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turboeric

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Everything posted by turboeric

  1. No help with the camera, but a real life success story at catching theives. My son in law is a mechanic at an International Trucks dealer. They had problems with diesel being stolen from trucks parked outside. They got surveillance footage of the thieves, but never enough detail to nail anyone specific. Last year they had a truck in that had its entire fuel system disassembled. Taking advantage of this, they parked it outside, filled the tanks with water and added a bit of diesel to float on top to make it look and smell right. Sure enough, the next morning there was a truck stuck nearby whose engine wouldn't run due to having a tank full of water! He had a motorized siphon rig that the cops were most interested in. Don't know whatever happened to him, but the combination of the siphon, the video footage and the tank full of water would have been pretty damning. Not to mention having to flush his entire system! Poetic justice.
  2. A cage on the street will need to be padded. The soft stuff most commonly seen (looks like pipe insulation) is only OK for protecting you from bonking your head while getting in and out. It isn't enough for crash impacts. The SFI 45.1 rated stuff (sold by Kirkey and many others) is much denser and will protect a helmeted head from roll bar contact in a crash. Obviously, your unhelmeted melon won't have as much protection and the standard SFI 45.1 material is too hard for an unhelmeted head. The absolute best solution for a street driven car is something like the dual durometer padding made by BSCI. Street padding It is SFI 45.1 padding covered by a second layer of softer padding, to more gently decelerate your noggin in a crash. Looking at video of actual heads in crashes, it is amazing how much the head gongs around in a car, especially in a roll over. Pad anything even remotely near your head. It would be way too ironic to be killed by your safety equipment.
  3. No worries. It's a 99 that was rolled. Hooray for drifters!
  4. Name: Eric Location: Kamloops, B.C. Car: Westfield SEiW Miata (some assembly required) I have the kit, I have the wrecked Miata, now all I need is to put the two together! This is something I've dreamed about since a sunny day in about 1970 when I saw 2 Lotus 7s parked side by side in a lot at UBC and thought "what the heck are those?"
  5. Would it be metric air, or SAE?
  6. Got to love the point-by from the GT-R! All those computers being passed by a 1950's inspired bit of blacksmithing. :smilielol5:
  7. Yikes! The standard vehicle around here is a pickup truck, and everything is built assuming pickup ground clearance. Road builders assume that speed bumps should be modelled on Mt. Everest and than any pothole that won't completely swallow a Yaris isn't worth fixing. Hope the rest of your motor is OK.
  8. Glad to see you're back out generating grins. I should take delivery of my Westfield kit this week, so I hope to join you next summer.
  9. As rnr mentions, it really isn't a good idea to run 4 points (despite the Brits apparent love of them). When you're in a frontal crash, your torso pitches forward. The shoulder belts take the strain, which tends to pull the lap belt up off your pelvis and onto your squishy bits, helping you die of internal injuries. The 5th or 5th and 6th belts help hold the lap belt down in those circumstances. They're often referred to as anti-submarine belts, but that's more of relevance to formula car drivers with a more lay-down driving position. Check out Schroth belts, especially the ASM equipped belts mentioned above. They do have some that have the legally mandated orange push button latch, and the ASM technology somewhat mitigates the 4 point problem. They are configurable a number of ways, so you can run 4 or 6 point. In my Miata, I run both stock belts and 5 points (mounted with clip-on hooks and eyes), so I can use the 5 points on the track and the 3 points safely on the street. Being killed by my safety equipment would just be too ironic a death, even for me.
  10. SA helmets are also rated for multiple impacts (think roll cage in a rollover). There's more to the fire safety than the liner - the eyeports tend to be smaller on a full face SA helmet as well. I don't have the answer for the OP - sizing is hard to do by mail order, and it seems each helmet model fits a little differently.
  11. First the caveat - this is all experience on a turbo Miata, so much heavier than a 7. That said, I have a fair bit of experience with suspension tuning and high performance tires at autocross and on track. From your description of your intended use, I think Boxologist is right, the Toyo R888, Nitto NT01, Yoko A048 would be on the money. Toyo has reintroduced the RA1, which many prefer over the R888. My current track tires are NT01, and I find they're relatively civilized, very grippy (a subjective order of magnitude better than any street tire) and fairly long wearing (as track tires go). Among real street tires, the current favourites are the Hankook RS3, the Dunlop Direzza Z1 Star Spec (not the Z101), the Bridgestone RE11 and the Kumho XS. The Azenis 615 are no longer a front ranked tire and are probably too stiff for a 7. I'm just coming off of a set of Kumho XS and I was very impressed with them. Easy to approach the limits, forgiving, very grippy and don't overheat as easily as the Falkens. Nice list of toys Jim. I used to have an XK150S OTS when I was young and foolish - beautiful thing.
  12. The orange one's mine. It will have the drivetrain from a 99 Miata 1.8L and I'm planning on it being my summer daily driver and periodic track toy. Can't wait!
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