build diary

March 14, 2005:
That was a busy weekend for the little Seven.
Saturday was spent at the Pueblo racetrack. Last time I was there it was fun but I didn't make a serious attempt to set the car up. This time, a big justification for the trip was to sort the car as well as possible.

The first foray on to the track was a little unnerving. The car didn't feel as planted as it should and never seemed to take a set. My girlfriend Janel (who supplied her Jeep as a tow vehicle again, poor girl) was along with me and started to get motion sickness after a few laps. The performance of the car shocked her. She'd been in it on the street where it is noisy, rattly and full of little zings and vibrations. Given her affinity for warmth and the recent weather, she hadn't been in the car for some time. On the track, the ferocity and violence of the car was overwhelming.

Janel was able to help out with taking some tire temperatures, though. The rears looked pretty good but the fronts indicated a lack of front camber. That's the same thing I had decided after eyeballing them in the past. After a couple of tries this was dialed in and the handling of the car was transformed. The front of the car was utterly faithful to whatever you asked while the rear would move around wherever you wanted. Even in turn one - a high speed decreasing radius sweeper - the car was completely composed. I got a big silly grin.

Other cars at the trackday included several Mazdaspeed turbo Miatas as well as a couple of aftermarket setups. The Seven was able to run away from many of them including a 2000 model with a 14 psi supercharger. The one that caught my attention was a brand new Elise, though. It was the first time the owner had taken the car to the track and he was only running about 7/10ths in the corners. I was only able to get behind him once unfortunately because he was taking people for rides and only doing a few laps at a time.

One of the high points of the day was when I was driving Flyin' Miata's modified Mazdaspeed and I tucked in behind Bill Cardell driving the Seven. We had a great time playing around. I was obviously driving his car harder than he was driving mine but neither of us was hanging around. It's fun watching the Seven move around on the track. There's a surprising amount of body roll but it works well. Bill was impressed with the amount of leg strength needed for the brakes. With the new tires, it's basically impossible to lock up the wheels. I hadn't really noticed because I'm a wuss when it comes to braking. Maybe I'll put slightly different masters on.

Mechanically, the car was almost perfect. The air filter fell off once and pulled a sensor wire off with it. That was fixed in a couple of minutes with no harm done. One of the fender stays started to crack and the fender assumed some odd angles. I've already reinforced one, this was the other. No big problem. Janel came out for a few more laps later in the day and had no more queasiness - either my driving was smoother or she was used to the car. She did notice the car was much faster.

So, a fun weekend then. Oooo, we're not done yet.

Sunday morning I was at an autocross back in Grand Junction. The Jeep was still loaded up. It's embarrassing showing up with a "trailer queen" to an autocross but hey, I'd spent the last day on the track and only been home for 9 hours! I haven't been on an autocross course in three years and it's quite a different matter running the Seven as opposed to my Miata. Even a light launch gave me a lot of wheelspin and it felt as if I'd been fired off a catapult. The runs were pretty frantic and I had a hard time getting ahead of the car instead of just reacting to it. What really impressed people was the slalom - the best part of my autocrossing has always been straight slaloms and the Seven just tore through it. It transitions cleanly due to the light weight and of course those exposed front wheels take all the guesswork out of placing the car. The Seven was mobile enough that I could dance it around fairly well. I had some good competition from a turbo Miata that was driven well and a WRX with enough power to get serious wheelspin despite four huge Hoosiers. I was worried about the Miata but my last run was fast enough to win fairly decisively. Phew - it would have been quite embarassing if I hadn't walked away with that one. A Seven is almost purpose-built for autocrossing.

A good weekend. Some new videos have been added to the site.
entry 812

The new and improved trailer setup.
It's quite possibly the easiest-loading trailer ever.
entry 813
At the track I was joined by Flyin' Miata's new Mazdaspeed.
It's, umm, not quite stock.
entry 814
While it appears the tires are showing lots of positive camber here, the tire temperatures and wear don't say so.
The shape of the rear fenders does hide the position of the rear wheels.
entry 815
Bill took the Seven out for a few laps.
He seemed to enjoy himself.
entry 816
Some happy tires at the end of the day.
entry 817
More videos have been posted!
entry 818

March 16, 2005:
I've been poring over photos of the car while cornering.
I missed a bit of information in the tire temperatures that indicates the left rear is either getting hit with exhaust heat or needs more negative camber. Photos of the car show that it could very well be the latter. Should I put in some stiffer springs? Perhaps build sway bars. Or just say "the car was working well, why mess with it?". Tough call. The car does deal very well with bumps right now and the handling is very well mannered. You can see in a couple of the videos that the corner on to the front straight of the track was really rough but the car stayed stuck to the ground. I'd still like it to be as effective as possible. I probably won't do anything to the suspension over the next couple of weeks before I go to California.

I snuck another video on to the website yesterday - it shows the speed difference between the Seven and a stock Miata. Okay, this isn't a surprise. But it's still pretty fun to watch.
entry 819

Another photo of the car cornering.
It does seem the tires aren't working as well as they should due to camber. Hmm.
entry 820

March 21, 2005:
Maybe it's psychological, but the car almost feels a little loose and rattly right now.
It's probably because I'm planning to check it over next weekend. Is the Seven a hypochrondiac? I've also decided to change the brake masters to slightly smaller sizes and soften up the pedal a bit. It's worth a try, the masters aren't expensive. I can convince the tires to lock when they're cold but these Azenis guys sure do like to grip when they're warm. Otherwise, I've been working on the book and planning the trip to California. Let's see, before I go I need to fix the cracked fender stay, see if the new tie rod ends will change the bumpsteer curve, do a nut and bolt and swap out the brake masters. Should be a good day's work.
entry 821

March 24, 2005:
The new brake master cylinder arrived today from Summit so it will go in this weekend.
Maybe even tonight if I feel like it. Hmm. There's also a chance that the GRM "Locost" will be at the track day next week. That would be really cool to see. The cars started out much the same but they diverged fairly significantly. If only I had a camera I could bring along. I'll have the video camera with me, maybe it's time to find out how good it is at taking still shots.
entry 822

March 26, 2005:
The brake masters have now been swapped.
For the life of me, I can't remember why I figured I needed staggered sizes front to rear. I stuck with the stagger and dropped both the front and rear masters by 1/8", to 7/8" and 3/4". There's definitely a lot more travel in the brake pedal now but ANY travel would been more than the old setup. It should theoretically be easier to modulate and to develop maximum braking now. We'll see, I haven't driven it yet. I also added a small heel brace to help position my foot under braking.

The fender stays are fixed, brakes are bled, a quick nut and bolt check (all good except one small fuel drip), an oil change from the running-in oil (yuk, black) and I dropped the car by one turn of the perches all the way around. Since I haven't done anything yet to increase the roll stiffness, I figured I'd lower the CG a touch.
entry 823

Brake work! A new master cylinder is bled on the bench before installation.
entry 824
A new heel brace to help with braking.
Hopefully it's in the right place!
entry 825
I had to add this particular note.
Although it looks as if I should have wet-sanded that paint first!
entry 826
It's amazing how easy it is to work on the engine here.
It's as if the whole thing is just sitting on a table.
entry 827

March 30, 2005:
The brake modifications turned out well.
There's a bit of initial movement of the pedal now (it used to feel as if you were pushing right on the firewall) and then a solid resistance. It's quite reassuring and the brakes are definitely more powerful. On the street you never notice the initial movement. This is a setup I can live with quite happily. We'll see how it goes on the track next week.

Some investigation has revealed the reason for an odd behaviour of the car. If the electric fan is running, the car will have a delay of a couple of seconds before shutting off. It turns out the fan is acting like a generator, feeding enough voltage back into the system to keep the main relay open. I deviated slightly from the factory wiring diagram on my fan wiring and this is the result. It'll be easy enough to fix if and when I decide to take the time. Right now I'm concentrating on getting ready for a long vacation in California with the car. Let's hope the weather holds.
entry 828

April 1, 2005:
I'm heading off to California.
Track day on the 4th and then a vacation. Aaaaaaah. There won't be any updates until I return - but if you happen to see an orange and silver car running around the Bay area, wave!
entry 829

I've decided to shorten the Seven's wheelbase for better agility.
entry 830

April 13, 2005:
After Rick woke me up, I managed to get the car going a bit quicker.
I like this shot. Turn 4.
entry 831

April 14, 2005:
Back from a very long road trip.
It's been a while since the car was on the track so hopefully this will all make sense. The tow out went well although it's hard to call northern Nevada terribly exciting. Things did get more exciting once we hit California, as we first got caught in a fairly major snowstorm and then had to drive through a downpour of biblical proportions to get to our hotel. I had the seats of the car wrapped in plastic to keep them dry but I could imagine all sorts of wet-butt fun the next day.

Luckily, the next day was dry. The seats had survived pretty well so the car wasn't as uncomfortable as I'd feared. The problem was that the car gave a single cough and then refused to start. This did not fill me with happy thoughts as I struggled to find the problem in front of various people who had read about the Seven or were attracted to this weird Lotus thing. The car didn't seem to have any spark. I pulled and cleaned the plugs over and over because they were getting fouled but couldn't coax more than a little stumble out of it. While I was out on the track with a student, Janel managed to find a set of used plugs from a Spec Miata racer. It's handy bringing a tall blonde along to the racetrack, people are nice to them! She's also quite happy hanging around in the sunshine in the pits. Am I lucky or what? The plugs went in, the car fired up immediately and my outlook on life became much brighter. The race tires were on the car and Janel and I headed out.

The car felt terrible. The track was still a bit cold but the tires felt as if I was driving on ice. There was almost no traction. Finally, on my second or third lap I had a major brake lock-up coming in to turn 10 and slid off the track on to the wet grass. It turns out I had the brake bias far too forward after changing the master cylinders. There was no harm done to the car, only to my confidence and ego. We headed back to the pits where I pulled the old race tires off and put the Azenis street tires back on. I also cranked in more rear bias.The race tires I was using were a set of BFG R1s that were at least 8 years old and I swore to never use them again.

Back out again on street rubber, the car was much happier. It was a little squirrely in the corners but there was grip available. I came in and talked to Rick Weldon about this. Rick is an ex-pro racer who's a good friend of mine. He's the one who taught me how to drive on the track although I would still call myself a work in progress. Anyhow, he suggested that the tires might not be quite up to full operating temperature and this is fairly normal behaviour. Since I'd always wanted to let him drive the car, we went out together. Rick proceeded to make it quite obvious that I wasn't driving anywhere near the limits of the car. I'd forgotten just how hard a car could be pushed on the track. On turn 5b, an off-camber sweeper that's reasonably quick, the tail stepped out on Rick and he just rode it out. He found out that the car was quite forgiving in this manner and then proceeded to drive sideways for the rest of our session. It was very entertaining.

Back in from that ride, I went out on my own and pushed harder. The edgy feeling went away when the tires heated up but I still wasn't fast. My driving basically fell apart and I was fairly tentative. It took a few more sessions before I came up to speed but by the end of the day I was doing pretty well. Not setting any lap records and probably slower than I've been in a Miata on the same track, but I'd made friends with the car again. I had some fun chasing down an M3 and an M Roadster and playing with the tail on the turn at the end of the back straight.

The car was flawless for the rest of the day although the exhaust was very loud. I'd blown a baffle out when the car backfired while trying to start it. The brake bias was dialed in perfectly by the time Rick drove the car although he felt the pedal was too hard. Imagine if he'd tried it earlier! The car still needs some sorting, as it oversteers at the limit and photographs show an incredible amount of body roll that's putting the wheels into positive camber. Stiffer springs are definitely in the cards. The higher speeds at Thunderhill really highlighted the lack of aerodynamics on the car as well so a lower windscreen or a wind deflector might prove worthwhile. I also want some new race tires and more power. It might turn out to be an expensive trip! The starting problem was probably a wet component that dried out, but by that point the plugs were fouled. The driver's side mirror decided it wanted freedom so it escaped on the track - I'd repaired it at one point but it was likely weakened when Rick adjusted it. He donated a set of used Spa formula car mirrors which should actually be a nice upgrade to the car.

Overall I was left a little dissatisfied. I wasn't terribly fast and while the Seven does make up for a lot, it wasn't up to the pace of well-driven Miatas on good rubber. I want the car to be all-conquering! Obviously some work on the driver is still needed but the car isn't fast like our race car is fast. I want something otherwordly.

The rest of the week was pure tourism. I did meet up with Ben Rillie who's interested in building a Seven of his own, and he showed us around Pixar where he works. Fair trade! We also visited Ted Saton who is a serial car builder, the sort that likes building the cars more than driving them. He had in his garage an oversized Seven powered by a supercharged small block Chevy. Yikes.
entry 832

Trying to get the car started at Thunderhill.
Rick Weldon tries to figure out what might be wrong while I pull the plugs again and again. Thanks to Mike Wong for the photo.
entry 833
With a running car (finally!
), I head out for my first session with my girlfriend Janel riding along. She was saying something along the lines of "Don't scare me". So I drove off the end of turn 10.
entry 834
Heading out again with tires that work.
Note the appropriate number.
entry 835
The Miata beside the Seven is a monster with about 350 hp at the rear wheels and a driver who can make full use of it.
entry 836
Out on the track.
The on-track photos were taken by gotbluemilk.com and you can see them all on their website.
entry 837
Rick Weldon shows me that the car can go much faster.
Look at the body roll, though - the inside rear is almost off the ground. This is turn 3 at Thunderhill for those who know it.
entry 838
Body roll? Nah.
Turn 3 again.
entry 839
Yuk, bugs.
I had to clean the windshield several times over the course of the day.
entry 840
The driver's side mirror snapped off.
It was last seen on the outside of turn 9.
entry 841
On the trip home, I had an extra passenger.
That's a Buick 215. No, it's not for the Seven. It's to make the trailer go faster.
entry 842
To get to Salt Lake City, you have to drive through the salt lake.
This is a little hallucenogenic if you've just finished the haul across Nevada.
entry 843
<< | show individual entries | >>