Kitcat

Welcome DEklof! I bought a new Vespa-in 1962:). Mom disowned me. I soon wrecked it and broke my arm. She wouldn't take me to the hospital:"I told you not to buy it!" It's now one of our favorite stories. My best friend had the opposite luck. He bought and wrecked 2 cars, including a TR-3. Then he bought a Triumph Bonneville (see how this ties into the original post?) and never put a wheel wrong. The Bonneville was about the hairiest thing out there in the mid 60's. The MGA is one of the prettiest cars ever, ditto the E-type. What was it about British cars in the 60's? And, look at the prices now. I almost bought a new Healy 3000 in '67. They weren't selling and it was heavily discounted. I ended up w/a new Sprite. It lasted about 4 years before crumbling beneath me. Much like my current Caterham. Tho now, unlike then, I have the funds to keep it going.

Aaahhh, that's better, my eye strain is gone, thanks!

I am getting nowhere in this "contest" as my car has been in the shop for 2 weeks awaiting a solution to the starter issue (wh/we think we have found). It is definitely easier to accumulate miles when your car starts. My wife is out of town next Thurs-thru the following Monday. So my challenge will be to see how many mile I can drive the Seven in that time period:). Assuming the car starts. Robert-my car has the same 100 mph top speed. I think the challenge for us is to see how much fun we can pack between 0-100 mph. So far, my best moments have been like your last trip at relatively low speed. The most glorious was one early Sunday a.m. blat wherein I got caught up in a rural school system's fund raising walk-a-thon. So there I was put-putting along at about 10 mph, passing thousands of 5-15 year old kids walking next to the road. Every little guy was absolutely flipping out over my car! I would blip the throttle for effect occasionally and they loved it. Never saw so many smiles, thumbs up and applause in my life. Felt like I was one of the Beatles. Mike

To my tired, 61 y/o eyes, the print (white on black) is harder to see. THe rest I love.

Won't know the size til I get the car back from the shop that is trying to resolve my ongoing starter problems. My hunch is the Ultralite has a lot more room for a seat than my Caterham. Maybe the official Caterham seats have the Caterham name on them? That ought to at least double the price:).

I am told the problem is the spur gear is too big on the Dave Bean supplied device. Dave Bean said my engine was too "modern":):).

Type "musings" into search. There you will find a hijacked thread that discussed this issue in depth (Note I didn't say "to death", for obvious reasons:)).

The Caterham seats are about $1.1K each, the Kirkeys about $250 each. I have downloaded the dimensions of the smallest Kirkeys and will see if they will fit. Thanks!

As faithful readers may recall, the most persistent problem I have had in my 9 months of Caterham ownership has been my car's failure to start on a random basis. It first happened at the Dragon and has continued intermittently since then. I called RMSC and they said yeah, that's a problem area, best to have it rebuilt. I had the starter/solenoid rebuilt last year-no help. I ordered a replacement starter from Dave Bean Engineering on a recommendation by someone here. After much fussing and fiddling by my mechanic, and a call to Dave Bean, we discovered they only sell stuff that fits on the old cars, my '97 is too new. So the replacement is going back. Thus today's question: is there a replacement starter that fits and works on a '97 Crossflow? If so, where do I get one? A car that doesn't start is really a lot less fun than one that does!

Good idea. I also drive right by Summit Racing's huge warehouse/store on my way to Nelson's Ledges a couple of times a year. I might stop there as well.

What racing seats (compatible with 5-6 point harnesses) are out there that will fit a classic sized, DeDion Caterham? I am doing more track days and want to build in as much safety as I can. Toward that end I have added the FIA roll-over bar, purchased a new R3 head & neck restraint system, added a 4 pole battery/alternator cut-off switch, and added the aluminum honey-comb cladding to the fuel tank. I am happy to bolt the seat to one spot and give up the stock seat's sliders. Ideally I'd hike a seat with side head restraints. Ideas, suggestions? I may end up going thru RMSC but everything they sell is 2-3x as much money as what seems reasonable.

If the vehicle next to your for-sale trailer is your new car-hauler, that's quite an upgrade:)!

Wouldn't removing the windshield and adding a brooklands windscreen accomplish the same thing? It would save weight as well. Seems like you could just swap windshields at the events, which I know you drive your car to (and mite want the comfort/protection of a full windshield for). I am toying with this for track-days as a cheap way of breaking the current drag-induced 105 mph top speed barrier of my mighty Crossflow powered Seven. I also drive my Seven to all events, sometimes hundreds of miles, one way, and would like the full windshield for the highway.

Click and Clack's formula for a person's degree happiness is reality minus expectations. You gotta be bummed:(.

My standard sized Cat was 1225 lbs w/2 gallons of gas when weighed last summer. This was after I took out all that was removable: top, doors, tool kit, spare, etc. I have since removed the 8 lb standard roll-over bar and replaced w/the 33 lb FIA bar, replaced the heavy, unreliable starter with a lighter, hopefully more reliable one. So I am at abt 1250 lbs now I wld guess, in track form. Al's fuel added about 80 lbs to his total, so his car is deserving of the name, Superlight.

I like the car much better as shown above on the existing wheels than on the faux red wheels that were photo-shopped onto your avatar. With red, the colors look too busy, with silver it looks all of a piece (IMHO, of course). You really got the aluminum to shine nicely too.

For scoring a 1/2 page blurb in the May '08 Grassroots Motorsports magazine. It shows him, at speed, in his lovely Birkin. Also points out that there is still opportunity fun after age 70 noting that at the tender age of 71 he tried using his AARP card for a discount at a NASA event (unsuccessfully:)). Mike (pushin 70 but still not ready for Grassroots Motorsports).

Unreliable yet charming? I can't imagine being attracted to anything like that:). Mine is still ticking, btw.

What is 145 hp based on? For instance, when dynoed, my 135 hp crossflow made 93 hp.

Thanks for all the data. It is very informative. For a naturally aspirated 2.0 liter street engine, that seems like a lot of power. I don't want to think abt what all the additional development cost. Now you can get around to driving/enjoying it:).

For ''08 the Fed budget is about $2.9T. Included in that are: Pensions $723B Health Care $680B Defense $727B Interest $243B. That totals $2,373B. And that spending is considered off limits-no cuts. In fact the pensions categories are indexed to go up by the inflation amount every year and health care is usually double inflation or more, ditto military So everything else that the government spends is about $500B. Lets' say we cut back there by 10%, which would be huge. We save enough to offset some, not all, of the increases in the first 3 categories for next year. Its not a pretty picture and government "waste" is actually a very small part of the problem. Any politician saying they will balance the budget by eliminating waste is dishonest. It will call for sacrifice, by everyone.

In the last week gold has dropped from abt $1000 an ounce to $920 and the Dow is up 600 points. So much for knowing what the markets are going to do next (tho I have to admit, I have a hunch the other shoe has not dropped yet in the financial markets).

I drove a RHD Caterham as part of my personal Seven quest. These little buggers are so narrow it doesnt seem to make a lot of difference what side you sit on (except at toll booths, etc). But toll booths are also quite an adventure in a LHD too. A slight advantage with the RHD, if you do track days, is that since most race tracks run clockwise, a RHD car has the driver as ballast on the inside of most turns, which is a plus.

Well, the contest starts with miles accumulated starting from now til 11/1. So, unlike G Bush I, being born on 3rd base doesn't mean you hit a triple. I have to say tho, I am very impressed that a Seven had 128K. Maybe we could name the "prize" after your car:)? Or maybe its previous owner? I think Seven miles are like dog years. So it's really like driving almost 1M miles in a normal car! If we count miles walked up and down stairs, logically we would have to count miles driven for parts, or even miles the purchased parts traveled, in all, to get to our Seven. That would give us Caterham and Birken owners a huge advantage over locally brewed LISS's, given how far our parts travel. So it's just miles driven (forwards or backwards), in the next 8 months. And who cares who wins? As long as it gets you in your car:"Honey, I HAVE to go for a 3 day blat, I am competing for the grand prize!"

Camping anyone?