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roman, thanks for posting the pic, that's helpful. i think i'll consult a machinist before i specify the bore size.

EviL, that is cool. $60? somehow is suspect it will cost me much more. do you have any pics of the rings?

WestTexas and rnr: thanks, will be careful with the hub measurement. and i'll see if jim has anything to add.

okay thanks. i'll ask td and wilwood about it too before i order any wheels.

Thanks Loren, So do most Ultralites out there have lug centric wheels in front? Practically, has this been an issue for anyone? What do you do on a fresh build? Hub centric does sound like a good idea, but i wonder if it's worth the trouble of finding a machine shop to make the centric rings. the lug centric set up i have now has not caused any problems for me. No vibration, no abnormal wear, etc. I just have to take a little more care when torquing the lugs down. Maybe it's not a huge issue on such a lightweight car?

Hello All, I plan to purchase a new set of Team Dynamics wheels for my Ultralite. does anyone have advice for me regarding going with hub centric vs lug centric? The bolt pattern is 5x100. I'm a bit confused about which bits are Subaru and which are Wilwood. I think the rear hubs are from a wrx and the fronts are wilwood -- perhaps someone can help me with that. The wheels currently on the car are J-line, with a 73 mm bore. There are centering rings on the rear but they are 56 mm diameter so the wheels are effectively lug centric. there are no centering rings on the front. I don't have an exact measurement for the front hub, but it is less than 70 mm. I haven't had any issues with the current set up, but it seems like having centering rings would be nice, and would take some stress off the studs. Any advice?

i recently looked at all these fasteners for a boot cover. i ended up going with dot "durable" fasteners. basically regular nondirectional snaps. scovill makes the dot line of fasteners, including lift the dot, pull the dot, durable, and common sense (that's a quarter turn kind). http://dotfasteners.thomasnet.com/category/all-categories? tenax fasteners look really nice. there are german and english versions and they are not compatible. i considered these but decided against them due to cost -- about $12 per fastener and there are quite a few fasteners around the entire perimeter of the boot.

pe7e, i have the B7's and really like them. you can see them here: http://usa7s.com/vb/showthread.php?t=6337 my head is pushed forward a tiny bit with a helmet but not so much that it's bothersome. with the momo seat in the car before the tilletts the head push was awful. compared to an r500 seat, tillett says the headrest on the B7 has been moved back to accommodate a helmet. i haven't been in an r500 seat myself. obviously seat comfort is very subjective, but the B7's are very comfortable for me. I'm 5'9" and 150 lbs. my nephew is 5'10" and 180 lbs and they are comfortable to him too. one note about the B7's: they are supposed to be 42 cm wide, but the examples i received were a bit over 43 cm, which necessitated trimming the sides of the passenger seat to make it fit. it was easy to trim though, and i'm glad i didn't order the 40 cm wide version with the rolled edges removed, as now i have "half rolled" edges on the passenger side.

hi klasik, not sure what you're fastener you're referring to -- is it "lift the dot" or "pull the dot" fastener made my scovill? both of those are directional fasteners, which would make sense if you want it to stay fastened when subject to wind. "Pull the dot" is the old style and "lift the dot" is the modern one that looks like a regular round snap but only releases from one side. i don't have personal experience with either one but i'm sure others here do.

jbh, there was such an event immediately before ours, supposedly for a party of 15. i'm told there were two enzos and a mclaren on track, but that's difficult to confirm since we were locked out of the facility. i had never been on this track before, but that didn't stop me from going solo! there were only a couple drivers as far as i'm aware that had any experience on this track. there were only 2 or 3 instructors there (for about 150 drivers) but even at that they were underutilized. i did track one down myself and he rode along with me for one session, which was very helpful. there was only one or two other drivers that i saw with an instructor. there was no novice group on this event.

that's cool, james, good luck! should be a nice weekend too, if a bit cold in the mornings. expect the track to be a bit slick. it's still not rubbered in.

it definitely was, xcarguy. awesome track, hope i can make it back.

thanks for the compliments guys. i think the photographers did a fantastic job. croc, yes that was another usa7s guy behind me. it's hard to imagine anyone going slower than me though. perhaps he'll post some of his own pics...

rnr, my speedometer wasn't working most of the time. one time down the back straight it did and i saw 135. i might have gone a bit faster but probably not much. most of the time i was just cruising down the straights and giving point bys to all the GT3's, GTR's and GT40's. those guys i think were hitting 160+. i've got a 4.44 diff and was pretty far into 5th gear before the braking zone. it's a really nice track.

and a few more...

I did a track event a few weeks ago at Circuit of the Americas in Austin. Just got the photos back and thought I'd share a few.

Thanks Jim, I've always admired your car. I've spent quite a bit of time poring over pictures of the build -- before you bought the car.

Jim, Your fasteners look like Dot "Common Sense" turn buttons. It looks like you managed to attach the fasteners to the top tube, which I'd like to do if possible. When I look at my car though, it seems like if I anchored the button stud to the top tube the snap edge would stick up beyond the curve at the top of the panel, rather than all being on the flat part of the panel, if that makes any sense. That's an interesting solution to the fuel filler problem. I was thinking about a little flap in the canvas cover secured with a waterproof zipper, but I'm not sure how durable the zipper would be.

Mike, Wow your car is impressive! How much time do you spend polishing it? Any more pics? From the pics I've seen, the Ultralites all seem to have the snaps anchored in the top tube. Is that the case with your car, Mike? On the other hand, Caterhams and other sevens have the snaps further down. Mondo, are your snaps down below the top tube? Is that why they pulled out?

Steve, Yeah i've wondered about whether the directional snap would be useful or not. My thinking was they would be easier to unsnap (in the one direction) than the regular snap and would put less stress on the stud anchor. Since i will have to unsnap and snap every time i put fuel in the car all that snapping might cause the stud to loosen over time. Hank, Yes, the boot is lined on the inside with sheet aluminum. The fuel cell is in the middle of the boot. There are small storage compartments on either side of the fuel cell. I tried to attach a pic but it wouldn't upload.

Thanks Hank, No need to post a pic though. I don't have easy access to the inside surface of the skin so machine screws are not really an option for me. I'm going to attach the snap studs directly to the top frame rail, either with rivets or screws. Still not sure which snaps to order. I'm leaning toward "Pull the Dots" but "Durable" or "Baby Durable" also from the Dot company are possibilities. Haven't had any personal experience with any of them so don't really know what would be best, or if there are better alternatives from another vendor.

Thanks for the advice. I hadn't thought about that so it's good to know.

Thanks for the response Hank. I think I'll probably go with the "Pull the Dot" fasteners. Hopefully those will work well.

I'm finally getting around to having a boot cover made for my Ultralite. I thought I was going to go with Tenax fasteners but now that I've seen the price I'm reconsidering. I'm looking for alternatives and my head's swimming. Lift the Dots, Pull the Dots, etc. I'm not sure which is best for the application. Also, it seems that whatever fastener I use, screwing the stud into the 1" steel tube at the top of the boot would be the safest, but it leaves very little clearance. it would be nice to fasten the cover a bit below the frame rail but then the fastener studs would be then supported only by the aluminum sheet, and the studs i've seen are attached by self tapping screws. Any fastener experts out there that can give me a hand?

here is a diff brace a la WestTexas