yellowss7

WHOA cowboy, you are a married man with a lovely wife and beautiful children. Why don't you just leave the Debauchery to Croc. :jester: Hopefully you will bring Kelli and the kids as you know this is a family friendly event. Until the Karting that is. :devil: Tom

I love the Turboencabulator!!! That will definitely make you one of the many tricked out cars on the track. Where did you find the Dingle arms??? :jester: I have a feeling that Fred might do a stand up act if we get him well lubricated. :party: Tom

Now I know that this year's event will be a success! Fred was a hoot last year, on and off the track. Fred, what winter upgrades can we expect this year? Tom

Tom, you are HARD CORE!!!!:driving: It's only December and I I'm looking forward to seeing everyone again! Tom

George is definitely still around and is probably closer to 80. Still works on cars, and was even at our se7ens gathering at NJMP two years ago, and helped Kitcat fix his car. George is a wealth of knowledge. Good guy too. Tom

I'm in. :jester:

Looking Good Tom.:seeya::seeya: Good to see that car out on the track where it belongs. Tom

Beautiful sunny day here in the Philly area. 67F, a great day for a Blat. I haven't had the yellow car out since the 7's gathering in July. Orange has been my trackday ride, but although it is registered, it's not really street friendly. So I checked tire pressures, oil level, lug nut torque, replaced the Brooklands with the full Screen and lowered it down and rolled it out. After driving the Orange SV beast, getting into the Yellow S3 is really a different feel. So much tighter, foot well is tight, and you pretty much put the car on. It's nice, you feel snug in the cockpit. Turned the key, let the fuel pump prime and It started right up on the first turn of the key. Boy is it quiet! I'm now use to the orange Cosworth beast. Even though the exhaust on the Yellow car is on the left side it seems quieter. The Clutch is a huge difference as well, the yellow is a hydraulic clutch with the Caterham 6 speed. Orange is a race clutch with a sequential Sadev gearbox. Yellow's clutch is smooth and progressive, Orange's is Brutally stiff and on or off. I love the Sequential on the track, but Yellow is so much easier to drive. Orange blips downshifts for you, Yellow allows for heal an toeing blips. Very satisfying. Out on the road today, it seems I was behind every old lady or sightseer. Finally I got some space and could run up and down the gears a bit to exercise it properly. Lots of waves, and honks, these little cars always bring smiles when spotted. Great day, not cold not hot. Still needed to be aware of a lot of leaves on the road, but otherwise a great day out. Wife still asks when I'm going to sell the yellow one now that I track the orange one, and don't drive the yellow one as much anymore. Probably never I answered with a smile. :driving: ( too bad the color in the photo was washed out:ack: the car is much better looking than that.)

We've known each other since freshman year of college. He's healing up ok after surgery, but I told him he should take up trackdays in a se7en. At least that way he's wearing a good helmet, and has a few more metal tubes around him, and the cars are all going the same way. He still thinks bike riding is safer than a trackday. I can't believe his wife still lets him ride after all this. Or maybe you can build him a fully enclosed roll caged bike. Might be a hot new trend.

Too bad you had to contend with all that traffic Dave. :rofl: Our mutual Friend Len J. should ride on roads like that, He's been hit again, 3rd or 4th time now. Good thing is it wasn't on your bike so it definitely still the best in his collection. :cheers: Tom

The Caterham experience will definitely spoil you. You won't remember what it was like to go that slow and watch the scenery as you drive around leisurely. :willy_nilly: Keep Healing up. Tom

Shane, It's going to be a long trip up to NJMP, I hope your back and butt are healing up. But you can run with us slower guys and your wife won't have to worry about you.:jester: Tom

Steve's highly polished car and exhaust is result of a lot of hard work. I very seriously doubt that it is a "chrome" plating. You have to see the car in person to really appreciate the quality of his work. And wear your sunglasses, or risk going blind. :cooldude::cooldude::cooldude::jester: Tom

John, I originally autoxed the car for about 8 years and when I started doing track days, I used the same set up. Only thing I have changed is to go to a slightly taller tire which more closely matched the circumference of the original Avon CR500's the car came with. That allowed me to get a little more top end on the track. The balance is perfect IMO and other racers who have driven it seem to agree.

Update. Over the last 3 trackdays I decided to run at set Max revs during each session and see what the results were. 3 weeks ago, I started the first session at 3000 rpm Max which I held the car at that rpm for the whole 25 minutes session. Coolant temp stayed at 190F, no bubbles rose in to the expansion tank when I winched the car up backwards on to the trailer ramp. No Puking or Burping. For each of the next 5 sessions I ramped up the max rpms by 500 rpm per session. I finished the 6th and last session of the day at 5500 rpm max, which again I held it at those revs for the entire 25 minute session. No Bubbles, no Puking, No Burping, no rise in the coolant tank other than an inch or so, and the next day when I opened the cap on the tank there was Zero pressure build up and the coolant level was at the max line where it started the day before. The next trackday, I started out with 6000 rpms as my max level and this time at the end of 25 minutes on track, there were a few bubbles rising into the tank when I winched the car up the ramp. No Puking or Burping, Coolant level rose slightly but not significantly. Coolant temp stayed at 190F the whole session. Same results at 6500 rpm. I did get significantly more bubbles at the 7000 rpm max , and the coolant level did rise to about the 3/4 full level in the tank. No Puking, No burping, Coolant temp again held Steady at 191-192F. very slight pressure venting when I opened the cap the next day. Coolant level back to the Max level. Only other variable I eliminated during those two trackday tests was not to take the left hand turns at any speed. I slowed down before the left handers to eliminate the possibility of the coolant sloshing in the tank under acceleration in the left handers. On the final session of that day, I held the revs to 5000 rpm and ran hard in the left handers and the result was No bubbles and no puking, Temp steady at 190F. Last week, I ran the day, running hard but keeping the max revs around 6000-6200 rpm. Had some bubbles when winched up the ramp, No Puking, No Burping, and coolant temp was rock steady at 190F. As I said before, I had replaced the radiator, (triple pass) thermostat, Water pump, Belt tensioner, Moved the coolant tank to the top of the bulkhead, installed a bleeder from the radiator to the expansion tank and installed a couple of one way valves in the small 1/4 hoses coming from the head and radiator into the top of the expansion tank. I've done a few more exhaust gas tests to see if there is any exhaust gas present in the coolant tank when running/idling, but they are still all negative. This has been going on since last year. I've seem to solved the temp issue with moving the header tank and the new radiator and other mods, but still getting the bubbles and some pressurization at higher revs. Car runs fine otherwise, and I've had the oil tested and no sign of coolant or other issues in it. Any other thoughts before I pull the head? :banghead::banghead::banghead: Tom

John, don't know about the crossflow. But widening the exhaust hole is easily done with some tin snipes or a dremel. Are you planning on racing the caterham? I always understood that the 4 into 2 into one was better for Mid range torque and hp, and that the 4 into 1 was better for top end. At least that was the claim for my Rover K series. On the K series there were definitely a LHD and RHD spec exhaust pipes as the steering column definitely is close on the K series due to the way the engine is canted over to the left. Hopefully you have the correct ones. Maybe KitCat or one of the other current or former Crossflow owners will chime in. Good luck. Tom

My Yellow 2000 Superlight with the Rover K series and MB magnesium wheels, came in at 1162 lbs when I had it corner weighted. Now with the full cage, probably a bit more. I don't know what my Orange Sumo Version weighs. But with all the carbon that the prior owner put on it, it might be a negative number. :smilielol5:

Croc's Australian accent is pretty bad too. :leaving:

Skip, do you have a butt extractor for that one or do you just stand up and take if off?:jester: Tom

Nice driving, but I'd hate to have to walk that course a couple times prior to running. Tom

Did use the airlift originally when I first took out the thermostat, but when I replaced the thermostat, the water pump and the radiator I have not. I have put the car on a slope or winched it up backwards on my trailer ramp and let it idle with the cap off, and revved it occasionally for several days in a row until all bubbles stopped coming out of the small 1/4 inch hoses into the expansion tank. Pretty confident that that has been a complete bleed of the system. The fact that the car will now idle for over an hour and hold steady at 195F with no pressure build up is a big plus now. Originally, it wouldn't last long idling and would hit 220F before I'd shut it down.

Correct Jim. I've had the oil checked, done at least 15 exhaust gas tests. Spent a good bit on replacing all of the cooling system parts and Although the coolant temp issue is now good, I still have it puking coolant and pressurizing when at track RPMs. Head gasket or an electric water pump are the only things left that I can think of.

Just waiting for a point by from you. :driving::smash:

Have had the leakdown test and done and no bubbles in the coolant tank. Just got back from the mechanics and next suggestion is to do a session on track holding the rpms to 5000 or less to rule out the water pump cavitation. So I'll try that next I guess.

This is a Cosworth built motor, and does have the cosworth larger pulley on the water pump. I know SBD in the UK only use an electric water pump, but I have not got to that yet. Keep the ideas coming. Thanks Tom