The Seven

Time for the FM track day.

Mon, 18 Aug 2008 12:33:48 -0600

The Caterham pulled 305 hp at the wheels the day before. The Westfield was all tuned up with a lighter aeroscreen and methanol injection. And of course, the dark horse: Brandon. It wasn't going to be easy keeping ahead.

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While taking someone for a ride at the Open House, my left front fender was shaking more than it should.

Mon, 18 Aug 2008 12:14:43 -0600

Before we could get back to the shop, the front stay broke free and started waving around. I slowed, but it quickly grabbed the front tire and bent the remaining stay. I was able to stop the car before anything really terrible happened. A roadside fix that involved rebending the 1/2" bar and securing the pieces with a piece of string got us back.

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I'm never taking that diff out again.

Thu, 14 Aug 2008 10:18:13 -0600

What a royal pain in the butt. Anyhow, it's in place. The car's all buttoned up and ready to defend its honor at the track. Since the car hasn't been altered significantly in the last couple of years, if I'm going to go any faster it'll all be up to my driving. Let's hope I've learned something with the constant track time this year.

It's time to put the Torsen in the Seven.

Tue, 12 Aug 2008 21:18:16 -0600

After all, the FM Open House is this weekend. That's the fourth anniversary of the Seven's track debut. And this year, I have some serious competition. The Westfield was close last year, but of course it's grown a turbo since then. The turbo Caterham isn't liable to be a big challenge, but Brandon in Chris Fiaccone's old bike-engined car is liable to be a big threat. Brandon did really well with the car at a track day last weekend and he's a good driver. Yikes.

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Since it's out, here's a shot of my PPF substitute.

Fri, 01 Aug 2008 15:56:31 -0600

I don't think I ever took a good picture of it before. This bolts on to the front of the diff, and then three bolts are run through the side of the transmission tunnel. Everything was still nice and tight when I removed it and it's undergone a fair bit of abuse in the last few years - so I think it's fair to call this little bracket a success.

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Hello, police?

Fri, 01 Aug 2008 15:56:31 -0600

It seems someone has stolen my differential...
While this is true, it was me who stole the diff from the Seven. I was hoping to avoid this, but I need the Guru for the Targa Miata race car. The Seven will get a Torsen in exchange. It'll be interesting to see how it affects the behavior of the little car - has the Guru been masking any bad habits, or will it make no difference at all? I'll have the diff back in a week after the ring and pinions are swapped around.

Car for sale!

Tue, 15 Jul 2008 21:54:21 -0600

Well, briefly. Chris Fiaccone's bike-engined car was one of the four cars seen in the Car and Driver article. It was beautifully built and looked like a hot rod version of a Locost. The fact that it has a 900cc bike engine and weighs under 1000 lbs doesn't hurt. When Chris decided to put the car up for sale, I told him I'd mention it here.

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Autocross time!

Mon, 07 Jul 2008 23:17:25 -0600

I decided I'd been spending far too much time on the Targa Miata, and that it was time to take the little monster out again. And it felt good. The car is just so quick, even at 9,000' above sea level. It dances around so well that I'm able to exploit it fully quite easily.

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We managed to talk our way on to the track for a little play time.

Sat, 07 Jun 2008 20:38:26 -0600

All of the toys came out, as both Andre and Axel were eager to try the Targa Miata out as well. And of course I went out for a few laps. Well, I had to.

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My friends Axel and Steffi came to visit, and they brought their friend Andre along.

Sat, 07 Jun 2008 20:38:26 -0600

Axel's known me since the beginning of my little Seven obsession, and this was his first chance to try the car. So I dusted the poor thing off, filled it with fuel and it burst back into life after a bit of a hibernation.

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Well, it was going to happen eventually.

Sat, 05 Apr 2008 22:34:13 -0600

My lap record from April 2006 fell today. The old record of 1:03.777 (clockwise) was blown away as Bill turned a 1:02.455 in the Westfield. Remember, the car's turbocharged now so the distance between the corners is a whole lot less! I got the chance to drive the car on the track - a much tighter one than Pueblo - and it's a bit more of a handful in the smaller venue. Catching power oversteer at 70 mph in the middle of that downhill sweeper made for an exciting ride.

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I spent Sunday at the track.

Tue, 11 Mar 2008 08:35:46 -0600

No, I wasn't driving the hibernating Seven, I was testing the Targa Miata. But I did get a chance to drive the FM Westfield. This car's shown up here a few times and it's turned into a real sweetheart on the track. It has a slightly different character than mine but it's still a ball to drive. Well, Bill spent last week sticking a turbo on it and it now makes somewhere around 250 hp at the wheels.

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Caterham has announced the uberSeven - an SV stuffed full of an RST V8 and a supercharger.

Thu, 28 Feb 2008 18:02:43 -0700

The headline number 1000 hp per tonne, although I suspect the weight and horsepower numbers have been massaged a tiny bit to get that magical fourth digit. Still, even at 900 hp/tonne it would be quite a ride.

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There's not much action going on with the Seven right now.

Mon, 04 Feb 2008 17:41:00 -0700

We're seeing record-breaking snow and the car is being neglected for the Targa Miata. That's the car I'm building for the Targa Newfoundland, and I'm using a lot of the techniques and skills I learned on the Seven build - such as building a very complex header.

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The new collector is here.

Tue, 08 Jan 2008 17:34:58 -0700

It's obviously a $17 piece. I think I can make it work, but it's certainly not going to just slip on. Bummer. I have some other ideas that might work though. Watch this space!

I was wrong about the price of the collector.

Wed, 02 Jan 2008 17:02:30 -0700

It's not $35 each, it's $35 for two! So I'll have lots of parts to play with then. This will make 4 collectors bouncing around the shop right now.

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And here I was being so clever.

Sat, 29 Dec 2007 18:05:25 -0700

The new collector is actually much better than the original one. Unfortunately, it also puts the pipes slightly further apart. This doesn't play well with the inflexible header pipes.

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Since I'm working on the exhaust for the rally car, I've become inspired to work on the one for the Seven.

Sat, 29 Dec 2007 18:01:07 -0700

Remember those motorcycle mufflers I picked up aeons ago? Well, one of the reasons I haven't installed them is because I'm sick of cutting up the exhaust again and again. But I have a spare header collector, which means I can build a new setup without having to destroy the old! Time to get to work then.

We've had a nice, wet and cold December.

Sat, 29 Dec 2007 18:01:07 -0700

So while the skiing has been fantastic, the small sports car fun has been curtailed. The Seven has been moved to the back of the garage to make room for more pedestrian vehicles - the garage is two cars wide but 2.5 cars deep. To make it easier to shuffle the car around and keep it out of danger, I picked up these very high-tech toys. They're moving dollies from Harbor Freight and can carry 1000 lbs each. Not bad for $10. We have some fancier ones at work that are a lot more expensive, but this is all I need...

There's an unbuilt CMC "Miata" frame on eBay.

Wed, 28 Nov 2007 10:48:59 -0700

It's the same thing I started with. I'm amazed it's surfaced, but then again I did hear of an unbuilt 1977 Caterham in the Denver area yesterday.

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