Kitcat

Who needs a speedo:)?

Just to reiterate: They are not kidding about current belts and helmets and arm restraints. And as Croc noted, removing the seatbelt tags disqualifies you. Of the 5 or 6 of of these wonderful events that I have done, inevitably someone always misses one or more of these finer points and is scrambling to remedy the problem (while others are out on the track). And putting in new belts is a 2 hour process, at least.

TexasDreamer: Beautiful Caterham. I switched to CF Tillet seats and it opened up a lot of room. The fiberglass seats accomplish the same thing for less $. The problem is they spoil the aesthetics of the high end interior of your unique Caterham. I never had any luck dropping the battery out thru the bottom in my '97Super Sprint. Worth a try tho.

My LHD 97 Super Sprint's battery was also under the carbs. But it was small enough that it could be wiggled out(barely), without removing the carbs or surrounding hoses, etc. Maybe look into replacing the current battery with something smaller and doesn't take as much effort to replace? My Cat used a smaller, tractor style battery, maybe 1/3 the size of a normal auto battery. I know this doesn't solve your current dilemma tho.

Pretty dazzling! She is so smart. She never puts her car in a position to get taken out by a dumb move by the car she is passing. She is very patient and chooses her passing spots judiciously. Listen to her engine, you dont hear the typical tell tale on/off of the engine revs as she moderates her speed perfectly thru turns. More go, less slow. The two leaders, who had left the field for dead, must have been shocked when she came flying out of nowhere to track them down. And purists can moan and groan all they want, the advantages of paddle shifters vs, the old, slow, imprecise but much beloved manual transmissions are so clear in this video.

Great story Croc, great story/T-shirt Ron! I had not seen the transit van video. It was pretty terrifying:"Turn transit van, turn!" Cancer is death's wild card, no age is safe. I was at a party pre-covid and of the 20 folks (my age), half were cancer survivors. No deaths so far, fingers crossed.

All very nice! Some years ago there was a best-shots thread here. No idea what happened to it. I see forum member Mo-Fo's artistry in some of the above shots.

Mine just had the 3 point belt. I did track days that way for years....

John: I have found this new format easy to use and intuitive. Certainly more comprehensive and user-friendly than before. And I am the proverbial Neanderthal when it comes to 21st century technology (or even late 20th century). So high fives to you for lugging us all into this more modern world. Mike

Superchargers and turbos add tons of heat. How will you cool things down? Turbo heat was the nemises of my ‘19 Honda Civic Type R. I could do 2-3 track laps before heat pushed it into limp mode. The cost of re-engineering it with bigger oil coolers, bigger radiator, vented hood, widened grill etc was $10-20K, so I sold it after 3 months.

M IV: I didn't know about the rolling chassis option. What does it cost and how does it compare in quality to builds your team does? And, you describe importing your engines. Is there a option to use domestically sourced Duratecs (which are plentiful) as well? Or, are these imported Duratecs and Sigmas Caterham-specific engines mfg in Great Britain?

I am pretty sure my Caterham holds the record for most miles in just over a day: 2,094 miles, during a 25 hour period at Thunderhill Raceway in 2009. It came in 3rd to 2 Porsche Cup cars, beat everyone else, in the annual "25 Hours at Thunderhill" race. Since it's a race car, no odometer, so mileage is unknown. I may have put that many on it during my 5 years of ownership, all but 500 were track days. I drove illegally one weekend on rural Ohio back roads to break in the newly rebuilt engine, adding 500 miles, notable for not getting arrested. Even after being tailed by a cop for 10', the longest 10' ever in my Caterham....(No plates, no title, no registration, no insurance, all very serious offenses in Ohio. Hey, at least I wasn't drunk!).

Life in the bubble is good Michael. We get our second shots in early April and I hope to do some track days then. I got quite a few in last Fall. They are outdoors and it’s easy to social distance. I am in the process of shifting gears, so to speak, car wise. I am fully retired (more broke than ever), so will be reducing my car overhead. The easiest way to do that is to join you as a member of ex-Caterham owners club. So I will likely be putting mine on the market this year. I have a ‘20 Miata, that’s much slower, but much cheaper to maintain, and it will become my track car. Croc will be pleased to know that I am already reaching out to hairdressers in an effort to be a part of the Miata community:).

Hey MichaelD: So what is your current track car, a M3? How is life post-Caterham? Less exciting/complicated I assume:)?

I have 2 new Caterham steering racks. I think both wide track. Not sure if they'd work with your '92. Not sure what ratio either. A bit less than 2 turns lock to lock, per my amateurish attempt to measure. I bought one for my '97 years ago but never installed it, the other came as a spare with my current wide track Caterham.

Sure. I will send you an e-mail.

Jonny: I just remeasured mine and they are 12&1/2” hole to hole, 14” overall.

Anker: I put 10K on my ‘97 Super Sprint, including 5-8 track days a year over a 5 year period. Sold it with the pads it came with. I have owned my track-only Caterham for 5 years and am on the original fronts. The rears got replaced only after I lost the pad when the rear wheel went it own way when the half-shaft sheared off....

You were flying!!!! Per their website, you were 4” off the track record and about 1&1/2” behind Randy Pobst’s times in a 911 Turbo and a Nissan GTR. Not too shabby on worn Hoosiers. It is the perfect Caterham track with you reaching a top speed of 115 mph, just as the invisible hand of aero drag was holding you back. Those huge, slippery, powerful Porsches never had a chance to exploit their top speed advantage, so away you went.

Caterham sells an uprated rear brake package. I have it on my track-only car. As I recall it includes vented discs. My pads seeem to last forever, front and back. If your Cat is like mine and has a brake bias adjuster, you can play with that and dial in a better balance.

What are the wheel and tire specs? I love the clams! Not sure how well the plush interior will hold up to life in a Caterham cockpit. It doesn’t seem especially retro either. I love the steering wheel. Nice to see this option is available. How does cost compare to a 310S? How does its weight compare to the 310S? I assume the motor is a feather weight? I wonder how a person could add just a little more power:)?

Will do Jonathan. Mike

I have a used set of 4 adjustable Caterham shocks. And I am in Cincy:). Out of town til March 8. Can’t give any details except I bought them from Craig Chima, but never got around to installing. Not sure if single or double adjustable. Cleaning out my basement so will offer at an attractive price.

Temp is same there then as in NY.

A NYTimes article recently said elec cars = 2.5x more elec demand. No idea where that # came from tho, seems way high. I also saw an article that said Japan was thinking of adding 27 new coal fired furnaces. So much for reducing the carbon footprint. And speaking of nuclear energy, how soon before it gets talked up again in the USA? New, smaller plants,etc. Our Chevy Volt has 25K all elec miles on it (and 10K gas miles)and its range is only 40 miles summer, 29 winter. It turns out that most of our car use is local. All recharging came from a standard house 120 volt outlet. We are never out of range, thx to the gas engine, that works as a generator to recharge the battery. Sounds like the best of both worlds, but has been cancelled. It seems hybrid cars just drive some people nuts. When we got our Prius, the pickup crowd acted like we had painted “surrender” on our bumper. Much aggressive driving towards us. But we averaged 50+ mpg, the car was bullet proof, nothing ever broke. It was retired at around 189K miles thanks to a death by a thousand cuts by our two, then teen age, sons. Talk about abuse. If it had been an animal the authorities would have removed it from our home....