build diary

September 19, 2005:
More driving!
The car's pretty happy. The throttle response is fantastic and the car pulls hard. I spent some time tuning the computer and even managed to get rid of most of the flames on overrun. There are still some little problems though. The throttles don't always close fully unless I snap them closed but that's only obvious driving in traffic - I'll find I have an 1100 rpm idle at a light. I'll have a close look at the linkage. It seems to be related to heat. The car also seems much more eager to turn left than right. It could be my weight or it could be a toe problem in the rear. Eyeballing things, it appears the right rear is toed out but I don't trust the rear fenders to be straight. I'll check it today with tools instead of eyeballs.

Polishing the spare wheels yesterday revealed that the perfect tool for the job is seveal grades of Scotchbrite (or a reasonable facsimilie thereof) because it's fast and easy to use. The new wheels look good and are being painted now. I also cut up plywood for the new, lower windshield and discovered that the aluminum channel I use for the frame is no longer available in 8' lengths. All I can get is 4' but that's not enough to go around the windshield. Argh. I'll have to find a solution to that.
entry 1005

September 20, 2005:
The new brake pads arrived today.
To ensure they work as well as possible and to minimize material transfer, I decided to put on some new rotors. Nothing fancy, just NAPA brand. Turns out my price for those is $12 for the front and $10 for the rear! Yowza. It's cheaper than having rotors turned.
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September 21, 2005:
For those who haven't heard, there's a large group of Se7ens on their way across the US.
They're in Texas at the moment and having a ball from the reports I've heard - although the roads will get more interesting soon. The cars are loaded heavily as you can see in this photo. Good luck guys, I'll see you on Friday!
entry 1007

September 23, 2005:
I'm off tonight to head for Durango to hang out with all the Se7ens for the weekend.
Due to the chance of bad weather (it was snowing on Hwy 550 last night) and the fact that Janel is coming along, we'll be travelling in her supercharged Miata. That'll be a bit embarassing but at least I'll have the Seven out for when the group comes through Grand Junction. Lots of pictures should show up on Monday.
entry 1008

September 26, 2005:
That was a most enjoyable weekend.
Se7ens everywhere. I was like a little kid running around looking at them all and investigating their little details. A big thanks to Janel for being so patient with me. She's a smart girl and brought a book along.

Westfield, Ultralites, Caterhams, Lotuses, Robin Hoods, Strykers and probably at least one other make I've forgotten. It was very interesting looking at all the various engineering solutions. I pestered a lot of people about their front wheel rates as I'm trying to get a feel for what mine should be.

As I mentioned earlier, we had travelled over to Durango in Janel's supercharged Miata. It looked huge. I suspect even my Seven would look huge in that company. The Miata did help a number of Se7en USA drivers to identify me, though. I spent most of the day wandering around and sticking my nose into various jobs underway - sorting out an overheating crossflow, cleaning plugs on a VHPD K-series, trying to diagnose a running problem with a 400 cubic inch Chevy smallblock (yes, in a Seven). Note that I was sticking my nose in, not actually doing anything to help. Still, I was able to help out a couple of cars by sourcing parts that they'll pick up tomorrow in Grand Junction. The most common complaint on the part of the cars was running rich. Carbureted cars were suffering typical high-altitude ills but even some of the fuel injected ones were suffering. They run off pure throttle position instead of using manifold pressure - that's an understandable thing to do with a big cam and throttle bodies. The problem is that it can't deal all that well with massive ambient pressure changes. I hadn't thought of that before, although I had considered running TPS control on my car. Maybe I won't then.

I hopped in to a couple of Caterham SVs to see how they fit. One had a lowered floor and was cavernous inside. The level of detail overall was wonderful to see and I may end up fabricating some new control arms from their designs. Much cleaner and lighter than my own.

We tucked in behind a group of three cars led by one of the tour organisers and had a high-speed run over Wolf Creek Pass. Turns out a 150 rwhp supercharged Miata can just about keep up with a carbureted 140 crank hp Caterham that's loaded with two weeks worth of luggage and suffering from 10,000' of altitude. Soon after, we let the Se7ens romp off into the distance and took things a bit easier to enjoy the view. The fall colors were at their peak and the weather was perfect, making it a hugely enjoyable trip.

One thing I did do over the weekend was measure a number of louvre setups in hoods. It turns out Birkins use 3" holes like I am, so I used one of their cars as a base for my venting design. The other Se7en owners did confirm that 1) the transmission tunnel is always hot and 2) the hood will always lift up above 90 mph, louvred or not. The hood is off being punched right now so I should have it in time for tomorrow's visitation of Se7ens. Let's hope the little orange beastie does me proud.
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Number one of the Good Ideas To Steal: springs to hold the slip joints together in the exhaust.
Very strong springs according to the owner.
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Caterham louvre arrangment.
If I interpreted things correctly, the center group is an air intake for the heater. These are 6" louvers, 7 to a group.
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Earlier Birkin louvres.
3" holes, 6 to a group. Later Birkins had more holes. More hole than hood actually.
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Setting up my own louvres.
This is a simple trick to find the middle of a panel. Run tape from one side to the other, then fold it back until the end reaches the start. Idiot proof and much easier than trying to measure.
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If you squint, this looks like louvres.
Doesn't it? Well, once the holes are punched it will.
entry 1014
Caterham bracing at the front of the car.
Holy cow, there are tubes everywhere.
entry 1015
Caterham front control arms.
Clean and very simple.
entry 1016
Winner of the "Caterham I most want to take home" award.
An orange R300. Oooooo.
entry 1017
How do you fit two weeks worth of luggage in a Seven? Well, maybe "in" isn't the correct term.
entry 1018
All hotel parking lots should look like this.
With 50+ cars, it was impossible to get more than a small fraction in a photograph.
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Three Sevens, a Miata and some fantastic roads.
Shortly after I took this picture, the Sevens disappeared into the distance.
entry 1020

September 27, 2005:
The Se7ens are coming!
The group should be trickling in to town today. One car has already partially arrived in the form of a damaged head. It should be sorted out tomorrow. I also have a thermostat coming for an R300 that's having trouble. Always an adventure!

Some scrambling around yesterday and the hood is now punched with louvres! I had to change the layout a bit because the spacing between the louvres was different than I had assumed. These are hot rod louvres and they're bigger than the ones used by the Seven makers. Still, the layout looks good - except for one small detail. It turns out that hot rods put their louvres facing forwards (why?). Those who know something about aerodynamics put them facing backwards. Well, these were punched by a hot rodder so they're backwards. I just never thought to specify even though we were laughing about how it was important to get them the correct way around. The problem that both of use considered the "correct way" to be different. This will work fine at a walking pace, but at speed it'll actually make the airflow worse than before. I'm going to be very embarassed showing up amongst the Se7ens this afternoon with a backwards hood. Kent, the guy who did the work, has bought a new piece of aluminum so I can fabricate another hood. I'll have to work fast, I'd like to have the proper setup for the race this weekend and definitely for the high-speed trackday at Aspen on the 15th. I also have to change the brakes on two cars. It's going to be a long week. Oh well, if it was easy everyone would do it...
entry 1021

Whoops.
The louvres look good, but they're the wrong way around. There's also a misalignment in two of the center groups. I'll be busy trying to duplicate this hood late at night this week.
entry 1022

September 28, 2005:
Anyone near Moab this morning would have seen a very dirty orange Seven roaring out of town at about 7:30.
I'd accidentally stayed the night. But let's backtrack.

The Se7en tour group hit their first rain on the way out of Vail. Not just a little bit of English drizzle, a full-on Colorado thunderstorm. Some were able to dodge the weather, others were not. By the time they started to roll into the Sonic drive-in in Grand Junction, everyone was at least a little damp. The appearance of all the little cars caused a bit of consternation in GJ and from the reaction of the Se7en drivers, none of the questions were new ones. To my surprise a number of the Se7en owners recognised my car! That was flattering.

I was planning on running through the Colorado National Monument with a group and then on to Moab. A couple of drivers wanted to borrow the Flyin' Miata garage in order to do a little work on their cars so we stopped by there first. It became obvious that I was distracted by the gorgeous car on the lift so the group took off, leaving about 4 Se7ens hanging around the shop. While one Duratec car got a new thermostat, I watched as Mike changed the oil on his car. His car has a massively powerful RST V8 underhood and has been modified in just about every possible way - you can see a number of photos of it on the RST website. Everything went well until he started refilling the dry sump tank and fresh oil started leaking out of a fitting. The suction pipe for the dry sump had to undergo some strange contortions and a custom fitting had cracked. We headed off to a hydraulic store, picked up a couple of pieces then started heating, bending and welding. By 5:30 or so we had a replacement fitting and the car was happy and leakproof once again. Mike and I were the only ones left so we took off to Moab under ugly skies. He has no windscreen and was wearing a helmet. I had a windscreen but no wipers. Not a good pair.

The route in to Moab is one of my favourites. Well, usually. Earlier rain had washed some of Moab's signature red dirt on to the road and turned it into snot. All we could do was just aim the cars straight and let them surf through. It was getting dark enough that a bit of local knowledge of the road helped considerably. By the time we arrived in Moab, the cars were totally encrusted in dirt. Mike offered to buy me dinner in exchange for the fun I had playing on his car, so a group of us went out in a pickup leaving the Se7ens behind.

We got back and there was lightning everywhere. A group of the drivers were standing under the car port in front of reception where I'd left my car and it was obvious that truly massive amounts of rain was falling all around. A number of folks offered me space in their rooms so I ended up crashing with Ben from Rocky Mountain Sports Cars. While we were hanging out in the lobby and talking about cars (really!), the rainstorm outside turned completely biblical in proportion. The decision to stay was a good one!

After a dry early morning run home, I was able to vibrate in to work. It's too bad I had to leave the group as they're a fun bunch and have some great days ahead of them. Maybe I'll have to head over to Europe for one of their tours someday.

So, what have I decided I "need" to do after looking at these cars? A lower windscreen for sure. Possibly some sort of different front suspension setup as well - I love the clean, light design of the Caterham control amrs but my shocks are not the right dimensions. They'd work as a pushrod setup, though. That would be sexy and might not cost much more than putting on 500 lb springs like Heikki has done. I might also run a smaller radiator to lighten the front end because my cooling system is total overkill right now. Another suggestion was to cover my exposed timing belt given the amount of debris that ricochets around the engine bay - good plan. Also some more bracing for the front suspension. Heck, maybe just cut the nose of the car off and re-engineer that whole thing!

I have to say the group was extremely welcoming to my weird little one-off car. They were really interested in the Miata engine and it was thoroughly inspected by everyone who got a chance - some of the underhood wiring that resulted from the throttle body swap was embarassing! Even Ben from Rocky Mountain was welcoming despite my cut-price version of one of their cars, consistent with how he and Nathan have treated me since I started this project.
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Se7ens invade the Sonic!
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Se7ens descend on the FM shop for various fettling.
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Caterham art by Simon Bell.
The blank canvas can be seen in the previous picture.
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Mike in his RST V8 Caterham after enjoying the roads in Moab.
Paved roads.
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The Seven meets a Caterham SV!
They look more alike than I had expected. Yes Eric, I really need to make a grille.
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Seven and SV from the rear.
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The most obvious difference between my car and a Caterham is the placement of the scuttle.
The steering wheel is in approximately the same place on both cars. This explains why my engine appears so much further back than the Caterhams and why a Caterham shift knob always appears to be so far forward. Due to the rearward placement, the scuttle is wider and this is one reason my windshield looks tall. Despite appearances, the wheelbase is almost identical.
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The result of driving to and from Moab.
My poor car. Remember how shiny and nice it looked a year ago?
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The world's first adobe roll bar.
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