Klasik-69

When I listed the car on Craigslist, I really didn't think it would generate much. I think of CL as a place to list lower priced items, like a used washing machine or similar. About 3 weeks ago, I listed my big enclosed trailer on CL. Within a few hours of the ad coming out, I had several inquiries. One of those ended up buying the trailer two days later. I kept getting inquiries for about a week even though I removed the ad once I sold it. The last Thursday I decided to just "test" the waters to see if there was any interest. I set up the ad and really didn't think it would get much. Almost immediately I received about 4 inquiries. One in particular was the very nice gentleman from Mass. who was going to fly down to see it on Saturday. However, once he found out it was near impossible to get it registered and licensed in Mass, he backed out. I kept getting inquiries until several days later Bob seemed to really want the car, and he bought it. It's hard to figure out CL. It's free and I used to think it attracted some strange elements. However, I can tell you the people who I spoke with were first class and quite trustworthy. I also bought my motorcycle last week from a seller on CL. So maybe I had the wrong impression of buying and selling on CL. It's hard to complain about the cost to advertise on it...............FREE.

Hello guys. Yes, Bob bought my 7 Monday night and I'm delivering it on Friday along with extra sets of wheels and other parts. It was tough deciding to sell the 7 but the reality that it needed to be used rather than stored gave me the initiative to let someone else enjoy this incredible car. I have never owned a car that was less demanding of me and gave me so much back. I'm also going to miss this community. Thank you so much for all the help, advice and friendship over the years. I was likely the only one who actually got away with going to NJMSP on his anniversary and is still married. What am I going to do now ? Not sure. I am rebuilding a couple of older cars and still collecting others (its a sickness) but I enjoy working with my hands and it takes my mind off other things. I had back fusion surgery a few years back, along with rotator cuff surgery on my right shoulder so I need to be kind to my body to make it last. I'm glad Bob bought my car since I do think he will use it in the manner it was intended. I had a guy in Orlando express interest but he just wanted to flip the car for a profit. One of your new members on the forum from the Boston area was going to fly down to see the car on Saturday but when he found out how difficult it is to get this kind of car registered, he decided to forego the deal, and I don't blame him one bit. I pulled the ad last night but amazingly I got a couple of calls today on the car. I never thought CL was going to net any kind of results but the ad is free and I had nothing to lose. I was getting ready to list the car on Hemmings Classic after we get back from out little trip to England but no need to do that now. Thank you to all of you, I will miss this group.

The steering getting more relaxed after cooling down may be the result of the tires cooling down and not gripping the asphalt. When my Hoosiers are hot, they can pick up anything from the extreme stickiness of the rubber. I've come back with rocks, cigarette butts, bolts, package wrappers, etc going thru the paddock. Another thing that may also contribute is the amount of wheel backspacing, or lack of it, making the wheel pivot beyond the steering spindle's pivot point. Add sticky tires and the problem can be exacerbated. If we're talking about a car with P/S, then I would suspect the pump getting weak which gets worse when the fluid gets hot. Also, a weak P/S pump will cause fluid to get hotter than normal due to the bypass of fluid past the vanes, if a vane pump is used, or past the gerollers of using a geroller type pump. Typically, fluid is good up to 220 deg F. It's also easy enough to check fluid temp with an infrared thermometer.

My car is equipped with the Zetec is fuel injected and fitted with manual steering. My steering shaft runs thru the exhaust headers like yours but I have never had any issues with stiffness in the steering. I race on southern tracks with air temps in the mid to upper 90's. The engine never overheats either, goes to and stays at 80 deg C.

Yes, no problem on my end. However the mold is heavy so UPS freight could be steep. I'll weigh the mold next week and give you its dimensions. Or I see if I have a wing I pulled off the mold to send you to make a temp mold. I'll check after the weekend, it's at my car shop.

If you want to use the same kind of wide front cycle wings like my crude fiberglass ones, I could ship you the mold so you can pull some pieces off. As you know, they ain't "purty" but they keep some of the crap on the track from flying back at you. To make them right, the back sides of the wings need to have an area about 6" wide and 8" long cut out to let air pressure bleed off. Ideally, a stainless steel wire screen should be glassed in to prevent debris from flying out thru there. The other way is to fabricate them from 0.095 aluminum which may even be lighter. 0.062 might be too thin and too easily damaged. By the way, I went back to the original Caterham spun aluminum wheels, 13" X 6.5" front, 13" X 8.8" rear with Hoosier bias ply tires and found I coukd shave 1.5 to 2 seconds off my lap times. At Carolina Motorsports Park I ran Saturday with the wide steel wheels (13" diameter) and only managed 1:52.634 as my best lap time. On Sunday I ran the Caterham wheels and on the first session got it down to 1:51.06. Next time out I ran 1:49.543 and managed to beat every formula car but one. Faster hole shot with less wheel mass is my best guess. I lost some grip in tight turns but I found the 7 coukd drift with comfort and not lose too much time. Actually it really became fun.

You'll be surprised how good the wings will turn out. From the outside, if you do a little body work with fillers and some elbow grease sanding, a good paint job and even an expert like Croc won't know it's history. I avoid cones now like they're the plague. Ikei, our local champion racer in Atlanta, made some triangular guides just in front of the rear wings to force the cones away from the rear wheels. His car with about 385 HP at the rear wheels coukd likely fly over the cones. I really enjoyed being being up at NJMSP, and you're a great bunch of guys to hang with. I only wish it wasn't 1100 miles away or I'd be up there more often. Back surgery fused L3 thru L5-S1 slowed me down, then a blown right shoulder needed mending. Getting old sucks. I'm racing this year in SCCA SEDIV TT events and doing well. Maybe next year I'll come up. You guys were awesome and I do miss the group.

As an experienced rear carbon fiber wing ripper upper, I can relate. I ripped mine off at Talladega TGPR track after thinking cones were like fun targets. My wing flew up about 20 feet in the air and was in about 4 pieces (separate pieces). W never found the taillight. No big deal, I thought, I'll call Caterham and have them ship me a new one....until I saw the price of around $650 + Freight. I've had a ton of experience with fiberglass so I figured I'll repair the wing with the West Epoxy system and glass material. I put the pieces together with duct tape from the outside. Amazingly the shape stayed true enough to be almost original. Using the Epoxy two part material and adding micro-glass bead filler I made a filler paste to apply to the inside at the cracks to make the parts smooth. Then using 6 oz glass cloth, I laid in a layer over the entire wing interior. At this point, the wing became incredibly rigid and strong. I placed the wing up against the car body to see if I had maintained the shape. It was within 1/8" at the worst spot. i had to re-construct a part of the receiving wing flange (the area where the bolts attach the wing to the body) since about a third of it was beyond use. No problem. I placed the wing against a Formica table which I had waxed with mold release wax first and proceeded to glass in a new flange where needed. The epoxy doesn't shrink like polyester resin so war page is limited. I leaned the wing around 8 degrees from a true 90 degree to accommodate a little shrinkage. After that I applied balsa wood core reinforcement to the inside of the wing while applying a layer of 1.5 oz fiberglass mat inside first, lay the balsa core on it and glass that in with an overlapping layer of mat and epoxy. It worked great. since I race at some tracks that have a lot of loose gravel and small rocks, and since I race super sticky Hoosiers, these rocks slam the inside of the wings with such force as to damage the exterior surface. Having a 1/4" thick layer of balsa wood absorb the impact eliminates exterior damage. So I took off the right wing and applied the balsa core to it as well. Ok, some are going to say I have negated the benefit of light carbon fiber by adding all thus weight. Maybe. But if you go eat a big meal at one of your favorite Italian restaurants, your butt weight gain might well be more than what I did.

Check the crank sensor. It can get loose (ask me how I know). Also check the connector at the crank sensor. FYI , the crank sensor is on the driver's side and if you have headers, will be under the headers pointing towards the flywheel. A mere fraction of an inch separation will cause it to fail and is especially prone to not fire while cranking. Good luck.

Well they still make a good tire but the prices have gone up a good bit. I used to pay $215 for a 20.00x9.00-13 R35 compound (bias ply), now they're $255 each. However, even with the price increase, it is hard to beat the performance. IMHO, Toyos are good but nowhere near the stickyness.

There are a number of stock wheel adapters available online, like these. I got mine on eBay at a cost of $90 shipped for four. They are the 4X4-1/4 to 4X100mm (Miata wheels), and are 1" thick. Pretty standard stuff and work great. I used to have a Spec Miata race car and had some extra wheels so it was the easiest way to maximize my dollars. I use Enkei 15" wheels and mounted some Toyo T1R radials 195-60R15 (I think). The wheels came from Goodwin Racing at a cost of around $90 each and are reasonably light. When I'm on the track, these wheels come off and the stock spun aluminum 13" wheels, 6.5" front, 8.5" rear, are mounted with Hoosiers. The Caterham wheels are the lightest wheels I ever found. For guys looking for cheap race wheels, Aero wheels from Summit Racing are available in 13" with a 4X4.25" bolt pattern and cost around $65 to $75 each. Bassett also makes wheels in these sizes. width is available all the way up to 10" with different back spacing.

Is your pressure regulator working as it should ? if you don't know what your base line fuel pressure is supposed to be, it may be difficult to tell where you need to be. On my Zetec I run an AFR gauge to allow me to monitor how my fuel delivery is doing. By the way, I've been running the stock Ford ignition coils since day 1 and have never had any issues. I know some have but I haven't but my car only runs on the track as I don't drive it around town. If your camshaft position sensor isn't working properly, your ECU may go into a safe mode and provide richer than desired fuel to be safe. I know the engine won't run without the crank sensor but it will run without the cam sensor. Too bad these cars don't have an OBD-II port system to self diagnose these issues.

Yeah, but Kitcat doesn't mow the infield !!!!

I can heat my seats by just having the Lucas electrical wiring under the seat, and they will take care of the rest !!!!!! Only Lucas can run power to the switch first and then to the fuse. How many Triumphs had "heated" dash boards ? No need for a defroster.

I have a vacation home in NC and keep a registered Jeep at the house. NC requires yearly safety inspection. I just wonder if they do so of a "replica" car as well ? I'm not sure what they check, I just pay the $12 inspection fee and leave it at that. It can't be that extensive for the paltry amount of money.

The price of $35,000 is FOB from where ? I'm just wondering if the buyer is paying for the shipping of the car from Bahrain or UK ? What is the approximate hours on the engine and drivetrain ? If you rather you can just PM me. Thanks.

You may want yo check to see if he crank sensor is loose. If the sensor gets too far from the flywheel you will lose ignition. Hit a bump, it shakes out and dies. Later it restarts as temperature changes bring it close enough to signal. My Zetec drove me nuts, would not fire. I tried everything including changing the cam sensor. Then I talked to Jon at Caterham USA and he told me to check the crank sensor and connector. BINGO, problem solved. I've never had any issues with the coils or plugs.

The area is just gorgeous and very suited to a Seven. I've driven the Tail of the Dragon quite a few times in my Corvette. I've raced my Seven at the SCCA Chasing The Dragon hill climb race which takes place at the Joyce Kilmer Forest.The thing to be careful about are the wet/dry areas of asphalt due to the sunny and shady areas. Also you need to watch out for the bikes that congregate in this area by the hundreds throughout the year. The Harley riders are safe and careful but the crotch rocket guys like to set speed records, and they crash regularly.The ride from Andrews to Robbinsville is very nice too then jump over to the Tail of the Dragon towards Tennessee. Or take the Blue Ridge Parkway towards Boone. There are nice little mom & pop restaurants along the way.

3000 posts mean you spend too much time on the computer and not enough on the track 😃I've seen quite a few Elise on various tracks and they do better on smaller tracks where top end isn't as much an issue. At tracks like Roebling with a very long straight, just like our sevens, they run out of gas so to speak. A few have commented on reliability issues but I've never seen one break down, or Sevens for that matter. Porsches break down regularly but nothing compares to the Nissan 350Z & 370Z that fail regularly on the track. I think the Lotus Elise do very well for a street car with some creature comforts, and most drive to the track and then go home.

Clarkson made a habit of doing and saying stupid things to get attention & a laugh. After a while, that gets old and everyone tires of it. Just like the three stooges, how much can one take of that. He was also an elitist, if it was made in Europe it was superior to made in the USA. Recently, his stupid comment on the new Z06 that it wasn't a world class contender shows his rather biased viewpoint. The new C7 Z06 has outclassed the more expensive European at a fraction of the cost, has outrun the best at Nurburgring and the Spa, and sets performance numbers cars costing many times more can't match.....but Clarkson can't handle it. Screw the BBC and Clarkson, the pot bellied Brit, and others like him.

I had problems with my flasher as well. The turn signal would quit & the emergency flashers would work. The flasher is a relay on the fuse/circuit breaker board. While messing around with the emergency flasher switch, it would work again and then not. I replaced the emergency flasher switch and that fixed it for good. If you look at the wiring diagram, you will notice the turn signal circuit glows thru the emergency flasher switch. Lucas electrical systems, a real klusterf$ck.

I've nickel welded cast iron with great success. Most of it was with high pressure two-stage centrifugal pump housings that had impellers blow apart and grenade through the housing. The trick to welding cast iron is metal preparation. Block would have to be heated to over 500 degrees before the nickel rods are able to bond. Once it's done, it's good forever. The nickel material is very hard and much more durable than the surrounding cast iron. If your rod went thru a water jacket and the exterior of the block, you can forget welding that. Of the the roughly 50 or 60 water pumps I welded, not one failure. They were used on fire fighting equipment and industrial sprayers running at upwards of 225 psi. Firemen would over-rev them to get 250 to 275 psi. Pumps cost over $2K for just the housing so welding was cost effective.

Shane, where does insurance come into play with an incident like this ? I'm assuming you were talking about auto coverage. Mine may cover the first $10K of medical but 2 hours in the emergency room will eat that up and more. I have my 7 covered while on the road but never on the track, just wondering. Damage to the car looks minimal but it may be more "hidden" than we see. Important thing is your medical recovery. Cars can be fixed or replaced

Wow, just saw this post. Tom had said something about Shane having an accident but I blew it off as just a little scrape. I feel terrible being this late in the game of wishing Shane a speedy and COMPLETE recovery. I've out of touch with my own back issues, going in on Wed to have lower back fused. That is a piece of cake compared to Shane's issues. Shane, about 8 years ago my father in law broke 3 vertebrae in the Thiracic region when he tripped and fell. Due to his age, doctors in town said he would be laid up the rest of his life. One doctor suggested we contact the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville about a new procedure developed in France. We found the doctor and he explained the non-invasive procedure to repair broken vertebrae. Using a special needle, he injects an epoxy like material in the crack of the vertebrae which instantly bonds. 45 minute procedure and the patient walks out of the hospital. In my father in law's case it took two such procedures and it worked. After the second one, the 82 year old man walked out. Not ot sure how complicated your broken vertebrae issue is, and from what I read, it is quite complicated, it may be a solution to consider. If you want me to, I'll get some contact info on the procedure. I feel terrible for you, only wish I could help in some way. It was such a pleasure meeting you and running on the track with you at NJMP last July. God be with you.

I use a set of 6 foot long foam ramps which are very strong and only weigh about 5 lbs each. I also have an electric tongue jack with a 3500 lb rating and my Z06 or Seven load without issues.