Kitcat

Try Sevens and Elans in St Augustine, FL. They often have a Caterham or two that Croc has missed. They have sold more Caterhams than any one else. Though the owner has semi-retired, he seems to be pretty busy still. Ditto Loony, Lotus Owners Of New York. And, either may know of someone thinking of selling who hasn’t gotten around to listing their car yet.

Welcome, looks like a great se7en! What is the maroon convertible parked next to it in your first garage picture? And how about the red car in a later garage shot?

There is a bidder for the ultra cool Caterham 485 currently listed for sale on Bring a Trailer who is using the moniker of Bartman. Coincidence?

I guess “Courage” is the right name for your se7en! And for you: you really took a beating! Any after-the-fact safety thoughts? Did the roll cage protect you? Did your seatbelts? Did you have a harness, 6 point? Did the suspension collapse, like on another notable Stalker wreck? Were you wearing a helmet? What will you do differently, if anything, if you rebuild? Hope you continue to mend!

Not only is the builder an amazing mechanical talent, he writes extremely well. Certainly better than the GRM staff, and that’s no criticism of them. I loved that, as I was wondering where he found the time for this incredible build, he casually dropped the fact that he was simultaneously training for a Triathlon!

As I recall from past Caterham windshield discussions, they use an odd size thickness safety glass. So the stuff commonly sold as replacement windshield glass doesn’t fit in the channel. Some have used tempered glass, which does fit, but can shatter, so not a good substitute.

Built by the manager of GM’s Vette and Camaro performance section. And for its engine? If you guessed a small block V-8, you guessed wrong. He used a BMW 3.0 straight six. Whaa? Says the V-8 would be too much power. Too much for what:)?

Amazon sells a six pack of 15 oz bottles of Lucas octane booster for $60. If you add 3 oz to 5 gallons of gas, it adds 3 octane points(91 becomes 94). You can do the math and see how that compares to the roughly $10-12 gallon for 100 octane at the track. It is also a lot more convenient than carrying cans and pouring your own gas at the track.

Needs more tire:)! Great looking car, congratulations on this inspired purchase. I will now hand comments over to Croc....

I think USA7s member, Norm McDonald, put the first Zetec in a Caterham, anywhere. He was (and likely still is) an avid autocrosser. The rules of his class (E-Mod?) allowed engine swaps, so out went the X-flow. He did the engineering himself. Apparently, Caterham took it as a proof of concept, and adopted it, for US cars at least. Michael D and Norm are great friends and were fellow autocrossers and my guess is that Michael got the engine idea from Norm? Props to BBall, CarlB, and Croc for shedding additional light on the somewhat haphazard evolution of these cars. I agree with BBall that this is likely a one of a kind Caterham. Props to UlfarE for stimulating this mostly irrelevant, but nonetheless interesting (to me), topic.

I agree ir’s irrelevant (but fascinating:)). The Google says Autocourse was putting Duratecs in Caterhams in ‘03. They describe Autocourse as the #1 importer of Caterhams in ‘03. Who knew?

Good point Vlad, the frame notch was Zetec only. Otherwise the engine would not fit with the stock Zetec intake manifold. This per a recent chat with Nathan Down (the Caterham engineer who designed the SV frame back in the day) about my notch-frame Caterham.

I dont think this ‘03 Cat came with a Duratec. The engine of choice in 2003 was a stock Zetec and with luck, maybe a SVT Zetec. I think the Duratec was introduced in ‘04, and after, on the CSR version. It was an upgraded version of the slightly larger SV Caterham and featured, among other things, IRS and upgraded shocks ( in addition to the Duratec). I don’t think the Duratec became common in standard S3 Cats until ’08 or so? It is a mystery tho. The Hillbank ad linked earlier was from 2018. So maybe this Cat was assembled after ‘03 and in the Duratec era? It only had 500 miles in ‘18, suggesting that it was built closer to ‘18 than ‘03. It is not unusual for Caterhams to be built long after the kit was first sold. A Google search shows that a commenter in ’18 noted it was on tires mfg’d in ‘93! Quite apart from all of that, it’s a great car! There are plenty of us who love the clams and prefer them to cycle fenders. And regardless of its history, the Duratec is a big plus.

I’m totally blown away by your skills and knowledge. What an epic project. It’s on a much higher level than the typical Caterham assembly. Few, if any, here could do it and we have some very impressive folks. The combo of this engine and the Sadev should make this very competitive on the track.

Very impressive!

As noted earlier, this Cat had a fairly ambitious engine swap somewhere along the line. The 2.3 Duratec is a huge step up in power from the 1.8 Zetec it came with. New intake/exhaust/ engine mounts/ECU/ wiring, probably significant fuel system modifications, etc. It is surprising that such an ambitious and $$$ effort didn’t include intake filters. I am willing to believe that was of minor consequence though, so keep us posted on how the engine fares.

Papak. If you are trying to see if the Caterham aeroscreen fits a Birkin, I can confirm it does not. Ditto a Caterham standard windscreen. I owned both a S3 Cat and standard Birkin at the same time for a while. I had a Caterham issued Brooklands set up that I tried to fit to my Birkin. It wasn’t close. The shapes of the cowls, while visually similar, are actually very different.

My driver’s side failed after that, on track. Damaged: wheel, brake disc, halfshaft, wheel bearing/CVJ, A-frame, Panard rod, rear wing misc other parts. Car became a 3 wheeler at 90 mph on a turn, sandwiched between 2 Porsches at a Putnam Park track day. I went careening off track but, thx to the very safe track design, did not hit any thing. I had a spare half shaft:). But replacing the other parts was the Caterham equivalent of a scavenger hunt. The most elusive was the “uprated” rearbrake rotor. I was finally back on track 6 months later. Anker: if the other end of your drive shaft is intact, keep it as a spare(assuming you replace everything). That was the part I was unable to find, for a half year.

Steve: Wimp! I feel better already:). Actually, those are good numbers for a stock Zetec (vs. my SVT version).

My Zetec makes a bit less power....:). IF, we reduce your numbers by, say, 16% for driveline power loss, then my engine’s chassis-dyno numbers are sort of competitive with your engine-dyno numbers up to, roughly, 5K RPM’s. After that though, it’s game-over!

What is redline (7800rpms?)? What is the octane required? Combined with the Sadev and paddle shifters this should be formidable at the track.

Speaking of assembling a Se7en, I just read an article on the Lotus 7 history. They were marketed as kit cars to avoid the draconian sales tax on new cars then in place in the UK. The catch was, to qualify for tax exemption, the kitcar had to be sold with out assembly instructions! Chapman complied: every kit came with “diassembly” instuctions, which the buyer followed in reverse order:). Thus launching a tradition of supplying challenging assembly instructions, a tradition that Caterham has proudly continued.

Nope, only went off once, and not here, but you were also there to witness it, so you know of whence I speak. Fortunately, the photographer was not there:).

The second shot, above, illustrates my firm belief that you have to use all of the track to be fast:)! And the puff of dust on the driver’s side shows I was definitely doing that!

I guess not? But I will be watching USA7S member, Craig Chima, when he lines his pole position Lotus 7 up tomorrow for the FP class race at the SCCA’s 2021 Runoffs. Craig won the FP race in his Lotus 7 last year. Can he make it 2 in a row? The racing gods typically have something to say on the matter, so we shall see.