jimrankin

We had talked about most of what you put on your blog but still picked up a few new bits of information. I've pretty much set on the Nitto's and wish I had changed hubs instead of staying with the 5X100's. Have to be out of CA for a couple of weeks and won't get back in time to buy tires (if the wheels actually get here from England) and set up the car for the first GGLC track day at Thunderhill but will be looking at things past mid-May. I'll have to follow your blog so maybe we can provide a "7's" show at something upcoming. Been doing a few more mods to the car and finally have things down to a really short list. Happy Motoring!!

There are several absorbed glass mat barreries for jet skis that are small, lots of cranking amps, can be mounted in any position and are fairly cheap and available. have one cranking over an S2000 2.2L without a problem.

The Image Wheels look good and it seems that they can fit just about anything. Big question here is "what price range are they in and how long to get them". I have a complete set of Team Dynamics Wheels on order and the cost was fairly reasonable but the lead time is a killer. I plan to pick up second set of wheels so these may be a real contender. Anybody have any dealings with them for their 7. They mention kit cars on the home page.

Bet you wish you still had that XK150S! So few "S" 150's came into the states. Ran into an S head way-way back and should have snapped it up but was playing with the Camaro at the time and let it get away. Have stored the Jag for yearsnow. Picked it up in '72 and did a lot of work on it then. My problem now is more toys than time and a wife who claims she's a "garage widow". LOL

Thanks Powderbrake, I ran 615's on my MINI 16" track wheels and they were pretty good tires for the money. Don't think they would work on track with something as lite as a 7 though. I didn't see a wear rating on the Nitto tires but for a 7 I would figure a 100 would be about right as a street/track. Get some grip while still cool and about the same wear as a 200 on a "real" car. Always going to be a trade off when you need something to do more than one specific thing.

I'm not sure that the phrase "too much horspower" is even a necessary part of the english language. Oh, it could always be used as, the other guy had "too much horsepower" so I still need more.

Got an autocross ride in RNR's S2K with Nitto's all around, 17" X 235 front & 275 rear, same as I plan to run for size. They seemed to grip pretty well but hard to tell due to parking lot surface and it was still fairly cool. RNR said they seemed to work well for him at the little time he got then on track at Laguna but he didn't have anything to compare them too. Anyone with a 7 clone have a choice that has worked well for them on track surfaces but still DOT legal? Going to make due with a single set for both street and track, at least for this year. I was hoping that the TD wheels I ordered last year would get here in time to see if I liked them "in the flesh" so I could make a decision on a second set for track only. No luck with getting a re-order set for this years track dates as I'm still weeks out on receiving the first set. Hindsite being 20/20 I should have just changed the hubs and gone to something available locally. Any 7 drivers opinions are welcome since these are pretty much a specialty vehicle and the usual tire "test" results don't always apply. I plan on more track use than autocross and am not concerned with how long the tires will last, more about grip and them not getting heat cycled easily. Thanks in advance for any input.

Welcome to the "real tin plate" world of California 7's. LOL Sure is great to open the garage door and not see a red square with a "Ya' better hurry" number on it pasted to the back of the car! Looks like the number of 7 clones in CA. is steadily growing. Going to be fun to start seeing more of them at the tracks. After four years of tracking my MINI at HOD, MINI and a couple of BMW days I've only seen two, although one of them showed up a few different times. Probably would have seen more if I was making GGLC track days but didn't have a "Lotus Clone" until last year. This is my last year of working, with 50+ hours being the norm, so with all my other toys and comitments I'll probably only do 5-10 track days. Next year I plan on being one of the "retired old farts" who seem to show up everywhere and stick their noses in everyone elses engine bays. LOL.

Make sure you take the min. thickness spec. in for your brake rotors if it's not stamped on them. My Wilwoods didn't have the minimum on the rotor and I had to beg to get him to pass it since the Wilwood site didn't give it either. Since the whole set of four is "new" and they all measured exactly the same he passed them with a note on the form saying they were "new". Also, if you don't have a low brake fluid warning system the resivours have to be "easily accessible". I had already planned on an access panel in the large cover on my S2K and told him what I was going to do so he passed that also. Seems once they get the idea that your not trying to put something over on them and have your car "built right" it gets easier. Good Luck!

Weather is getting nice and warm, wheels are on a boat from England only about another two weeks out, cars just about sorted to where I want it minus final suspension and brake adjustments when I get the "real" tires on it. AHHHH!! The car is finally coming close to getting trackable and all summer stretches in front of us. Hope you have a great one too!

I'll be joining the GGLC this week. With any luck I'll be seeing my wheels by the end of this month or very early May. If so I'll have time to get a set of gummy tires on and finish setting up the suspension and brakes in time for some early Thunderhill action. Poor timing on the delayed wheel delivery as I'll be back east for about two weeks and not back till the first week of May, hope it doesn't cause a problem. Thanks again for the rides. You should check out the bias bar, unless you set up a lock on the end of the shaft they can "walk" and change your ratio of front/back pressure. The Wilwood hydralic adjustment is cheap and lets you do the fine tuning from the drivers seat once you get the bias bar close.

Got to ride a few laps with RNR and even with his brake bias locking up the rear under anything but moderate pressure he turned a 49.9. Very impressed. Oh, and his right front wheel was rubbing on left turns, seems the inner wheel bearing was Kaput, kinda messing up the contact patch. Anyway, as the Beach Boys say, it was fun,fun,fun till Rahul put the S2K away. Thanks for the rides Rahul!.

My friends don't beleive me when I tell them that driving on the streets is WAY more dangerous than doing track days, far less idiots at the track. I don't think anyone I was ever on track with would be stupid enough to drift to a stop in the racing line while there was run-off room yet you see it on the freeway all the time. Feel sorry for the two cars that really bit it over someone else's stupidity. Really do think that if I had been driving my Cooper S, which handles pretty well, I wouldn't have been able to avoid being sideswiped myself. Yanking left was just a "no thinking time" instinct to avoid being hit but I was out of that lane and having to turn back right so fast I couldn't beleive it. Really haven't had the time or place yet to see just what the car will do but yesterday gave me a whole new idea of the potential. Love the "Seven"!!

Now that I'm street legal thought I'd brave the 5AM morning cold ( I know, SF Bay Area cold isn't "real" cold) and drive to the office in Fremont as I had to make an afternoon meeting out of town and it would give me a chance to put about a hundred miles on the S2K in what was going to be great weather. Three mile from home on the way in two sedans did a spectacular spinning crash right in front of me and the car next to me cranked as hard as it could right into my lane, with me still in it. Cranked it left just as I was about to get hit and Wow, will a Seven out turn a Toyota!!, Escaped being sideswiped, only to run into/over various parts being shed by the two destructo sedans. A broken headlight (tri-bar with turn signal inside that I just installed Sunday) couple of scratches on the side, a nice deep chip next to the grill and some scuff lines down the body pan but all else is OK. Some idiot had stalled and was stopped in the slow lane, no lights on and lots of room to pull off, but an obvious brain dead driver who couldn't figure out that with 70 MPH traffic and darkness it wasn't a good place to park. Good new of yesterday was that the afternoon trip was a real blast, 65 plus and sunny, light traffic and turned off the crackberry both ways so it was just "enjoy the drive" time. P.S. Good luck with the gearbox repairs.

Comments on the mirrors; I have a complete set of the Formula 1 carbon fiber mirrors, sides and center and the quality was as high as the cost. I found then a bit too small for an older dog like myself so went with the GT/LeMans sized units. Figured I'd paint them to match the car body eventually so got the "use as is or paint" plastic set, forgot the exact cost but it wasn't cheap. First off I only got one mirror after ordering a set. They sent out the other one right away but the two mirrors were just a little bit diferent and the plastic was high shine on one and duller on the other. I didn't like the miss-match so taped off the lens on each with painters masking tape, sanded, primed and finish painted them gloss black. some of the inperfections were still showing so sanded and painted them again. Look good now. This was about a week process with drying tiime and when I took off the masking tape some residual "sticky stuff" was visable. Used a soft cloth with windex sprayed on the cloth to make sure the paint didn't get anything on it. Turned both "mirrors" cloudy and scratched (note SOFT cloth). I waited a few days for full paint cure and was able to polish both lens back up to close to "new". It's obvious you can't be wiping dew off these in the morning, not that I would be anyway, but it was kind of depressing to know I could have picked something else for a lot less. On the other hand, the size is great and after I made some longer mounting arms they are where I want them. I'll try to upoad a comparison of the stock and longer mounting arms.

The carbon fiber mirrors shown are pretty good but a bit small if they are the "race" set. Go with the bigger set they sell for "sedans" or however they market the two different sizes. The carbon fiber ones are a bit pricy but really good quality. The 'plastic' ones are not worth anywhere near what they charge (not even worth $10.00, I know, I bought a set) and the "mirror" in them is actually plastic, not glass. Motorcycle mirrors are usually pretty good and also pretty cheap because of the many manufacturers trying to out price each other.

Most of us keep an eye on all sections of the forum. If you post a question you will most likely get an answer or a link from someone who has dealt with the same problem and researched or invented a solution. If your just trying to make a decision on what to buy, get ready for as many "I'd go with this one"s as there are kit's and clones out there. We all love em', and our own the best, or we wouldn't have them. I've joined because I found it to be the best site I've been on as far as people who really have experience with the car in question getting back to you and following up on where you are with your problem and to see if what they posted helped. Welcome to the group.

Hi Raul, Didn't have your email at home and just pulled a couple of parts apart so I could get the measurments your after. My S2K is I beleive an '08 kit. It has from .985" to 1.030between the insides of the Bent "U" channel mounts. The heim joint balls are .625" from flat to flat. Hope this helps. You might check and see if the shoulder bolts come in different shaft lengths to fit up the joint ends. My rear frame mounts are different then the placement of yours form what I see in your photos. I have a near interference fit at the bottom forward thrust link to the frame U mount due to getting "out" to the hub mounting point. Good luck, Jim R.

Thanks for the heads up RNR. I need to get signed up with them now that I will be a "Lotus" driver and won't be tracking the MINI anymore. Every time I see one of those hot little Lotus Exige or Elise pocket rockets go by my thoughts wander to my MINI's trade in value and...... whoops, can't afford the divorce. LOL.

Looks like about another week or two of 'unsettled' weather and then the real "golden state" (read dry out and get ready to burn {perfect 7 weather})summer should set in. All I plan right now is getting the right wheels/tires on the car, getting it to a local suspension set-up shop that RNR clued me in to, and some serious shake down to see what else falls apart. Once that's out of the way I'm going to start putting some real track and highway mileage on it. Anybody have any thoughts about getting some 7's together for a HOD or other track day event at Thunderhill later in the summer? NO DB METER AT THE HILL!!!! 3.1 miles, 15 different types of turns and almost no walls!

Thanks for the "high fives"! Really looking forward to getting the last few items sorted out and then getting to see some of the faces and their 7's from this site. And to all of your from the far frozen northlands, welcome to spring and "seven-time". If what RNR says is true, that only psycho's and crazy people drive 7's, then you all are by far the top tier looneys. LOL.

Got to the DMV yesterday and after a 90 min. wait and a few minor hitches because the clerk didn't have a clue what an SB100 registration was I walked out with my new plate and tags. Have some parts being machined to beef up the rear suspension main through bolts, still waiting on my new wheels from Team Dynamics to get here so I can make sure they fit/clear everything OK before I buy tires and then it's gonna' be time to go rip up ThunderHill!!

Finally took a day off and moved along with the CA items I needed. Got through my SB100 Smog Check at my 9:20 appointment in San Bruno and jumped right on the freeway heading for Santa Cruz. Got to Tim's Auto Electric in SC before 11:30 but he was busy till after 1:00 so crusied the beach a bit. Passed both light and brake inspections, paid my money and back over the hills to Grandma's House. Whoops, I mean the Los Gatos DMV, with all my nice new crisp paperwork, only to find out it's a "furlow" day and they were closed. Oh Well, got all the paper I need to hand over the counter for a real steel plate. Wooh-Hooo!! Oh, the weather was great, the trafic was light, and around here, thats great, the car ran and inspected great, all of the inspectors were great, things were going so great it almost made me want to book a flight to Vagas and try my luck there. Thank you Arnie for closing the DMV, probably saved me plane fare and related losses. LOL.

I thought you Canadians were tough! Slap on some chains, wear some extra socks and get going!!! LOL

How is it possible that all of that really stunning workmanship and fabrication/engineering can come out looking so god awful ugly? It is no wonder that most Asian car companies keep their exterior design groups in the USA and Europe.