7 Owners in the Bay Area / San Jose?

[hahuang65]

3 hours ago, GalloIgnacio said:

Did you check Lightstream for loans?

Yup, I have checked them and they are.

 

3 hours ago, GalloIgnacio said:

Did you get to test drive a Caterham?

Yes, Rich's personal one. It's a Superlight, about equivalent to what an 420R is. It was a real hoot.

 

3 hours ago, GalloIgnacio said:

And did Rich say anything about £$ exchange rates? Would it be a catch-it-on-a-good-day type deal or monthly average etc?

Yes, Rich basically does a fixed price. Sometimes he makes more off the sale, sometimes he makes less. With the queue it's too unpredictable. I've talked to Bruce at Beachman as well as Josh over at Rocky Mountain. They quote based on exchange rate, but it's still an estimation. The final payment is due when they're done building and are ready to send out the kit. With the queue times being 1.5 years, the quotes will not be a reliable way to tell how much money you are actually committing to.

[GalloIgnacio]

Wow that’s kinda crazy to think you could be on the hook for committing to an almost 1:1 exchange rate then it potentially doubles over 1.5 years 😬

[Croc]

53 minutes ago, GalloIgnacio said:

Wow that’s kinda crazy to think you could be on the hook for committing to an almost 1:1 exchange rate then it potentially doubles over 1.5 years 😬

 

It is but someone has to pay it since that is the end price.  You can hedge currency fluctuations but that is an insane concept on a car purchase too.  Not fair on the dealer to wear all the FX risk since they do not make a massive profit margin that would cover that.    I have often wondered if there better option but yet to see it.  

[KnifeySpoony]

I bought from Bruce, and I had options on when to lock in payment/exchange rate.

[hahuang65]

4 minutes ago, KnifeySpoony said:

when to lock in payment/exchange rate.

 

Oh interesting. How does that work?

[KnifeySpoony]

9 minutes ago, hahuang65 said:

 

Oh interesting. How does that work?

I can't recall exactly what my choices were - I'd reach out to Bruce for details.

[GumballF355]

Did you end up getting one? Theres a few around the South San Jose area. Im at the end of Almaden and building an MK Sportscars kit. Any chance the one you saw was a green caterham? I’ve seen it around sparingly too and I know a few other local guys who own them. 

 

[hahuang65]

@GumballF355 I did end up getting a 420R from Rich but have since moved from SJ to Houston lol. I do miss the Bay Area quite a bit but life takes you places.

[pbar]

Hopefully have a 420 Cup arriving next month...  anybody here in the vicinity of San Francisco?

[KnifeySpoony]

With a 420cup I expect you'll be out to our area tracks? 

[pbar]

25 minutes ago, KnifeySpoony said:

With a 420cup I expect you'll be out to our area tracks? 

That's the plan!  I have provisionally booked at Sonoma August (assuming the car is ready- or I will have to take the 911).   
I tend to prefer ThunderHill or Laguna Seca -- but I think I'll start closer to home since road-tripping a Cup may be logistically challenging.  (nervous about learning the SADEV sequential box! ... and I will also have to deal with SB100 registration fun) 
 

Would also be nice to find somewhere safe to explore the handling.  At ThunderHill there's a skid pan area that is often open durning track days, but not sure if there's anywhere closer.  

Edited Friday at 10:21 PM by pbar

[KnifeySpoony]

The Sadev box is pretty civilized based on my short go in a 420cup. Stop and go traffic coming back from the track to the bay will be a bit of a chore though. The 7 really shines at Sonoma IMO. I do all my days at Sonoma/Laguna. I love Thunderhill but it's a bit of a trek so I haven't been out there with the 7 yet. Also, the 7 will legit bake you on a hot trackday too, so weather out there can be unforgiving in summer. Any track is easy to learn the 7 handling - it's a very communicative and forgiving car. Think of it as a just a really fast Miata. You can really just grab it by the scuff of its neck and throw it around. The lack of mass makes it all easy if you have decent car control instincts. 

[pbar]

25 minutes ago, KnifeySpoony said:

Any track is easy to learn the 7 handling

That's what I'm hoping!   

 

My wife bought me the 3-day Allen Berg Formula car course earlier this year at Laguna and I came home thinking it would be fun to have a simple and fun track car (of course, now I need to find another garage!). 

 

The formula cars were sequential, but required heel/toe downshifts.  Even though the pedals were really well set up (and very little brake pedal travel), there was a learning curve - and I don't want to get that wrong at Sonoma and put a new car into a concrete wall! ;-)

 

What organizations do you recommend for track days?  (I've mostly used HoD and PCA in the past)

[KnifeySpoony]

I run with lightspeed or speedsf usually. 

[toldfield]

Look at the Golden Gate Lotus Club.  Great events and incredible people.

 

https://gglotus.org/track.html

 

tom

[pethier]

So this thread about San Jose was started by someone who is now in Houston?

 

Well, I have taken one of the Sevens out of the San Jose area.  Somewhere along that process, I got my first ride in a Waymo.