Klasik-69

Not dealing with the sentence structure, you are quite right about the hole being the controlling dimension. You can easily measure the hole with a relatively inexpensive dial caliper from Harbor Freight. The knurling or splines are the grip part that is pressed into the hole and keeps the stud from turning or falling out. Some of the studs are available in longer sizes, and racing studs are the longest with the end projection being threadless, thus allowing for faster starting of the lug nut avoiding cross threading. Longer is better than too short since you can always cut them down to the size you need if your lug nuts are end-capped like many of the Koenig wheel lug nuts are. Most studs seem to be threaded in 1/2-20 if using SAE threading or 12 mm if metric. Some old US hubs used 7/16" studs but that's rare. The length of the studs seem to be the greatest variable. Some of the more exotic cars used stepped studs whereby the base with the knurling had a larger diameter and then the threaded part that the wheel lug nuts mount onto were a smaller diameter. These are rare and I doubt you have that.

Ditto, thanks for taking the time and effort to make this happen. Most of us have no idea of the countless hours required to have an event of this magnitude. Out of curiosity, how many years have you done this event?

Don't forget the difference between ASKING PRICE and SELLING PRICE. Having an 87 slant nose turbo 930 Porsche, I'm aware of the stratospheric pricing on some of these cars. The real truth lies in what they're selling for. And it is nowhere near what the asking price is. Many have been for sale for a long time, and for good reason. Of course as one who owns one, I would like to rationalize that mine is worth $1 million............but it isn't no matter how much I wish it were. Most of these are the ones that were selling for $18K to $25K and now are commanding prices around $45K for the plane jane 911's. Turbos and other rare cars like the steel factory slant nose command higher prices but nowhere near the $125K some seem to be asking (and not getting). Caterhams are a different breed, they're primarily a kit car which has a very minor presence on the streets or the track. Their numbers are small, the demand is limited although it can be intense. I wanted mine pretty badly and paid a fair price. Others will too but again in small numbers. Question is will new buyers pay the NEW prices being asked, and if so, how many will ? In all fairness, you really can't compare the 1957 7 to today's in terms of quality and technical superiority. Yes, they have gone up higher than inflation but as Croc said, that's a false barometer. Engines are now fuel injected and computer controlled. Back then a distributor and a couple of carbs. Metal used in the frame is better as is the design. The use of CF also adds a good bit to the price. And let's not forget the product liability insurance costs that our attorneys have blessed us with. All cars have gone up likely higher than the rate of inflation would account for, but all cars have become a lot more sophisticated. What is important to us is we have our beloved 7's. I think most of us bought them for the fun factor, not the cost savings end of it. Face it, it isn't a comfy ride, there are no creature comforts, and it will haul as much as you can cram in the little cubicle behind your seat. Nothing on the road compares in the FUN factor. I have a lot of fun cars, but the 7 is very special.

Tom, you're a saint, no matter what Kitcat says. I can make the nut from a piece of bar stock since I have the tap coming. The threaded rod would be a big help. I can get it from you in NJ and simply screw it on in just a few minutes. If you could go to the trouble of drilling the centering depression on one end of the threaded rod, I would be most appreciative. I'll gladly pay you for the rod and your trouble as well, and buy you a couple of drinks, or if you prefer, run interference on the track and block out Kitcat for a couple of laps. He isn't the violent type I hope ? I'll use some loctite to secure the threaded nut to the base and extension rod. Make it the length you used since we have the exact same setup. Mike

I went out to get a piece of M12 X 1.0 threaded rod, bolt, etc............nobody has it. I bought a tap and die from Amazon to make my own extension. Where did you get yours ? I tried every nut and bolt outfit I could find online. You said it was a strange size, and you were right.

I sent a John at Quantum Mechanics an email & got a very quick response. He can turn around the tranny in 5 days. I'm giving my "expert" until Sunday to fix the shifting function and then (if not fixed) I'll ship John the transmission. It will be close on time but I think I can make it. I'm going to try to pick up a spare tranny also.

I'm not aware of anyone renting enclosed car trailers. As you said, U-Haul will rent the open car trailer. Perhaps you can run an ad in Craigslist or local newspaper to see if a private owner of an enclosed trailer is willing to rent you one. If you were in Florida, I'd let you borrow mine.

I just went to the top docs racing website you gave me the link to above. It appears there is a transmission facility named Bat Inc right here in Florida, Sarasota to be precise. I wonder if they work on the T9 because if so, I can drive over there and drop off my transmission to see if they can re-assemble it correctly. All the parts are there, none are broken since this tranny was working perfectly before I had the guy take it apart to re-seal it. Thanks for the info. Last year I tried to contact John @ Quantum Mechanics to get a seal kit and I got no answer whatsoever so I ordered the seals from Burton in the UK. Perhaps he goes off racing and isn't around to answer.

Please give me his contact info. We spent two hours tonight trying to figure out why 5th gear synchro is locking up the main shaft when we install the circlip, doesn't make any sense. I'm almost ready to buy another T9 as thus us really pissing me off. I'm going to look at getting a beefed up T9 from a UK source I once contacted with the modified gear ratios good for around 225 lb ft of torque. Local transmission experts are only good for Craftsman lawn tractors. If anyone out there knows a source of T9 trannies here in the USA, please let me know.

Worked all day on this and finally got the engine and tranny out. I opened up the top cover and can see what is happening. The shifter mechanism is moving over too far after 1st and 2nd in the jump over to the 3rd and 4th gate. It appears to be in the tail section that is allowing the shifter rod to move beyond the gate and go into what would appear to be 3rd gear but actually is nothing or neutral, no gears engaged. I called the tranny "expert" who is going to meet me later at my car shop to see what went wrong. I believe he re-assembled the tail shift shifter mechanism incorrectly. If we can't get this straightened out, I will need to ship it to a T9 expert who DOES know what he's doing and only hope I can get it turned around fast enough to get this car back together. I'm getting so good at taking it out and puting it back it that I can re-assemble the car in 2 days. I'm not whipped yet.:banghead:

Major bummer today. I took the car out for a test drive and the transmission doesn't want to shift into 3rd or 4th without a lot of hunting. Also I now have a second neutral which is somewhere between the shift to 3rd gear and 5th gear. I paid a guy to disassemble the transmission in order to reseal it and it has been a disaster, first the leak and now the shifting issue. This may have an effect on my ability to go to this event if I can't get it straightened out in short order. I'm now working on pulling the engine and transmission back out of the car for the third time. Once out, I may have to send it out to get it fixed since I don't know what this "expert" did to it. It was working fine before he got it, only had a minor little leak between the gear box and tail housing. I should have let it leak. Hind sight, always 20-20.

Not sure what pressure you're getting and at what rpm. My seems to run at 4 bar cold at slightly higher than idle or around 1200-1400 rpm. Once hot, the pressure will drop to around 2 bar (28-30 psi) at idle and will return to around 4 atmospheres at higher rpm's. Engine temp never seems to get higher than 80 deg C, no matter what I do or when I do it. My pump is the stock Zetec Ford oil pump and I run Mobil 1 0W-40 synthetic oil.

If we're talking paint ball challenges, you guys need to be aware that our local UCF just won the national collegiate paintball championship..... For real too, never knew there was such a thing, might up being a new Olympic event for all we know. Sounds like NJMP is trying to be another Disneyworld for adults, great idea.

That shrink wrap stuff would be great, never thought of that. I see even used boats on the interstate that were "wrapped". I was worried about a car cover flapping around. I used to travel around with our boat & would have a cover tensioned with ropes & it would never flap. Shrink wrap is a great idea, thanks guys for chiming in for me.

I don't know, Kitcat says you're the crazy one, you say it's Kitcat. Croc says you're both crazy. Everybody thinks I'm crazy down here. Sounds like we're all crazy. You have to be a little crazy to pay as much as we did for an oversized go kart that has all the creature comforts of a pallet on casters. And, no, I'm not doing what xcarguy mentioned, taking my car out in the woods or a Walmart parking lot and just dinging it up to get over the pristine look complex. Just sealed the last coolant leak, now need to do my alignment and I'll be pretty much ready. Any of you guys trailering your car on an open trailer ? I will be and was thinking of putting a car cover on the car to keep it from getting dirt, debris and bird doodoo on it. Any of you every trailer with a car cover ? If so, which one do you recommend for the 7 ?

Yeah, I remember you saying that. However, at the time, I already had the car apart. I stripped everything off the car including the suspension. Nobody mentioned anything about exhaust bolts flying off cars prior to this, nobody mentioned Kitcat and Yellowss7 going into mortal combat with only two wheels on the track while throwing up 2 cubic yards of dirt onto the unsuspecting participants. I probably would have been smarter to wait until after this event, then I would have been able to go about this event with wreckless abandon. Oh well, it is done and I will deal with it. I'm more likley to just lay low on this one, keep back and watch the daredevils take themselves into destructo mode. The two most destructive tracks I've run are; 1) Tail of the Dragon and 2) Daytona Rolex 24 circuit. The Tail of the Dragon had rock and gravel the size of 1 1/2" rocks flying around. Daytona with speeds of 175 mph had mere sand sandblasting the paint job on my Z06. However, I think NJMP will be a blast since this will be the very first time for me to be with a bunch of other 7's. These cars aren't common place. Here in Melbourne, Fl, I know of only one other 7 in our county. I never met the owner but I know he lives in Satellite Beach and his yellow 7 is parked outside the Northrup Grumman building almost every day. I think another forum participant lives in the Tampa area. Three confirmed in this state but there are likely others. Not a very common car.

Wow, all this trash flying around and I bothered to paint my car. Sounds like I should have waited until AFTER this event. By the way, rumor has it that the local guys are going to clean the visitors cars at the end of the day, as a show of hospitality. I started the rumor. Anybody get the memo ?:cheers:

Yep, that is exactly the mirror I have. Great picture, thanks. Ok, why are you running the air brakes ? You know what I mean, the 18" diameter wind grabbing Q-Beam headlights. I know what they are, they're actually infrared heat lamps that you use to cook the guy's neck who is blocking you and won't give you the point by. I'm not taking any chances, I'm having my paint guy paint two big point-by's on the back of my car so it's automatic, just go around, don't turn on the heat lamps.:willy_nilly:

I wondered about this a few years ago so I did some research. I checked on the British car forums and the Focus forum here in the US. It was impossible to really draw a hard conclusion as to whether or not the stock cast oil pump fails and at what rpm it does, if it does. Jon at Caterham USA in Denver told me that of all the engines he has built, he's only seen a couple fail with an oil pump issue. He told me my motor (he built it) was good for 8000 rpm without any concerns, and yes it has the stock oil pump. But then you read about this guy or that guy who had their engine grenade from the oil pump failing at upper rpm's. For one thing, we didn't have a choice in the matter since there weren't any billet oil pumps available until just now. William at C-F-M in Orlando has listed the pump but it has been out of stock until just recently. $349 to keep your motor running is cheaper than getting a new motor, IF IT IS NEEDED. That is the big question. I did what Kitcat did, set my rev limiter to below the threshold of destruction. Again, I'm not sure if the 7400 rpm number is accurate, perhaps 6400 rpm is a safer number. Another way of adding safety is with an oil accumulator to prevent oil starvation but there would be a need to shut down the motor pretty quickly after the oil pump failure, and an accumulator will artificially maintain oil pressure for a short time with the eventual loss or drop still coming if the pump failed. Having a ignition cut-off switch tied to the oil pressure could cause more problems than solve since it would need a certain amount of time delay to run but no time delay to prevent catastrophic failure. Accusump ??

That's a good idea. I didn't think of making an extension. No need for you to make one, I can do that here and I'll test it to see if the angle is good. How long of an extension did you go with? I'm thinking any more than about 4 or 5 inches and vibration will nullify the gain. Thanks for the tip, don't know why I didn't think of that.

One problem I seem to have in the 7 is the limited mirror function. I have three mirrors, two side and one center and sitting low, having a roll bar and not having the mirrors mounted on the windshield frame since I don't have a windshield all contribute to the limited visibility. I really can't mount the mirrors any higher since there is nothing to attach them to. I will have to be more aware of my surroundings as I think this event will show some very fast 7's with some very capable drivers. Hopefully I can learn from you guys without getting too much in your way. I would rather not be the topic of conversation, if you know what I mean.

I'm not sure if anyone is interested but I just got an email from William at C-F-M in Orlando that he has finally received the billet oil pumps for the Zetec engines, specifically for those wanting to run over the 7400 rpm limit. They're not cheap at almost $400. There was a lot of talk in the past as to whether or not it was true that the stock Ford oil pump would grenade above 7400 rpm. Some said it would, some said it never happened. I played it safe by setting my soft limit at 7200 rpm and hard limit at 7400 rpm. I don't really know how much more power is available above that anyway, depending on how the head is ported and what the cam profiles are. I'm a chicken anyway when it comes to destroying motors............play it safe and drive it another day.:party:

On a point-by, does the person giving the point-by hold their line and the passer goes around ? In SCCA TT events, that is usually the rule but I wasn't sure about the way your group was enforcing that. Also, it is customary for the person giving a point-by to let up a bit to allow for a clean and safe pass. Since this is a pretty calm group except for Kitcat and Yellows7 grinding it out, I assume some degree of civility will be evident, at least on the first morning. I understand that after that egos and bragging rights take over rational thinking, and the word "civility" is long forgotten. I'm beginning to wonder how long my new paint job is going to last. You mention Kitcat cutting corners a bit. At Daytona, we had a HPDE event with the Audi club of Ohio and some guy rented a Corvette from Hertz to run it there. On the back straight with the Rolex 24 circuit bus stop in place, he would cut through that grass section at about 120 mph throwing up a cloud of dust and a cubic foot of dirt onto the pavement, worse of it on the bus stop exit which led to a few cars sliding out of control. They finally cooled him down in the paddock for some "reflection time". I would have loved to have been at the Hertz place when he returned the Vette all trashed from the track use to hear his explanation of what happened. He had torn off the front splitter. That is why they require a credit card to rent.

All of this sounds like a ton of fun, and it sure sounds like you guys know how to have fun. Karting can be a blast. We have an indoor track in Orlando with European built electric karts that are amazingly fast, or it sure seems like we're going amazingly fast, not sure which is a better evaluation. At times we too accidentally on purpose take out a competitor who we know deserved to be shoved into the padded barriers. The operator of the track takes a dim view of bumper car techniques and can individually with wireless control slow you down or shut you off. Running in a group of friends is always more fun since the competitive drive to run your friend off in a turn seems more important than posting good lap times. I think Croc has a good idea to take a few cars behind each seasoned track star to learn the lines and proper technique. I know that I can benefit from it and would enjoy the opportunity. It's better to run smoothly, and certainly more enjoyable than seeing the track from the 360 degree panaramic view from a slide out. Also, I have a brand new paint job that I would like to continue to enjoy for a while longer. I'm still puting my car back together from a complete disassembly. Yesterday, after puting the engine and tranny back in the car, I found the tranny reseal job I paid a pro to do didn't work to my full expectation with oil running out the front lower nose cone faster than I could pour oil in. Out came the engine and tranny again (what a fun job), and this time I sealed it and tested it prior to puting it back in the car. Hopefully, one more week of re-assembly and we'll be road ready.

You're right about taking the time to learn the track. Every track is different. It's not just about apexes but about surface tension, track camber, etc., and only the very very skilled or the very very stupid ones go out there at full blast. I'm not suicidal so I go slow at first and build up as I gain experience and confidence. Keeping up with Tom or Croc won't be a problem. I plan on cutting their plug wires to at least two of their cylinders and possibly letting the air out of at least a couple of tires. Maybe chaining a small SUV to the back of their cars would add some drag. Or maybe add this:deadhorse: By the way, since I'm not familiar with the ways of the NE, on a point by, do we use the index finger or the middle finger ?