Add Lightness - My Sports Racer Project

Wow, what happened?

2010-12-31T07:50:00.009-06:00

Approximately one month after my previous post, I sold my Seven project. Continuing uncertainty at work, and in the world economy as a whole, precluded spending money on something like the Seven. Turns out it was a smart move. Two months later, my company announced that our plant was closing and that the entire workforce, myself included, would be laid off. Fortunately, I was able to find a job in consulting before my employment ended, and have since landed a different position back in an industrial setting (where I am happiest). The world economy hasn't exactly recovered as I have, but fortunately we have been able to shrug off those effects. (My wife also landed a full-time professorship at a local college during this time!)

So, why post on this blog after a two-year hiatus? Well, it's time to add lightness again. This time, it's not going to be a Seven project. I just didn't feel motivated to start over from square one on the exact same thing, despite how much I like Sevens. I'll be creating a mid-engine sports racer using some vintage Beach Mk4 body panels that I'm getting from Wirewheel.com. They come attached to a chassis (non-original), but I will be surprised if much is usable from that pile of rust.

The shipper has picked the car up from Florida, and is hurtling toward Texas as we speak (I think... perhaps he decided to stay and enjoy the weather). Hopefully, I'll have the "car" before the weekend is out!

Pics

2008-11-24T23:34:00.000-06:00

We Don't Like Ike

2008-09-12T09:28:00.002-05:00

Looks like Ike is poised to bowl a strike right into the Houston area -- right into my house. Let's hope damage is minimal.

***posted from relative safety ~200 miles away in San Marcos, TX***

I'm floored

2008-09-01T18:19:00.003-05:00

Finished cutting and tacking in the floor panels today, and was able to flip the chassis over to begin stitch welding the floor pans and Aussie reinforcement plates in place. You might also notice that I left the nose gussset wide at the front such that the front lower transverse framerail (where the bottom front suspension pickup is) is gusseted with the same piece. Not sure if this will do anything, but it won't hurt anything.

Also cut and tacked the footbox ends in place.

Welding really takes it out of you when you're wearing long pants and sleeves and working in a hot garage. I still need to weld most of the floors. Fortunately, that work is quiet enough to do during the weeknights so hopefully I'll be working on seats, pedals, and/or steering next weekend.

Get on the Floor and Do the New Kids' Dance

2008-08-31T16:04:00.007-05:00

Earlier this week I got my steel sheet shipment, consisting of 16 ga. and 18 ga. mild steel sheet, from metaldepot.com .

Saturday was mostly taken up by an emergency at work, so no Se7en progress was made.

So far today (and I ain't done yet), I've made great progress, however! Most of the floor is cut and tacked into place, as well as two of the Aussie stiffening mods. 16 ga. sheet was used for the "nose gusset" as well as the two "engine torque gussets." The footbox floors also received 16 ga. sheet. The rear section of the floors (where the seats will be) are 18 ga. in order to save weight.

I also made an attempt to make my own seats out of fiberglass... I've not abandoned it yet, but they're not exactly turning out great so far.

Stay tuned for further work...

'Roo Bars

2008-08-17T21:12:00.004-05:00

Unlike the good ole' U.S. of A, Australia actually cares whether or not you've done a good job engineering that contraption that just rolled out of your garage. To that end, there are special rigidity tests that a custom chassis (like our Se7en) must pass in order to get the official stamp of approval. This has forced our resourceful bretheren from the island continent to improve upon the standard Locost chassis -- and they've been nice enough to share their wisdom. There are many resources detailing these enhancements, and this website is one of them:

http://www.locost7.info/mirror/aussiemods.php

Today, I spent some time improving upon my chassis. Specifically, I paid attention to the area to which the front suspension attaches. Aside from the gaping hole of the engine bay, I feel that this is the area most in need of some additional rigidity. First, I added a triangulating tube to the trapezoidal "nose" of the chassis.

3/4" round tubing was used to match some of the other chassis tubes (and because it looks nicer). First each corner was cut and shaped to fit the wonky angles (chopsaw and sanding disk are most helpful), then held in place with magnets and tack welded. Finally, it was fully welded. Special care was taken so that the inlet/outlet pipes of the radiator (in this case, from a Suzuki Swift GTi) were not blocked by this new tube.

Next came the tubes that triangulate the suspension pickup points. Although the orientation does not seem to flow with the other round triangulating tube on the side of the chassis, the positioning is deliberate -- I wanted to leave plenty of room for the tie-rod ends of the steering rack. Thinking ahead is a necessity when building a Se7en.

The other side was then finished.

Future plans: welded-in 18 ga. steel floors, welded-in 20 ga. steel transmission tunnel, welded-in 20 ga. steel rear firewall, welded in 16 ga./18 ga. steel footbox paneling.

Potential additional bracing: engine bay diagonal, removable transmission tunnel lower brace, maybe more?? (I don't want to get too wild with bracing, so I may not do any of these things. These two items are easily added after the car is on the road, so I will probably wait for the first winter to perform these upgrades.)

Touch-up welding

2008-08-16T15:10:00.005-05:00

Stripped the chassis down this afternoon (not that there was much to remove) so that I could finish welding the diff mounts and transmission bracket mounts.

Diff mount (as seen from the bottom up):

Trans mounts (as seen from the bottom up):

Back in the saddle

2008-08-15T15:44:00.007-05:00

Wow, mid-August already. I'm well overdue for an update, so here goes.

First of all, a huge thanks to my generous neighbor, Jason, who donated a set of Miata wheels, gauge cluster, and speedo cable to the build!

By the way, if you're looking for a ready-built Se7en, Jason is selling his motorcycle-engined autocrosser for CHEAP:

http://www.usa7s.com/aspnetforum/Default.aspx?g=posts&t=2613

Last weekend, I finished the transmission bracket, which is basically an "L" with a gusset in the "elbow." It's attached to the chassis via two bolts, one on each end of the bottom of the L.

It is isolated via rubber bushings. Here is a pic of the bushing assemble before I had the bolt carriers welded to the L and chassis.

Today, I moved on to the mounting brackets for the "ears" of the differential. The differential was already positively located with the lower torque bracket (done by previous owner) and shimmed to the correct height at the "ears."

First, I cut four plates, two upper and two lower:

Then, I cut two horizontal supports per side:

And welded it all up:

I then added triangulation down to the lower chassis rail:

Next, I'll be painting a few things to keep the rust off, then moving on!

Mounting a Tranny (cont'd)

2008-07-01T20:03:00.005-05:00

Further progress was made Sunday. Now all that's missing is the 1x1 crossbeam that will be welded to the chassis, and the drilling of the bolt holes. Oh, and the mounting bracket will get a gusset in the "elbow" of the L to reduce stress on the weld. Unfortunately this part of the bracket has to clear the speedometer cable so I can't make the gusset as beefy as I would like. The transmission will be isolated from the chassis by 1/2" rubber bushings made from a hardware store rubber stopper (not pictured).

Bracketeering

2008-06-28T14:22:00.003-05:00

After a short while off, the Seven is getting attention again. On Father's Day I finished the engine mounts, and this morning I lowered the engine/transmission into place. It fit nicely, exactly where I intended. That feels pretty good :) Next, I began work on the transmission torque mount. I cut out a cardboard template that I will use to make the upper and lower mounting "ears" of the bracket. Again, the metal is 1/8" steel plate. Holes are 1/2".

Next will come a piece of angle iron welded to the rear edges of the upper and lower ears, and the angle iron will be bolted to the chassis. If this is not totally clear, just wait -- you'll see soon enough!

From the depths of the C...

2008-06-15T16:54:00.002-05:00

So, you're guessing that the project is gone, sold, forgotten, or abandoned. WRONG! I've been busy with some other stuff, including work on my new $1600 daily driver:

We needed to cut expenses, and the WRX (*not* the Se7en) was the logical place to cut (see, I think you'll agree that my priorities are in the right place).

We've been busy with visitors, and I've been doing some maintenance work on the 318i. It still needs struts and control arms to be installed, which I will do next weekend since I have 3 days off. But I did do some work on the Se7en this weekend. The engine mounts are finished, and I can move onto the transmission mounts! I did some cutting and welding (and re-welding) on the mounts, so that they will now allow the engine to be lifted free of the car when the bolts are undone! Good idea, I think. I'm also pleased that I finally figured out the proper setting on the MIG so that I get good penetration on my welds. The welds on the mounts are BEEFY.

It's In, I Swear!

2008-05-10T17:46:00.004-05:00

Here are some random pics of the engine and transmission in its final position. I still need to make the transmission support bracket.

The normal 1.5 - 2 inches of sump hangdown that you get with a Miata engine:

Plenty of room for a nice steering column setup. The gentleman who built this chassis offset the transmission tunnel to the right a tad, to enlarge the driver's area. Good idea for a number of reasons (though it did make positioning the engine/trans take a little more brainpower than it otherwise would have).

...and We're Back.

2008-05-10T17:26:00.007-05:00

Sorry for the delay in posts, dear readers (assuming that any of you readers out there actually anticipate the next entry). No, I haven't stopped work on the Se7en! I've just been a bit busy with work and haven't posted any blog updates.

So... developments since the last post:

1. My friendly neighbor and fellow GRMer (http://www.grassrootsmotorsports.com/) Jason is stripping down a Miata to make a track car, and in the process he's removing all of the "soft bits" as well as putting some proper wheels and tires on it. Ergo, he's graciously offered to give me, free of charge, his "daisy" Miata wheels w/ roll-around tires, the gauge cluster, and the speedo cable. [Jason is also selling his racecar Se7en (bike-engined no less), so there will not be the unlikely coincidence of two Se7ens in the same neighborhood.] His generosity will afford me more money in the budget for other things, though I am not quite sure where it will be used.

2. I got a new throttle body to replace the one mashed up in the donor car's wreck:

Unfortunately, the back side looked like this:

After some scrubbing with carb cleaner, it was much better:

3. Engine mounts are progressing nicely! Holes were drilled, the engine/transmission were positioned, and the mounts were tacked into place:

Unfortunately, the one slot I put on the passenger's side mount was not large enough, so I'll need to elongate it.

Footwork

2008-04-28T21:35:00.003-05:00

Got a lead on some Miata wheels and tires for cheap:

Going this route to start off with will give me an extra couple hundred bucks to use elsewhere in the build. I should pick these up tomorrow, which will allow me to approximate my chassis ground clearance and therefore set how far my oilpan hangs off of the ground, which will in turn dictate where to position the engine mounts to achieve the aforementioned clearance (mounting them closer together will raise the engine, while spreading them apart will lower it... since I haven't drilled any holes yet). Whew, this car buildin' stuff is complicated!

Mounting Workload

2008-04-27T09:59:00.013-05:00

Yesterday I got a few hours in the garage, so I began work on the engine mounts, the next critical step on the Se7en. So much relies on the placement of the engine.

Engine and transmission unit were dropped in place so that I could take the necessary measurements to place the engine the proper distance from the firewall.

3" width by 1/8" thickness bar stock was cut into mounts. I measured the mount angle at 58 degrees from horizontal (32 degrees from vertical).

I then rigged up a wooden jig that allowed me to clamp the steel such that it could be welded.

Almost finished. I welded the front and back sides... if you can call these welds. The backside welds are very beefy, but I'm going to grind down portions of the fronts and re-weld them. They will also get a little gusset along the top to prevent flexing.

Sweet Sassy Molassey!

2008-04-21T23:24:00.008-05:00

First off, I apologize. I have been a bad blogger and have kept my readers in the dark...

I broke down, took a half day off of work on Friday, and picked up the crate from the shippers!!!

Yes, I've had the Se7en in-house all weekend and haven't told you. I'm sorry, but I'll make it up to you somehow. How about pics? First off, here is what I used while I endangered life and limb removing a thousand pounds of steel, aluminum, and pine from a rented 24' U-Haul truck (damn that was a big truck). Cue 'Jaws' music:

Exactly... the next time I contemplate removal of something this large and heavy, that's exactly what I'll tell myself -- FORK THIS.

*Skipping dangerous stuff and neighborly help...POOF! engine and tranny are removed from atop the crate* (Good thing my neighbor is a gorilla, and I mean that in the nicest way possible because he really is a nice guy.) I then pried the lid off of the crate, only to find the Ark of the Covenant! Gah, stupid shippers.

Nah, it was the Se7en :)

As well as lots of bits n' bobs (if you weren't aware, you must use British colloquialisms as much as possible when discussing Se7ens). It was all very well packed. Bravo, John. I really appreciate your effort. Believe it or not, it was all unpacked and crammed not-so-neatly into the garage in just a couple of hours -- all thanks to the help of my son and lovely wife (not pictured):

The rest of the weekend was spent tucking the project neatly into my side of the garage, and then preparing another house we have to be put on the market. Garage art at its finest:

That's all for tonight... except that if anyone has a 1.8 throttle body for a Miata, please drop me a line. Mine's smashed (due to the donor car's wreck, not a shipping mishap -- this was disclosed to me before purchase) :(

So Close...

2008-04-17T22:12:00.004-05:00

...yet so far away. The Se7en has arrived in the Houston area. It sits at the shipping terminal at this moment, waiting for me to pick it up. Unfortunately, I can't go get it tomorrow. Looks like Monday will be the day, as the terminal isn't open on weekends.

As a follow-up to yesterday's post regarding cost-cutting measures that I plan to employ for the build, I have decided not to skimp on the shocks. I did quite a bit of reading on the locostusa.com forums, and many of the successful builders (the ones that have completed cars) have the same advice: don't skimp on the shocks. Basically, their opinion is that eBay or homebrew "mystery shocks" won't likely give the performance that the car is famous for because they're almost certainly not matched well to the car. I'm building this car to handle like a Se7en should. While I can deal with Miata gauges, steel floors, tacky seats, all season tires, and spray painted bodywork, I'll be damned if I'm going to spend the time building a car that doesn't handle like it's supposed to. Handling is the whole point of a Se7en, so I'm going to set it up correctly. I had better start saving my pennies for those $740 QA1's. *gulp*

Here are a few teaser pics of the goodies being packed up in Nebraska late last week:

It has shipped!

2008-04-16T22:12:00.002-05:00

Got word today that that the Se7en project shipped yesterday, 4/15! It's due in tomorrow, 4/17!!!

Now I need to figure out how to get it from the receiving terminal to my garage...

My posting has been a little dry (such is life during the workweek), but I have been doing some research on the car. In order to finish this car under budget (i.e. using the cash I have on-hand), I'm going to have to make some compromises on the parts that I want to use. Here are some of the biggies:

1. Will use a stock Miata gauge cluster rather than a set of standalone gauges from somebody like Autometer. Savings: ~$250+

2. Will use motorcycle shocks or the like with an engineered pushrod system instead of off-the-shelf QA1 or Strange coil-overs. Savings: $350+

3. Will use steel for the floor instead of aluminum sheet. Will order aluminum sheet for body cladding in smaller pieces to save on astronomical shipping costs, at the expense of having some additional visible seams. Savings: ~$350

4. Will use an inexpensive used wheelset (e.g. stock Miata, or perhaps some 4x100 Civic wheels that are supposed to be coming my way for free) and cheap all-season tires rather than ordering new wheels with sport rubber. Savings: $300+

5. Will order automotive spray-paint-in-a-can instead of having the panels professionally painted. Savings: $300 (estimated)

6. Will use Kirkey Economy Drag seats instead of nicer, padded ones. I'll cut my own foam padding and somehow make some covers. Or maybe I'll scrap the Kirkey idea altogether and just use a bench seat like the original Lotus Sevens did (but I'll get mine from the junkyard as The Book suggests). Or maybe I'll make some seats from fiberglass. At any rate, I'm not buying expensive seats. Savings: $hundreds per seat

I think that there are a few more areas of savings, but those are the ones I could think of off of the top of my head. Had I not purchased the pre-built chassis, I probably would not have to make all of these compromises. However, I probably would not ever build this car either. The pre-built chassis is the headstart that I need to actually make this project something that I can realistically complete.

twiddles thumbs

2008-04-14T21:55:00.004-05:00

Didn't do much today except browse a nifty site for miscellaneous parts:

http://www.surpluscenter.com/

Lots of very cool stuff there.

Without the chassis/drivetrain in my possession, there's really not a whole lot I can do at this point except (a) read/research, and (b) order parts. I've been doing plenty of (a), and I want to hold off on (b) until I figure out where I'm at in the build. I don't have enough space to be able to order parts just to stick on them on the shelves. Once the project is in my possession, I can get cracking! And I got word that it's supposed to ship tomorrow!

Mirrors and Colors

2008-04-14T05:56:00.005-05:00

I spent yesterday finishing the housings for the mirrors. I'm pretty sure that they're done. I determined that I'll need a flat, hard surface to be mounted in between the stick-on mirror film and the carbon mirror housing -- otherwise, the mirror becomes distorted due to the slightly irregular surface of the mirror housing. I'll probably use a slab of balsa to maintain lightness.

I also spent some time working on the mounting system. I've had some aluminum brazing rod called Durafix for several years now, but have never taken the time to try it out. Well, I can now report that it seems to work! Based on that success, I plan on using aluminum rod and bar stock to make the mounts.

Pics to follow.

I also spent some time thinking about what color to paint the bodywork on the car. I definitely want something with high visibility, so that other drivers can see me on the road. I'm leaning toward Krypton Green as found on the Lotus Elise/Exige:

(Thanks to Randy Chase of Lotustalk.com -- this picture is from the gallery there).

Carbon Mirror Housings

2008-04-12T15:30:00.007-05:00

I've been hobbling gingerly around the garage today working on my carbon mirror housings. As promised, I now have pictures.

First, the workspace. I still need to organize the junk in here and get it out of the way. The pictures were taken while standing in my wife's parking spot, so my acutal work area is much smaller. Miss Thing (her MINI) does not take kindly to sleeping outside, so expansion is not an option.

Even more junk. Actually, 90% of my workspace is currently occupied with junk. Sigh. This will all need to be moved before the Se7en project arrives in the next week or so.

Okay, enough of that. Here's the floral foam. This came in pack of two cylinders (to fit a small vase), and I cut them down the middle. Two halves became a side mirror each, and the other two halves were joined and reshaped a bit to form the rearview mirror housing.

*skipped a bunch of shots since my fingers were too messy to hold the camera*

Here is the first housing, set up to dry. I had to "clamp" it between two plastic containers because the carbon fiber doesn't reallylike to conform to tight curves. I figured out a smarter way to do the next two. The trick for them was to let the epoxy set up for a while and get really tacky. Then the carbon cloth can be conformed to the plug and it will (mostly) stick where you want it to.

"Honey, the eclairs are almost ready"

The leftmost side mirror housing is closest to being done. This is its final flood coat. The other two are on their first flood coat. They're not perfect, but they were cheap, they're very light, and they look pretty cool.

This is the mirror material they will be receiving:

Cut to fit stuff from the auto parts store. Should be enough to do all three mirrors, but if not I'll go back and get another sheet.

Medical issues and floral foam

2008-04-11T16:44:00.005-05:00

Thursday, the work done on the Seven was purely in the areas of personal learning and conceptualization. I started reading up on the work needed to shorten the stock Miata wiring harness, both on the locostusa.com forums (see the stickied thread in the "Interior, lighting, and electrical" subforum), and in Keith Tanner's book How to Build a Cheap Sports Car. I'm not sure how much, if any, of the body harness(es) I get with my purchsed project, but I know that the previous owner had several Miata donors so I suspect that he salvaged them and will include them in the shipment.

Which brings us to today --I found out this morning that the previous owner had to have an emergency appendectomy!!! To further complicate matters, it happened while out of town on business. He was still in the process of preparing the shipping crates for my new project, but I told him not to worry about that. I will get it eventually, he just needs to take care of himself right now.

In the meantime, I've continued working on projects that can be completed (or at least started) without the car itself. As mentioned in the previous entry, I have some carbon fiber laying around, and a desire to use it for fun and profit (well, perhaps not profit, but at least to minimize expenditure on off-the-shelf car parts). While out and about this morning, I stopped at a crafts store and purchased some floral foam for pattern making. This stuff is great -- you can carve and sculpt it like plaster. More easily than plaster, actually. I also picked up a sheet of cut-to-fit adhesive mirror material from the auto parts store. I think that you know where this is going (because it's obvious) -- custom carbon fiber mirrors. I'm partway through making the first housing, and it looks good so far. Pictures to follow when I'm feeling up to moving around.

Oh yeah, I guess I forgot to mention that I got a vasectomy this afternoon. My balls hurt. That is all.

Carbon Fiber Dreams

2008-04-10T07:07:00.002-05:00

Yesterday I did little else for the Seven except dream up different uses of carbon fiber. I have made items in the past, and I still have a small stash of the stuff for future projects. Here's a hood vent I made for the old Swift GT:

Ideas for the Seven include:

1. headlight bowls

2. side mirror bodies

3. bodywork (!)

4. floors (!!! Danger, Will Robinson, Danger!!!)\

5. Rear "tonneau" cover

6. seats (also potentially dangerous)

7. dash (of course)

And probably a hundred other things. I love carbon fiber.

Shipping Finalized!

2008-04-09T06:38:00.003-05:00

I finalized the shipping arrangements yesterday. $474 from Lincoln, NE to Houston, TX!!! I'll have to go pick up the crates at a shipping terminal, but that's the easy (and cheap) part -- especially if I can get a friend with a trailer to help rather than renting a Uhaul truck.

4/7/08

2008-04-08T06:29:00.001-05:00

The only thing that I did yesterday was to list the shipment of my chassis and engine on Uship.com. So far I have two quotes... $811 and $495.

4/6/08 - Spray Paint and Hammers

2008-04-07T06:19:00.000-05:00

Quick blog entry before work... yesterday I cleaned up most of my workbench (no pics yet) and took a hammer to my Grant GT wheel.

I bought this thing at a garage sale a couple of years back for $5 or $10, and discovered that is was a little bent after I installed it on my '86 MR2. The hub is not on the same plane as the rim. Well, after several blows with a hammer, it's closer.

The wheel is easily removable, so if there needs to be anymore "adjustment," I'll do it after it's been on the car and I've had a chance to test drive it.

The other project for yesterday (aside from changing the oil in the WRX) was to wire brush and spray paint the radiator and fan shroud from the Swift GT.

Nice! That radiator will have to go eventually, though. Looks like there was a little patch repair done in a couple of places -- and not very well. I'll use it to get the car on the road, though, as it does hold water.

...forgot

2008-04-05T23:43:00.000-05:00

Ah yes, the donor parts. Well, late last year I bought a Suzuki Swift GT for RallyCross:

After much consternation over trying unsuccessfully to get the car roadworthy (due to a multitude of undisclosed issues by the previous owner), I bought a WRX (!) and put the Swift up for sale. Rallycrosser? Check. Family hauler? Check. Fun daily driver? Check. Lotus? Che... oh no, wait.

The Swift rolling chassis leaves my possession tomorrow, but I pulled a few things for my use on the Seven first: the radiator (tiny, should be a nice fit), the coolant overflow tank (also tiny... heck the whole car is tiny), and the new battery (tin... well, smallish actually) that I purchased late last year.

4/5/08 - Cleaning my garage space, and removing some donor parts

2008-04-05T23:02:00.000-05:00

The past week was a wild one in terms of me and Sevens... but let's rewind a little bit. About 6 years ago, I discovered Ron Champion's book, Build Your Own Sports Car for as Little as 250 UKpounds and Race It! With a title like that, how could I go wrong? It was purchased, read, drooled over, re-read, fantasized about, and obsessed over. Note that none of this energy actually leads to a running, driving car. During this time, a donor (1981 Toyota Celica) was purchased, moved during a house move, and sold without any sports car being built. Other cars of interest I owned during this time include an '88 Supra Turbo, a '68 Mustang GT/CS, an '86 MR2, an '88 MR2 Supercharged, a Dodge SRT-4, a '69 Mercury Cougar XR7 convertible, a '97 Z3, an '02 SVT Focus, a '92 Miata, a '92 Suzuki Swift GT, and an '07 WRX (that's the daily driver now). So it's not like there is or has been a lack of interesting transportation... but they're not a Seven, and they weren't built by me. Strangely, once I became posessed of the notion that it is possible to build your own car, it became something I had to do. A life goal, if you will.

So here we are. Finally I have a little money in my pocket, a clear garage spot (though I used to have a 960 sq. ft. shop at our previous home, I failed to take advantage of that), and far more mechanical aptitude and understanding than when I first got The Book in the mail 6 years ago. What I have less of is time. What a Seven needs is time. It is possible to build a Seven for next to nothing if you have a lot of time. Since I don't, I will be "buying time" by buying pre-built components where possible. With this in mind, I was perusing the various Lotus and Seven haunts last weekend. I chased a lead on a wrecked Birkin S3 (one of the well-known Seven clones), but ended up letting that one go for various reasons. No sooner had I sent the seller of that wrecked car the Dear John email, but a private message notification appeared in my inbox, informing me of a message waiting at locostusa.com. Within minutes, I was buying a car. Well, the start of one anyway -- and a very good start at that: TIG welded chassis, completed front and rear A-arms, and full Miata running gear. A builder from Nebraska decided that he didn't have the time to finish his Seven project, and would rather have a nice, complete Miata sitting in the drive instead. He may be the smarter man -- we'll see. All I know is that I'm very excited. Expected shipping date: 4/14.