yellowss7

Mike as I came around that corner I saw the Flagger waving a yellow flag and I lifted off, There was some debris on the track from where someone had gone off, so they must have just pulled back on. Yeah I saw how close you got, Sorry. Being that the turn is extremely sharp, I had know Idea what was on the other side. Probably was Kitcat. ;>)

Mike, I just put my video clips in the mail to you. You should have it in a day or so. I have some footage similar footage of that green cayman as well. I like the GPS/Data overlay on your video. I didn't think my Clamshelled, little 195 hp car would hit 120 down the strait at TBolt. Cool. Glen does nice work doesn't he. Tom

Michael, I think they said it's about $9700-$10,000 or so to rent the track on a weekday. He quoted 8 thousand plus and then you have to have the flaggers etc. So for arguments sake round it out to $10K for a day. $20K for 2 days, one on each track. Yes Camping is allowed and there are hook ups for trailers/RV's at resonable rates. By my estimate, we would need about 40 drivers or so to make the cost reaonable, i.e. around $500 dollars for the two day track event per person. That's 40 7 owners who want to put their cars on the track. Of course we could do a Novice group that has a pace car to lead them around and no passing to start their first time track experience. I count about 20 in the area that either have done track days with us or who expressed interest in doing so. If all were able to make it we would still need at least 20 more. Do you think we can find 20 more that are up for it? As for dates, I'd have to check. But they did mention that they were doing a winter, $4999.00 special that if the weather looked good and there was no one else on the calendar we could do it. That makes the nut a lot easier, but we would have to do it on really short notice as the weather would be the key factor. I'll be glad to help pull it together if there is interest. Tom

Yeah, we are at lunch and sitting with one of the principle owners of the track, who says " I was in the tower watching as you went off in turn 7", and Mike replys, " Which time" :smilielol5::smilielol5:And then procedes to tell him of his other offs on the prior day. Meanwhile, I'm trying to kick him under the table to make him shut up. :deadhorse: Pretty funny. I'm sure they can't wait for your return Mike. :jester: Tom

We had a great weekend at the track. The weather was just about perfect. A little chilly on Saturday morning for the first session, but clear blue skys, about 60 by the afternoon. Mike had a little bobble on the first session that resulted in a bent rim and flat tire, (on the cool down lap no less:svengo:) Croc managed to stay out of the dirt both days, as did Karl, Ron and I. Mike on the other hand, had us covered as I think he made at least 2 or more surveys of the brown and green stuff at each track..:willy_nilly: Have to say that Mike is fearless and drives at 10 10ths most of the time. Mike disappered on the first yellow flag warm up lap. His response, I was going hard to get the tires up to temp:toetap05:. Ron, got a good two days of private lessons, and was really going strong by the end of today. Karl, Croc and I had a great last session where we chased each other for about 5 or 6 laps. We had one other track member with an R500 show up today, so we had 6 7s on track all day today. I'm whooped. Lots of fun. Now I just need to find another 75 to 90 horsepower so that I can hang with these big boys. My Little 1.8 liter motor is running hard to keep with them. That and some bigger balls and I might be able to keep up with them in the future. :jester: For the afternoon sessions, they combined the Intermidate and Advance groups and shortened the wait between runs, allowing us to effectively double up and run both sessions. Michael, at the year end party last night, we were already discussing our next BIG Seven's track event. Renting the track for our own group is possible, Maybe we could get another group to join us to help defray costs. Maybe a cobra club, or some other marque. Croc has some Video that I'm sure he'll post once he get's home. Kitcat headed back to Cincy, around 2:30pm so probably won't get in until midnight or so. Croc was driving his car back up to NYC and probably is still on the road. And Ron wins the diehard award. While the rest of us had had enough, and packed up. Ron headed back out for one last session. He should be about an hour so more on the road as he too drove his car to and from the track. The Banter at lunch dinner and between sessions is just as much fun as running together on the track. Can't wait for the spring!!! Tom

We had a great weekend at the track. The weather was just about perfect. A little chilly on Saturday morning for the first session, but clear blue skys, about 60 by the afternoon. Mike had a little bobble on the first session that resulted in a bent rim and flat tire, (on the cool down lap no less:svengo:) Croc managed to stay out of the dirt both days, as did Karl, Ron and I. Mike on the other hand, had us covered as I think he made at least 2 or more surveys of the brown and green stuff at each track..:willy_nilly: Have to say that Mike is fearless and drives at 10 10ths most of the time. Mike disappered on the first yellow flag warm up lap. His response, I was going hard to get the tires up to temp:toetap05:. Ron, got a good two days of private lessons, and was really going strong by the end of today. Karl, Croc and I had a great last session where we chased each other for about 5 or 6 laps. We had one other track member with an R500 show up today, so we had Six 7s on track all day today. I'm whooped. Lots of fun. Now I just need to find another 75 to 90 horsepower so that I can hang with these big boys. My Little 1.8 liter motor is running hard to keep with them. That and some bigger balls and I might be able to keep up with them in the future. :jester: For the afternoon sessions, they combined the Intermidate and Advance groups and shortened the wait between runs, allowing us to effectively double up and run both sessions. MichaelD, at the year end party last night, we were already discussing our next BIG Seven's track event. Renting the track for our own group is possible, Maybe we could get another group to join us to help defray costs. Maybe a cobra club, or some other marque. Croc has some Video that I'm sure he'll post once he get's home. Kitcat headed back to Cincy, around 2:30pm so probably won't get in until midnight or so. Croc was driving his car back up to NYC and probably is still on the road. And Ron wins the diehard award. While the rest of us had had enough, and packed up. Ron headed back out for one last session. He should be about an hour so more on the road as he too drove his car to and from the track. The Banter at lunch dinner and between sessions is just as much fun as running together on the track. Can't wait for the spring!!! Tom

Bad news Mike, the track said that since all of your trackday experience is with lower powered cars, they think that your new beast it too much of a quantum leap for you, so you will have to have your revs limited to 3500rpm and they want you to come in after each lap to check that you haven't crapped your pants. :willy_nilly::smilielol5::smilielol5: Yeah Croc, he's on a mission. I hope he doesn't get me kicked out for bringing a hooligan. Car looks very nice Mike. Can't wait to see it. Tom

Does it have a remote to start and stop it? If it's mounted to the rollbar It is not really accessible to reach up and turn it on when strapped in. Does it accept a Lanc remote? The new Plus has a 170 degree field of view, I wonder if it gives a fish eye look to the video. That's a pretty wide angle. Tom

Mike, I don't see any mention of the exteral mic in the description or accessories tab. That is obviously a necessity for the rollbar mount IMO. My camera is still performing intermitantly and I want something that will be sure to catch your next gardening adventure. If it has the external mic capabilties that would be a great option. Tom

I don't know about the 97's, but the rear shock mounting is definately different than my 2000. Dash doesn't look right either. Roll bar is strange too. Never seen bolts on the top of the rear struts before. Rear lights are wrong, unless they were going for an old lotus look. Front turn signal lens are the english type, Not the type they used in the US back then, although I think RedGoose's new R500 has that type. Oh, and in the description it describes the front brakes and stub axle as being from an Elan. I thought most of our front was from a Triumph Spitfire. One last thing, It states that it is a Caterham super seven, titled as a 1967 Lotus, everything new as of 1997 or 1998. It doesn't say that it's a 97 or 98 Caterham, just that it's been redone. I guess we'll have to wait for an earlier Caterham expert to chime in. Tom

Actually they also come in a 205x55x13 for 8 and 8.5 inch rims I ran the 175x55x13 up front and the 205x55x13 on the rear of my Caterham. That was the preferred set up on the Superlight R's and R500's. Tom

I hope Karl's video cam is working, because if he was on track today in anything close to this weather, I'd love to see the carnage.:willy_nilly: Karl, I hope you are warm, dry and safe. Tom

Yeah, they cancelled my golf outing for tomorrow as well. :toetap05: I'm blaming Al Gore for this Global warming crap. Well either him or George W.:jester: Tom

Go ahead Mike do it and ... SNAP!!!! That would be the sound of your rear diff support being torn from the chassis. And I and my little 150 ftlbs of torq, driving on by.:seeya::auto: Tom

Does anyone know if the 6 mounting points for the sholder harness is in the correct position to work properly with the HANS device or do the mounting points need to be modified? Also I have the 3 inch wide harnesses and it looks like the HANS device is designed for a 2 inch wide belt. Does it still work ok with the 3 inch belt? Tom

With the end of the trackday season at NJMP fast approaching, my SA2000 Bell helmet will need to be replaced for next season. I am thinking that a HANS type device might be a prudent addition to my safety gear. Does anyone have any experience/recommendation? I talked to one racer who said stay with the HANS brand, and one other that said if you don't require SFI rating, then he likes the ISSACS type device. Price wise they seem about the same. Thoughts? Tom

I am taking my Caterham in for it's annual State inspection tomorrow, so I took off the Brooklands, reinstalled the windscreen and wipers, and took off the slicks and put the street tires back on. When changing the rear tires I noticed the the left rear anti roll bar drop link was not connected. :ack: The upper drop link had somehow disconnected. Luckily all the parts were still there, so after a little effort I got it all reconnected. I thought my car was handling a little loose, but I just attributed it to cold slicks. I did trackdays on two consecutive days and obvioulsy did not check the car over between sessions. :dupe: So just a word of warning, things vibrate on these cars and it pays to do a bolt and nut check before and after each trackday or autocross or even after longer brisk blats. Tom

I played Rugby freshman year in college. Broke my wrist before the first game. Decided to play Ice Hockey instead, only suffered a broken nose. Much safer sport even though we didn't play with the face shields that they do now. I really liked rugby though. No pads, play offense and defense and drink lots of beer after each match.:hurray: Tom

Ron (REDGOOSE) take note, as your new R500 was built by Jon in Denver as was Karl's and Mike's. You may want to have someone check or replace your hoses too. Tom

Ron, if that little stone hit didn't spread on the way home, make sure you call either AAA or safelight etc to have them come out and fill it in. It will save you the cost of a new windscreen. Now that you are familiar with the tracks you will enjoy it even more. However, you have to watch out for those guys in the Sumo Versions,(Croc, and Karl) as they tend to take up more room on the track as we try to pass them. :seeya::driving: Tom

Today was another beautiful day at the track. It started out poorly for me. I left the car in the trailer overnight and in the morning temp was around 44F. First heat was scheduled for 8:45am and I get all buckled in and turn the key and it turns over a few times but fails to start. After about 4 attempts, it is barely turning over. NOT Good. Battery is about 3 years old. I walk away planning on bailing out and I went back and decided to give it one more try. Bingo! It starts, so I drove around the paddock for 20minutes or so and it was fine the rest of the day. Ron got to run a few laps in the intermidiate group at the end of the day. He looked and sounded pretty quick. I think he said that they had him at 90 DB on track. Great day all around except it was tough to get any heat into the slicks. I think these are toast after the next two days in November. That will put them up over 30++ heat cycles. I feel like I'm 4 wheel drifting out there. Tom

I showed up this morning for a members trackday, and what do I see as I pull in? A shiny metallic Green R500:drool: I think it must be Ron's (redgoose) Sure enough it was. It's BEAUTIFUL. Unfortunately, it was not a Qualified guest day so Ron had to run in the No Passing Novice group for the day, so I didn't get to video him on the Lightning track. We are both doing Thunderbolt tomorrow, and Hopefully they will let him move into the intermedidate group although it will be his first time on TBolt so they may not. The 2.0L duratec seems to fit nicely in the S3 (narrow Chassis) HMMMMM!!!:drool: Tom

Thanks guys. I will check it out today. Hope it's that simple. Tom

Temp sender is located in the water rail, which runs along the left side of the engine. Long way from the waterpump. Tom

The weather today was specatular, and the turnout was huge. Must have been due to the holiday as the last day had a total of 15 cars in the intermidiate and advance groups combined. Today there must have be 30 cars just in the intermidiate run group. Some nice ones too, A Ferrari 430 Scudaria, and a 599 GTO. Karl, your friend Pete was there too with his Yellow 355. There was also a Mercedes SL65 AMG Black, (v12 biturbo) that was really fast. GT3RS's were commonplace, as were the Z06's, and GTR's. There was even a ZR1 in attendance, but he didn't put it on the track. Looked nice though. The 7 aquitted itself well today. I'm starting to like the Lightning track better than Thunderbolt. Only issue is my watertemp gauge. It would be reading fine, running a little cool due to the increased airflow/speed. Then It would stop working for a couple of seconds then back to normal. Loose wire? ground? Any thoughts? Coolant level is fine, I have a bleed tee and I checked and there is no airlock. Strange. I noticed it during the last 3 sessions. I should mention that I've got a toggle switch that I can switch between oil temp and Water temp on the same gauge, if that makes any difference. Tom