Blokko

I took my first 7 to Arch to get a lowered floor fitted. I was slightly perturbed when they jacked the car up on a forklift truck to work on the underside

Hi all What a wonderfully sparkly new forum site we have here - very impressed. Spoke to @Croc over the weekend and he told me about all of the good work that had been put into upgrading the site, so I just had to get over here to check it out for myself Thought I'd take a moment to say hello (again) after being away from this site for some time. I'm a Brit living in MA. When I lived in the UK I had a couple of Caterhams. First off was an ex-Academy car and then I had an SV for touring duties. Played about with the idea of getting a 7 when I first came over to the US, but practicalities (like garage space, or lack of) and issues with getting a car titled put me off. Though I don't totally rule out the prospect of owning another 7, I've been quite happy of late getting my 7 fix vicariously through the L7Club and a couple of FaceBook pages. I'm also a member of a local group, the Arlington Classic Car Club (tag line - A group dedicated to going for a beer on Thursday nights in old cars...we have French cars....but no structure!!). I'm encouraged by the fact that there are a few ACCC members (including @Anker) who are the proud owners of 7's and I'm really looking forward to meeting them face-to-face for the first time once all of this Covid palaver is put to rest. I've joined the FB page linked to this site and I'll make sure I check in here on a more regular basis going forwards.

FIAT. Fix It Again, Tony :-)

Hi folks. Not been on this site in some time, mainly due to deciding that 7 ownership in MA wasn't going to be a feasible proposition, for now at least. I still keep up with the 7-related goings-on in the UK via BlatChat and I recently came into contact with Anker, who has now joined this group. I've also noticed that there are a few 7's in the Boston area that weren't around when I moved here 5 years ago. I'm trying to get in touch with a couple of 7 owners in particular to see if they want to join me and some mates on some events we are planning to run this year. The first is a guy with a yellow Caterham who has been spotted around Bedford, MA a couple of times and who likely keeps his car stored at a facility in Lynn. The second is a guy who lives somewhere in Arlington Heights and has recently imported this car. If either are members on here, please reply to this thread if you are interested in meeting up for a blat / tyre kicking session some time. If anyone else in the Boston area is interested in the occasional run out as well as trips to Larz and other car shows, let me know.

Hi Mike. Checking my calendar it looks like we will miss each other. I will be in London from 29 May for 4 days. I've also got a trip to NYC lined up - but unfortunately this will be when you are in the UK!

No direct experience, but I'll ask the guys in my local classic car club as I know that they have been there in years gone by. It is a couple of hundred miles for me, but I could be tempted to pop across there this year.

Great write-up, Mike. As someone who has attended BaT days in the UK (Donny and Anglesey) in my own 7, I can echo everything that Mike has said about them. I'm back in the UK mid May for a couple of weeks, but one of those weeks I'm working in London and the other week I've promised to take the wife to the Lake District for a holiday - so no chance of me doing a track day this time round :-(

I'm just trying to de-clutter as a precursor to a house move. I have copies of Low Flying from Jan 2015 to date. Might be of interest to a Caterham owner who is not a member of the Lotus Seven Club. Free to a good home, but would prefer collection / meet at somewhere like a Larz Anderson car show rather than trying to post (which I'm guessing would be costly). I live on the outskirts of Boston. No great rush to dispose of them immediately - happy to hang on to them for a while if needed.

Holy thread resurrection, BatMan With the upheaval of the move to the US and a pretty hectic first few months once I got over here, I totally forgot about this thread. I'm just in the process of moving to another property in Boston and I came across the hood bag and hood. Unfortunately the Petty Strut didn't make it onto the boat for some reason (my brother in law has confirmed that the strut is still in my garage back in the UK). So, the SV hood bag and SV full hood are still available. I will PM the people who originally expressed an interest to give them first dibs.

I heard that your team were going on strike, Mike? :jester: SmallShinyAnt - where in the UK do you hail from and where are you living in the US now?

Thanks Skip. I popped to the Main Stealers yesterday and it turned out to be a bit of a wasted journey (though I did get to test drive a couple of cars). Their very best "I'm cutting my own throat here" 'deal' that they could manage increased my monthly payments by a third! They reckoned that they could get a better deal if I came back in August (at which point Ford would write off the last 3 lease payments). This gives me a bit more time to get round the various other (non-Ford) dealerships that have been contacting me recently - will see if those mythical, too good to be true deals for 'well qualified lessees of competitor vehicles' actually exist....

Gents, I have no idea of 'the value' (if any) of trading my daily driver early. I have a Ford Escape that I have leased for 3 years / 31,500 miles. Now 2 1/2 years into the lease I'm getting contacted by the Ford Main Stealer as well as other dealerships inviting me to trade in my current lease early for a new car. Ford has indicated that I can have a new car for 'about the same as you are paying now'. The car I have is fine and I could happily carry on driving it for another 6 months. I can't work out whether it is in my interest to see the lease out or to go for something new now? The car has only covered 14k miles - is there any value / bargaining power in the remaining miles? Apologies if the above seems like a dumb question - as a Brit with no prior experience of leasing a car this is all very new to me.

I was with my friend yesterday when we brought an MGC over the border from Canada. The process itself was pretty painless with the car being over 25 years old. Took the CBP Officers a little while to work out exactly what they had to do with the forms - fortunately there was an old hand on duty who they were able to call upon so it only took about 15 minutes once he got involved. This was after they spent a good 10 minutes going through my passport (checking every individual stamp in the book as well as my US and India visas) and grilling me on my immigration status and trips to the US prior to having an L1 :flag: http://www.usa7s.net/vb/attachment.php?attachmentid=12591&stc=1

A friend put this new BAT page on my FaceBook wall, which sparked a conversation and a bit of harmless spitballin' (Mike, don't tell Jayne about this thread). With exchange rates GBP - USD as they are right now, I could buy a 7 in the UK of about '94 vintage and keep it in the UK for a couple of years (using it for summer holidays touring France or Scotland and maybe the odd BaT day with Mike :jester:). Something like this would equate to just north of $17k. When it gets to 25 years old, import it to the US. What's not to like???? Chances of this happening are about the same as Trump willingly posting his tax returns - unfortunately buying a house this year will take up all available funds. Fun to dream, though :-)

Someone on BC, Grubbster I think, posted about a DIY wrap and I'm pretty sure that his conclusion was that it wasn't worth the hassle - pay someone to do it.

A guy up here in Boston has one. Not sure how many made it over to the US but I think I read that for every car they supplied to the UK market there were two that went overseas.

Thanks for your thoughts on this. I agree that the best route here is to trailer it back, but my friend had this romantic notion of driving it back with his wife (and he also doesn't want the expense of hiring a tow car as well as a trailer :smilielol5:). The car in question is in very good condition and as I understand it has been used extensively since the comprehensive rebuild - so you would hope that it would be good for a 270 mile drive (but you never know what might crop up with an older car I guess....) I'll pass on your thoughts about the possibility of it getting tagged ahead of the drive home, but hopefully he will see sense and either get his leased Ford Explorer set up for towing or he'll just rent a tow car or truck as well as a trailer. http://www.usa7s.net/vb/attachment.php?attachmentid=12120&stc=1 http://www.usa7s.net/vb/attachment.php?attachmentid=12121&stc=1

My colleague has just agreed to buy an MGC from a guy in Montreal. It is being kept in storage up there until May, at which point the plan is to bring it back South of the border. With the import paperwork all sorted, how would he go about transporting it? The seller wants to put it in a trailer and drive it up to the border, for my colleague to then take it from there. My colleague prefers the idea of driving it back, but the seller isn't keen on this. Is there any good reason why it shouldn't be driven back to Boston on the Ontario plates (with the tags being returned by courier)? Apologies in advance for the dumb question, but as a Brit with no knowledge of how these things work I was hoping / assuming that it is a scenario that readers of this site may have come across before.

The 1 litre 3 pot engine is too tall to fit in a Caterham without a bonnet bulge. Ford tried to get Westfield to use the engine, but it was so much more expensive than Zetec engines, which can still be picked up for a song in the UK

Great write-up Mike. I may be doing a trip back to the UK next year at a time other than Christmas. Time permitting I may well go for a Book-A-Track hire.

Nice set-up! I did an rFactor season a few years back. It was fun for a little while, but I wasn't very good at it and I struggled to make the timeslot every week due to work and personal commitments. I use Project Cars on the PS4 for an occasional blast around Donington in a Caterham.

I'm a big fan of the Soft Bits kit. My first 7 had a full cage and the half hood worked really well. My second 7 had a traditional rollbar so it wasn't quite so easy to get in and out of the car with the hood in place - in fact I had to fit a QR steering wheel. As others have posted here, the 'easy in' option is good, but the zipper is known to let water through. I've used the Soft-Bits Half Hood in the wind and rain on extended UK tours and it really does do a great job of keeping the elements at bay (though I always had full doors fitted). I had the mesh wind deflector on my second 7. I don't think it made much difference, but the wife swore that it stopped her hair flailing around. The saddle bag and the RE bag are great additions if you are doing any touring. Though the kit is excellent, the company has a a rep for being a bit on the disorganised side when it comes to fulfilling orders. Best to buy out of the main sevening season. It was terrible news to hear that Nick Judd died earlier this year at the age of 34.

Spare a thought for me - I was hoping to bring savings and the proceeds of a house refinance across to the US to fund a house purchase over here. The difference in the rate between when I came over to the US and now is leaving a brand new CSR sized hole in my finances :cuss:

Thank you, Tom. I've been giving this some thought since the track day. I'm not sure if a Cat for road use in feasible / practical in MA. Did think at one time about getting a track only car (maybe even import an ex-Academy car from the UK, if that is possible), but I'd probably only get to use it a couple of times a year....

Good to see the article I wrote on this event in Low Flying (my copy landed this morning). The Editor / designer did a great job of putting the article together around the words and pictures.