Had a great weekend guys. Finally got my Kirk 4pt roll bar installed, (even matched the paint to my interior) my new Impact latch link 5 pt harnesses installed, and I got my first taste of real tires. My good friend just got his new set of Victoracers so I got to run on his old used set. I couldn't believe the difference! He's a very experienced driver and his FD is modified quite a bit (E-Mod Class) so I'm normally about 7 seconds behind him. Sunday I closed the gap to 4 seconds, 55.028 to his FTD time of 51.296.

Anyway, here are some pictures of the bar/harnesses, and our cars. Plus a pretty new Elise showed up



test fitting





FD seats make great lounge chairs. And yes, my shorts are short, my legs white, and my shoes strange looking :P



Putting in the final touches

 

our cars in the pit area




The Elise.

 

Some guy showed up with a Viper. No one cared! haha They were all only interested in the Lotus


Shot of my car before we left

My 2 favorite shots, taken by a member of the region that wasn't driving

 

The always embarrassing "Oops I flicked the wheel too fast and bumped the wipers on" maneuver.

 

haha ive done that, but things were opposite, it was raining and I turned the wipers and the lights off.

Nice pictures, i really like them. Do you have 3 CCW's on and a different wheel on the right rear?

 

looks good. JTurton- I'd imagine that his front rims are dusty as hell from the pads and the rears give the illusion of being different since they are much cleaner.

That is a bolt in roll bar correct?

 

haha, yeah it figures that the one run I hit the wipers somebody takes a great picture!

The CCWs belong to my friend, and are (were) his dedicated track wheels so they're rarely cleaned. The fronts obviously show more dust because of that, and he runs full race pads on his car and does HPDE on them as well.

I only wish I could afford a set of my own.

 

Missed this in my last post, yes it's the bolt in bar.

 

do you have a link to where i can pickup the kirk racing roll bar? :o

 

http://www.kirkracing.com/

They don't do ordering on the website, you have to call them. It took them 3 weeks to make and ship the bar. They make 2 versions for the FD. 1 is mine that you see in the pictures. you have to remove the rear bins for it to go into the car, but it's more solid and allows more rearward seat travel (good if you're tall)

The 2nd allows you to keep the rear bins, but you lose a lot of seat movement.

Both bars are SCCA Solo I and Solo II approved.

My bar was $350, plus $75 shipping, but I had it shipped truck freight point to point, and a friend picked it up at the shipping location so it was a bit cheaper than residential shipping.

 

Your car is coming along...what a beast!

 

This picture is hillarious. Poor, sad, lonely viper. :p

 

A word to the wise the bolt in Kirk bars are being rejected in some regions as NOT being SCCA solo legal. The reason? The rear legs need to have an 8" long sleeved/slip fit connection using 2 bolts and not the single bolt set up Kirk is using. It look slike form your pic you only have the one bolt like mine does.
"F. REMOVABLE ROLL BARS
Removable roll bars and braces must be very carefully designed
and constructed to be at least as strong as a permanent installation.
If one tube fits inside another tube to facilitate removal, the
removable portion must bottom on the permanent mounting, and
at least two bolts must be used to secure each such joint. The
telescope section must be at least eight inches in length."

Also only the *TWO* inch diameter bar satisfies the requirements. The 1.75" bar does not due to the bend in the rear legs. WIth the bend in the rear legs the minimum tube 1.75" requirement gets bumped up to 2"
Check the SCCA Solo I and II regs for details.
Forwarned is forarmed.
Crispy
- has a 2" Kirk roll bar

 

Thanks for bringing this up, I wasn't aware of this. I'll check my local region's regulations if/when I start doing Solo I, but in all honesty this bar is basically a mounting point for my harnesses right now, since the rear strut bar is obviously not a safe mounting location.

I guess it also couldn't hurt for me to put in 2 extra bolts in those sleeves if I wanted, just for some added safety. I'll have to measure that sleeve, I'm not sure how long it actually is.

 

I'm in the same boat. I've had my Kirk bar for over 6 years now and was only just informed of this "issue". The two bolts in the slip joint would be a good idea and easy the only issue being the length of the slip joint.
Anywho just thought I'd contribute.
PS Say hi to Bill for me
Regards,
Crispy

 

ah figures, i browsed their site and it only made mention of a bar for 2nd gens.. hehe.. i'll give them a call if i'm serious. do you have any pics of your interior w/o the rear bins?

thanks for the heads up

oh btw, never mentioned this, but i love hte way your car is coming along (looks pretty badass w/ red interior, and the matching roll bar)

 

Thanks again I'll pass your greetings on to Bill

 

Yeah, I'm not sure why they don't list the 3rd gens on the website, but they do list the 2nd gens.

Here's a couple of pictures of my car with the bins out:





And thanks for the comments I bought 2 cans of spray paint at Lowes trying to find a match for my interior, and settled on a can of American Accents By Rust-oleum in Colonial Red Satin. I couldn't believe how well it matched the interior!

Next on the list is a set of sticky tires and Koni Adjustable dampers

 

hey section8. it's phishie from OT!!!

 

 

I have the kirk bar that retains the rear bins. No problem for me (6'0") but if you have a large passenger/intructor they can be cramped due to the hoop diagonal brace limiting passenger seat travel. No big deal though unless it's a long trip / enduro!

Interesting that they replace the rear speakers with those "map pockets" or whatever they are when, I assume, you have the Bose sound system. At least you still have some place to put your "stuff"!

Love the red/black interior. I may have to paint my bar... someday...

 

any pics of that setup?