield, side deflectors and half doors on some of the other makes are starting to look pretty good to me now. Keep me posted on what you come up with and if it works like you hope it should.

Having driven side curtained MGA's in rain, cold and snow I can tell you that the tops on those S2K's are going to leak at the top of the windshield (probably all 7's do) and the "no place to tuck it in" side curtains are going to lift and it's gonna blow in under the front edge of them. Still better than my aeroscreens but better not forget check the oil and water before you snap all of that on! LOL.

If your looking for low maintenance, bulletproof, economical on gas, powerful and smooth you just can't beat a WCM S2K with a Honda 2.0 / 2.2L motor and 6speed. Great on road and track with full IRS and a subaru posi rear end. Good seat and foot room, use adjustable shocks and dial in your ride comfort/sport level and it has as much "boot" as anyone (read that as next to none, LOL). Parts for most of the motor/ecu/drive train available almost anywhere you wish to roam. On the other hand, it's a bit more of a problem to fit up with a windshield, wipers and all weather gear as the hood is a one piece forward hinged unit and it doesn't lay out well for mounting side curtains etc. Since the hood is fiberglass here is a good project for someone who really wants to tour to section it and "fix" the rear section in place with a permenantly mounted windshield etc. Like I said, trade offs....

Just something about those classic English sports cars..... When I was just out of High School I had a friend who bought an original Mini (when it was still a fairly "new" used car) and all of us Chevy V8 nuts thought it was a joke, until we got blown off on some twisty CT back roads where our 283's and 409's got turned into cast iron sleds.LOL. He had collected a few posters and books of English "race" cars, a few of which were original Lotus 7's but mostly Jags, MG's, AH's and Mark's long forgotten There were several cars from those books that almost got me out of my Chevy's and started me yearning for rides I couldn't either find or afford at the time. Now it's decades (several) later and I still love to look at and drool over those 50's and 60's English sports cars. Slowly working my way through my "English automobile bucket list" and have had three MGA's (1500, 1600, 1600 MkII) the Jag I have now (and will probably still have when I'm dead), and two modern copies of old "dream cars". Got a few to go but really wish I had taken the plunge earlier. Thirty years ago I passed on two really cheap deals on a Morgan and an MGTF in one year because I was too busy with starting a business. I still wake up at night from kicking myself!! If your thinking about a 7, or some other "classic" or reproduction of one take a hint from the Nike commercials and JUST DO IT!

Read this to the end because the problem I had could be yours. I had the San Mateo DMV totally screw it up when I went in just to get any paperwork I would need for SB100. Half a dozen clerks and supervisors, all saying to do something different and then once they had my check for sales tax they started paperwork I told them I knew was wrong from what I had printed from the web. Don't say "web" to a DMV clerk, just makes then do something stupid just to not follow what was actually the right way I had printed in my hand. They told me to bring in my car, which I trailered over and once there they discovered it didn't have a VIN, which I had already told them several times. Off to the CHP, which was actually very helpful and quickly had me "vinned". A CHP officer pointed out that the SM DMV was doing it all wrong and told me to go to a Cobra Kit Car site and download the correct info. Showed him I already had it and was told by the SM DMV it was wrong. The info from Cobra site and this one both pointed me to the Los Gatos DMV "kit car" lady. She was GREAT! We spent a half hour on the phone with Sacramento un-doing everything SM DMV had sent in. I was standing there with her listening in. She set me up for my SB100 on the first day of the new year, six long months away. PROBLEM! Just before the end of the year I got a DMV "reminder" letter that I hadn't completed my registration. Went back to Los Gatos with the notice and she went up on line to find that all of what was supposed to have been deleted six months ago was still on the computer and I would have not been able to apply for my SB100 with another application in place. Took us nearly an hour but we got it all out of the computer system, waited while she helped someone else and than she double checked to make sure it had actually been deleted this time. Thank your lucky stars you found a good DMV but have them DOUBLE CHECK that any paperwork done at the first DMV isn't in the computer or you are going to have a problem until they delete it. GOOD NEWS, in one way anyhow, is that the economy is so slow that the past rush for SB100's is not happening now. Most of the old pre-SB100 kits have done the SB100 re-registration by now and being sold and re-registering an SB100 doesn't count as a new one. I was at the Los Gatos DMV at 5:30 AM first open DMV day of 2010 and there were only five of us there for SB100 when it opened. Clerk said it used to be standing room only but had been going seriously down for three years and hadn't had a "too late" for four years. All five of us were done in 45 minutes because the Sacramento phone line they all have to call into just wasn't that busy. Good Luck and get that kit on the road!

Capitalism is by far the best economic system out there. When working at it's best it creates or supplies consumer demands, breeds innovation and efficiency and in the majority of cases rewards quick thinking and hard work. On the other hand, just like JohnK stated, when a market segment becomes controlled by "Big Business" to the point where it becomes a shared monopoly the only interest becomes keeping the cash cow producing. Fossil fuel and ethanol are a good case of two big business cash cows being milked for all they are worth and big government subsidising the pail. Even when big government throws money at alternatives it isn't always where it should go. I recently toured the Tesla plant in Palo Alto and looked at all of the different types of vehicles they are working on (You can sure see just how involved Toyota is). I don't hold out much hope for them doing much for everyday single vehicle familys or consumers who live out of urban areas as battery technology is a real stumbling point. You could get around the limited range if it weren't for the slow recharge rate. They are seriously working on that but just how fast realistic weight and recharge technology are developed is anyones guess and until they have an electric car that can recharge while your in getting a burger and shake it's not a car you can take on a trip to grandma's house if she lives out of state. This isn't the forum to go into all the mistakes being made on the basic concept of what a Hybrid or electric car should be but one of these days I'll dig up a paper I wrote over twenty, crap, now pushing thirty years, ago about it. Have a Happy New Year Everyone!

I'm not sure just what you can see from space but hear it only depends on how much crap is in the air, the cameras can see down to your VIN number if it's clear enough. My family had some old property in Maine surveyed this past summer and the surveyor had a GPS unit that uses the "pay" GPS military grade signals, not the free stuff in our cars and phones. Set it up on a tripod and let it get set and you are within an inch or two of where it says. He only used the existing surveyors stakes and his optical equipment because some rules say he has to verify the GPS read outs. Walked 165 acres of odd shaped land boundries and when he came back and reset at the first mark, 3" off intentionally just for show, the thing read it was 3" off in the correct direction. Don't know how fast a missle can read the GPS signal but when they say they can not just hit the door, but ring the door bell button with it they probably aren't too far off. Strange to think about how fast things change when up to the late '70's they were using the same equipment that was used to set the Mason-Dixon Line.

Best place to raise "junk weed" alcohol crops such as rapeweed is in swampy areas. If we can get Clem and all his cousins interested in raising something besides alligators and cat fish out behind the house we might be into something here. Unfortunately, until Big Oil and Big Ag can find a way to control the means of production and distribution of "real" alternative energy we are going to be burning E85. Being an American I have the right to point out just how stupid we can be. In a lively discussion (read argument) about how unrealistic at "saving the environment" a full sized V8 "Hybrid" SUV was it was pointed out that I "waste gas" because I have a "race car". When I mentioned that it's a four cylinder that sees the track about ten time a year and my daily driver is a MINI as opposed to her SUV she said that she "HAS" to drive a full sized SUV because she has two kids. See how stupid I am, I wasn't even aware that you were required to have a giant tall hard to get into SUV if you had children. I'd better call mine and beg forgivness for carting them around all those years in the back of a four door '73 Nova. LOL.

As usual reality doesnt mater, but a big government subsity seems to. Most late model cars are built with the ability to handle ethanol in the fuel but why? It's not reallly saving any substantial (some claim "None") amount of energy and the demand has raised the price of our corn to the point where China and other countries are now entering that market cutting into another of our few exports. Not to mention how much petroleum based fertilizer is used and diesel to plant and harvest subsidized fuel corn. A large sugar beet farmer (in California, not the midwest) I have known for years changed to corn because of the government money available. He claims the lack of sugar beets will raise the price of US produced sugar (hey, no problem, we'll just import more) and also milk and beef because the dried beet pulp is a good, and low cost, animal feed component. Brazil is sited as getting 90% of it's transportation (cars) energy from alcohol based (actually 100% alcohol) fuel but the government didn't pay for that change and they use non-food based plants for the raw materials. Maybe we should be looking at the "third world" nations for a heads up on what works instead of the corporate farm lobby in Washington.

I hadn't watched the Ken Block invitation video before I replied yesterday. Watched it late yesterday and it's a typically "American" adaptation of the sport, as the tool man used to say "MORE POWER". Only problem is that doing it "bigger, faster and driftier" also makes it into a real production to stage, limits the venues available and takes the "Grass Roots" local small clubs/cheaper cars right back out of the picture. I'm sure it will be a great event, the promoters will make money and the sponsors will get lots of exposure, it just won't be what Gymkhana was always meant to be, something everyone could do often, get into for low bucks and have some fun while learning their car. Just gotta' hope that the exposure gets the idea of doing Gymkhana out to a wider audience and doesn't send the message it's only for the people with big bucks in prepped cars.

Don't worry too much about tire wear, with the car weight it's more of a problem keeping the tires warmed up than it is wearing them out. I'm running Nito NT 01's, admittedly a bit wide at 245/275, put hours and hours of track time on them this summer, including some 100+ degree days and they look like they will be with me through next year and maybe beyond. No sign of heat cycle either. Just worried about storage degrading now.

Just wasting some electrons here... After 50 years of driving where I'm trying to keep hook-up drifting doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me but it looks fun and done at speed obviously takes skill. Unfortunately most of what I see locally is just hacks trying to run over someones toes or hit a parked car. Gymkhana was not popular in America because our cars were never built for quick tight turns but I was exposed to it while in the service and it started my life long love affair with British sports cars. It takes some real pratice to "drift" a car Gymkhana style, where the drift has to end with the car pointed dead on to where you need to be going next. While living in Virginia Beach in 1969 I had a chance to give it a try. As I was half way through restoring a 1958 MGA the only running car I had was a base model 1961 Chevy II with a four cylinder engine and a 3 speed stick (my surfing car). It turned out to be one of the "better' cars at the meet for that type of event. I turned out to be one of the "not better" drivers though and sadly that was the only organized event I was ever able to find before I moved back west. Since average Americans are slowly becoming interested in cars that actually turn and stop as well as run fast we are now seeing street cars that actually work in Autocross (notice how many events are popping up, and selling out) and drifting is getting big coverage. I'd wager it won't take too long before we start seeing some Gymkhana events here. It takes less than a quater of the room of an Autocross, 10% of the hardware, speeds are pretty much dead slow and you get to watch from much closer by. Sounds like the next European import, and a lot less running than soccer. LOL.

Too bad I'm an XL, really cool shirts.