DaveD

Tom, I don't feel so bad, looks like I was in good company. Please add Bev and I to the list of attendees. I hope to work on getting Bev to drive in the Green group this year. I am really looking forward to driving Thunderbolt unobstructed this time! Thanks, Dave

If you still need the Datalog software, send me a PM. I use the Pectel software on my Zetec.

Tom, No. Car is sitting waiting for new timing belt pulleys. The idler pulley bearing disintegrated. I cracked one of the front fenders at the mounting bolt (thanks to one of the many bad spots on the roads here). I have not driven it much this year. I had hoped to work on it this year and paint it, but too many other things have taken priority.

Tom, Add me to the list. I have my room reserved, Bev and I are looking forward to another year with everyone. Dave

Todd, Thanks for posting a couple of excellent driving videos. I see so many videos of cars that are being thrown around and the driver is so animated with yanking the wheel back and forth trying to squeeze too much speed out of their car. Your video is an excellent example of smoothness and consistency and the speed that is rewarded by doing so. I was surprised to see the Mustang at the end of the race in the first video. It looked to me like when it was just the 2 of you in the second video, he was able to slow you up enough in the first couple turns after the straight that it enabled him to keep you in range to pass again on the straight. But that did not happen in the first video. Kudos to you. I like your car too! Dave

I am jealous! Maybe one day I will move to Montana where a vehicle driven year round will last a while before it turns into a pile of rust! Dave

I contacted Dave Cope a couple of times. He was not able to help me. Here is the information on my car. Much of it I received from the original owner. Vehicle Description This is the ULTIMATE Superformance S1 (Lotus 7 replica car). The Superformance S1 was produced until 2004. This car is number 50 of about 56 cars produced. The car came from the factory as a rolling unit with only the installation of the engine and transmission required to complete the car. This car was produced in 2003 and was built up by the original owner in Ohio. I purchased the car used in 2005. I use it mostly on the weekends to tour the country side and have also auto crossed the car and participated in a couple of track days at Summit Point and 3 track weekends with the USA7s at NJMP. It is loaded with many performance and appearance options. It is one of the coolest looking Superformance S1s built. It is also the highest horsepower, naturally aspirated, Superformance S1 that you will find. The car idles smooth as silk, is as streetable to drive as your daily driver, has incredible acceleration (4 Flat - 0-60!!), it pulls hard all the way to the 8500 RPM redline. This car was dyno tuned and puts out 150 HP at the wheels. This serious driver's car turns more heads than anything on the road. It's the best balance between "Show" and "Go"! Wheels/Tires: 17" Chrome ASA KA-1 Wheels. Toyo Proxes T1-S Tires. 205/40ZR-17 Front, 225/40ZR-17 rear currently used for the road and the stock 15" Wheels with 205/50R15 Hankook Ventus z214 Tires for HPDE driving. Interior: Carbon Fiber Dash, White Faced Gauges, Removable Streering Wheel, Lotus Logo Shifter Nob. Engine: Built by Performance Engineering, Ross, OH. Ford ZX3 DOHC (Focus) Block and Crank. Eagle H-Beam Connecting Rods. Forged JE Pistons, 10.5:1. Ford Racing Performance Head, Ported/polished, w/ 1mm oversized SS Valves. Piper Cams - Road/Rally Cams 3000-8500 RPM Band. Performance Headers, Ceramic Coated. Webcon Multiple throttle Body Injection System. Pectal T2 ECU - Fully Programable 3D system w/ Software - designed for the Zetec Engine. MAP Sensor controlled for better drivibility and tuning. Airbox - Cold Air Induction System. McLeod Ultra Lightweight Aluminum Flywheel. Centerforce Heavy Duty Clutch Transmission: Quaife Clubman - Semi-Helical Cut Gears. Rally Gear Set 1st - 2.40:1, 2nd - 1.54:1, 3rd - 1.21:1, 4th - 1.00:1, 5th - 0.87:1 (OD), Rear End Final Ratio - 3.90:1 Follow this link http://www.usa7s.net/vb/album.php?albumid=29&attachmentid=8155 to pictures of the car when I bought it from the Superformance Dealer in Cincinnati on consignment. It had just over 4K miles on it. Thanks, Dave

I would like to try my S1 in the snow, if it were not for the caustic salt and liquid paint remover they put on the roads in MD/PA. I put it away at the first application of that stuff and keep it there until the rain has cleaned the roads off. I had a 95 Mitsubishi Montero SR that I loved. It was the best all round vehicle I have ever owned. That crap took all the paint off under the vehicle and it was falling apart from corrosion. I took it to a metal recycler and the worker who told me where to drop it off, asked me why I was getting rid of it. I told him to go look under the vehicle. He turned white when he saw how bad it was. I have seen video of sevens in the snow and it looks like, with snow capable tires, they would be a lot of fun as long as it does not get deep enough to turn it into a toboggan:eek:. Dave

Thanks guys for the good words for the S1. Thanks Mike and Shane for posting the pics and video. I really like my S1. The car as delivered is a great car, but I have spent a lot of time on mine to get it where it is now. I lucked out in that the original owner did a great job with the engine setup (Zetec), and type 9 trans with a Quaife Clubman Semi-helical rally gear set. It does really well on the track. I found with this setup though, it is only mediocre for autocross. My red-line, 8500 rpm, takes me to 65 mph in 1st gear. As far as what do you do about parts, so far I have had to take care of everything on my own. I tried the Superformance guys 3 times and did not get any help. I still have stuff I would like to take care of, but everything I have done so far, I have had to figure out on my own and find someone to fabricate parts that I could not do myself. The worse one was the front spindle carrier that broke when an instructor at the autocross school at the Carlisle Import/Kit car show put it into a chain link fence trying to show me how to take the chicanes (NOT!:banghead:). So for anyone considering buying an S1 be prepared to do most things yourself or find someone competent that can do it for you. I have pictures posted of the roll bar(s) here http://www.usa7s.net/vb/album.php?albumid=28 you need to be a USA7s member to see them. I would be happy to talk to anyone who would like to know more or has questions. Just send me a PM. Dave

Mike, Thanks for the camping info. Dave

Mike, If I brought a camping trailer down, can I set it up at in the Paddock of Lightning for both days? And is there a cost to do that? Thanks, Dave

Dave's avatar is from 2005 when it first showed up in the garage. No, it has not been painted yet! :banghead: It needs touch up work first.

Count me and Bev in. We have attended the previous 5 years. Wouldn't miss the event for anything.

Yeah, but it still looks beautiful. The picture looks like a great ride! It sucks with it getting dark so early now. I am looking for a day like that on a day when I have time to get mine out. Dave D

Yeah, and all the wings and rubber to try and get that power those extra pistons are making to the ground!!!! Would love to see you use that power without them, like most of the rest of us. :willy_nilly:

How about a BRS!

Adam, Very nice looking car. My car is currently all orange. I have thought about using the Golf paint scheme to repaint my car. Can you post some more pics when you have chance? Good Luck with your sale. Thanks, Dave

Mike and Tom, Bev and I can't thank you enough for organizing this event. This is our 5th year there and the 3rd year I have run on track. We are having the fun of our lives each year at this event. So many great people and cars! And Don's hospitality is second to none. The track and facilities are outstanding, and the only thing that would make it better, would be to do it a few times each year. Thanks to everyone who came too! Especially those that have to travel from far to get there. Without you all it would not be the same. We can't wait until next year. I hope to see you all come back again. I will post pics as soon as I get the car back in street clothes and can start playing with getting all the pics together. Dave and Bev

Tom, The collar behind the oil cooler is the pickup for cockpit heat. The one at the top is the pickup for cockpit fresh air. This is what I did to make sure all the air coming in the nose is going through the coolant and oil radiators. I am sure before I did this too much was going around them.

[quote=Off Road SHO;9 I'm about ready to do a pressure test on my engine compartment since I don't think much air can flow through it with the bottom of the car all closed up. I have a digital Manometer that I hope is sensitive enough to measure whether the is a pressure differential of 2 psi or less. If I get less pressure with the bottom off the car, I will know that I have to open up the bottom louvers more. When I have the bottom plates off, I can check for pinched wires. Tom Tom, I can tell you based on my research that there is too much pressure building under the hood. At the 2013 USA7s gathering at NJMP I saw my oil temps get as high as 150C. After that I picked up 4 temp probes and a display and I placed them in different spots under the hood. The display was in the car with me. I picked out a course loop with varied driving and made notes as I went. The first loop I did was with the engine pan installed. I removed the pan and did the same thing with in 15 minutes of the first loop and the temps decreased significantly. So at the 2014 USA7s gathering I removed the pan and I did not see temps anywhere near the year before. I will not be using the pan on the track. The car handled just fine with out it. I will use it on the street as it has saved the low hanging sump from bouncing off the ground a couple times. By the way, I fly experimental aircraft and the rule of thumb for cooling is, that you should have at least 2.5 times more exit area that intake area. With the pan installed, I don't believe it is anywhere near that. Plus I discovered that the cowl vents in front of my windshield were actually sucking in outside air rather than helping to vent what was coming in thru the front. Also, the pinch point for the wires is under the tunnel cover where the E brake is. You won't get to it from under the car. Dave

I sent an email to Superformance to find out what the rear axle is sourced from. Dave Cope responded that he is looking into it for me. I will post it when I find out.

Tom, Sounds to me like "SUPERCAR and Not So Bad Driver". That's a great accomplishment with just a few runs on a new to you car!!! Congrats. Dave

Tom, The fuel pump can be accessed by removing the rear fiberglass and aluminum under pans that are screwed on with phillips screws. The pump sits in a clamp on the lower rear of the frame. I had a number of problems with my fuel/electric system. My problems started out with the car starting to lose power while driving. When it happens it starts to run rough and starts losing power. Letting up on the throttle would get it to smooth out, but only for seconds. Then it would start running rough. Repeat this cycle until I could find a place to pull off the road and it would quit running. It only happened now and then and if I let it sit for 15 minutes it would start back up and run fine. Eventually it got to happen too frequently and I no longer trusted it to get me home. Things I noted about it were: 1 it always seemed to happen when it was hot out 2 usually happened after I had been driving at speeds above 40 3 never did this when the tank was close to being full 4 would always restart after it sat for a while 5 the fuel pump made one heck of a noise I had tried to replace my fuel pump with a new one and it made no difference. S1Steve said he had his car shut off and then would restart and he traced it to a pinch in his fuel pump wires where the wire harness ran under one of the drive shaft loops. I ended up pulling the interior center out and found that my wire harness was also pinched going through the drive shaft loop. It did not look like it was pinched bad enough to cause the problem. In the process of the all the work I ended up doing on the car, I discovered that air was being pulled into the fuel line before the fuel pump. I pulled the tank and found the rubber hose clamps in the tank were all loose. Aha! I thought I found the problem. Car gets hot, air gets in fuel pump, pump looses pressure and vapor lock occurs! Let car cool down, vapor lock goes away, restart and keep driving. Unfortunately that was not the solution. It did not happen as often, but it was still happening. I had my trunk out of the car and had taken it to have my fabricator look at building me a roll bar for the car. While there I happen to notice air bubbles in the translucent fuel line I had put on it during all the problems I had been having. So, air was still getting into the fuel line. I pulled the tank inners again and could not figure out how the air was getting in. I even tried replacing the rubber lines and clamps in the tank. I even drew a vacuum on the aluminum tubes and they did not indicate any leakage. I ended up reading in the manual for the car that it was recommended to pull the gas from the bottom of the tank and not run it thru an in-line filter before the fuel pump. This is what I eventually ended up doing to solve the problem of sucking in air bubbles. I also found that the windshield defroster, fuel pump and something else were all chained together in series from 1 hot wire in the back of the fuse box. All the insulation had burned off those wires at the fuse connectors behind the fuse box. I ended up re-wiring these so each had its own 12 volt supply wire. I don't think this had anything to do with the fuel issue, but then wires that get hot enough to burn insulation off, probably are not transmitting full voltage to the components. One being the fuel pump. The experience was no picnic, but I know my car a whole lot better than had I not done this work. I also ended up with the entire interior out so I could install 6 point harnesses to be legal for my local HPDE track days. Now I am trying to figure out exactly what the rear axle is out of so I can order parts for it. Something is coming apart in it and I can't identify a source for looking up parts until I can identify it. The pinion and ring gear look fine. The diff is closed so I have no way of knowing if the problem is internal. I tried the dealer where I bought my 2014 Tacoma from but they are zero help. If anyone can help I would much appreciate it. Thanks, Dave

Tom, I found my wire harness to the back, included the fuel pump wires, was pinched between one of the drive shaft loops and the frame. Mine was shutting off for other reasons. Dave

If you will give extra points for each passenger carried around the course, I may actually have a shot at being competitive in my 12 passenger van. Dave