jimrankin

Josh from this forum has his 7 for sale and he had asked me this question and I had to admit that I didn't have much information to offer. With such a limited pool of buyers it all comes down to timing and exposure. Besides E-Bay and the 7's clubs what's viable? Paid advertising just doesn't seem logical unless it's on something like Hemmings or one of the established "race cars for sale" sites and even there your not getting a lot of people just 'looking" without a pretty fixed idea of what they want. Craigslist is easy and free but it doesn't have much in the way of getting your car noticed among the 50K used junkers listed every day. At least it's already spring (in most places) so that's a help. Hard to sell a 7 to someone when it's too cold in the prospective buyers state to drive it. What worked when you bought your 7? Josh, clean out your message box so anyone with an idea can PM you.

You might want to do some quick research. Getting cars into Canada is really tough ( that whole used and over 25 thing from what I understand) Here in the Us it's way more state by State as to what constitutes a "kit car" or used vehicle. Washington may be an OK thing as they seem pretty logical up there compared to places like NJ and a couple of other nightmare states I've seen documented on this site.

Since I'm not part of the Texas driving community my comments may not be in line with what your looking for in a track, but I do have some suggestions that have seemed to work for the tracks us California amateur drivers frequent. With a "high end" (read expensive) track like COTA close by you might want to think more like our SCCA tracks, ThunderHill and Button Willow, at least as an obtainable starting point. These tracks both started out as just that, TRACKS, without a lot of large clubhouse space, garages and other amenities. That allowed them to concentrate the cost on buying as much land around the track site as possible (IMPOPRTANT) and install really secure roadbeds so the track stayed in good condition for as long as possible. By being as "bare bones" as possible to start it meant that the day rates for rental were well within the budget of groups like Hooked On Driving, Track Masters etc. These "fill up the empty dates" organizations are essential for tracks to survive. Not only do they keep revenue coming into the tracks coffers they also are a breeding ground for developing drivers who would never have thought about stepping up to an actual racing series without this opportunity to get onto a real race track and see just what fun it really is. For a track to bring in drivers all it really needs are a very few basic things, and in order of importance here they are. (1) A really well designed and interesting track layout. (2) Basic creature comforts (SHADE, some form of restrooms, water and if possible food. (3) Basic car requirements (FUEL, a small shop with essential fluids and hey, we all want a T- shirt ;-). I know that this is America (and Texas to boot) and it's the land of "bigger is better" but when the choice may come down to "no track at all" or "starting with the basics" with an eye to future development I know where I'd put the effort. I hope you succeed in getting a track built, grand or basic, because everyone needs the chance to give driving on track a try.

I just picked up a spring at the local hardware store that fit the space I had. I'll see if I have a photo anywhere. It just fits between the actuating lever of the brake and the cable cover end mount. Does the same thing as the cable end in hotttcars photo but I was using a cable that I shortened to fit and no spring end attached.

I'm using the Wilwood unit and it works fine. I did have to add a spring right at the caliper that compresses when you activate the brake to make the pad activating system retract when you release the handbrake. if you don't it won't hurt anything but you get this "scratching' sound for a while after the brake is released until the pads stop rubbing the disc.

Gunships S2K just went for $21K and change and that's going to be hard to beat for a deal. He should have waited about 2 more months to sell it when the whole country will be looking at spring weather and time to take the toys out and play. I've seen it happen over and over with boats and even convertible cars, worth a lot more when the suns out and hot.

Where did it go? Somebody got the deal of a lifetime for sure. I'd say the market is at a low point right now. Somewhat to do with it being winter and these are really summer cars, but more so with the loss of new owners who have the skills to work on them and a desire to drive without a computer backing them up and a touch screen to play with.

Gotta' love the high tech safety gear! I've never seen a plaid fire suit before. ;-).

The only improvised exploding device I use is my head. If I knew my day was going to be so short I would have pushed harder. Went out figuring on driving at 80% so I wouldn't blow it up or put it into a wall if I "shift goofed" too badly but didn't really get the chance to see what it would do with the new gears. It was just getting nice and warm, probably mid 60's and finally getting the tires at least a little warm. Afternoon would have been spectacular.

Made it up to ThunderHill on Saturday and got in two 30 minute sessions and about 10 minutes of my third session when in the middle of turn four I went to power out and the motor just "quit". Bummer! Rolled off track and cranked it while watching the gauges and saw I had no fuel pressure, more bummer!. Yes, I did have gas LOL. Anyway, I got a tow back to the pits and did too much diagnostic to relate here and decided it was trailer time. I did really like the feel of the new gearing, 4:44 is SOOO much better than my old 3:50's, plus this posi unit seems to hook up better, could be the gears though. As I figured there would be I had a couple of "Opps, wrong gear" redlining and tire skipping downshifts into fast corners and spent a lot of the first two sessions trying to figure out just what gear worked best going in/coming out. I was a little faster around the whole 5 miles than with the old gears and think if I had the whole day to practice I could get a good bit more out of the car. Running into the same problem with the new gears as with the old, redlining before the end of the straights (now in 5th instead of 4th) so killing time a bit "coasting" just off the throttle. It wasn't worth upshifting to 5th with the old gears as red line was pretty close to the breaking zone. I'm getting redline earlier now so I think using 6th might actually save quite a bit of lost time, just didn't get a chance to try it before the car died. BTW, fuel delivery problem was a disconnected fuel line at my "in the tank" pump. The pump has a poor design with the high pressure outlet being a smooth un-barbed tube. I had two clamps on it and not a lot of room for it to slip off as the top of the cell is close. It found a way. Cheap fix I should have done when I replaced all the fuel lines three years ago, safety wires through the top clamp and through some added drilled holes in the pump retainer box. if I can add images in this new format note the smooth output tube.

My S2k has an 18" drivers seat and a 16" passengers seat. I'm right at 6' and there is still room to move the pedals a few inches forward for a taller driver. RNR is over 6' and he seems quite comfortable. Price is below what I think it should go for and less than half what a new build will cost. You can beat the Honda S2000 motor and transmission all day and it just keeps going without any special concerns or maintenance. As far as the performance of the car goes, I'm an old hack of a driver with enough ingrained mistakes to make a "how not too" video and I still pass just about everything on track. In a word "it ain't me, it's the car".

Josh from this group is selling his WCM S2K. He says the reason is he just doesn't use it enough, something think is quite common with specialty cars. I've seen the car and it was in good running order even before he started making the improvements noted in his local post. I'm not sure how to post links but you can view his post at WWW.baautox.com in the cars for sale section. We need another bay area buyer to step up!! Preferably one who wants to track this car because RNR and I are starting to feel lonely and could use another like minded competitor to play with.

Going to Thunder Hill this Saturday! They are running the full 5 mile configuration so should get a chance to learn the new shift points for all of the corners before the day is out. Going to be a bit of a knuckle biter for me as they are billing my usual run group as a chance for the NASA and SCCA racers to test their cars before their upcoming events. I'm hoping that all of them will be a bit rusty from the winter break or testing something new ;-).

What a difference a gear makes...(and after writing this I just realized this is probably the wrong spot to post it and don't know how to move it) For the last several years I have been running a 3:50 rear gear in my S2K and while it was great for cruising the freeways it was quite lacking for track application (getting pulled in the straights after gains in the twistys) and general "spirited" driving. I decided since I was changing I might as well go "whole hog" and installed a 4:44 LSD unit in it's place. WOW!, I love the overall feel of the car much better with the new gears but being an Old Dog I'm really having a time with remembering what gear I'm in and which gear to shift to when I do. Freeway cruising has me constantly checking to make sure I'm actually in 6th because it feels like 4th, downshifting going into corners has me playing real easy on the clutch out as I'm not sure just how high it's going to rev or if it's going to add to brake input and lock up the rears. After endless weeks of no rain for our drought plagued state I finally change the differential and what happens, it's been raining on just about every day I've been home and not involved in something that kept me from using the car. I'm thinking of biting the bullet and going to Thunder Hill this Saturday but envision myself with a learning curve of off track excursions going into or coming out of the corners, or worse, a need for a new motor..;-(. WTH, gonna' do it, wish me luck!

My secretary got stopped for going 53 in a 35 zone and tried to convince the cop she was dyslexic. This may have already been posted here but.. A CHP pulls over a car full of little old ladies going almost 100 MPH. The driver ask him what his problem is and he tells her the speed limit is 65. She looks at him and ask why is it posted at 99 then? He tells her that's the highway numbed not the speed limit and that she's obviously scaring the hell out of her passengers because they are huddled in the back seat and appear to have recently been crying. He tells the driver to slow down and ask the ladies in the back if they are OK. One of them looks at him and says "We've been OK for the last few miles but I thought the ride in on highway 135 was going to kill us".

Hi John, Just off hand, is that a hood and grill from an XK150? Classic look even if it isn't. My advice about deciding to drive homebuilt cars or not: "if your going to build it but not drive it, save yourself some money and stick to plastic models" LOL.

Unless the previous owner had the car corner weighed it great idea to have it done from a performance, ride and safety point. If your only going to street drive just have them set the ride a bit higher and your fine for most any rolled curb or minor street trash. if your going to do both street and track days you can pay them to do two ride height corner set ups. Get a set of cheap digital calipers and record the dimension from a fixed point like the lower shock eye to the adjustable ring on the shock for each setting. Then you can adjust them yourself for what you want to do. NOTE! The changed measurements are not going to be the same at all four corners so you can't just crank them all down the same distance. (Meaning if you have all four properly weighted at 3 1/2" ground clearance and the car "level" when you lower it to 2" for a racetrack each shock/spring is not going to go down exactly the same distance to keep the car still level and properly weighted) Be aware this also changes the suspension geometry (camber.toe/bump etc,) so you want to decide which setting you want "best", track or street and have it set closer to the one you pick. Might be wise to sound out members here and at other car clubs for a suspension shop in your area who is familiar with setting up four whell independent suspensions on cars without "factory setting to reference. I'm sure I and several other S2K owners here on the forum can send you or post here what we have found works for us.

I know I'm going to ramble on and I don't really have an actual point other than "there is no excuse for not getting on track"so please forgive me in advance.:deadhorse: When I was young, single and had the disposable income to fuel a sports car habit there weren't a lot of places, or rather, opportunities to get your street drivable car onto a real racetrack. I did manage a good bit of unsanctioned weekend racing when I lived in the south ('69-'71)but the events were mainly geared towards full size NASCAR wannabe's and my hopped up MGA and a couple of TR's and the like who would show were usually pretty lonely. Moved to Ca. in '71 and making a living and a family became more important although I still always had a sports car of some kind to work on and play with. I was out of touch with "road racing"'till '01 when I discovered through friends who belonged to the local BMW club that you could actually get on our local tracks without joining the SCCA or building a track only car. But even then it was a really limited number of events and if you weren't quick they were full. Then in early spring '04 I was at a club event at Thunder Hill Raceway and met David Rey who came to pitch Hooked On Driving, his start up track day organization. HOD was a bit more money for the track time than club events but he was soon booking quite a few NorCal track days so "ordinary" working guys like me could usually find a way to make time for several events and get onto tracks like Laguna Seca and Sears Point (Sonoma) as well as his "home" track at TH. I still do 3-4 HOD events each year although I prefer club events because of the lower car count and more on track time (and usually cheaper, tight b-----d that I am). That said I still pitch his events to anyone who I meet that has either a decent performing car or an interest in trying some "spirited driving" because his whole low key approach of "safety, fun, learning" seems to be the best way to get newcomers "hooked" and coming back. Too many club events either don't allow "first timers" or if they do the level of competition seems to make them feel uncomfortable and they never come back. Hold on, I'm finally kinda getting to the point! Maybe not. First, lets dismiss "video game" type devices as "driving". Even the best arcade type 3D does everything simulator units don't have a lot to do with driving other than giving you a real preview of a track you may not know. Admittedly, they are great for that. OK to rant back if you love simulators and yes, I know the pros use them, but it's usually to pre learn their reference points etc. ;-). Second, getting onto a "real" race track is just too easy these days for anyone to even consider not giving it a try. I usually ask people if they want to learn just where their car looses grip and make some dust on the run off, or would they rather use parked cars or guardrails? Third, todays "pedestrian" cars and tires handle better than performance cars and tires from my youth. If your buying anything today that's aimed at actually being "sporty" you just about can't find the end of it's performance envelope at anything close to reasonable speeds. If you want to learn the limits of the car you either get to a track or your probably going to a hospital or jail, or both. When some of the younger "idiots" who worked for me would talk about street racing I'd cringe. I used to tell them "street racing doesn't decide who's the best driver, just who's stupidest". Didn't do me a lot of good, but then after all, I was talking to idiots. Take your friends to the track! I warned you I was going to ramble!

Whenever I hear someone quote "whatever doesn't kill you makes you stronger" always have to suppress the need to say "and if it kills you did that help you much"? LOL. I'll turn 68 next week and I can pin point at least a dozen old broken bones on any cold morning and working on my cars is a contest between the pain and the fun, but, I have to admit I wouldn't change much if I could go back, it did make me stronger if a bit less flexible.

(Can't have this much fun now, even in a 7. LOL) When I was around 10-12 years old we lived at the very top of a long and steep New England hill, the kind with run off into chipped granite banks. Our only safety equipment was looking to make sure a car wasn't starting up the hill when we started down. Solid hard rubber (pre-plastic tire days) tires area fast and slide the BEST!! Suspension failure meant the 20penny spike holding the recycled baby carriage or lawn mower wheel onto the 2"X4" axle pulled out or bent. Adult supervision was avoided at all cost. Going to school on Monday without scabs meant you didn't have any fun over the weekend. The only common thread I have found for us who as children loved speed and anything remotely mechanical that would go fast is that we all never outgrew those two needs and still think in terms of what we want to build or drive next. And yes, :iamwithstupid:In actual fact, I was the stupid he's referring to.

RNR and I were really looking forward to it and had even rigged my trailer to carry two 7's up to the start point and back home again. Probably best to space it out a bit and get more drivers because as you mentioned it was fairly expensive when split so few ways. Looking forward to '16.

I looked at some of the high end replacement units and while they are probably "needed" if you do a lot of night driving, especially if your doing unlit back roads, I thought about my typical driving and decided on trying out the bulb only change first. I actually had a secondary reason for not changing the whole unit and that was because the headlights I'm using have a very bright ring of LED's that act as turn signals. My original turn signals are still operable but are kind of hard to see in daylight. That said I'm going to have to find a dark road one of these night and see if the LED's I installed actually are good enough to be safe if I ever need them. I'm just starting to change out my differential but once its in I'll post something about how the "bulb only" change out actually worked, or didn't work.

I pop riveted the ballast to the headlight shell just so it wasn't moving around on bumps etc. The fan has about 3/4" behind it and so far they haven't seemed to have a heat issue with being inside the shell. I think it's just the actual LED base the fan needs to cool and plenty of air in the shell.

I got tired of replacing bulbs and also having the plastic wire terminations inside the headlight bucket melt if you ran them on hot daylight drives so decided to try LED's. Wanted to keep the old headlight buckets and wiring (I'm a cheap B-----d). Went with a set that has a ballast and a fan that has seemed to work out well. I'm not sure they are much brighter than a stock bulb and certainly not any brighter (maybe less, haven't been in real darkness being a city boy) than the good halogens I was running before, but having problems with. They have CREE led's and were sold a "New Bright's" .

I love the way light cars feel when you drive them at speed, especially high HP light cars and you should be about at the max of that (at least reliably) with the new motor. Couldn't help but smile at your comment about it not being like building a Chevrolet motor, mass production rules!!!! With the cost of a rebuildable Honda base motor and all the parts, machining and tuning you were paying for one of the Storker crew could have bought 500+ HP turn key and tuned from Chevy performance. On the up side you wont be getting pulled much in the straights anymore and will be passing them at the first corner ;-) I'll probably see a glow in the eastern sky clear out here in CA from your smile at first drive.