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PostPosted: February 16, 2010, 12:39 pm 
Test drove yesterday.

Well, in going from 4.5° to 8.5° of caster, the steering gets a lot heavier and the return-to-center gets a little bit better. I'm not sure it's worth it. I'd adjust it back down if it didn't take hours of measuring and adjusting, plus I should probably try it out more, especially on a track.


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PostPosted: November 9, 2010, 2:14 pm 
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Testing, testing...had to re-register.

Nothing new to report, except I've gotten used to the caster and I'm now running BFG T/A 235-60R14s on the rear. Rob a bit of hp but stick great after a longish break-in. They should last nearly forever.


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PostPosted: November 10, 2010, 1:22 pm 
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squarefour wrote:
Testing, testing...had to re-register.

Nothing new to report, except I've gotten used to the caster and I'm now running BFG T/A 235-60R14s on the rear. Rob a bit of hp but stick great after a longish break-in. They should last nearly forever.

Glad to have you back in the fold. :cheers:

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PostPosted: November 11, 2010, 1:41 pm 
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It's really nice to have a project get to where you don't have to do anything but drive it. It doesn't, however, provide much to talk about :)


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PostPosted: December 7, 2010, 3:11 pm 
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Finally got my GoPro working, so I thought I'd show the interesting bit of my regular Friday evening commute (though it doesn't seem nearly as interesting on video as it does in real life :? ):

Turn audio down, it's just crackles.

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PostPosted: May 23, 2011, 7:29 pm 
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Tore it apart to get the suspension pieces plated and to inspect stuff. It's put back together, polished up and pretty much ready for the tour in July.

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PostPosted: May 23, 2011, 7:37 pm 
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I don't think I mentioned this before, but I wish I had turned the OD down some on the 1.25x.188 tubing at the adjuster. It's sort of ridiculously beefy, but I didn't have a lathe at the time. I was reminded of this again while getting them plated.


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PostPosted: May 24, 2011, 10:31 am 
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The plating looks nice. If you don't mind me asking, how much did it set you back?

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PostPosted: May 24, 2011, 12:21 pm 
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The plating was $150 for the batch of 11 pieces.


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PostPosted: January 3, 2012, 4:28 pm 
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Oops, I forgot to update this. Better late than never.
The tour was fantastic, except for a rebuilt alternator that I had JUST put in failed on me. The old one worked ok, but had some bearing noise. Keith Tanner at Flying Miata sent a used one to the hotel two stops ahead, so I only lost two days of driving and the tour wasn't delayed (thanks to Skip's wonderful trailer).
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PostPosted: January 3, 2012, 6:56 pm 
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Please tell us some more! It's sad when our success stories just drive off into the sunset. :cheers:

How many miles have you put on your car? Anything you'd do different?

Thanks for checking back in!

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PostPosted: January 3, 2012, 7:35 pm 
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Quote:
Please tell us some more! It's sad when our success stories just drive off into the sunset.

How many miles have you put on your car? Anything you'd do different?

Thanks for checking back in!


Well one of the small problems with the car is the odometer in the Mychron is flakey, so I don't know exactly how many miles I've put on it. I'm guessing close to 30,000. I just got a cheap hour meter so i know when to change the oil and timing belt.
Other than that...
I followed the book instructions and put the tranny output and axle input horizontal, when I now know I should have angled the tranny down a bit, and the axle up, to improve ujoint life. They've lasted this long, though, knock wood.
Most would say I overdid it a bit on the rear weight bias, but I dunno.
I do wish I'd changed the front main seal while the engine was out of the car, and/or sealed the floor seams, so that greasy goo doesn't slowly get into the passenger compartment.
I'm going to change the rear master cylinder to a smaller diameter to lower pedal effort; I have the new cylinder but it hasn't installed itself yet (I hate brake bleeding, etc.)
I am VERY slowly working on a turbo setup, but I don't expect that to be done for years.


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PostPosted: January 7, 2012, 2:52 pm 
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squarefour wrote:
ng, though, knock wood.
Most would say I overdid it a bit on the rear weight bias, but I dunno.


What did it end up at? I don't see anything on your car that would make it seem overly rear heavy.

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PostPosted: January 9, 2012, 1:40 pm 
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a.moore wrote:
squarefour wrote:
ng, though, knock wood.
Most would say I overdid it a bit on the rear weight bias, but I dunno.


What did it end up at? I don't see anything on your car that would make it seem overly rear heavy.


As far as I can tell, it's about 70/30. The seats and engine are about as far back as they can go. To do that I had to put a "notch" in the firewall. Plus it's a 442.


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PostPosted: April 22, 2013, 4:08 pm 
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The story:
I got into a bit of a shunt which cracked my nose cone, so I got another one from Kinetic. After fitting it up (VERY difficult job, much harder than building the chassis around the nose cone, which was the original process) I decided the old girl deserved a nice paint job. At the same time, I had been doing some engineering work for a painter buddy who is kind of a big deal in the custom bike world. He offered to paint the 7 in exchange. I mentioned I was a fan of the "Hippy Porsche" of the late 60s, and that I had seen a Carrera at Laguna Seca with a similar scheme. Everybody has seen cars done in the "Gulf" colors, but the "Hippy" is rarer. He was pretty excited about the idea of a hippy homage, and actually had a bike customer who wanted something similar, but never pulled the trigger. So anyway, after much Photoshop experimentation, a lot of freehand Sharpy sketches on tracing paper, and some expert paintwork, this is what we ended up with. I'm the one who sketched the final tracing paper pattern, so all blame should be towards me.

The wife had a big tour planned for last weekend, but I opted for a short checkout trip instead. It has been off the road a long time.

The original, 917-043:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/68511409@N02/7722262688/

And mine:


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Last edited by squarefour on May 22, 2017, 1:42 am, edited 1 time in total.

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