Gentlemen: Start your odometers

[WestTexasS2K]

14120 and counting

[gjslutz]

In West Texas, that is just a few drives to dinner. Us people back east & in the midwest pack cloths to drive 200 miles.

[Kitcat]

My final tally: 4,404 fun filled miles for '08, a little over 10K miles in 18 months of ownership.

[scannon]

2,449 miles so far, I expect to get more before the show flies here.

 

A fair number of (s)miles considering the car was not drivable from mid April to mid August as I had started on the ECU conversion in April and then fell on my shoulder tearing the rotator cuff and chipping a bone in the shoulder. That made it impossible to work on the car as well as get in and out of it. What I had planned on doing in a week took 4 months to complete.

 

Also about 3,600 miles in the trailer and 4 track days.

 

Skip

[11Budlite]

2645 miles so far this year and I'm still hoping for more. I'm sure we would have done better, but it was hard to fit Nancy and an 8 month old baby in the Birkin. I have a feeling next year is going to be better!

 

Bruce :7drive:

[MoPho]

  Al Navarro said:

 

For the record, I have 3,970-something miles in oh, 3 years of ownership! I think that qualifies me for close to dead last in this particular contest.

 

 

Car now has 8k miles on it, so did 4k in six months

[11Budlite]

Did another 100 miles on Saturday morning so I'm up to 2745 miles for the year. Had a nice drive on backroads through the northwest corner of the state in 30-40 degree weather...even stopped for some hot cocoa to warm up! Unfortunately it rained/sleeted/snowed some today so if they sanded the roads I could be done for the year. We'll see how bad it is tomorrow on the way to work...

 

Bruce :7drive:

[Kitcat]

Bump.

[wankel_locost]

southwind25, just wanted to say nice graphics. i bought the movie and the two discs from the "series" just because of the 7 it features. it's a cartoon, but hey, it's still a 7. anyway, nice touch. btw, how many people you hear from know what that's about?

Godspeed,

dennis

[scannon]

Dennis,

 

Welcome aboard.

 

I think you are the only Wankel powered Se7en on the forum. How about starting a thread on your car in the member's rides, I'd like to see some pictures and hear about the build.

 

Skip

[Alaskossie]

Didn't the original Rotus 7 use Wankel power?

 

I recall that there was a story in R&T years ago about an autocrossing Lotus Seven S3 that had Wankel power.

[11Budlite]

  Alaskossie said:

Didn't the original Rotus 7 use Wankel power?

 

I recall that there was a story in R&T years ago about an autocrossing Lotus Seven S3 that had Wankel power.

 

Not sure about the Rotus, but there was an article on Jim Gallagher's Mazda rotary powered Lotus in R&T. Here's a little history on the car from the SimpleSevens site: http://www.simplesevens.org/gallagher/index.html

 

Bruce

[Kitcat]

I believe "Rotus" was a politically incorrect way of saying "Lotus", not a reference to a rotary power source.

[Jim F.]

Boy, does this bring back some memories! A lot of us used to slalom on the lower parking lot of Santa Barbara City College (Calif.) on a very regular basis. The first time I saw Jim on a run in his Rotary I was in disbelief. I remember the widest set of Goodyear slicks I'd ever seen on a 7 and the patch of blue smoke he laid down as long as he had his foot in it. Both he and Judy almost assuredly took 1st in class (what competition?) and TTOD. Talk about intimidation! He was a fierce competitor on a mission. On slalom days before sign-ins we looked to see if the Gallaghers were there to compete , and if so, there was a collective sigh of "well, there goes TTOD and the trophys." I always slalomned with my buddies for the fun of it and if we took a trophy (any trophy) were always happy. A friend and I were racing asphalt sprint karts at the time and used to bring them out on occasion to run exibition but were never able to beat Jim's times. He not only had a fantastic car but he was one hell of a driver! No surprise that he went on to bigger and better racing adventures. The main memory I have of him is he sure showed us how to slalom! Well deserved accolades.

[wankel_locost]

  scannon said:

Dennis,

 

Welcome aboard.

 

I think you are the only Wankel powered Se7en on the forum. How about starting a thread on your car in the member's rides, I'd like to see some pictures and hear about the build.

 

Skip

 

scannon, thanks for the hello. my ride has only just begun, meaning, i've only built the table so far. using mcsorley +442 plans with a couple ideas of my own. thread will come when there's something real to talk about. (sorry for the hijack)

Godspeed,

dennis

[Alaskossie]

  Kitcat said:

I believe "Rotus" was a politically incorrect way of saying "Lotus", not a reference to a rotary power source.

 

To quote page 138 of D. Ortenberger's book, "Lotus Seven & the Independents," regarding the Rotus Seven:

 

"In addition to the Toyota the Mazda rotary engine was also used in several configurations depending on the level of performance wanted by the customer."

 

"In 2003 the basic cars were powered by the Mazda rotary....."

 

i was pretty sure my erratic powers of recall had not failed me, at least not yet....

[DB6]

Rotus was the pun on any Jap engined 7.

[rotus8guy]

Just to clarify, Chris Custer used Toyota parts where Colin Chapman used English Ford parts, so Rotus is a linguistic joke. The use of Mazda rotaries is an interesting coincidence. They used any motor that would fit. I got to meet and talk with Chris while my frame was being built, so I think I got this right.