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Ira Emus, a Seven owner himself
recalls meeting Jim about the time of the Rotary installation...
My first car was a Lotus 7 and
I parked it in front of the house of a girl I was chasing who
lived about 1/2 block from Jim. One day he stopped and said hello.
As far as I know, [Jim's Seven]
is only famous because the number of times the rules have been
changed to outlaw it. I was last in it right after the first
Mazda engine went in, don't know how much I helped, but I was
there watching during the whole transplant and its original twincam
is now in my 7 [the twincam was the second engine to reside in
Jim's Seven]. It used to be the car most likely to set TTOD at
the Southern California slaloms back in the early seventies.
The hardest parts were quieting
it down and getting a carb that would work in a corner. On one
of the first outings we were sitting at a red light to make a
left turn and we took off on the green and Jim nailed it after
we got through the construction in the intersection. At about
80 having not shifted he realized that he'd started in third
and the engine had so much torque he'd not noticed.
Jim is amazingly resourceful
and I don't think anything ever really got in his way. I remember
when he bought torches which made things go a lot faster and
I remember the first time the engine started with no muffler
and it was the loudest thing I'd ever heard in my life. One day
after Jim decided to build nicer headers he made the steel plate
that attached to the engine, cut the holes for the exhaust pipes
and bolts that brazed the pipes in place. Not long later while
driving somewhere the braze melted , the header pipes popped
out and the car got really loud -- Rotary exhaust is a bit loud
with no headers.
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