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So, tell us a little about yourselves


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Welcome UglyFast (great name BTW!).  In addition to Twitter/IG, do a build thread here.  Great way to get help along the way from people who have been there/done that/ have the scars to prove it.  Any more details on the 2002?  Is that a 32/36 Weber? 

 

-John 

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7 minutes ago, JohnCh said:

Welcome UglyFast (great name BTW!).  In addition to Twitter/IG, do a build thread here.  Great way to get help along the way from people who have been there/done that/ have the scars to prove it.  Any more details on the 2002?  Is that a 32/36 Weber? 

 

-John 

 
Hi John. It *was* a 32/38. It's *now* a 38/38. World of difference in the mid range, lil extra oopmh on take off. Build thread coming up. Just need my fancy drop shipment British box(es) of car!  My stupid BMW and stupider Land Cruiser are known as @uglybmw and @uglytoyota, respectively. 

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28 minutes ago, Croc said:

 

Welcome Ugly!  I love the Bimmer!  :classic_love:  I have a soft spot for that era.  Any better photos of it?  Actually I should just search your instagram feed....

Yeah Croc, a billion pics on IG. I love that car. I hate to even say it out loud but I think I'm gonna sell it. I never tracked it (as planned) and I feel guilty as I walk past it and choose to run about in the 40, EVERY SINGLE TIME. 
 

I know y'all know what I mean when I say I feel guilty cause the car wants to be driven...
 

But me, the kid, and MOST IMPORTANTLY, my dog all prefer the crusty Land Cruiser lol. 

 

Volume up for that video, unless you're in church.  Then it's volume WAY UP!

9C34F4CA-8A4F-434A-B64F-F64DA3F3B390.jpeg

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Holy crap!  That does not sound like an M10?  

 

Before you let it go, you have to track it at least once.  Then you really know if you built it right.  

 

Is your local track Carolina Motorsports Park?  If so then you want to look up Maureen and Steve who are now regulars there after moving south.  Steve runs a Birkin 7 on track.  Roughly your HP - it would be a good match up with your 420R.  Maureen runs a supercharged Exige so you wont know which way she went!

 

 

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22 minutes ago, Croc said:

Holy crap!  That does not sound like an M10?  

 

Before you let it go, you have to track it at least once.  Then you really know if you built it right.  

 

Is your local track Carolina Motorsports Park?  If so then you want to look up Maureen and Steve who are now regulars there after moving south.  Steve runs a Birkin 7 on track.  Roughly your HP - it would be a good match up with your 420R.  Maureen runs a supercharged Exige so you wont know which way she went!

 

 

Lol the only thing stock on my BMW is the block and the body. I'm close to CMP, but only a bit farther (and a straight shot) to Road Atlanta. Supercharged Exige sounds like a rocket lol. I'll find them (iF i EveR gET tHIs cAR lol). 

 

(I mean it's only been about a week but I'm clearly champing at the bit) 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hello.  After two stalled attempts at building a replica (5 kids, 50+ hour work weeks) I finally took the plunge and bought a complete one.  I am officially the new owner of a 1993 Caterham 7 HPC, recently purchased from Sander in Atlanta - who by the way was an incredible seller, super helpful in every aspect.  Two of my kids came with me last week and we trailered the car back to the south suburbs of Chicago.  Eventually, this car will be placed back into track service, though I still hope to be able to drive it on the road occasionally.  I'll be looking to add a cage before heading to the track.  I drive and instruct with a couple of groups in the Chicago area, the car will be run at Autobahn Country Club and Road America for the most part, as well as some other tracks in the Midwest as opportunities allow.

 

Thanks,

 

Gavin.

20210623_224020.jpg

20210623_080324.jpg

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Gavin, very, very cool lil 7.  I hate to be the one to tell you this, but no way will 5 kids fit in a Caterham lol!  

Edited by UglyFast
Typos abound, and even more typos.
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2 minutes ago, UglyFast said:

Gavin, very, very cool lil 7.  I hate to be the one to tell you this, but no way will 5 kids fit in a Caterham lol!  

I think that's the whole point, isn't it?  Lol.

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3 minutes ago, JohnCh said:

Welcome Gavin!   Have you had a chance to put any miles on it yet?

 

-John

Just a little run around town, still shaking everything down and getting used to driving it.  Spent a few hours just looking through all the parts and documents too, there is a lot of awesome history all the way back to the original order being placed.

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3 minutes ago, gpalmer77 said:

I think that's the whole point, isn't it?  Lol.

Amen.   Ayyyyymen lol!  When I ordered, my wife LOLed and said "another selfish 2 seater car".  I told the her my dog and I fit in it perfectly, who else do I need?  

 

She replied "your divorce attorney!"

 

(She's a pretty quick wit!)

 

 

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4 minutes ago, UglyFast said:

Amen.   Ayyyyymen lol!  When I ordered, my wife LOLed and said "another selfish 2 seater car".  I told the her my dog and I fit in it perfectly, who else do I need?  

 

She replied "your divorce attorney!"

 

(She's a pretty quick wit!)

 

 

Ha.  This is my second 2-seater, also have a 99 M Coupe, also in track service.  (We have a Yukon XL for the kids, and a motorhome.)

 

I found it helped to buy my wife a ski-boat a few weeks before I got the Caterham.  I have a picture of my wife sitting in it, I've told her I consider this evidence of her approval.

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  • 2 weeks later...

While living in Arlington, Virginia, in 1953, I saw my first T-Series MG.  I fell in love with the TC - those tall skinny wire wheels and rakish flowing fenders.

 

During my freshman year at college in 1960, I saw an advertisement for a kit from England called the Lotus VII.  I fell in love with the concept and the execution.

 

After dropping out of college and finishing up active duty training with the Texas National Guard in 1963, I worked on a construction site and fell in love with the backhoe.

 

Many cars including a BMW Isetta 300, Volvo PV544, Daimler SP250, and Triumph TR4, were followed by career in software development, a successful couple years of Regional SCCA TSD Rallying in a Plymouth Roadrunner, a Datsun 280Z, two failed marriages, and an early retirement at age 51.  

 

Once I reached 55, I decided that I deserved a dream car.  It would be either an MGTC or a Lotus Seven.  I live in New Hampshire, with more vanity plates per capita than anywhere else.  In order to decide what I buy, I requested a vanity plate for my piss gold Plymouth Horizon:  My choices: LOTUS7, SUPER7, or MGTC.  Only MGTC was available at that time; therefore, the quest was narrowed and shortly thereafter, TC5012 became mine in 1996.

 

A few years later, my 91-year-old mother passed away in 2004.  To my surprise, she left us three some money.  I found the backhoe of my dreams and bought it - an Ingersoll-Rand BL370 - bigger than a garden tractor with hoe and smaller than a CASE 580 - just right for a fifty-acre farm.  Since, I am now living on a quarter-acre waterfront lot, the hoe saw very little use and I sold it this past Spring after enjoying 1200+ hours of operation.

 

While awaiting the money from my mother's estate, I began looking for a Seven.  I viewed and drove one - the one I now own - in Danvers, Massachusetts.  By the time the funds were available, the seller had shipped it to Reading, California; however, the new owner found that his large feet were not compatible with the tiny pedal box.   He posted it on eBay, I bought it, and shipped it to New Hampshire and enjoyed the heck out of it for a few years before putting it in storage so that I might get some home projects accomplished.  That was five long years ago!  This spring, I decided to concentrate on the Seven.  I found a great independent mechanic who would tackle the punch list I had created.  Correct the starter, debug some gauges, replace the overflow tank, clean the fuel tank and more.  After a few weeks, I had her back and better than ever!

 

She is a Birkin S3 for the early 2000s titled as a 1965 Lotus and powered by a Weber-carburetored 2.0 Liter Ford Zetec sporting a custom mesh grill made by the master stainless-steel fabricator, Charlie MacDonald, of the CJM Custom Shop in Fort Lauderdale.  

 

 

 

 

20210520-Birkin-S3-Small.jpg

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6 hours ago, birkinsuper7 said:

While living in Arlington, Virginia, in 1953, I saw my first T-Series MG.  I fell in love with the TC - those tall skinny wire wheels and rakish flowing fenders.

 

During my freshman year at college in 1960, I saw an advertisement for a kit from England called the Lotus VII.  I fell in love with the concept and the execution.

 

After dropping out of college and finishing up active duty training with the Texas National Guard in 1963, I worked on a construction site and fell in love with the backhoe.

 

Many cars including a BMW Isetta 300, Volvo PV544, Daimler SP250, and Triumph TR4, were followed by career in software development, a successful couple years of Regional SCCA TSD Rallying in a Plymouth Roadrunner, a Datsun 280Z, two failed marriages, and an early retirement at age 51.  

 

Once I reached 55, I decided that I deserved a dream car.  It would be either an MGTC or a Lotus Seven.  I live in New Hampshire, with more vanity plates per capita than anywhere else.  In order to decide what I buy, I requested a vanity plate for my piss gold Plymouth Horizon:  My choices: LOTUS7, SUPER7, or MGTC.  Only MGTC was available at that time; therefore, the quest was narrowed and shortly thereafter, TC5012 became mine in 1996.

 

A few years later, my 91-year-old mother passed away in 2004.  To my surprise, she left us three some money.  I found the backhoe of my dreams and bought it - an Ingersoll-Rand BL370 - bigger than a garden tractor with hoe and smaller than a CASE 580 - just right for a fifty-acre farm.  Since, I am now living on a quarter-acre waterfront lot, the hoe saw very little use and I sold it this past Spring after enjoying 1200+ hours of operation.

 

While awaiting the money from my mother's estate, I began looking for a Seven.  I viewed and drove one - the one I now own - in Danvers, Massachusetts.  By the time the funds were available, the seller had shipped it to Reading, California; however, the new owner found that his large feet were not compatible with the tiny pedal box.   He posted it on eBay, I bought it, and shipped it to New Hampshire and enjoyed the heck out of it for a few years before putting it in storage so that I might get some home projects accomplished.  That was five long years ago!  This spring, I decided to concentrate on the Seven.  I found a great independent mechanic who would tackle the punch list I had created.  Correct the starter, debug some gauges, replace the overflow tank, clean the fuel tank and more.  After a few weeks, I had her back and better than ever!

 

She is a Birkin S3 for the early 2000s titled as a 1965 Lotus and powered by a Weber-carburetored 2.0 Liter Ford Zetec sporting a custom mesh grill made by the master stainless-steel fabricator, Charlie MacDonald, of the CJM Custom Shop in Fort Lauderdale.  

 

 

 

 

20210520-Birkin-S3-Small.jpg

 

That's a lovely story.

 

I'm trying to do napkin math here. Are you ~80? if so, thats doubly impressive. 

 

I like the look of the 7. How come no custom plate??? Does NH even need a front plate at all? NY mandates it, but there is 0 chance I'm putting it on. 

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I now have "BIRKIN" NH vanity passenger plate on the Birkin, "GORDON" NH Veteran plate in the Miata, a regular plate on the Smart, and the TourX sports a low-number passenger plate that has been in my mother's family since before I was born.

 

The front plate is hinged so it folds down below the nose cone.  I choose not to bait law enforcement with such a minor violation.  The ugly 3rd brake light has been replaced by a more appropriate unit.

 

Yes, we have a winner!  I am the big EIGHT-ZERO and enjoy life to the max!

 

The young lady is my granddaughter and she is married........that image is from six years ago.

Small-20210605-Birkin-Vanity-PLate-4690 copy.jpg

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