yellowss7

Congrats Tim. Your face will hurt from smiling so much after each drive. First thing I would do if you don't know what oil is in it is drain it and put in some regular non synthetic of the correct grade. 5W50 is probably the right one for the Duratec. Then there are two schools of thought on break in. one drive 500 miles varying the revs but not revving over 5000rpm. and then change the oil after 500 miles. The other is to rev the nuts off it and don't worry about it. The caveat that I would put on both is to let the oil temp come up before putting any load/ high revs into it. Oil temp takes longer than water temp unless you have a heat exchanger, so be sure to watch the oil temp not the water temp Other than that, enjoy it. Tom

The green SV and the Anniversary editions are George's cars and probably for sale if anyone is interested. As for Doug. He's a wild man and a very good driver. Hopefully if you come up next year to our 7s gathering you'll meet him.

343 at the rear wheel:willy_nilly::willy_nilly::willy_nilly: I can't begin to imagine driving that. I thought that my orange car was the ultimate beast. But this car has 100 more HP at the wheels. Holy Crap. Good luck with the sale. Tom

The Orange R500 is Dr. Doug's. He's getting a new engine to replace the one he put a couple of holes in on the front straight of TBolt at NJMP a couple weeks before our 7s event. Is his Muira V12 engine still in the machine shop area? It was the last time I was down there. The red one is a 40th anniversary with a Sigma engine that is probably for sale. Tom

Nice driving Mike. Although it still pays not to be behind you on turns 3-4 as you are still kicking up all those little rocks. :smash: You can probably go a little wider too in the 2-3 section so as to get a better angle on 4. Interesting to watch TBox 56 go wide for some reason out of the bowl and that caused him to miss the apex and swing wide and put the two wheels off on the left. He hit that hole hard sort of like Shane did on his crash video. Tom cracked his headlight with that jolt. And he almost lost it there with that move to bring it on track. You did get a point by by Steve going into turn 5 but they black flagged you as that's just a bad place to pass as one of you is going to be forced off line and that is a tough turn if you aren't placed correctly. Thanks for posting the video. I'll try to remember to grab my SD card from the card when I get to the track next Saturday. Tom

Congratulations on the FTD!!! and sorting out the fueling. We hope to see you next year on track. Tom That course was nuts, very tight, and I'm sure the Vettes hated it. You'll like stretching the legs of the 7 on track.

I convinced her that all that money I've spent on preventive maintenance for both cars has paid off. My two cars were in the "did not have an issue" category during the trackdays. Although Croc said something is leaking from the yellow one. I hope it didn't blow a seal while it was sitting in his garage. :smilielol5:

It says with Higher compression, and I thought that if you went above 220hp they recommended forged pistons and rods, so it should have some engine work done to get it to 240 hp safely. Definitely a deal. IMO. Wonder if my wife would let me get a third Caterham. :jester:

Mike, that 485 SV looks like a bargain, but I'm still trying to process how they get from the four individual exhaust pipes to that one shown externally without a 4 into 1 collector sticking out. Doesn't seem like a standard exhaust IMHO. Tom

Congrats Van, very nice work! Where did you get the edging for the filter hole? I'm thinking of giving my intakes a little breathing room as the filler just rubs on the SV bonnet. I'm also really impressed that you tackled the gearbox. I thought those things were magical and you needed a wizard to fix them. Are you a Wizard? :smilielol5: Tom

Crosstown traffic. :cheers:

The IROC award. I RACE OFF COURSE. I love it!!!!!

Van, I'm happy to report that the issues that I had in the past have seem to be history. Replacing the head gasket with the newest 3 layer version, the timing of the cams and finally the time on the dyno to ensure that I had a good safe tune seems to have paid off. Steve at SBD said that with some more time he could squeeze another 20++ hp out of it, but to be honest, I still can't seem to get my foot all the way down and hold it there with the power I have. :willy_nilly: The car pulls like a freight train and seems stronger than before so I am very happy with the tune. I did have a slightly elevated temperature issue the first time out a couple weeks ago, but I drained the Evans coolant out and replaced it with Distilled Water and Red Line Water Wetter and my water and Oil temps came down significantly, and were 195F and 210-212F consistently for the full 20 minute sessions when running hard. Temps came down even further if I backed off for traffic or coming in at the end of the session. All good. As for the west coast, It can't be much more than 2400 miles one way out here. TBox56 did 1900 miles. What's an extra day or so. :jester: We might be able to schedule a third day to make the trip worthwhile. We definitely have a good time on and off the track. Tom

Here is an sneak peak of one of the views of our group on track.

Kitcat accepting the First Debris Flag award Rock Dan accepting the award for the prettiest car Paul accepting the most improved award Norman accepting the Mechanical sympathy award for two on track issues Roman grudgingly accepting the Polisher award, Or something equally ridiculous Ryan accepting the Golden/white commode for best skid marks with his 360 spin Scott accepting the award for actually not causing any issues. Tom C. Accepting the Gas Guzzler award for burning the most fossil fuel and helping keeping the global warming issue a HOT topic. :willy_nilly:

Several Group shots under the tent between Runs Dave D with his Shift knob that he ripped off the gear lever:ack: Tom C. (Tbox56) doing a little repair to his Birkin Michael D showing off his second repair attempt after his airfiler foam disintegrated.

Michael D. and his Caterham Mike Mooney (Kitcat) and his Racing Cat Croc and Dermot (ottocycle) with Jeff photobombing Norman, with his Caterham all aeroed up. Paul,(Wemtd) and his Birkin Roman, (RGTorque) and his UltraLight Scott and his Superlight R Caterham Steve in a Caterham SV Me with my Yellow and Orange Caterhams.

Here are a few pictures. Seb (SK400) and his matching red outfit. Dave D and his orange Superformance S1 The Birkin Boys Dave H and his son Ryan Fred (Fmorser) and his BEC Locost Jeff and his Blue Superlight R caterham Jim A and his Red Superlight R Caterham

Dean, I met you and your wife at LOG in Birmingham as we parked our trailers. My condolences as well. You were very lucky to have a wife who shared your passion for the Lotus cars. She will be in our prayers tonight. Tom

I got home a few hours ago and as Mike said it was a great weekend. It was great to be out there with a bunch of other 7s and to socialize with a bunch of really nice people. I want to thank Croc for his amazing attention to detail in pulling this off. He was blindsided with the news that the lunch on Saturday was going to be held outside of his garage for the entire 80 -100 members who attended the trackday. But in spite of that curve, the event was surprisingly relaxed this year, and we felt that we did get to spend some quality time with everyone between sessions and each evening. The weekend started out tough with some torrential rains that flooded the paddock and local roads on Friday afternoon and forced the cancellation of the Karting death race. But the amazing thing is that the cold front came thru and the temps and the humidity dropped, and the track and paddock were completely dry by the morning. As Mike said, the mechanical issues really made for some interesting paddock time. Jeff started it off with toasting two front hubs. Then Norman had an electrical issue, Dave H and son were re jetting their weber carbs, and that was just in the morning on Saturday. The good news was that all those issues were resolved and only limited track time was missed. By the end of the day on Saturday there were more issues but once again, repairs were made and all but one car made it back on track, and that one had a shot to get back on, but even a 12 ton press couldn't free the bearing from the half shaft. I've never seen someone weld a repair to a suspension/steering part and take it out on track within an hour or so of the repair being done. Amazing stuff. We have a lot of talent in our group and some of them can even drive. :jester: Our First timers, Dan, Matt and Todd were great additions to the group both in driving talent and socially. Hopefully we will see them again next year. I have some pictures to post, and some video to edit and I hope to get to that tomorrow. Thanks again to all who came out and made the event such a fun time. We really enjoy the company of everyone of you that attended. The track time is fun but the social banter is priceless. Those who attended heard that The NJMP staff extended the invitation to us to return again next year. So there is now 12 months left to get your cars sorted, save up for your hotel rooms, bar bills, gas and toll money. Next year I predict we should exceed twenty Seven's at our growing gathering! Looking forward to it already. Tom

Trailer is loaded and truck is packed. Just have a few things to bring out in the morning. I'll be heading out in the AM and will meet up with Croc who is already there. We will be waiting for you all in the Paddock at Lightning. See you Tomorrow!!!! Tom:hurray::hurray::hurray::cheers:

We are excited to see you on the Karting track too Seb. BTW I have a heavily weighted vest just for you to wear to even up the competition. I'm figuring your past Canadian Karting champ experience will be able to overcome an extra 150lbs of weight. :rofl::rofl: Tom

Dan, the Harry's lap timer app is a good one that records your data and video on your phone. All you need is a mount. for better refresh rate you can use a Bluetooth GPS that makes it even more accurate. And I think it even puts your data on a go pro if you have one.

What, that Vegas wedding was just a sham??? :puke::puke::puke: And Seb, it is Croc's GarageMahal. I don't have the big buck that he does. Tom

There goes the neighborhood!!:willy_nilly::willy_nilly::willy_nilly::hurray: