JohnCh

I know I was attempting to subtly prompt @CatManDo to share the details with everyone not on Bruce's local customer list, and who have no idea what his post is referencing. CatManDo, over to you

Great picture! Where was this taken? Any details on this event you can share with the group? BTW I moved this from the Member Rides forum to the Pacific Events forum which seems more appropriate given the subject.

Congratulations! The car looks great! 550 miles is a good first day to get to know the car. Any surprises, either good or bad, or is it what you expected?

Limited market, low demand.

Giving this a bump and a big price reduction. Between a price increase and a less favorable exchange rate, these are now $614 from the factory. My new price is less than half that: $300 + shipping. -John

Although Graham Nearn, the founder of Caterham, passed away almost 15 years ago, three cars from his estate are going up for auction in the UK. I loved to see that he clearly had a love for the seven's roots. Click the model name to go to that specific auction page with more photos: 1952 Lotus MkVI Prototype 1953 Lotus MkVI 'Works Demonstrator' 1960 Lotus 7 Series 1

The intercooler scoop on the top of the 620 nosecone is covered by a metal grill glued to the underside of the fiberglass. Unfortunately, production tolerances being what they are, the front of the grill section on my car touches the top of the radiator in two places. It's not enough to notice when installing the nosecone and not so much that a piece of paper can't be pushed between them. However, as I discovered a couple of weeks ago, it's enough that when things are moving around while under way, the grill was wearing away the radiator. Not good. A thread on BlatChat this week from someone having an even bigger interference issue with the same 620 nosecone/SV chassis combination spurred me to address this before taking the car out this weekend. The fix was simple: drill new mounting holes on the radiator brackets 10mm lower than stock. These new locations are highlighted in red in this old photo of the brackets. Given I'm a measure thrice, cut twice kind of guy simply because I invariably measure incorrectly the first two times, I opted to print up a quick jig to perfectly locate the new holes. It inserts into the original bolt holes via extrusions and has two much smaller holes sized to accept a center punch that dimples the exact starting points for the drill bit. This is one of these areas where 3D printing comes in really handy. It only took a few minutes to get the measurements, draw it in CAD, then send to the printer. I've said it before and I'll say it again, if you haven't explored the world of 3D printing yet, you should. The lower mounting position required slight rotation of an oil cooler hose to maintain clearance with a chassis tube, but no other issues...yet. I'll test the car over the next few days to make sure I didn't introduce another problem.

This thread got waaaay off topic. Given it contained good technical information that will be missed in the For Sale section, I have moved those posts to a new thread located here:

Nice looking Zetec-powered Caterham on BaT: https://bringatrailer.com/listing/2006-caterham-super-seven/

@Anthony I've owned a similar Westfield produced a year earlier ('95). It's actually an SEiW not a WSEi as stated in the ad. That means it has IRS and the wider body. In width, it's midway between an S3 and SV at the shoulder, and closer to the S3 at the dash. Pedal box is similar in size to the SV. The roll bar is not factory, and they removed the boot box and locking boot lid rather than modify them to work with the bar. That's unfortunate as the locking lid is a great feature. It's not hard to fabricate a replacement boot out of aluminum though, and you can make it much larger than the factory setup. It's hard to say if the top will still work with that bar – they may have sized it to double as the support hoop – but regardless, a half hood is the way to go. Bob Yarwood, the US distributor at the time, claimed 145hp for the engine, but it's closer to 120, which is expected for a 1700cc with Kent 234 cam, and DCOEs. It's still plenty quick (Road & Track clocked that configuration at 6.1 sec from 0-60), tractable, and sounds fantastic. Although Westfield never made inroads into the US, they've sold a lot of cars over the past 40 years and have a huge UK-based support system in WSCC. Drop me a PM if you have any questions.

I've had a chance to confirm the effectiveness of the small LEDs in the lower grill used as DRLs. They work well when viewed head-on from a distance but are a lot less effective off axis. Given my primary use case is for oncoming traffic on long straights of undivided roads, they meet my objective, but I can see the need to supplement them with the headlights in some situations. So not perfect, but reasonably close, and unlike the headlights, there is no need to remember to turn them on and off. -John

I was distracted and hit Submit before I could add that these are made for Westfields, not Caterhams. I'm not sure if anyone makes them for the latter.

Carbon NV makes them at £280 per pair but I've never seen feedback on quality or fit. https://www.carbon-nv.co.uk/products.html

I've contemplated this design when building my car and had planned to speak with Oxted Trimming, who make the sidescreens, to see if it's feasible. It certainly seems a far more functional and elegant design, but it may require reinforcement as MV8 suggests. I've put off speaking with them given I'm finding the SV with lowered floors isn't quite as obnoxious as my memories of S3s with standard floors. So far, it's been acceptable. Not as good as the Westfield with oversized wind deflectors, but not so bad that I feel I need a fix.

Josh at Rocky Mountain Caterham also stocks parts. If the left lens is original to the car, you might want to consider buying a pair to ensure they match. Micro scratches over the years can really dull a lens, making the new one stand out by comparison. Been there, done that, and had to pay for shipping twice.

It's been Guinness and creative swearing for me. Although typically not in that order.

I'm running Racetech mechanical gauges on the Westfield for water temp, oil temp, and oil pressure and like them, but opted for an AiM display on the Caterham. I'd prefer to keep that minimalist dash aesthetic and not add any standalone gauges. The good news is the pigtail was the issue. A multimeter confirmed the 12v+ wire had a problem, showing fluctuating positive resistance vs 0.00 ohms for the other two wires. It's most likely a failed crimp at the plug end.

@Tempesto did it log correctly in the past? Have you already checked Emerald's site to ensure you are using the correct software version for the model fitted? Assuming yes to both, have you tried pinging Emerald? They can be a little slow to respond these days and it may take a few attempts, but Karl is very helpful once you get a hold of him.

If you are ok running a square setup, Toyo's site shows the RR comes in 205/60-13. https://www.toyotires.com/product/proxes-rr/

You clearly don't grasp the criticality of instant gratification Hopefully, the weather cooperates the week it arrives, and the car meets or exceeds all your expectations.

Congratulations! Any idea yet of when you'll be in the driver's seat?

I did a 40 mile solo blat yesterday and 50 mile blat with @Pokey today to my favorite road in the area. Oil pressure readings remained solid, so hopefully the pigtail was the cause. These were my first opportunities to properly drive the car since completion. The alignment and mapping are done, the low fuel pick up issue is sorted, there were no oil pressure sensor issues to ratchet up my paranoia, and the roads were dry. I'm still not pushing to redline or putting my foot to floor and holding it there, but have taken a few journeys to >7000 rpm, and have pushed it to about 80% throttle for momentary spurts in gear. I'm also more comfortable starting to explore the handling. Although, not perfect, I am beginning to warm up to the Caterham. The engine is really, really nice, and the ride and traction on bumpy roads is surprisingly good. Without driving it back-to-back with a stock 420R, I can't yet comment if this is a testament to the CORE dampers or Meteor Motorsports spring rates, but it is much better in this regard than I anticipated. I need to spend time relearning everything I forgot over the Winter about tuning with Easimap. The engine runs great, except for a few minor glitches at very low rpms. Specifically, when pulling away reasonably hard from a stop, there is a slight flat spot. I suspect the map at very low rpm but heavier load sites is either too rich or too lean and I'll need to log it to identify the needed tweak. Also, based on lambda dash readings, it appears a little too rich at low rpm, very light throttle conditions. It's not noticeable from the driver's seat, but I'm probably burning more fuel than necessary when driving at a steady pace. My only picture from today, taken while performing the obligatory stop for coffee. This is, after all, the Pacific Northwest. -John

This is @peregrinemotors car which is also lister here:

Given it's a new car, has Tom at Birkin given you recommendations for a package that works? If not, or if you are looking for options, a good starting point to identify parts you may need or wish to upgrade is the Raceline price sheet. It's pretty comprehensive list of parts required based on spec. https://www.raceline.co.uk/pdf/DURATEC_2000cc_2021.pdf Chris and Peter are very helpful and have quality parts, but they struggle with email. Always call whenever possible. https://www.raceline.co.uk/ Another option is SBD. As with Raceline, calling is always the best bet. https://sbdmotorsport.co.uk/ -John

I thought the oil pressure reading issue was resolved with the new sensor; however, when starting the car today for a quick lunchtime blat, oil pressure was on zero. Again. No amount of blipping the throttle or changing idle speeds made a difference. With the engine still running, I got out, reached under the car, and shook the pigtail immediately behind the plug that attaches to the sensor. Suddenly the oil pressure reading was normal and remained that way for the drive. Although the replacement sensor came with a new pigtail, I opted to keep the original in place, making only one change at a time until the root cause was clearly identified. I'm glad I took that approach. I'll swap in the new pigtail and start monitoring things again this weekend and may also attempt to disassemble the old plug to look for a connection issue.