Jump to content

How was your last blat?


Recommended Posts

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

 

You know Len?! Very cool.

 

I hope he's feeling somewhat better now - Please give him my best.

 

 

dave

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 90
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

You know Len?! Very cool.

 

I hope he's feeling somewhat better now - Please give him my best.

 

 

dave

 

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.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Our local Lotus car club had a 'drive to lunch' event on Sunday, 11/8/15. When we got to Blackthorne Inn, there was a Morgan parked there. It was a slightly cool, very clear day - perfect for a blat! Oh, my wife was annoyed by the broken passenger-side windblock, so she jerry-rigged it with packing tape for the drive home. Yes, she's an engineer!

 

--Bob Collum

~IMG_2061.jpg

IMG_2045.jpg

IMG_2100.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

My wife, Debbie, was unamused by the broken passenger-side wind deflector on our Seven. Here she is, effecting repairs with packing tape supplied by the restaurant before driving home. Mind you, I sat in the passenger seat while she drove the Seven here two weeks ago, and aside from minor frostbite and the occasional sinus-clearing wind gust up my outboard nostril (Note to self: DO NOT try to look out around the windscreen!) - it was not a big deal for me...

 

Mark Franke advised me that I am, at best, second place in car repairs in my two-person household! (Keep in mind, Mark... that's still a 'podium' finish, bud!)

 

--Bob Collum

 

[Photo courtesy of Brenda Franke, whose hands were obviously NOT frozen from the ride out!]

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Oh, I forgot to mention about the @#$%^%$# leaves.

 

IMG_1946.jpg

IMG_1945.jpg

IMG_1947.jpg

It took a wrecker to pull the car up to the pavement and I had it hauled home on a flatbed.

There are a few scratches on the nose, I'll see what else may have been damaged when I get it on a lift.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

All I can say is that you stopped in time BEFORE the tree. Very lucky escape. Wet leaves are surprisingly slippery suckers and I have had a moment on them once before in my daily driver. I would be relieved at surviving with just a few scratches.

 

Now forgetting an anniversary would leave more than a few scratches....

Link to comment
Share on other sites

blat.jpgBeautiful 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.)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

:driving: ( too bad the color in the photo was washed out:ack: the car is much better looking than that.)

 

Yeah, but it still looks beautiful. The picture looks like a great ride! It sucks with it getting dark so early now. I am looking for a day like that on a day when I have time to get mine out.

 

Dave D

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Doing the mid November blat today...temperatures in the mid 50's.....now have 753 miles on the engine I am breaking in...not sure if it's wishful thinking, but the engine sounds better every time I take it out...the word symphony kept running through my mind as I took in the sounds of the engine...it simply can not get better than this! Also saw this beautiful 120 jag parked in a garage...pic does not do it justice..it was maroon and silver..image.jpgimage.jpgimage.jpgimage.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...
image.jpgCompleted my last blast of the year today....did 60 miles....finally attained 1003 miles on the new 3.4 engine...will change the old and filter this afternoon...(also changed oil/filter at 500 miles...the car seems to run better every time I take it out...Cheers everyone!!
Link to comment
Share on other sites

drove up to the Sonoma Racetrack todat to buy a new 2015 helmet on their Black Friday Sale. Roads were empty and everyone driving 70+ except through SF. Got to Wine Country only to find about half the local racers had the same idea. Took mr 2 hours to fight my way into a new Bell to replace my shreading from the inside oldie but the ride back home across the Golden Gate Bridge and 280 was glorious and made it all worth while.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Just finished a blat on the Blue Ridge Parkway Weaverville to Linville Falls and back. This is about to be the sixth week of Indian Summer here. I saw some ice but none on the road. The car was perfectly comfortable without any heat on. I did use the doors.

 

What a wonderful road! This is the last weekend that it's open on that stretch. They plan to close it Dec. 1. They will be doing some much-needed tunnel maintenance this winter. The tunnels are no fun when there's ice in them anyways. It's a wondrously engineered road without tight curves but thousands of long, sweeping ones along and around ridges and mountains. This time of year not too crowded, either. For much of the time I had the road to myself.

 

I have a courteous driving incident to report. Had one of the slow-pokes pull off so I could resume a comfortable speed. He was driving an Audi A4 1.8T. For some reason, those folks are more understanding of our needs than the SUV/minivan crowd.

 

Blue Ridge Parkway in North Carolina

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This road was on our bucket list for years before we finally were able to enjoy it. For years our trips through the region were of the "drive til you drop" kind getting our 2 sons to or from a shifter kart race somewhere in the south, the motor home and 32' race trailer hardly a conducive mode of transport through tunnels!

 

Our opportunity finally came a few years ago when we bought a '95 BMW convertible from a buddy in Florida. So we decided to pack the trip as full as we could... Tail of the Dragon to start, Biltmore Estate, Mt Mitchell, as well as the entire Blue Ridge Parkway and Skyline Drive.

What a blast...top down, 75° and sunny, who could ask for better end-of-July weather! Definitely one of those "must do" items for any car type. My only regret was not having a GoPro on the windshield/dash: we missed getting pictures of too many things....who would have ever thought of seeing the Oscar Meyer weiner mobile coming out of one of the tunnels just as you were 100' from entering? Obviously a closing speed of 80 mph didn't let us get a picture... a lifetime of memories in 500 miles!

 

I'm jealous of your location....

Edited by Paul Hill
Link to comment
Share on other sites

A friend asked me to go to the Dulles Landing cars & coffee event for a couple of hours, followed by a quick stop at Velocity Wings in the Eastgate Shopping Center, about 2 miles from Dulles Landing. The early-morning temperature was below 30F, so attendance was not as high as usual. (You can see a fair amount of frost on the grass in the pictures.) I'd guess there were about 40 of 50 cars at Dulles Landing, and a little less at Velocity. Some interesting vehicles at both. As long as I am dressed properly, and the doors are on my Caterham, this isn't bad!

 

--Bob Collum

IMG_2905.jpg

IMG_2907-Edit.jpg

IMG_2939.jpg

IMG_2934.jpg

IMG_2950-Edit.jpg

IMG_2982.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...