Old Yellow has a new name tag and is in rehab.

[Ruadhd2]

After several years with her prior owner Old Yellow became addicted to short fast relationships, i.e. autocrossing. She had a huge Weber carb stuck on her and racing tires and really got down and dirty with a super powerful low end. She pulled 255 horses at the flywheel. She sipped oil with her gas and was in love with several coneheads. So, when I got her I had to put her into rehab, Lindsey Lohan style.

 

So now she has a proper tag "Rotus 7". Feeling her age, she is historic now.

 

In the hospital she will be get new shoes (Kumho Ecsta ASX 205/50/R15) super high performance all season tires, a four barrel Holley Carb and heat shield, so she can fly on the highway instead of spending all her time avoiding cones. In an effort to calm her down we are removing her Harley exhaust system which kept the dogs on her trail all night and we are installing a mellow magnaflow. All her nuts, bolts and hoses are being checked and replaced. She's getting a pretty pair of Caterham Britax tail lights to replace her imitation 34 Ford ones. To keep cool she's getting a larger radiator fan.

 

To get her to stop and think more appropriately she is getting street brake pads. Pretty new belts will be installed and she is getting a removable steering wheel cause daddy can't climb in her lap the way she is. She didn't know how fast she really was, so she's getting her electronic speedometer calibrated properly.

 

We are hoping that she will have a conversion experience to the street life from the fast track and be tamer and more civilized, but with the four barrel carb and a spark advance system and metered lubrication back in place she will be more obedient and naughty when she needs to be with 30 to 50 more horsepower at the high end.

 

Let's all wish her the best. Will have pics for the paparazzi when she gets out of rehab.

[solder_guy]

look forward to the new pics ... BTW here's a pic of my car in 2005 with your same Maryland tag.

 

Rob

[Ruadhd2]

I'll have to find a therapist for Old Yellow at the rehab place to stop copping other people's identity tags.

[slngsht]

so, it had racing break pads on it - that could explain why the effort was high when I drove it - pads were probably too cold.

[Ruadhd2]

Blasphemy. Kinda wish it had power brakes sometimes.

[Ruadhd2]

Old Yellow is being worked on by Kyle Rusert formerly of RP Performance at Summit Point, WV. He is a rotary specialist. He is doing the total rehab of the car for me. Basically, reviewing and adjusting all systems for comfortable street use and occasional track days.

 

Curiously, he is an engine swap specialist who is apparently very comfortable dropping GM LS engines into 93 to 95 series RX-7s. Wow. Can you imagine that power/weight ratio? Scary like Frankn7. I was in the shop yesterday and he was working on at least two of them. Don't want to mess with one of them at a stoplight.

Kyle Rusert

Was CK AutoWorks: Now Meador Automotive

8395 Euclid Ave. Unit G

Manassas Park, VA 20111

(571) 233-6746

Edited July 28, 2010 by Ruadhd2
Incorred address unit

[Kitcat]

All season tires????

 

As I have posted (frequently) elsewhere here, the biggest single improvement of the (many) improvements I have made to my Cat was the addition of set of race rubber to replace the hard as rock, no-grip 10 year old street tires it came with.

 

I try to avoid rain and certainly snow and salt. Unless you are going to be driving in the snow, why not get a set of super high performance street tires without the snow capacity? That way, you will have more grip in both the dry and the wet.

 

Just a thot.

 

Mike

[Ruadhd2]

Don't know why the mechanic recommended all season tires? Need to talk to him about it.

[supersportsp]

Don't know why the mechanic recommended all season tires? Need to talk to him about it.

 

I agree with Kitcat. I don't think you need R compound tires for street use, but I certainly would prefer something with some more grip than an all season. I put Toyo T1Rs on my car because they were the stickiest and lightest tires I could find relative to Avon CR500's. They are quite a bit lighter (well over a pound per corner) than any of the R compound rubber I looked at, but pretty aggressive in the grip department.

[Ruadhd2]

I have other wheels for track use and will only be using the car in good weather and not really consistently pushing it that hard.

 

I'm old and don't have the vision, reflexes, poor judgment, impulsivity, thrill seeking and risk addiction of youth. This is on the "before I die" list. That's all. So these tires will be good enough. I'll take the car a few laps around Summit Point in a non competitive manner with other wheels/tires and that will be my racing fix at this age.

[DeanG]

... BTW here's a pic of my car in 2005 with your same Maryland tag.

 

Rob

 

That's a scary picture. Guys scratchin and a tuggin in the background.

[bball7754]

I needed new tires when I bought my Caterham and, without doing any real research, selected a set of Michelin Pilots. Big mistake. On Blatchat they are referred to as "Pileups" due to their lack of traction.

 

Think it's the weight thing again. A tire designed for good all weather performance on a 3,500 (on up) lb. car may not do so well with only 1,200 (or so) lbs. on it.

 

Steve

[supersportsp]

 

Think it's the weight thing again. A tire designed for good all weather performance on a 3,500 (on up) lb. car may not do so well with only 1,200 (or so) lbs. on it.

 

Steve

 

Exactly. I had the pile-ups on my car when i bought the car and they were bad.

 

Grip isn't just for performance, it is also for safety. You will be able to stop many yards shorter with a grippy pair of summer tires vs some all season's. If you aren't planning on using the car in cold conditions, I don't see any reason for not using a summer tire.

[Ruadhd2]

I asked the mechanic to recommend all seasons when I should have requested high performance summer tires. What tires do you recommend? My car weighs about 1500 pounds and has a very tuned rotary engine putting out 255 to 275 hp at the flywheel.

[Kitcat]

Call Tire Rack and explain your parameters. They have been very helpful/knowledgeable when I have called.

 

The Toyo RA1's that I use (not carried by Tire Rack) have a wear rating of 40, well below the 160 wh/is the hardness rating of most high performance street tires. Even so, I have some tread left after 10K miles of driving, wh/includes many track days. When I ran them on my Miata I got abt 3K miles in combined street/track use.

 

The downside is they pick up tons of little stones and either fling them in the cockpit or sandblast the body. So ultra-grippy has its downside.

 

Mike

[supersportsp]

If you already have a wheel tire set for the track, I wouldn't bother with an R compound tire. JohnCH has R compounds on his Westfield and has told me of cooler days when he has trouble getting heat into the tires on the street.

 

The RA1 is a great and grippy tire, but it is an R compound. I have the Toyo T1R which were selected after many hours of research about weight and grip. I too am getting a track wheel/tire set-up, so I selected these for maximum street enjoyment. Until I had them on the track a few weeks ago, I had put about 900 miles on them and they still looked like they just popped out of the mold. 1500 lbs cars don't wear down tires very quickly.

 

I have been quite happy with them on the street, but the track day left me wanting more ultimate grip.

[JohnCh]

JohnCH has R compounds on his Westfield and has told me of cooler days when he has trouble getting heat into the tires on the street.

 

I think that comment was made in reference to my old A032Rs. They were lousy when cold. The R888s, however, grip just as well when stone cold (48 degrees out and less than 1 mile of driving to generate heat) as my outgoing Toyo T1S in similar conditions, and grip much better when the road surface is warmer. On the street it's hard to generate significant heat in them, but they still offer a huge improvement in day-to-day driving.

 

-John

[Arya Ebrahimi]

That's a scary picture. Guys scratchin and a tuggin in the background.

 

Pretty sure that's me on the far right :seeya: