First of many trips to the Depatment of Motor Vehicles ...
Today's the day I make my first trip down to the DMV to start the registration process. I make an apointment and stand in line until it
is my turn. This doesn't take long.
Then the conversation with the clerk goes something like this ...
Me : "Hi, I would like to register my kit car please, here is all the paperwork".
Clerk : "Who is the manufacturer?"
Me : "It's a kit. The kit was made by Caterham Cars, and I put it together."
Clerk : "Cater... who?"
Me : "Caterham cars - It's a British kit car manufacturer." - ( Big mistake mentioning Britain)
Clerk : "Oh. So it's an out of state car. How many miles does it have on it?"
Me : "Ummmmm. Zero. I just made it."
Clerk : "Well in that case you can't register the car in California. All out of state vehicles must have
at least 7500 miles on the clock before you can register them."
Luckily I knew about this law and proceeded to try and explain to the clerk that this law did not apply to my car because it was a newly manufactured car that had not been previously registered in any state. Unfortunately, this didn't go down too well with the clerk who proceeded to issue me with a leaflet covering the said law and sent me on my way. So, with nothing better to do I read the leaflet. Just about the first sentence says something like "This only applies to cars previously registered in another state or country. It does not apply to first time registrations.". Armed with the leaflet, I got back in line. I was almost at the front and about to deliver my rebuttle, when a voice called out "Can I help you sir?". Fearing that I would go through the whole thing again with another clerk I tried to ignore them, but they were quite insistent. Off I went. This time, as soon as I uttered the phrase "Kit Car", they exclaimed "Oooh! It's a KIT car!" and proceeded to dust off an immense tome that obviously only gets referred to once in a blue moon.
45 minutes later, and $450 down, I had a sticky label to put in the windscreen of my car to say that I could legally drive on the highways of the State of California - albeit only until the end of May - I was ecstatic. I could finally take it out for a drive!
General comments
Failures
I guess there always has to be some infant mortality - and I was lucky that everything was minor. Here are some things that went
wrong with the car.
First Service
I really made an effort to baby the engine for the first 500 miles. I generally kept the rev's under 3500rpm and made sure the
engine never laboured. I was rewarded with an engine that continues to get more and more quiet as time passes. Something else that
improves with age is the exhaust. It mentions in the guide that the silencer improves with age, but I didn't appreciate how much.
When you first run the car, it sounds loud and harsh. Very "tinny" and not very sporty sounding. After a while, the exhaust note
develops into a rich, deep, mellow growl when you open the throttle. Very satisfying.
Pacific Coast Dream Machines Show in Half Moon Bay
I had not heard of this show, but Guy had been many times and suggested that we get as many Sevens together that we could and display our cars "en mass". In the end, we mannaged 3 Sevens, a Westfield Seight and a "Rotus". The later 2 are Seven look-alikes, but we figured they qualified ;)
It was a really great day out - though we all got a little sun-burned. The show is open not only to cars, but basically anything mechanical that moves or makes a noise. There were steam engines, tractors, aeroplanes, helicopters, motorbikes - even a cement mixer! There is also an arena stageing various events throughout the day. If you are at all interested in things of a mechanical nature, I would recommend you go. If you do - look out for the Sevens!
Below is a picture of me and my Seven at the show.
Note the red "5" sticker in the window. This is the temporary moving permit.
Registration!
Yes, it finally happened, though it took 6 months for me to finally do it. The main problem is that nobody knows what to do, or at least not well enough to give you clear instructions. So you end up making about 6 or 7 (I lost count) visits to the DMV, each time thinking "this is it!", only to be told that there is something else you need to do. In order to save other people some time, I have compiled this breif list of the things you need to do ...
After all this, I finally got my plates : 4MDN 714
Custom plates
Today I picked up my "Environmental" licence plates. They have the "Whale Tail" background and the car is now registered as :
ITS A 7
It is the answer to the question I am most frequently asked!!
Track Day at Thunderhill
I'll write about this disaster one day ...
For now - just know this : NEVER take a Seven to a wet race track.
CRASH!
Today, some idiot in a pickup reversed into my car, destroying the front left cycle wing and bending the wing stay.
Despite repeatedly sounding my horn and shouting and despite the fact that had he bothered to look in his
mirrors he would have seen me - he still kept reversing !!! - DOH !!!
Anyway, he admitted it was his fault and apollogised profusely, but only after he realised he didn't have a leg to stand on.
The very first words out of his mouth were "What? Did I hit you ?". I saw a loss assesor on the 2nd July and a
check should arrive presently ...
Clutch Cable Capers
Well, it had to happen some time I guess. With nearly 10,000 miles on the clock, I had my first major mechanical
failure - the clutch cable snapped. I was on my way home, changed gear and there was a very loud BANG as my
foot went straight to the floor. It's at times like these that you really appreciate the Seven's low rolling friction.
I had enough momentum to carry me left through the next intersection and pull up safely by the side of the road about
50 yards from the intersection. Had it been any other car, I doubt I would have made it across the intersection.
Embarrassed to be stranded, I waited patiently by the side of the road until the break-down truck arrived. I was only
about 3 miles from home, so it didn't take long to get back.
The most embarrasing part of the ordeal - however - came the next day. Since I use my car to commute to work, I worked
feaverishly through the night to epoxy the end of the cable on to a make-shift pull ring that I could attach to the
pedal until the proper part came in. Inspecting the joint in the morning, it looked like the epoxy had done the job.
I was mistaken! Would you believe it failed again at exactly the same intersection?!? Not only that, but it was
the same guy who picked me up !!
I learned my lesson. I had my wife take me to work until the replacement cable arrived.
Accelerator cable excitement
It was a fine Fall day. One of those cool but clear days with a layer of broken cloud. I decided it would be nice to
drive up to the Lick Observatory on the top of Mount Hamilton. I hadn't been in a while, so I looked forward to it.
As I climbed the mountain, I noticed that in addition to me going up the mountain, the clouds seemed to be coming down.
When I got to the top, the base of the now thick layer of cloud was almost exactly at the height of the observatory.
Not wishing to have to drive down in the cloud, I only stayed breifly. Apart from the person in the gift shop,
I was the only person up there. I got back in my car and turned the key.
The engine sprang quickly into life as it
normally does, and then pegged the tacho at about 7500rpm (red-line is at 6000) !!! "What the *&^$#!!!!" I screamed
and turned the ignition off. Fearing I had just witnessed the death of my engine, I then spent the next few minutes
- with the clouds coming down - trying to figure out what had just happened. The accelerator cable hadn't actually
snapped - it had frayed. When I pumped the pedal before starting the engine as I always do, I had inadvertently
pulled the frayed end of the cable to the point where it wouldn't go back in the hole when the pedal was released.
The result was as if I had my foot all the way to the floor. With no load, the engine had run-away to some - thankfully
non-destructive - limit. Getting down the mountain was no problem - I simply coasted most of the way. It was quite fun.
Getting accross town at the bottom was not so much fun. I had to set the accelerator so that idle was at about 4,500rpm
and then make the car go by only using the clutch and gears. I could just about make it up to 30mph.
Pressure relief
Following a tip I found on a web site, I fitted an in-line fuel pressure regulator from Spectre Industries today.
I set the pressure to 2psi. I have always had the impression that there was something wrong with the supply of
fuel to the engine. I had always thought it was simply that I had the wrong jettings in my carburettors or some
such incorrect configuration. The symptoms were bogging down on acceleration at low rpm and poor fuel economy.
Then I learned that DCOE Weber carb's don't like having too much fuel pressure. Under high fuel pressure conditions
they tend to flood and you get bogging and poor mileage.
I am pleased to report that the bogging has now all but gone and I now get 1 to 2 more mpg than I used to, which -
when the mileage was about 19mpg - is about a 5% - 10% increase !! I would recommend fitting a fuel pressure
regulator to anyone who has dual DCOE Weber carb's.
Track Day at Thunderhill - Take II
This time was different. I went up the night before and stayed at the Best Western Golden Pheasant Inn in Willows which is about a 10 miniute drive (legally ;) ) from the racetrack. I arrived bright and fresh at the race track and we got our breifing from the track marshals and were split into two groups - the "fast" and the "not so fast". I was in the "not so fast" group. The track day was organised by the Golden Gate Lotus Club ( www.gglotus.org ) so there were lots of other Lotus cars there. I was the only Seven though. An English guy turned up with a 340R. That car has to be seen to be believed - http://www.lotuscars.co.uk/media/340r_main_web.jpg.
Having spun off twice the last time I was there, I was very apprehensive going out. I was by far the slowest person on the track. My brother had given me a challenge before I left - "Try and beat 2:24". That's what he had managed on his sporty motorbike. My best lap in the first 20 minute session was 3:05 !!!
Having said that, I came in and looked at my tyres....
Whenever I take my car out for a drive, I look at my tyres afterward and think to myself
"Oh yes!! I've given those puppies a good workout - look at the way the rubber looks all scuffed along the edge...."
I was completely un-prepared for what I saw after I'd been round the track a few times - they had MELTED.
Now that is what I call a workout. But the best was yet to come ...
Feeling that I needed some moral support / encouragement / tuition, I asked a SCCA instructor who happened to be there if I could go for a ride in his car to see how it's done. He was only too willing to oblidge and took me out in his Honda Civic. Yes - a Honda Civic. However, this was no ordinary Civic. The interior had been gutted down to the bare metal, there was a full roll cage inside, a plumbed in extinguisher system and I suspect there were more than a few modifications in the engine compartment! Needless to say it was a fun ride!
I asked the instructor if he wanted a ride in my car to give me some pointers and maybe actually drive the car to show me what it could do - he didn't take much persuading. Just having the instructor in the car coaching me made a tremendous difference - my lap times came down to less than 2:50. Still dissapointing, but I was to find out later that that wasn't that bad. When the instructor took the wheel - my little Seven did things that I didn't think were possible. On turn 2 which is a nice, long near-constant radius curve, the instructor demonstrated the art of steering the car with the accelerator pedal! With all four wheels screeching in protest, he was able to control the direction the car was going in simply by applying more or less power - amazing. The best lap time for the instructor was about 2:45.
Me with an instuctor (I'm the one driving in the purple lid).
So, armed with my new found confidence - and by now, quite a lot of practice - I set off round the track on my own. This time I didn't let up on the accelerator, I kept the revs high round the corners and powered out. I confidently attacked the corners braking late and only by a minimal amount. Turns 10, 11, 12 and 13 were my favourites - not the fastest part of the course, but the twistiest (well, except the "cyclone", turn 5, but that's a special case!!) - and there was no-one who could catch me going through there. I screamed with delight the first time a saw someone zooming up to me on the down-hill stretch between turns 9 and 10 only to wonder where they had gone after I exited turn 13. They simply couldn't keep up. The accelerometer I had in the car consistently registered over 1.2 G going through that turn complex - exhilerating. My best lap was now 2:36! My brother's record still holds - but I was having fun. I had knocked half a minute off my own time. That was good enough for me. And as for those 2:50's I was doing with the instructor - well I found out when I took another passenger out later on that a passenger adds at least 10 seconds to the lap times! Oh - and remember I was shocked that my tyres had melted earlier in the day ? Well, I looked at them after my "hot" lap and "OH MY ***!!!". They looked like someone had taken a blow-torch to them. There were re-solidified bits of rubber that had obviously been in the process of dripping off, there were other blobs of rubber I had picked up stuck to them, there were tiny stones from the parking lot embedded in the surface. You could pull soft bits off the tyre and make permanent marks with your nail. Now I knew I had taken my car to the limit.
A week later I took the in-car footage I had shot around to my brother's house and we did a side-by-side comparison of my good lap and his good lap. It was uncanny to watch us through the bends - almost synchronous. Not surprisingly he "lost" me on the straights. All I need is a bigger engine ......
Track Day at Laguna Seca
Will write about this one day. My favourite track. Awesome day. :-)
Exiting the "Corkscrew" ...
Track Day at Laguna Seca
Will write about this one day. Culmination of the Sevens summer tour across America. Around 50 Sevens at the track at once. Amazing.
Half way round turn 2. This was during the "parade" laps, hence no helmet.
