build diary

July 24, 2006:
A perfect Seven day at the track.
I was at Pueblo Motorsports Park again. It's the closest "big track" even though it's 5 hours and a couple of 10,000' passes away. I haven't been there with the Seven for a long time. Three other Se7ens showed up: Ben and Nathan from Rocky Mountain Sports Cars with a familiar SV, a Superlight R with a fresh Zetec engine and a pukka Lotus Seven Series 3 with a Ford crossflow. A couple of Porsche 911s came out to play and of course there was a large selection of Miatas because it was a Miata club day.

I went out with my girlfriend Janel to help her get comfortable in her little supercharged Miata. Bill and I were sharing the Seven in exchange for towing duties, so he jumped in the Seven. It was a long time before I saw him come back in! When he got out, I asked how he liked it. He was grinning so hard he couldn't answer. Okay, that's a good sign.

I went out in the Seven and found myself chasing my friend Josh in his modified WRX. He's the closest car to me on the kart track but we figured that the long straight at Pueblo would give him a good advantage. I tucked in behind him on the tighter section of the track, got a good drive off the last corner on to the straight and then drafted him all the way down. All he could see was my visor and all I could see was a huge black car. It was a good tow, I went in to the first corner pretty quickly! I stayed glued to his tail for several laps until he waved me by. He had to lift to let me past on the straight, but as soon as we hit the corners I started to put a fair bit of distance on him. It surprised both of us, actually. By the time we got back to the front straight he was pretty much gone from my mirrors. I can report that it's a lot of fun following a WRX on the track. The car heels over, sets into a drift and then sits there all the way through the corner. Meanwhile, he could hear me on the gas behind him out of the tight corners even before he'd started to accelerate. I took Josh for a ride in the Seven and he was quite impressed with the immediacy of the little critter.

As soon as I got away from the WRX, I caught sight of the SV and the Superlight up ahead. Thanks to some well-placed Miatas slowing them down, I was soon right on their tails. The next few laps were a riot. The SV waved me by on the next lap and I went to work chasing the Superlight. He wasn't hanging around. It was piloted by a good clean driver and running some good tires. I was able to hang with him down the straight (to everybody's surprise) and through most of the course. His speed on turn 1, a very fast sweeper, proved to be too much for me and he'd take some distance. Turn 2 is my weak point on the track so he'd gain a little more room as well as on the exit from the hairpin at turn 7. But overall, the cars were close enough that it was fun playtime. We were pulling 110 mph on the front straight, about the same as I'd seen when drafting the Subaru. The SV was dropping behind a bit on the straight - interesting, as this is the same car I'd been running with in Aspen. Every lap we'd catch a Miata (or three) and pass on the back straight, triple-teaming the poor cars. I'm going to relive this session in my head many times. We had a great time playing. I'd always wanted the Seven to be not just quick, but truly fast and world-class. I think I'm there.

Every time I was out of the Seven, Bill was in it. He had some memorable dices with a few cars and really bonded with the little booger. Every time I turned my back the car was scooting out of the pits to go chase something. Every time I'd pull into the pits, Bill would be walking towards me with his helmet in hand. I think there's going to be another lightweight car in the Flyin' Miata stable eventually! He even got comfortable with the brakes - he discovered that while they take a bit of a push, the car just hauls down and stops without wheel lockup problems.

I had one graphic illustration of how I'd become used to the Seven. After spending all day in the little car, I jumped into Janel's Miata to chase the WRX and Mark in his Miata. We powered out of the pits, into turn 1...and I think I scared Janel. All of my inputs were met with weight transfer, body movement and sliding tires where the Seven would simply do what I asked and get on with it. This isn't a stock Miata, either, but one with suspension work and decent tires. I don't think I've ever pushed that Miata quite that hard before and I did get in a little trouble with the owner because of it. Especially when I took "the Seven line" though the hairpin and came out sideways with smoking tires! No harm done and they're my tires anyhow!

The Caterham and Lotus owners were very welcoming, even if the Superlight driver (in good humor) "refused to be passed by a Locost". There wasn't really much danger of that, as the Locost was simply trying to keep up! They assumed I'd done something to the motor due to my improved straight line speed. I can't really explain it, but the Superlight had just been dynoed at 158 wheel hp while I have about 145. It's also supposed to be under 1100 lbs while I'm carrying at least 200 lbs more. I did have my windscreen off and have a less aerodynamically messy roll cage than the Superlight, which also did not have a windscreen. The handling of my car was definitely improved since the last big track test and I suspect I might have carried a couple of mph on to the straight that the Superlight didn't. Still, his approach to turn 1 had me wondering if his brake lights were actually working! His speed there had to be seen to be believed. We had a lot of fun and I think Bill got the chance to run in close company with them as well.

The car behaved perfectly all day, despite being on the track constantly. I checked fluids at midday and everything was good, so we just had to keep dumping gas into the tank. It was one of the fastest cars there running with the big boys. Nothing fell off, nothing overheated and every driver and passenger in the car had a good time. That's what I built the little thing for!
entry 1268

Can you see my grin through the helmet? Chasing the Superlight R down the front straight.
entry 1269
It looks like a drag strip because it is a drag strip.
The SV falling slightly behind on the front straight at Pueblo, but all I'm looking at is a green target.
entry 1270

July 26, 2006:
I just found out there's a video on Streetfire showing the Seven from trackside.
It's from the track day back in April and I'm guessing it's from one of the sessions when I was running about 1:04, although it might actually be a warm-up or cool-down lap. It starts at the top of the back straight, runs through the chicane, through the 180 at the bottom and then back up the hill. It's surprising to see the rear of the car bounce coming through the chicane. I don't remember that, although it could be that I hit the one berm harder than usual. On a fast lap, the car flirts with the rev limiter on both of the short straights here. The speed coming into the last corner in this video is actually how I judge a lap - if I hit the limiter before the berm, I'm on pace.

Jon Winterhalter sent me a link to some build photos. This is the $2500 car from the Car and Driver article and the photos focus on the metal shaping aspect of the build. I've also received a few photos of the GRM Locost that was a sister car to mine. You wouldn't know it from seeing the car now, though. It's obviously a track-only beast and it looks really good.

Just for interest's sake, I did a little counting. I've used the word "fun" 128 times in this build diary so far. "Boring" was used once, in reference to wiring. I think that's a good ratio. On that note, I'm off to Canada for a couple of weeks before diving back into preparing for the Flyin' Miata open house and the track day that is involved. We'll have a couple of Lotus Elises and hopefully a Lotus Seven S3 in attendance, so this will be fun stuff.
entry 1271

The ex-GRM Locost today.
It's fairly obviously a pure racer these days. Nice cage!
entry 1272
From what I can spot, the changes in the ex-GRM car include trimmed rear fenders, a front sway bar, the louvered hood, a nose spoiler, a different exhaust from the original CMC design and a few touches like a nicely integrated mirror and a small steering wheel.
The tail lights are round trailer lights for brakes only and the fuel tank is a fairly small one in the original location. I know the engine is now a high-compression unit as well. It should be quick, that's for sure.
entry 1273

August 8, 2006:
Car and Driver has put the Locost article up on their website now that the issue is off the newstand.
It's the same as the printed copy with one nice difference - a gallery of photos from the tests. There's some redundancy and obviously the best were picked for publication, but it's still a good look at the artistry of Chris's car, the stunning bodywork of Jon's and the madness of Mark's.

There's a new member of the family coming. My friend and Miata guru Bill Cardell put in the order for a Miata-based Westfield today. It's not a big surprise after his reaction at the track a couple of weeks ago. This is going to be fun. We'll try installing the larger 1.8 diff and it's going to be very interesting to see how Westfield approached the car. Once it's up and running, we'll probably end up installing some truly ridiculous horsepower. Well, you have to.

Apparently Kit Car magazine has a feature on the Southwest Se7ens Fest. I haven't seen it yet.
entry 1274

August 9, 2006:
I picked up a copy of the September Kit Car mgazine.
It's a good article about the Southwest Se7ens Fest in general and about the four Locosts in particular. We are called "a semi-mythical kit car, sort of the unicorn of handbuilt autos." In the US kit car world with the overwelming popularity of a few models, I can see the logic in that statement even though it made me chuckle at first. The author (Harold Pace) was very kind to me, bestowing the title of "guru of the Locost concept". I don't think I'd go that far myself, but it's still flattering. I do know that Harold has some good photos of my car hidden away, I'll have to see if I can get copies of a few from him. He also captured the reactions of most people to the various cars that showed up without the distraction of instrumented testing.

Meanwhile, the track day at the Flyin' Miata Open House is approaching in a bit over a week. This will mark the second anniversary of the Seven's track christening. Two years ago, I was thrashing away and changing the transmission and chasing fuel problems at the last minute. This year, I'll clean the car and give it a quick check. How times change. Speaking of times, I've also taken 6.2 seconds off my lap time at the track since that first outing and 2.2 seconds since the event last year. It's almost all due to the car setup.
entry 1275

August 10, 2006:
I've been watching a TV series called "A Race Car is Born".
It's basically 90 minutes of a Westfield being assembled - sounds mind-numbing, but the host is pretty entertaining without being idiotic - and then 90 minutes of how you can use it. It certainly illustrates the differences between a homebuilt or low-end frame and a proper kit, that's for sure. At one point, the host is explaning that the difficult part in mounting the steering rack is sliding the clamps over a rubber bushing. In my case, I had to shorten the rack and housing, build the rack mounts and lengthen the tie rods. Somehow, slipping the clamps over the rubber bushings doesn't stick out in my mind! There are some nice tips in it though and I've picked up a couple of tricks already. The program doesn't seem to be readily available right now other than in a massive digital file surreptitiously traded online.

One program that is available is Top Gear's Caterham challenge. Definitely more entertainment than education, but the fact that they actually get the car to the self-propelled stage in time is impressive. That one is on YouTube.
entry 1276

August 14, 2006:
I was wrong about the name of the series.
It's actually "A Racing Car is Born". My mistake. It's available for purchase from Mark Evan's own website and a few others, but only in the PAL format. Those in North America have to resort to online pirated versions. Thanks to Michael Neisius and Jared Seymour for the information.

I took the Seven out this weekend to show it to my friend Werner from Germany. He's very familiar with my long-term obsession with these little cars and he's a fan of small, light cars. I wanted him to get a good idea of what the car was like so we headed out to the track near the end of the day. It usually gets pretty quiet at that point in the day, and with a little sweet talking we had the track to ourselves. It was good fun, running both forwards and backwards around the track. It's the first time I've ridden shotgun in the car with a quick driver and it's a pretty interesting experience. Also in the "interesting" category was the throttle sticking open twice when Werner was driving. No harm done, but it was odd. I've only had that happen once before when part of the mechanism was binding. That piece has been removed, however, and it's not shown any signs of similar problems before. I found a small cotterpin that seemed to be hanging up if you moved the throttles just right so hopefully the problem is gone.

After a few "sessions", the car started showing a high idle and blowing some oil smoke when starting from a stop. Hang on, I've seen this before. I pulled the PCV valve out and it was broken and hollowed out - the exact same problem that I'd seen in Texas! This is truly bizarre, as we've never seen one of these break in a Miata and now I've done it twice in two months. Is it the heat? Unlikely, as turbo Miatas do a pretty good job at generating heat. Vibration? Possibly. Physical contact with something? I don't think so, as the valve goes into a baffled part of the valve cover and that's all stock. Annoying? Oh yes. I've replaced it with a brand new Mazda part intended for the 323 GTX so there shouldn't be any question of reliability now. We'll see what happens at the Open House.

The Flyin' Miata Westfield now has a website. It might look familiar if you know this one! I'll be helping to build this one. We'll see what there is to learn from a "professional" kit.
entry 1277

A broken PCV valve compared to a brand new factory unit from a 323 GTX.
Why did my other one break - again?
entry 1278

August 15, 2006:
The Seven is all ready for the Open House.
A new PCV valve solved all the running problems. In fact, the magnitude of the change makes me wonder if it's been malfunctioning for a while. Regular PCV valve checks will now be on the maintenance list. On top of replacing the valve, I also gave the car a polish. It was covered in dirt, mud and chunks of tire. The patina shows that it is not simply a show car, but it still looks better clean. There's still plenty of patina to go around.
entry 1279

August 16, 2006:
I'm giving Werner a helping hand with the belts before we head out on to the track.
entry 1280
Tire smoke? Unlikely.
I think it's dust because I'm taking a very late apex this time around and I'm off the clean line. The car doesn't brake quite as well with two people, you see...
entry 1281
Going backwards on the track, this is a heavy braking zone.
But not a straight braking zone. This makes life, umm, interesting. The car deals with it well, showing no signs of upset. The driver, on the other hand, does get a little nervous.
entry 1282

August 20, 2006:
The Flyin' Miata Open House is over.
After this track day, I think there are a few more people interested in the Westfield kits!

Two years ago at the Open House, a driver named John Hunter with a turbo Miata set the fastest time of the day, 2.3 seconds ahead of anyone else and three seconds ahead of the Seven. It was a heck of a performance. He missed last year, but he was back this year and there had been a certain amount of smack talk. The difference? Two years of work on my part. Since we'd decided to run the track backwards, I didn't really have much of a home field advantage. My 10 laps or so in the reverse direction weren't much when I was up against a good autocross competitor.

The first time out, I couldn't get the back of the car to stick. It was walking all over the place under power. Very exciting for the photographers, but not a fast way around. I pulled a 1:04.260, John came in at 1:05.542. The karters say the track is 1 second slower in this direction.

The next session, John dropped a second and came in at 1:04.511. Thankfully, I managed almost the same improvement and clocked 1:03.516. That's only 2 tenths off my record in the normal direction, so maybe it's not any slower after all.

I did have a bit of a secret weapon, though. There was a lineup of people waiting for rides, so I was out with other groups with a passenger fairly often. The handling of the car is quite different with a passenger as you might expect, but it did let me spend a bit more time playing with the line in a couple of corners - particularly the fun off camber, decreasing radius, downhill "straight" with the heavy braking zone at the end. It's a real gut check every time. After one passenger ride, I decided my tires were making too much noise. This is usually a sign of low pressure on these tires, so I checked them out. Their hot temperatures were similar to what I usually set cold! Now, this is a fairly fundamental piece of setup and not something I should have been neglecting. The car has been so bulletproof recently that I haven't even bothered to check them for some time. I stuffed another 7 psi or so into the tires to see what would happen, and went out with the clocks running.

Much better. Session three caused a certain amount of excitement, as I came in with a 1:03.002. The timer came out to let me know in person - so close to a 1:02! And also a new track record regardless of direction. I'd been experiencing fuel starvation when pulling out of hard left turns so that was hurting me somewhat. John pulled off another half second, dropping to 1:04.095. There wasn't any secret to our very friendly contest either, with everyone in the pits checking times when we came in. In the next session with a full tank of gas, a poor setup on the entrance to the critical back section of the track was leading to much oversteer and a loss of entry speed. The times got about a half second slower.

While running with passengers, I once pulled out on the track in front of a 270 hp Miata that was halfway down the straight. The Seven was able to squirt away quickly enough that he didn't get slowed down. In fact, he was able to take a second off his time because he was motivated to give chase! A couple of other memorable moments occurred when I ran up behind one of my friends. First Don in his S2000 got drafted around the track, then later I latched on to the same WRX I'd been harassing a few weeks back. I was on a cool-down lap, he was on one of his flying timed laps - but that didn't stop me from taking a good look at his back bumper for most of a lap. It's fun running on the track with these guys, as they enjoy this sort of thing as much as I do and we trust each other enough to do it.

Back to the competition. On the final session of the day - at least, the final session when I was running solo - I concentrated on my entry to the back. I came in slower and was very careful to keep the back end planted on acceleration. My reward? 1:02.471. A new track record and one that floored everyone including myself. The car (and the driver) isn't perfect and there's more room left, but it was enough to make John cry uncle. He ended with a 1:03.713, a spectacular time when you consider the next-fastest car was again over two seconds behind. It was a very fun race. The next morning, I was sore from all the driving. That's a good sore.
entry 1283

August 21, 2006:
Hard at work on the track.
Again. Lots of braking here, but the car's nice and flat.
entry 1284
The most interesting corner on the track - heavy braking heading into a slow hairpin.
The Seven did just what I asked it to, but you can see the suspension working hard here. After looking at the pictures, it might be time to do a little more investigation on rear alignment. Or maybe just take my own advice and pull out the pyrometer.
entry 1285
Passenger rides!
Skip Cannon out for a few laps. He was definitely enjoying himself based on the way he was hollering out loud after that tricky and fast braking zone. He's currently working on a Caterham SV powered by a turbo Miata motor, so he's extra-motivated to get it done now. Skip's been waiting for two years for this ride.
entry 1286
Harassing my friend Don in his S2000.
entry 1287
Zoom.
I like this picture because of the sense of speed.
entry 1288
<< | show individual entries | >>