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My Seven & some strange bloke


AndyB

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http://www.pbase.com/sarrana/image/119068096.jpg

 

At an annual charity event.

 

http://www.pbase.com/sarrana/image/142812255.jpg

 

Me ready for a winter blat

 

http://www.pbase.com/sarrana/image/129589255.jpg

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What vintage 7 and engine? It has clams with the L bracket, traditional seats so it's a late Lotus 7, early Caterham? I like the polished (chromed?)exhaust pipes. Much nicer than the rusted pipes most X-flows have.

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Awesome car, and the attire astounding!

 

TheDingo8MyBaby,

 

I think the body roll in the shot may be a bit exaggerated by the camera angle. The shot seems a bit off level, look at the horizontal where the asphalt meets the grass. Maybe the photographer was running for their life. :D

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Awesome car, and the attire astounding!

 

TheDingo8MyBaby,

 

I think the body roll in the shot may be a bit exaggerated by the camera angle. The shot seems a bit off level, look at the horizontal where the asphalt meets the grass. Maybe the photographer was running for their life. :D

 

I think the expression on the face of the individual in the right seat is the most significant part of the picture. :)

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I think the body roll in the shot may be a bit exaggerated by the camera angle. The shot seems a bit off level, look at the horizontal where the asphalt meets the grass. Maybe the photographer was running for their life. :D

 

Looking at the relationship of the tires to the front wings and the license plate to the ground, I don't think the body roll is exaggerated at all by the camera.

 

 

Great looking Seven.

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Thanks for the nice comments guys.

The car is a 76 Caterham sporting a Lotus Twin Cam lump. The 1963 head (Lotus Cortina) sits on a 1700cc block. Ported/polished, Hart valves, mildly hotter cams and a 4 out exhaust. The exhaust system shines because I had it ceramic coated in and out. 4 speed & live axle. The car is reasonably fast up to about 70 mph.

Yes it does suffer body roll in fact when that photo is blown up and sharpened it reveals the left coil over is all but completely compressed. Anyone have a suggestion of a good replacement.

Yes the smile on that young lady's face is typical of everyone that steps from the car at the charity event. People tell me it's the fastest car they have been in all day and what a fantastic driver I am. I don't tell them it's likely the least powerful car there and that any fool can get a Seven through a tight cone course and make it feel fast:driving:

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... I'm surprised by the amount of body roll it has in the auto-x shot.

 

This exemplifies the reason why I've spent YEARS trying different combinations in suspension software, fabrication of front and rear anti-roll bars, large amounts of time and money spent on shocks and springs, and hours spent trying to understand what Carroll Smith and Millikin & Millikin were teaching about sports car suspension. I was particularly (and proof-of-the-pudding) inspired by a ride in Kitcat's old x-flow Caterham that had as comfortable a ride as you could ask for as damn near ANY car and then some out on local bumpy two-lane asphalt, not to mention one that had you sitting right over a solid rear axle, yet the car (and of course a damn good driver) clearly kicked ass out on the track. I've seen other shots like this where a Caterham is cooking around a course damn near on its door handles (if it had any) -AND THE DAMN THING HANDLES WONDERFULLY IN SPITE OF A HUMONGOUS AMOUNT OF CHASSIS ROLL!

You can read for years and the conclusion you get is that, when a car rolls, it makes the suspension move in ways that take it way outside of all the different angles that you want for keeping the tire happy on the road. Besides, and dispite the fact that fitting roll bars is nearly as much work as it is tuning them to balance the front-rear weight transfer, people put them on to reduce chassis roll and all its attendentant handling-destroying behavioirs. And of course you get a car that rides like a buckboard.

So how has Caterham figured out how to get a wonderfully compliaint (confortable!) ride and allow huge amounts of chassis roll - and still provide road holding that is phenomenal? There's a post out there I made with a title something like "another thing to keep in mind when considering what Se7en to buy" that points to work a contractor did for Caterham* - but even with all that technology, there's some wizard behind the scenes that really, really understands what handling is all about. I sure wish I could find the person and pick their brain about it.

 

*see https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/49212285/oconnell.pdf

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Wow John your link goes way beyond my knowledge of suspension and the set up illustrated there is way more advanced than my old bucket of bolts. Having said that it is amazing how she hugs corners given that the basic chassis/suspension design is almost 60 years old.

My very little autox experience has taught me that tire pressures seem to have a massive effect on cornering performance. But then that might be due to the fact I think my car is over tired for it's weight, that's just a lay-man's opinion.

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John,

I don't claim to be an expert, but I think the caterham is a good example of over-tired. If you put the same relative amount of tire on 4000lb Buick they would be absolutely huge. Then the roads would need to be doubled in size to get a similar amount of relative space. I've read a few times where racing caterham's got faster with less tire (probably explains why racing versions have stuck with 13").

 

Short version: lots of grip, small car, modest power = handles well

 

Daniel

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