erioshi

mmmmm .. OHC (or possibly DOHC?) turbocharged ~3 liter dry sump V8 with near 10K red line? Sounds fantastic. Enough to make me want to put one of these engines into something to play with, especially on a race track. But with so much new (to the GM production lines) technology all being pushed together at the same time, it might be wise to wait until any teething problems have been worked out. This also makes me wonder if there might not be some distant relationship between this engine program and the new Lotus V8? Pure speculation, but both engines sound similar and need to be in production ready vehicles due out at about the same time .. interesting coincidence.

The XP8 is fine cold. I run them on my Evo 24/7/365 and have used them year round on other cars as well. Even after sitting at -30 F all day in a parking ramp, the brakes are easy to modulate and have great bite. I think the best compliment I can offer is that I don't have to think about my braking at all, other than checking the rear view mirror to make sure I'm not about to be rear-ended. They are easy to get used to, and once I developed a feel for them, my foot always seems to be able to find threshold (at will) without any conscious thought. Street or track doesn't seem to matter (Ok, a tiny bit); they are very consistent and very easy to drive.

My concern with those is that the Europa's lights are so deeply set that the front turn signals would be invisible do almost any driver who didn't see you head on. I am considering replacing the blisters, but not until I find the right solution. They might be a good option for a seven.

My bad. Looks like I managed to mistake the Rover V8 powered, GKN sponsored Lotus/Rover one-off project (prototype GKN 47D) for the Type 47. Thanks for correcting me.

The RA1 will also get very vocal when it's being pushed past it's preferred slip angle, at least it does on heavier (3,000 lb +) cars. I can't say for sure if it will talk like that on a seven.

Have the H4 units helped significantly with available light? I'm in the middle of rebuilding an old Europa and improving the lighting is a critical need. I figure I'll need to address the harness as well as the bulbs and housings, but would like know the new reflectors are solid upgrade.

I've been Carbotech brake addict for quite a while both on & off the track. I tend to prefer the XP-8 compound for both street & track use unless you find that a more aggressive pad is essential. I also wouldn't bother with anything below the XP-8 compound. I tried a set of bobcats once, but managed to fade them in my Evo. I've lost count of the number of sets of XP-8 pads we've put through about half a dozen different track cars. The XP-8s will squeak a bit at stop lights (although enough brake anti-squeal compound will keep that to a minimum), and when used aggressively on the track, will cook all the afore mentioned anti-squeal off the pads. Plan on re-gooping after every track day. That said, they are the easiest to modulate brake pad I've ever driven. Great initial bite (both cold & hot), fantastic resistance to fade (as long as you don't tend to drag them), and they still work well even when they are worn thin and smoking as you pull off the track .. I've run one set down to about 1/8" thick on the front of my Evo at a track day. And they last a long time for a track oriented pad. Downside is cost; they are definitely not the cheapest brake option.

Forgive me for being late to the party, but I'm also inclined to think Colin would be happily looking at larger engines for more total performance. If you look at the engines Lotus has used throughout their history, they seem to to have favored engines with an emphasis for decent mid-range torque over pure top end HP. That trend seems to appear in both the engines they have sourced from other companies, as well as the engines they have developed in house. And there are in-house examples of swapping to larger engines for racing use or street use as the technology became available. The Europa type 47 is one example; they basically cut the rear chassis of a 4 cylinder Europa and replaced it with a tube framed V8 assembly. The Esprit also gained first more displacement, then a turbo charger, and ultimately four additional cylinders. Just two examples of many. Personally I am a fan of uber-light; my current project is swapping an R1 engine into a Europa and then turbo charging it. And while I love the idea of low weight and screaming RPMs, everything I've read says Colin was actually a bit of a torque man. I suspect it comes from his starting out in cross country trials racing.

From what I read elsewhere a couple of fans were injured. The driver came away unharmed.

Color me a skeptic. I think it can be made to work, but I suspect you will loose some of the more important (at least to me) bike engine characteristics. 1) This adds back all the weight of a car transmission 2) It adds a heavy automotive flywheel & clutch (plus the rest of the drive line) working against the very lightweight bike engine internals .. that could lead to some very serious engine shock 3) This solution replaces the very fast sequential bike transmission (suitable for flappy-paddles) gear shifts with a fairly decent shifting car transmissions with typical car shift throws & gates. There are two possible strong upsides, though. Reverse as everyone has already mentioned. But a second, perhaps more useful benefit would be replacing the tightly spaced bike gear ratios with a set of gear ratios more widely spaced and suited for use in a car. I am definitely interested in seeing how the project shakes out.

The expansion theory sounds plausible, but I would think to pump that much fuel it would take quite a few heat/cool cycles and your vent would need to only allow outside air into the tank when cooling, how long was the car sitting closed up in the trailer? Is there any chance the trailer was left in a position where the front of your car (specifically the carb) may have been left sitting lower than the fuel tank? I'm thinking of something like the front end of the trailer on the ground instead of the trailer being level .. perhaps the tongue wheel sinking or being set really low. Testing the theory as suggest above sounds good, but you'd need to replicate the carb's needle & float in some way and place that assembly above the test collector where fuel couldn't be returned by air contracting when the tank cooled.