Klasik-69

I'm not familiar with Superformance but I don't think they offer parts for their 7's. Caterham is not without fault either. I've had to modify parts along the way too. There's a lot of vibration on GTR front fender/stay but mine haven't broken yet. I modified mine to fit my new fiberglass front wings, TIG weled all the metal. A little heavy but rugged.

I used Jay's Auto Transport to ship about 5 cars now and have never found anyone else that can compete with his prices or service. He's a broker in Ft. Lauderdale, Fl. Once you give him the FROM & TO destinations, the type (size, weight) of the car, whether it's to be enclosed or open transport, he will post the haul on the computer to his select haulers. They then bid the haul and guarantee the security of the vehicle. Jay gets $100 for his service, you pay the hauler upon delivery the haul charge. I was 110% satisfied with his service and haulers. I shipped a car from Salt Lake City, Utah to Melbourne, Fl for $750 on open transport, a Miata from Melbourne to Hershee, Pa on enclosed transport for $750. If you're interested, send me a PM & I'll give you his 800 number.

Are these stock Caterham stays ? I have never broken one yet in spite of racing on some rough tracks including Chasing The Dragon. Yours are breaking near the spindle hub which has almost no stress due to the angle mount just above it, or so it seems.

Well right after all this crap, one of our girls at my company was "surfing" the web on some Hollywood sites and managed to get our files encrypted, followed shortly thereafter with an offer to fix this for a certain amount if money. We called out IT guy who remotely logged on our network and identified her computer as the source of attack, and within s few minutes, his computer files were likewise encrypted. Since we backup our files three way every night (server, external terra station and off site) our files were quickly restored. Our girl got a few days off without pay, one more and she gets a long term vacation. Encryption originates in Russia & China....bastards.

I have been getting some very strange Russian looking messages which appear to be hacker type emails/messages. I don't dare open them up. I wonder if anyone else out there has started getting these. I was trying to notify the forum's moderator to let him/her know about this. It looks like someone infiltrated the membership listing and spamming from that list. If you get an email or message like that, I would caution you to delete it. Either way, unless you can read Russian or Ukrainian, it won't do you any good.

Tom did it correctly in using a 5.5" BS wheel which kept from having interference with the rear wing. I, on the other hand, failed to ask enough questions and got the 4" BS wheels. Tom is a much better source of information on these cars and what wheels work. I can tell you what won't work. Mike

The back tires are the 22.5X10-13 Hoosiers with an Aero 10X13 wheel and a 4" backspace. Don't duplicate that, it rubs on the rear wing. Wheels need to have 5.5" backspace to keep the tire inside the lip of the rear wing, or need to set up the suspension differently..............tighter sway bar or move the rear axle back about 3/8" inch, or both. On the plus side, at Roebling coming out of turn 9 I was creating enough tire smoke to blind the guys coming up behind me and kept them off my tail for a while:hurray:. Then I got black flagged :ack:

IMHO, May is the best month for Barber. 1. May is usually a dry month in the South 2. May is cooler than the other two track dates 3. May is still a school month so fewer people out on the road for those who travel great distances. I don't suppose any of you consider Sebring, Daytona or PBIR? These are tracks that are within 100 miles of me.....my selfish side is reaching out (LOL)

September at Barber is not exactly a cool weather event. Labor Day in the South can be brutal, not like September in NJ or NY. It doesn't bother me but I would hate to see you Northern guys get bummed out with a 90+ degree track day. Chin runs a very good HPDE but until you get checked out on the track by one of their instructors, no solo run. I've done quite a few events with Chin and Mark doesn't waiver on that rule. Another HPDE organizer is HOD (Hooked On Driving) but I'm not sure if he has Barber on his schedule. Henry Gilbert's solo requirements are a bit looser than Chin, and they may entertain a 7 only group....not sure however. You may want to consider Road Atlanta, not as picturesque as Barber but technically challenging. Tom is right, we need at least 2 if not 3 track days to make it worthy of the travel.

Some wheels aren't hub centric, like Basset and Aero, so even if your wheel spacers had a raised hub centric flanges, it may interfere with proper mounting. With your wheels, make sure you use the kind of lug nuts they recommend....45 degree or 60 degree cones, etc. also as Shane stated, check the wheels BEFORE every session and re-torque as needed.

I was trying to access Kodiak's website with my IPad. It isn't mobile compatible as I found out. On my lap top I found their wheel prices which are around $425 to $470 per wheel. I wasn't sure if this was in Canadian or USD. Thanks, Tom, for looking this up. I bet your basement isn't the warmest place in your house either.

I'll chime in on the Odyssey. Mine has been in the car for at least 10 years since the original owner of the car installed it right after the build in 2004. I've owned the car for the last 4 years and have not had to fool with it. However, I was just in Savanah, GA this past weekend to run at Roebling RR and had my first issue. Temperature was 32 degrees and the car cranked for about 3 seconds before dying. I had to use a jump box to start the car. However, after the temperature warmed up to upper 40's, the car started up time and time again without the jump box. So it ain't dead yet. Hard to beat the performance for the price, and the small footprint.

I was just wondering why you ran the A6 Hoosiers vs the R6. It looks like you run time trials and as such, if you run like we do in the SEDIV SCCA, we go out for 20 to 30 minute runs, and that would cook a typical A6 compound. Likely after the third lap, the tire would be so gummy you would lose lap times. What diameter wheel are you running with the ZZR tires ? Better yet, what are the tire sizes ?

I'll pass it on to Steve who called me about the engine. Gary Yeoman's network of dealerships is huge and go far beyond Daytona. Our own Palm Bay Ford is actually owned by his network. I had called them several years ago for a Zetec but they were out and were not getting any more in. I think they bought a truck load of engines, some of which were the Zetec. When Ford phased out the Zetec in favor of the Duratec line of engines, they were likely trying to unload excess inventory. I never heard of the Mexican engines but it could be a source of engines and likely much cheaper than buying one from England and incurring the expense of freight and duty charges. There are some engine builders who are assembling Zetec short and long blocks with high performance parts but the cost is pretty high. I found some $5,500 short blocks, $7,500 long blocks........and that is pretty high price for a 4 cylinder 2.0 Liter engine without the throttle bodies, ignition, etc. BUT, still cheaper than a $19,000 Cosworth. Too pricey for my wallet.

Yes, got your email and sent you a reply. Ironically, I posted this a while ago and in the last 4 or 5 days I've had three people interested in buying this motor. Right after your email and my reply to you, I got a phone call from another guy in the Midwest wanting the engine. Oh well, only one engine. I'm trying to dig up the engine supplier I got the engine from to give the other guy in case he has any more Zetec engines. I remember I looked for over a year before I found this one. I found a lot of used engines, some short blocks, some junk yard motors, but never a new engine.

Ok, that gives me something to go on. Thanks for the info. I'll have to look at which sway bar I have on the front & rear. Rear is adjustable, front is not. Thanks Tom. Mike

Tom, my 4" back spacing is not helping with the 10" wide wheels. From prior pictures I posted, you can see the tire sticks out about 1-1/2" beyond the wing. Does yours stick out like mine ? Maybe you're running the rear sway bar on a stiffer setting which I considered doing but worried about adding over-steer. I really don't know. Tell me what you have.

After trying to run the wider Hoosiers on Aero 13X10 wheels, 4" Backspace on the rear axle, DON'T. Allow me to explain. The stock rear wings interfere with the tire on a hard fast turn. I didn't think tire/fender interference could occur. Wrong. At Roebling, coming out of turn 9 at about 110 mph I noticed a puff of smoke in my mirrors, and I smelled burning rubber. My buddy was behind me in a Lotus and filled me in. Turn 4, turn 7 & turn 9.....smoke. After the first run in TT, I had a nice groove in the left rear. I considered changing the sway bay setting from max loose to one or two stiffer settings but I thought this would only make the car tail happy, & Roebling is a fast track. I was hitting 138 mph on the straight, the fastest this car has ever seen by 14 mph. My only salvation was changing the rear wheels out. Luckily I brought my old rear wheels now shoed with some Goodyear Eagle one-off race slicks. OK, but I'll never buy one offs again. 4 wheel drifts thru sweepers isn't my idea of nailing good lap times, and it didn't produce good times.

Thank you for being understanding...........I get all excited about a subject, then I interject my own crap, then...........well you know, I've just highjacked the thread. The good thing about the SM-6 Hoosiers is the price is kept low due to the competitive need for Hoosier and Toyo to remain in the ball game. The bias ply slicks in the 13" sizes run $244 ea for the 20.0x9.50-13, or almost $50 more. The 22.5X10.0-13 was quoted at $277. The good thing is the 7 will run on the tires all year so they are durable on these lightweight cars.

Yep, Wings Aviation's thread on whether or not anyone used 205-50 ZR15 slicks.....I'm guilty of high jacking the thread......my apologies. In answer, yes I ran them on my Miata wheels and although they worked, they WERE NOT IDEAL.....too much weight IMHO. Also, 13" wheels seem to work better with the 7 than 15" wheels for track duty. Having said that, Hoosiers are great tires and the SM6 (205-50 15) is a great tire.....on a Miata.

This is the same engine used on the Ford Focus with the high performance option like on the ZX3. It appears to have been manufactured June 10, 2002 at the Ford Dover Plant (AA code). It is the 2.0 Liter, dual overhead cam engine that is commonly used in the Caterham Zetec versions. It matches exactly my 220 HP Zetec with the exception it doesn't have the big cams or have had the head worked on to get it to the elevated power. I don't believe this has a variable timing camshaft since the sensor is a very simple typical sensor with a 2 pic connector and I don't see any solenoid connection anywhere on either this one or the one in my 7. The sump is that of the typical Focus stock sump. I wasn't concerned with the sump since I could just use my old sump or change over to a dry sump setup. It is a cast aluminum sump that Ford used on these engines for this particular setup. The exhaust is on the left or driver's side, the intake is on the right or passenger side. The Crank sensor is located about midway up on the left or driver's side and the Cam sensor is located on the back of the right side cam just like my Zetec. Of course this has the stock intake plenum and is of no use since I have TWM ITB's on my engine. Ignition is the same as my Caterham with the coil pack at the back, as is the connector for trigering the coil. I am not a Ford Zetec expert but I believe that all of the last generation 2.0 L DOHC engines are basically the same from 1998 thru 2002, and may even be the same for earlier engines as well. Some numbers that may help you are; On the front timing cover, a tag with the number R2 2G-784-AA On the block, casting number; RFYS4 36015 AD Casting date on the block; 10 F 02 (June 10, 2002) Head casting number; RFYS4 6090 AC Engine ser #; 279944218 Incidentally, the engine also comes with a block heater, should you ever need that ???? Let me know if there is anything you need to know. Mike

Hello George. I just sent you some additional pictures and some numbers off the engine which I hope help you decide if this will fit in your car. Shipping to anywhere is no issue, it's already on a pallet that was shipped to me from Missouri. Mike

Let me run something by you guys to see what you think. On the subject of the front wings, it seems that about 75% of it serves no purpose. The last or bottom 25% is all that really does anything in the sense that it keeps the crap from flying back at you or the car. There has been talk in the Stalker circles that the front wings actually cause lift due to the air pressure they cause. Brunton Stalker found that by venting the back of the wing they eliminated that built up pressure and eliminated a good amount of lift. If that is the case, why don't we have what amounts to nothing more than a mud flap at the back of the front wheel and forget the front 2/3 or 3/4 ?? It wouldn't look good but it would cause less air drag and maybe less front end lift. Not sure..................just throwing it out. Mike

Well, yes and no. The tires now on the front were the ones on my rear wheels, and yes, I was melting those down like I owned the Hoosier factory. They are the R35 compound, which is the harder of the two available for this tire. I started with the short stays and just hacked them off about 4" up on the tube from the hub mount. I then welded some 1/4" x 1" flat bar to the back of them and brought them around with a slight radius at the top (whacked the crap out of them with a ball pein hammer on my bench). And then, a lot of trial and error, bend a little, try it, bend it some more, try it again, whack it again, etc. My problem was the inside of the tire would rub against the upright part of the stays, especially during hard turns. I found I needed a good 3/8" to 1/2" clearance at rest to have it work on the track due to the tire flexing on the rim on hard turns. With the wings, I tried to get a guy out of California to make me some aluminum fenders to fit and finally gave up when I realized this guy could not understand what a "radius" was and how to measure it. He kept sending me the same wrong fenders, and after the third set (all on his nickel), I called him and told him to give up. Ironic thing is he shows just what I needed on his web site, a half circle fender on another 7. So I found it less frustrating to make my own fiberglass shape, take a mold off of it and make my own wings (fenders). They're not stylish, or fancy, but they work. My biggest problem was getting sandblasted and stoned in my seat from the front tires spitting out whatever they ran over. My delicate skin couldn't take it. These wings work very well in solving that issue and as you can see in the picture, they cover even the wider front wheel/tire combo pretty completely. These are regular fiberglass with the balsa core glassed inside for rock protection, and they're not exactly light. CF would be the trick here. Mike

Here are some pictures of the new Aero wheels mounted on the car