slngsht Posted January 2, 2008 Author Share Posted January 2, 2008 great. I will try to make it. My car is in pieces again right now, and I'll have the kids, so I'll have the minivan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Silk Posted January 2, 2008 Share Posted January 2, 2008 Great! I look forward to meeting you. We congregate in the parking lot behind the Vienna Inn at around 7:45 and talk cars - then wander inside around 8:00 and talk cars - then adjourn to the parking lot again to talk more cars. We're all very puzzled why so few spouses seem inclined to join us. Just ask for the owner of the light blue heap with white strips. http://www.capitalareacobraclub.com/gallery2/d/22034-2/Cumberland+_2+-+very+small_+-+Oct+06.jpg Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dewme5 Posted January 16, 2008 Share Posted January 16, 2008 I've seen a few seven before, but really just related it to the MG class. I'm from the musclecar side of the tracks. My last project was a 6-speed twin turbo 360 69 Barracuda. My wifes daily driver is a 73 Challenger with a 340. I also have a Hayabusa when I need a speed fix. I also spent alot of time growing up in germany, and got my drivers license on the Autobahn. Speed has always been an addiction. I love almost any racing, but despise the redneck mentality, which means no NASCAR or roundy-round's for me. I have two boys, 18 months, and 10 years. When looking for a good project car for the older one(I figure if he builds one, he'll have alot more respect then just buying a $1000 beater for a first car), we stumbled upon a Doonkervort on Google images, and fell in love. I know those Doonkervorts are a love it or hate it LSIS, and I absolutely love it. However, we are getting ready to start a scratch build. Just not sure if we are going book, or 442. Problem is I'm 6'-5" 160lbs, and at 10 he's already taller then mom, so he's going to be tall too, and huskier, so it seems the 442 is winning out. Pretty much settled on the R1 motor, and elec reverse. I work as a mechanical engineer / assistant. So, on top of having all sorts of cool tools in the garage, I get even more at work if necessary.. Vacuum form, cnc mill, sheet metal brake, sm sheer, etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
powderbrake Posted January 17, 2008 Share Posted January 17, 2008 I have two boys, 18 months, and 10 years. When looking for a good project car for the older one(I figure if he builds one, he'll have alot more respect then just buying a $1000 beater for a first car), Great idea. I started my son at about 14, rebuilding the engine of a beater that I had bought for his older sister. After that build, he did the minor engine work and oil changes whenever I needed them on the cars. We also built a dune buggy together when he was 17, so he had a car to drive to high school.( he drove it every day for 3 years, in all weather, rain, snow or shine, he would make a real sevener) It turned out to be a great experience for both of us. He is now 43 and still has the buggy. (we are also ME's) http://www.usa7s.com/aspnetforum/upload/1803887102_dunebuggy.jpg Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SevenAmerica Posted February 6, 2008 Share Posted February 6, 2008 Hi all, I'm John Donohoe, owner of one of the old original Lotus Sevens. Has the smallest motor they ever came with (948cc) and does not strain the neck in acceleration but does very much so in cornering, even running on skinny 155 series tires :-) Bought as a present for my dear wife, Linda, in 1999. I'm going on 44 yrs old, am a Graphic Designer by education, working as an account rep/art director for a design firm in Lansing, Michigan. I've been married for 19 years, have a 17 year old son who's restoring a basket case '65 Mini, and a 14 year old daughter who will look great driving the Seven :-) Oh, we live in a small town East of Lansing called Williamston, where there are more old British sports cars than you would think! I am a Boy Scout Patrol Leader, I sing in my Church Choir, serve as President of the Williamston Area Chamber of Commerce, and on the board of Mystic Lake YMCA camp. I htink I do some other volunteer stuff, but can't seem to recall it all just now! In my rare spare time I maintain the web site SimpleSevens.org which is an 'online collection' of Lotus Sevens, histories, stories, etc... when I retire (or if someone out there wants to pay me to do it!) I would love to expand the site to include sections for all the known varieties of Seven. in fact I'm learning about many of the obscure ones, having recently acquired a 40 pound box of materials that Dennis Ortenburger used as source material for Legend of the Lotus Seven, and also his newer 'The Independents'. Eventually most of this material will be shown on SimpleSevens - from the 4WD Caterham conversion to Westfield, Donervoort, Stalker, TMC, Sabre, etc, etc... Anywho, there's a quick rundown on me :-) Oh, I did also accept the position of 'Area Rep' for the Lotus Seven Club of England offered by their president, Steve Winterberg while I was over there for their celebration of 50 years of Sevens (I also got to thrash his very highly modified Series 3 Lotus Seven:-))). Anyway, I'm still figuring out what 'Area Rep' actually means, including how big 'my area' is so if you have any questions on that, I'll have to get back with you! Cheers! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
11Budlite Posted February 6, 2008 Share Posted February 6, 2008 Welcome aboard John! I've enjoyed the Simple Sevens site over the years so a personal thank you for that!! I have a Birkin that I just recently registered, but I keep hoping that someday I'll be able to add an early Lotus 7 to the stable. I even have a 948cc motor and smooth case gearbox in the basement that might come in handy!! Bruce :7fume: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
locost7018 Posted February 6, 2008 Share Posted February 6, 2008 Welcome to the community, John. You might concider bringing that Seven to the Midwest Se7ens Gathering in KC over labor Day weekend 2008. We are going to have several here. 7's are the featured marque for the Kansas City All British Car show that weekend. Russ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jbanker Posted February 6, 2008 Share Posted February 6, 2008 John, Welcome aboard!! I think you will find this group to be a lot of fun and very helpful. Hope to see you and your original Seven at the 2008 Lotus Owners Gathering, LOG 28, in Indianapolis this summer. You have no excuse not to come, Lansing is not that far from Indy. Check out the Indianapolis Lotus web site www.IndyLotus.com and go to the LOG 28 section. This is annual Lotus Ltd event that moves around the country. Last year it was in Aspen and the year before in Dallas. I attended my first LOG in St. Louis in 2005. Hope to meet you and your family then. Jack Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boxologist Posted February 6, 2008 Share Posted February 6, 2008 ... in fact I'm learning about many of the obscure ones, having recently acquired a 40 pound box of materials that Dennis Ortenburger used as source material for Legend of the Lotus Seven, and also his newer 'The Independents'.... Cheers! welcome, and thanks for telling us where that material ended up. had u been on here sooner u would have saved some $$. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SevenAmerica Posted February 8, 2008 Share Posted February 8, 2008 welcome, and thanks for telling us where that material ended up. had u been on here sooner u would have saved some $$. I didn't say I bought the stuff :-))) Actually acquired it in a deal that was proposed to me that I simply could not refuse ;-) BTW, I am working on plans to attend LOG at Indy. Initial thought was drive the Seven down, but would take all day on B roads, but looking more like trailer it in 4.5 hours and spend more time looking over the other cars that show :-) Maybe there should be a LOG thread somewhere here? I'll look for it. Thanks, glad to be aboard. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Al N. Posted February 8, 2008 Share Posted February 8, 2008 Again, welcome aboard John. I had thought that stuff ended up in the UK...glad that someone associated with this site has access to it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tenlow Posted February 14, 2008 Share Posted February 14, 2008 Wow, after reading around the site a bit I feel out of place. Most of the people here seem to have bought kits or complete cars, as I am a 24 year old starving college student, I started with the book and a pile of metal. Now I have the book and a taller pile of metal that could start to look like a car soon. I'm not even a full month into my build yet, so I guess it's reasonable that I don't have everything completed by now. I still need to source a donor car for the misc. bits and pieces I'll need to get anywhere. How many people here started from scratch? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mconley3 Posted February 14, 2008 Share Posted February 14, 2008 Tenlow, The following lists may be more helpful in the early stages of your build. http://www.locostusa.com http://autos.groups.yahoo.com/group/Locost_North_America/ http://www.locostbuilders.co.uk/ Mark Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Al N. Posted February 14, 2008 Share Posted February 14, 2008 How many people here started from scratch? Tenlow, AFAIK there are a few scratch built folks here. I'm pretty sure at least one guy from the Tail of the Dragon meet's car was totally scratch built...as in he didn't even start with a book, just a pile of metal. Welcome and good luck with your build. There are some other twenty somethings here...but more importantly a lot of older guys who say if they had to do it all over again, they'd have gotten a seven sooner! So you're doing the right thing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MHKflyer52 Posted February 14, 2008 Share Posted February 14, 2008 Wow, after reading around the site a bit I feel out of place. Most of the people here seem to have bought kits or complete cars, as I am a 24 year old starving college student, I started with the book and a pile of metal. Now I have the book and a taller pile of metal that could start to look like a car soon. I'm not even a full month into my build yet, so I guess it's reasonable that I don't have everything completed by now. I still need to source a donor car for the misc. bits and pieces I'll need to get anywhere. How many people here started from scratch? Hello Tenlow, I live in Ventura about 13 miles from Ojai and I built my car from scratch so if you have any questions feel free to ask. If you want we can get to gether so you can see what I built to give you some ideas for your build. PM me and I will give you a call if you want. Here is a link to photos of my build. http://picasaweb.google.com/MHKflyer52 :7fume: Glad to hear your building your car. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tenlow Posted February 14, 2008 Share Posted February 14, 2008 Hello Tenlow, I live in Ventura about 13 miles from Ojai and I built my car from scratch so if you have any questions feel free to ask. If you want we can get to gether so you can see what I built to give you some ideas for your build. PM me and I will give you a call if you want. Here is a link to photos of my build. http://picasaweb.google.com/MHKflyer52 :7fume: Glad to hear your building your car. I'm definitely going to hit you up during my build. Right now I'm making negative progress, I was originally working on it as a project for my welding class at VC, but I wanted to keep working on it while I wasn't in class so I started tacking things together with my arc welder at home. Once I started making forward progress, measuring took a backseat to getting that next piece on. Now I get to grind off a bunch of tack welds and refit the front frame and top rails. Luckily common sense took hold before I made anything permanent, but it's still rather frustrating to have to work backwards. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
frank davenport Posted February 22, 2008 Share Posted February 22, 2008 Hi All, I'm a 61 year old retired telephone/computer geek living in Sun City, AZ. I grew up here in the Valley of the Sun. When my peer group was talking about stuffing a Caddy motor into a '53 Studebaker, I was reading about Phil Hill, the four wheel drift, (from Ken Purdy's book), and finally talked my folks into a 1960 948cc bug eyed Sprite. I remember searching for a local machine shop that had a boring bar small enough for a rebore. Since then I've had a lot of cars I wish I had kept. I drag raced my 900, (punched to 1132cc, 12.5 to 1, 15 inch wrinkle wall on a three piece spun aluminum rear wheel from Sandy Kosman, kick start only), Kawasaki in the mid 70's, (10's @128), but the 1981 1100cc Suzuki was faster and street legal. I've been interested in the Seven since it's inception, but haven't taken the plunge. I found the WCM site some time ago. Nice. I look at power to weight pretty hard when I consider a thrill ride. The Hayabusa/ZX-14 are still calling me, I can hear them, but Phoenix is too big/dangerous now to really enjoy a bike. Besides, mostly in this area/peer group are Gold Wings. Not me. I cannot believe the number of choices that are out there now. There's an S2K on Craigslist here in Phoenix for 25K. I'm considering dumping my '07 IS 350 and joining you lot. Lots more fun. Thanks for listening. Frank Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Al N. Posted February 22, 2008 Share Posted February 22, 2008 Frank- Welcome aboard. You certainly live in a place where a Se7en could see lots of use...right now in NJ I'm looking at 5-8 inches of snow followed by sleet/freezing rain. If you're in AZ, you might as well look up Rex M. of Speed Classics if you want to go the Caterham route. Rex built my car and did an excellent job. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kitcat Posted February 22, 2008 Share Posted February 22, 2008 Trade your IS 350 in on a IS-F:). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
frank davenport Posted February 22, 2008 Share Posted February 22, 2008 Al - You're right about the weather. It's cool and wet here today, but the nice stuff is comin' fast. Thank you for the builder tip. KitCat - Too many electronic nannies! That's the one real drawback to the one I have. Besides, a Se7en would be way more fun. My pockets may not be deep enough for the IS-F. The Westfield cars are interesting. There was a feller' in town here acting as the WCM dealer, but I dunno' if he's the same guy selling the one on Craigslist. Cheers, Frank Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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