yellowss7

Kitcat, that's because most of us stay on track. You on the otherhand, constantly throw up all kinds of stones and rocks with your off road corner cutting. :smash::driving: I have the brooklands screen on Yellow and the carbon aeroscreen on Orange. I have been hit by lots of stones/rock from you and others. I agree with you about the helmet. I have one with the duckbill chin protrusion and id does help, but on the front straight your helmet will pull your head up. I've forgot to buckle my helmet strap a couple times ad it's a good thing I have a Hans device attached to the helmet that is held down by my shoulder harness. Otherwise the helmet would definitely made a break for freedom.

Bad news for Simon and Seb, Looks like their engine upgrade plans just got shifted into high gear, if they want to play with the big dog. :smash::smash::driving:

Some Paddock shots

The Karting squad that braved the heat on Friday afternoon. http://www.usa7s.net/vb/attachment.php?attachmentid=15609&stc=1

SK400 Seb's new hair style after going thru the gears of my 7 for a test drive in the paddock.

Just finished dinner and have returned to the hotel. Long day, hot in the sun but a great breeze blowing thru the garage made today seem way cooler than yesterday. Fairly Uneventful day. A couple of off track excursion but nothing serious. I think both escaped being on video. 14 of us stayed for dinner and conversation was very varied. Great group of people. Thunderbolt is a great track for our cars and everyone seemed to get comfortable and faster with each session. I’ll post some pictures tomorrow after I get home. Tom

First day on track is complete. Dinner at 7:30pm. Good day at the track. A bit hot but there was a decent breeze most of th e daY. Bumper cars. Oops I mean karting, yesterday was brutally hot. But the hard core guys put on a show. It was like watching a NASCAR event. A lot of bump drafting.The Ax throwing venue here would have been more sane. Seriously! On track today we had we had some excitement. I think the guys were trying to wrack up early bonus points for the awards tomorrow A few mechanical issues cropped up today as well even before we got out for the first session. Then the air was very heavy I guess because it ripped off a couple front wings. Ive never had that issue with my front clamshell wings. Tall tales and story’s of driving heroics will commence later tonight. Stay tuned.

KitCat, it's time to spend a couple bucks and install a winch in the trailer, makes loading and unloading a heck of a lot easier. Tom

Michael D. Bring your Helmet. :seeya: Tom I'm loading up the truck and will pick up my trailer and load the car tonight. I'll be at the track early tomorrow, See you all then. Safe Travels!!! Tom

Just a heads up for those who have spouses or friends that may want to go for a ride on track. They must wear long pants and close toed shoes. no shorts or sandals. Short sleeve shirts ar ok though. Tom

Just got home from Alaska and it looks like Croc has it all under control. I just have to install the new harnesses for the passenger seat, put on a new set of slick and maybe even clean the yellow car. I'm hoping Croc has cleaned up the Orange car as it's been sitting in his garage for the last two week. Other than that, I'm ready. Glad to be back and online again. See you all soon. Tom

Jay luckily for you NJMP is in New Jersey, No Whoop de doos. A couple of blind up hill turns, that will exercise your glutes, but Otherwise you can see where you are going, or in Kitcat's experience, where he's been. :leaving: I may have a brake light switch in my box of spares, I'll dig it out incase yours is slow to arrive. Tom

Brakes are over rated. They just slow you down. :rofl:

Well, we are now less than 30 days from the 7s trackday event at NJMP. Mike and I are finalizing the last details, and are currently struggling with the decision to replace the Karting challenge with the New Ax throwing venue that was just installed on site. We are trying to determine which one will cause the least damage to our guests. On one hand we have The Karting carnage from Seb, Kitcat and Roman. That's a given, We are weighing that against having Kitcat throwing an Ax and Jeff catching. :smash: Either way, the activities will have to commence before the drinking does. For those who have more sense, the pool will be open and the beer cold. The thread has been quiet for a while and we are hoping that is due to you all working diligently to get your cars in tip top shape. The track is in great shape and with us doing both Lightning and Thunderbolt, we will all have great safe event. Looking forward to seeing you all. Still plenty of room for any one else that has been on the bubble as to coming. The more the merrier. Tom

The K series was the go to engine in the Uk for a good while. It's very light weight and very tunable. The original R500 was a 1.8L K Series pushed up to 242 HP with a ridiculous 9200 rpm red line. Most didn't last at that level and they detuned them to 232 hp with an 8600 rpm redline. Mine was built to the VHPD spec, Very High Power Derivative and dynode at 196BHP. Very reliable engine if you let the oil warm up before you thrash it. Head gaskets were an early problem due to plastic dowels used to locate the head. Metal ones and an improved head gasket usually solves the issue. Cateham, Redline and QED in the UK support them parts wise. I'm putting a new starter in mine right now. Good luck the purchase. Your face will hurt for days after you drive it from smiling so much. Tom

Jay, when I order from Caterham UK, the package usually get here in 4 days or so, assuming they have the part and customs doesn't hold it up. I'd call early tomorrow morning, Say 5 am that's 10 am their time. They can get it out quickly if they have it. That's assuming you don't go with Grahams suggestion or find out if Beecham or Rocky mtn, have it in stock. Good luck. Tom

Congrats! You should join the Connecticut convoy to NJMP in a month. :driving: Tom

Bob, if you like seeing a bunch of 7s together, you really should plan to make the trip up to NJMP next month. Just bring a lot of extra SD cards as you will need them. :rofl: :seeya::driving: Tom

I now see why they say that if you are having one knee replaced, do them both at the same time, because you won't want to do the second one after having done the first. My harnesses expired on both of my Caterhams last year. I had the ones in the Orange car replaced when it went in for the preseason service. The yellow car is waiting for a starter rebuild so I decided to replace the harnesses this morning. Shoulder harnesses are a breeze obviously, then i started on the lap belts and crotch belts. I have the stock cloth seats in the Yellow car and after removing the bottom cushion, it's apparent that the seat tracks and back need to come out to get at the lap belts bolts. Sounds simple but on my car the bolts holding the seat tracks down, would spin when I tried to undo the nyloc nuts from underneath the car. I needed to wedge a screwdriver between the track and bolt to keep them from spinning. Bad news was that my arms aren't long enough to hold the screwdriver and wrench at the same time. And that was just for the front bolts. The rear track bolts need to have the seat back pushed forward and then again reach down with the screwdriver. Physically impossible to do. Seat and tracks had to come out because the seat track on the driver's left side belt is too close to allow the bolt to be removed or reinserted. For the sake of a half inch they could have eliminated all that. Damn English!!! So i called a neighbor over and after a few curses, the seat came out and belts in, then seat back in. Passenger seat will have to wait until all my cuts and bruises heal. ( I left the car on the lift which limited my space between the car and the lift when trying to get to the nuts under the car. And the side exhaust is on the drivers side which limited me even more.) Thanks for letting me vent. Anyone have an easier solution to spinning bolt issue? Tom

Roll bar has to clear your helmet, The broomstick test is to sit in the car with helmet on and take a broomstick or other straight edge and lay it on the roll bar at one end and the bonnet at the other, as long as it doesn't hit your helmet you are good. Windscreen would fold in a rollover obviously so that's why you don't measure to that. Croc or someone will confirm or correct as appropriate. Tom

Congrats! Great timing as the weather is about to warm up. Up for a road trip to NJMP to meet up with a whole bunch of 7s? Tom

Early in my Autoxing days, while I was still on the CR500's, I did get caught in a downpour, the course had some HUGE puddles and as I was driving, I could hear the announcer saying, "There goes Tom in his Catermaran 7" :smilielol5: I went thru a puddle and the water wave crested right on top of me. I wasn't running with a top and I got a little wet. On the way home, the clouds opened up again, and I can confirm that the water comes off the front tires and ends up all over you. Lesson learned, Nothing good happens in the wet. If it rains during a track day, I just head to the bar. Tom

Having done 8 years of Autoxing before I started taking the car to the track, I'll share my thoghts When I autoxed, the Caterhams were classed as DMod if 2.0L or less and EMod if larger. In Mod classes, the standard tire was a 13 x 10 inch Hoosier slick in the soft compound. Usually 10 inchers at all for corners. Sticks great. :driving: 10 inch tires up front require either Clamshells front fenders or you to run without or wider cycle wing fenders. That was the set up needed if you wanted to be competitive, and PAX well. If you are just out to have some fun and don't care about your points standing, then the Avons will be fine. On track, I used the same 10 inch all around set up and it worked great, but I did switch to a taller tire to get better gearing, as the smaller diameter tire was limiting top speed. YMMV but that's my experience. Good luck Tom

It's now just about 2 months before our event. Hopefully most of you have ordered your parts, and have almost finished any preseason tech or repairs. For some reason some always wait until the last minute to get their cars ready. Speaking of which, I need to install new harnesses in the Yellow car and follow up on a starter rebuild. I've heard from a couple more guys who plan on attending and I've added them to the list below. We are still hoping to hear from a few other who have either attended or had hoped to in the past. FE07, Dermot, OR7, Inchochate, Blake, etc. Plenty of room for others as well if you'd like to come out. As I've said before this is the best way to learn and use our cars, in a safe and friendly environment. Se7en's only run group and a Novice group with no passing for first timers, cant' beat it. So get your cars ready, (JBH, that includes you finding and installing a new engine.:leaving:) Looking forward to another great weekend of Se7en fun. Tom 1) Croc 2) YellowSS7 3)Vovchandr 4)Jcerier 5)Wemtd 6)Fast G 7)Chris S 8)Kitcat 9) Dan F 10) Scott L 11) Jeff H 12) Seb 13) Roman 14) John B 15) Tom C 16) Blackhole (Jay) 17) Neil H 18) Dave H. 19) Simon450 20) Steve M 21) Marc E 22) Todd R 23) Norm B 24) Steve O

As for the mirrors, i made a simple bracket that uses the two bolts that holds the windscreen and/or aeroscreen on. It's just a piece of angled aluminum that I got from ace hardware. I ordered a couple long stalk motorcycle mirrors on Ebay and drilled the two holes for the bolts and a hole for the mirror. bolts on simply and removes easily. I'll try to post a picture a little later. Cheap and simple and works great. Tom