Ownership Verified: We can rebuild it... we have the technology (7 - take two)

ParentMask01.jpg
 
MOT'd today :) Same story repeated, the first guy didn't fit, they had to find a smaller one for a test drive. Went through with flying colors though. One comment was about the lack of speedo (and therefore odometer) so he couldn't write down the mileage :p

The other car purchase has been stealing my attention lately, so I only had a chance to drive the 7 a couple of times during last 2 weeks (#firstworldproblems?). The windshield is on now, but I'm planning to fashion an air deflector out of polycarbonate, and I bough a sheet already. And I guess I have to start preparing for the ringmeet/trip. Less than 3 weeks left!

Panic mode on.
 


He walked away from it without injuries....put a cage in yours. :)




crash1-2.jpg


crash2-2.jpg


crash3-2.jpg


crash4-2.jpg


crash5-2.jpg
 
"He's spinning and has come to an abrupt halt!"

*continues tumbling for another 10 seconds*
 
Roadtrip preparations.. Trying to take as few chances as possible this time.

Changed oil and filter, changed cooling fan switch, refilled the joint where exhaust headers meet the collector with exhaust paste (old stuff blew off and now left side of the car looks a bit black), checked EVERY bolt in front and rear suspension for tightness, changed alternator belt, refilled trunnions with fresh oil*, topped up diff oil, took apart rear brakes for inspection, changed front left wheel bearing (yes, D-Fence, I used a safety pin!).

To do for tomorrow: Change right front wheel bearing, change rear left wheel hub nut and put the new one on with glue, vent the cooling system. I would like to change the brake fluid, but I'd need to recruit someone to pump the pedal, will see.

All the parts I'm changing are not necessarily bad, doing it just in case, will take old parts with me to have spares. This time I also have a bunch random spare bushes, cables, brakepads etc.

But that's just mechanical, there lots other things to do before leaving. But I do still have Monday ;)



* Instead of a ball joint, the wheel is attached with this at the bottom:

Bolt points down and is screwed in to the funny brass joint. The bolt is prone to snapping, so this design hasn't been used after live-axle cars. Anyway, It has a grease nipple. But it must be filled with OIL! Imagine using a grease gun to deliver thin oil. Yes, it was everywhere.
 
Last edited:
As you may or may not know, after a slight encounter with the tunnel wall in Alps the geometry of the suspension was altered a bit:


(Adrian's pic)

And look what the postman brought today!



Still running the spare tyre though, haven't gotten around to order a new one yet.
 
Last edited:
Yay, finally! Took them a few more days than I expected. I planned on asking you today when I got home.. I guess thats redundant now :D

Oh and btw: Picture actually taken by me :p. I was the paparazzi at the crashsite :mrgreen:
 
OK, this is a very silly question:

Is the 7 as fun (and scary) to drive as the Caterham in GT5 or the "Caterham" in LFS?
 
In my opinion - neither game simulates the feel.

In GT5 it's bike-engined and feels really underwhelming (= not fun), and in LFS it's ridiculously twitchy (= scary) as far as I remember.

It's much easier and more rewarding in real life IMO. The very fast steering and ridiculous amount of grip really makes you feel like a super driver (doesn't make you one, as my track record shows :p). Sure, when it wants to spin, it does it a lot quicker than the massive BMW, but I never actually had any problems with oversteer, unlike in LFS.
 
Thanks for answering.

Owning one has been in my plans since childhood. Hope one day I actually manage to do it! :lol:
 
It's probably a lot softer in real life than majority of setups in LFS. I bet LFS would be pretty close to the real thing if you would set it up with similar settings.
 
geeman said:
It's probably a lot softer in real life than majority of setups in LFS. I bet LFS would be pretty close to the real thing if you would set it up with similar settings.
Click to expand...

Yep, one of the first thing I hear from people when giving them a ride, is how the good the ride actually is. The trick is that you don't need rock hard suspension for a light car :)
 
I remember saying something like that :D

I know Lotus' trademark has always been good ride and nice amount of wheel travel, but I was still surprised :)
 


This is one of the bolts that hold the lid of the silencer. I needed to take them out to repack the silencer, old stuff has burned out pretty much.

This bolt has M6 thread and 3/16 inches allen head. Facepalm.
 
Not sure I see the problem. Except for hex-head on a car, which is in general a silyl thing, I still don't see the problem you seem to face :D.
 
It's not a problem, I'll replace all bolts with fully metric ones. But I've never encountered a bolt before which used both imperial and metric measures.
 
MXM said:
But I've never encountered a bolt before which used both imperial and metric measures.
Click to expand...

You're still new to this British engineering thing aren't you? :p

Rumour has it that there are one or more Whitworth bolts on the Discovery somewhere, along with the usual mix of metric and imperial.
 
I always thought it was done because of the mix of american and british spares during the war, so much intermixing that this was inevitable and often
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top