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cars WCM Ultralite S2k

Setting up a Seven – Wheels and Tires

My new WCM Ultralite S2K

When I initially purchased the Ultralite it was running on a set of generic 7.5″ wide alloys with 235-width Falken Azeni RT-615 tires all around(above). While the Azenis are decent tires (we use them on the Lemons car), they are still street tires and just cannot cope with the absurd power of the seven. After having a few moments of wheelspin in 3rd gear, I decided that while long slides are fun, I did want to go to more grippy setup as well as increase the rear grip level to give the car some better balance.

I quickly learned that one of the more annoying things about having a kit car is the extreme amount of pain you have to go through to get a set of wheels.… Read the rest

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cars photos

The Mallya Collection

As an Indian, I had heard of Vijay Mallya long before he hit the Formula 1 spotlight as the owner of the Force India F1 team. A true captain of Indian industry, his other hats include accomplished businessman (chairman of United Breweries group and Kingfisher airlines), former politician and enthusiastic sports fan (owns the Bangalore Royal Challengers cricket team, the East Bengal football team and the URB Breeders). While I always knew that he was fond of cars, I did not know that he was in fact a serious car collector and his Mallya Collection includes nearly 300 vehicles spread through 4 locations around the world.… Read the rest

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cars WCM Ultralite S2k

Setting up a Seven – Safety

As you can see from the picture above, when I got the Ultralite it came with a simple asymmetrical rollbar that was barely taller than my head. While most track clubs would let me drive the car as is, the lack of side impact protection meant that I was not comfortable tracking the car without a full roll cage. Additionally the existing Ultrashield race seat had no head and neck support and the harnesses were long expired which meant I generally had to perform a full safety upgrade before tracking the car. For this I turned to Tony at TC Design who is the Bay Area’s premier roll cage fabricator.… Read the rest

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cars personal thoughts WCM Ultralite S2k

Setting up a Seven – The Ultralite Experience

My new WCM Ultralite S2K

As many of you know I purchased a Lotus Seven replica called the WCM Ultralite S2K late last year to make it a street legal track toy. While the Ultralite may maintain the spirit of the original Seven, as you can see below, it has a distinctly different shape and has generally larger dimensions to accommodate drivers of all sizes. In order to move this extra bulk (relatively speaking) around it comes with the incredible F20C engine out of the Honda S2000. The end product has some astonishing performance figures:

Weight: 1300 lbs
Horsepower: 240 bhp
Redline: 9000 rpm
Power to weight ratio: 400+ hp/ton
0-60 mph: 3.5 seconds

With the (more) original predecessor

My particular car was the first prototype built by World Class Motorsports and is the actual car used in most of the magazine tests.… Read the rest

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mashup

GGLC Membership Map

I originally posted this on the Golden Gate Lotus Club blog but figured I should cross post it here as well.

A few days ago I received the latest GGLC Memberhip roster in the mail (if you have not gotten one please contact David Anderson (ggmail AT gglotus DOT org) to update your postal address) and was fascinated to see the large number of cities that our members are spread over. After talking it over with a few folks at our last monthly meeting I hacked together the following map of club members:


View Larger Map

Each marker on the map represents a zipcode that has at least one GGLC member.

… Read the rest