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I was planning to post this a little later, but there's enough activity going on I figured I'd forget if I didn't start logging it here.
About 2.5 Years ago, I sold my Caterham Classic to fund the purchase of our house. I'd always loved the Caterham, but I'd lusted after an original Lotus 7 to do some Vintage Racing.
Last June I had the opportunity to fly out to Dallas to look at a 1963 Lotus Super 7 S2 Vintage Race Car.
Here are the specs as purchased:
1963 Lotus 7 S2 with additional triangulation
Crowther Racing Engines Built Pre-Crossflow: Dry Sump, Dual Weber 40's, MSD ignition
3.9 Rear end with Quaife LSD (spare 3.5 with Quaife ready to bolt on)
Quaife Dog-Box Transmission
1008 pounds
2 sets of Minilites (1 set magnesium)
Extras: Full Interior and weather gear, 1700cc long rebuilt, baffled pan, spare axle among lots of other spares.
It was owned by a gentleman in his 70's that could no longer go vintage racing. He had owned the car since 1988 and had driven it a little on the street, but mostly it was a race car. I was told it had been in an accident in 2004 (not surprising since it had been a race car) and had been totally rebuilt over the course of 3 years. Due to the large number of spares and the heavy spare long block, I couldn't find anyone willing to ship it for me.
I inspected the car, made a deal, grabbed a rental truck and trailer, removed all the bodywork (to minimize stone chips), loaded it up and headed over to a friend's place right outside of Dallas. I had planned to do a 2 day, 1800 mile drive so I could minimize the time away from work.
I set off from Dallas and made my way across Hwy 40 without any problem until I started to smell anti-freeze at the texas/new mexico border. I pulled over and had a look, but couldn't find any coolant leak, so I kept on. I drove a while, but the smell kept getting stronger and stronger. It turns out the heater core was soaking the car cover I'd set in the passenger footwell. There was nowhere to stop, so I kept on (hoping for the best) until I got to Albuquerque at about 8pm. I had only covered about 700 miles, so I figured it was going to turn into a 3 day trip. I called the rental company to have the truck fixed the next morning, but since it was a Sunday nobody was around to fix it. They sub-contracted a mechanic that looked like he was from the cast of breaking bad to come out and take a look, but a new heater core was 2-3 days away. Luckily, I was able to convince them to bypass the heater core and I was on my merry way. I left Albuquerque around 10AM and was able to drive straight through 1100 miles to San Jose where I arrived at 4am Monday morning and unloaded the car. I did get up at 7am for work on Monday morning and made it all the way through the workday.
I'll post more in the next few days...
About 2.5 Years ago, I sold my Caterham Classic to fund the purchase of our house. I'd always loved the Caterham, but I'd lusted after an original Lotus 7 to do some Vintage Racing.
Last June I had the opportunity to fly out to Dallas to look at a 1963 Lotus Super 7 S2 Vintage Race Car.
Here are the specs as purchased:
1963 Lotus 7 S2 with additional triangulation
Crowther Racing Engines Built Pre-Crossflow: Dry Sump, Dual Weber 40's, MSD ignition
3.9 Rear end with Quaife LSD (spare 3.5 with Quaife ready to bolt on)
Quaife Dog-Box Transmission
1008 pounds
2 sets of Minilites (1 set magnesium)
Extras: Full Interior and weather gear, 1700cc long rebuilt, baffled pan, spare axle among lots of other spares.
It was owned by a gentleman in his 70's that could no longer go vintage racing. He had owned the car since 1988 and had driven it a little on the street, but mostly it was a race car. I was told it had been in an accident in 2004 (not surprising since it had been a race car) and had been totally rebuilt over the course of 3 years. Due to the large number of spares and the heavy spare long block, I couldn't find anyone willing to ship it for me.
I inspected the car, made a deal, grabbed a rental truck and trailer, removed all the bodywork (to minimize stone chips), loaded it up and headed over to a friend's place right outside of Dallas. I had planned to do a 2 day, 1800 mile drive so I could minimize the time away from work.
I set off from Dallas and made my way across Hwy 40 without any problem until I started to smell anti-freeze at the texas/new mexico border. I pulled over and had a look, but couldn't find any coolant leak, so I kept on. I drove a while, but the smell kept getting stronger and stronger. It turns out the heater core was soaking the car cover I'd set in the passenger footwell. There was nowhere to stop, so I kept on (hoping for the best) until I got to Albuquerque at about 8pm. I had only covered about 700 miles, so I figured it was going to turn into a 3 day trip. I called the rental company to have the truck fixed the next morning, but since it was a Sunday nobody was around to fix it. They sub-contracted a mechanic that looked like he was from the cast of breaking bad to come out and take a look, but a new heater core was 2-3 days away. Luckily, I was able to convince them to bypass the heater core and I was on my merry way. I left Albuquerque around 10AM and was able to drive straight through 1100 miles to San Jose where I arrived at 4am Monday morning and unloaded the car. I did get up at 7am for work on Monday morning and made it all the way through the workday.
I'll post more in the next few days...
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