Blokko

Colin :cheers::cheers: No plans for next year yet, Mike. What do you have in mind :-)

I had a good chat with him at one of the events at the Larz Anderson car shows in Boston. He'd been working on a 7 belonging to a guy who lives near to me. Mike - I'll pick your 7 up next time I'm in town and I'll drop it off at his place if you like :-) Actually I'm driving down to NYC tomorrow for meetings / company 'holiday party' on Friday - might be a bit nippy driving a 7 this time of the year....

Interesting to hear your ND comments, Skip. I had an NC from new in the UK - purchased without a test drive based upon all of the positive things that had been posted about them on BlatChat. Thought that it could be a dual purpose car - replacement for the Caterham as a tourer and also useful as a daily driver. Kept the car for 12 months, 3.5k miles and then part exchanged it for a 3 pot 100bhp Ford Fiesta. Hated the MX5, loved the Fiesta :blush: Getting a second car next year as a weekend motor / occasional use by the wife and I'll look at the ND to see if issues I encountered have been ironed out, but my heart is currently set on a convertible that can be used year round.... My car owning count is way, way short of 359! After a couple of old bangers when I first passed my test (both stolen) I then purchased a new Renault Clio (7 years - gave it away to a guy to see if he could sort out persistent electrical gremlins that would randomly prevent the car from starting) followed by a new Ford Mondeo (Taurus) which I ran for 11 years until I got the MX5. Then the Fiesta for a year (sold at a big loss when I moved to US) and now a Ford Escape. A couple of Caterham's in between (first one lasted 6 years, the second one just 1 year - again sold when I moved to the US). My philosophy of buying new and running until they rot worked well (financially at least) for so long, but undone by the last couple of transactions. If I had my time again I think I'd be tempted to try a wider variety of used cars and I definitely would have purchased a Caterham at an earlier age.

Aside from Mike (Croc's) very detailed explanation of potential issues, I'll add some more mundane stuff.... UK prices seem quite firm at the moment - some people in the UK have complained that there isn't much choice in the used market, so decent examples are going to be priced accordingly. That said, we are now at the end of the blatting season, so maybe prices will soften. This is the site with the most cars for sale Is a right hooker going to be ok, or do you have a specific LHD car in mind? It is going to cost you money to exchange cash into GBP and get the car shipped 3 times (seller - port - your place). Have you ascertained how easy it will / won't be to register a Caterham in your State?

Back to the original question, and as luck would have it the same topic is being discussed on New BlatChat - here.

How very dare you, Mike :rofl:

Sean - you have made my day! I wasn't aware that the old site remained in an archive state. So I'm now on a nostalgia kick browsing through old posts (in glorious orange) and being able to click on links that still work :-) Is there any issue with me publicising this link elsewhere (FaceBook)? No disrespect to the L7Club MT, but I think I'd have just started Lotus7.Club afresh and kept the old site as an archive to refer back to - would have saved a load of cost and hassle in terms of porting the posts across to the new system. Hindsight is a wonderful thing though - I'm sure the company who did the work would have said that they could do it, no problemo....

I had the SBFS draught excluder and I was a bit nonplussed with it. I didn't notice much / any reduction in wind buffeting, but the wife swore that it made an improvement for her. I'll echo what Mike said about water ingress. For some reason my SV seemed to get a lot more water thrown into the cabin than was the case with my old S3. The draught excluder seemed to cut down a bit on water being thrown up from the back end of the car. I'm a SBFS fan boy, having also owned a RE bag, a car cover and a saddle bag. I picked up my draught excluder second hand for a knock down price - it is the one piece of SBFS kit that I probably would have resented paying full price for. I'd try Mike's suggestion of a DIY project first. I think someone has also put photos and instructions on lotus7.club with details of their home brew draught excluder (whether it made it through the migration from BlatChat is another matter....)

Hey Mike - purely by chance a colleague sent me a link from Craigslist to the second car in your noon posting (1964 Cosworth S2). Odd to see it as showing as $26.5k on Fleabay but $36.5k on Craigslist - here

Dean - S4's are so few and far between I was surprised to see them over here. They are a rare enough site in the UK. It looked like there was also an S4 racing, but I saw it from afar and didn't have time to go over and check it out. My friend in Scotland has a Caterham with one Tillett seat and one leather - but that is the first time I've seen a mix of door and deflector :-) Busa - it is my regret that I spent too much time in the public carpark (where there were some fantastic motors), the corral's and the paddock to see much racing. I wanted to watch the class with the 7's in, but by 3.30pm my wife had had enough so we hit the road. I'd like to think that they would have been using their cars to full potential.

Trip to the Lime Rock Historic Festival in Connecticut yesterday. Plenty of Loti and other interesting metal around in the paddock, in the "car corral's" and in the general parking area. The racing wasn't as frenetic as your average Grads meeting (not surprisingly), but it was good to see the machinery out on the track rather than seeing out it's days in a museum or collectors garage. Some pics here

I'm planning on being there with a few guys from the Arlington Classic Car Club (FaceBook group) - will stop by to say hello. Anyone else from USA7's planning on going?

General (UK) advice is to go for condition over mileage. Engines can be repaired / replaced in the US, but you do not have the option of sending the chassis back to Bruce @Arch for e refurb and new skin (this is a common action in the UK). Not sure how fresh the Sevens & Elans website is. I enquired about one of the cars near the top of the list over a year ago and was told it was sold.

Aaargh! Can't believe I've missed out on this car twice! I'm sure it is fate and there is some good reason why I shouldn't own a Caterham right now.... If the sale falls through for any reason please let me know

One of the Se7ens List guys (Trevor) has an old one (see pic of our cars together on a Scotland tour). I think it started out in life as a Triumph Herald (which I think had been in the family for a number of years before being handed down to Trevor as his first car). He has done thousands of miles of touring through Europe - not sure if he ventured out on the US tour?? These kits really are at the lower end of the kit car food chain in the UK - cheap to buy, which is reflected in the fit and finish. I'd expect them to need a lot of work (fabrication / modification) - so certainly not a straightforward build like a Caterham. Most people would describe them as fugly :-) I looked at these when I first became interested in kits years ago. At the time they used a Ford Sierra donor but I think you had to pick additional bits up from a breakers yard from other cars.

I had this issue on both of my Caterham's (Rover K Series) and it turned out to be HT leads that were breaking down.

Hi from another Boston resident. I really wanted to build a Caterham when I lived in the UK, but several people told me to buy a used one first and then build one later if I took to 7 ownership and the build itch didn't go away. You can always upgrade a second-hand car and get your spannnering fix that way (upgraditis is a well known disease within the 7 community :-) ) I'm about 6 foot and a little over 200lb. I originally had an S3 Caterham (guessing the Birkin is the same dimensions?) but my second one was an SV which was much more spacy and comfortable. I'm a US shoe size 12 and I could only drive the S3 wearing Puma Speedcats - couldn't use normal footwear. With the SV I could wear construction boots and still work the pedals. I've sat in Westies on a number of occasions and to me the cabin seems snug. I needed the seat right back and would need to use Speedcats to be able to use the pedals properly. Caterham's are great for multiple day tours. With the boot packed correctly and a SBF7's RE bag on top you can carry a lot of luggage. We have done Central England to France to Scotland and back home again over about 12 days. The inboard suspension on the Westie mean that you will get a lot less boot space. If you do go down the build route, the Westie will take a lot more work, time, effort than the Caterham. I'm not familiar with any of the other kits, but I'd expect all of them to be a more difficult and time consuming project that a Caterham. Using my UK experience again, but I have only ever seen one part built Caterham offered for sale (and this was using a totally non-standard engine). Part built kits from other manufacturers crop up fairly regularly. A big consideration in the US that doesn't exist in the UK is the red-tape involved in getting a car road-registered. This varies greatly from state to state - it is probably a good thing that you are moving away from MA in this respect. One final thought - residual value. Others on here will be able to offer more of an insight than I can, but you should take this into consideration on a purchase. You will pay more for a Caterham (new or used) than other 7's, but I'd expect the residual value to be better come sale time.

Hi Mike. Guess that thwarts any chance of me becoming the Jonny Leroux of New England then

I have wondered about whether a business venture could be made of shipping ex Academy 7's to the US for use as on-track renters rather than for road use. One (of many) issues is that they would be S3's rather than SV's. Used Westies would be cheaper to purchase, but I'm not sure how well they would stand up to track use. I have toured with the Se7ens List and with some of the UK guys that came over for the Canadian (Grizzly bear??) blat. I know that there is a lot of interest in a return tour to the US - possibly North East Seaboard this time.

I wonder whether the market would be bigger in the US if the price point was low and there was a way of selling a complete package (i.e. built and road-registered)? In the UK I could get a ready to drive away, factory built Westie with all new parts (including engine - 150bhp Zetec) for less than $30k - though I believe discounts are available on this figure. I know that if such a product existed here in New England I'd snap one up. Gone are the days when I used to dream about breaking a donor and building a kit car from scratch (my first exposure to kit car builds in the earlyish days of the Internet was the Robin Hood 2B :puke:). Someone was telling me that a lot of orders were placed in Germany when the latest low powered (3 pot Suzuki??), live axle Caterham came out. Seems there were people who were looking for a (relatively) cheap, modestly powered, quintessentially British sportscar, but didn't want the hassle of building and registering the car. I'm wondering whether the same would apply in New England (where there seems to be plenty on interest in Brit cars)? Though I reckon you could build a Westie under license in the US to the same price point (probably cheaper) as a UK built car, I'm guessing that US laws / red tape would scupper such a venture.

There is also a great photo of Alex Wong with a very seriously overloaded Caterham as he sets of for a GOME event to Marrakesh. I can now find the post on BlatChat to his story, but unfortunately the links to the photos were lost in the 'upgrade'

With the engine mid-mounted I just assumed that there would be some storage space up front. Looks like the inboard suspension has taken up all of the space. With the SV packed tight and then a SBFS RE-Bag on top, we could carry quite a lot on tour. Reminds me of the Angus & Tessa photo showing what they took on tour -

Guessing that the pics are taken on the route now commonly known as the Evo Traingle. Have to say that the second shot seems to emphasise the rollbars a bit more than I've seen on other shots. Quick question whilst I'm here - does the E10 have any capacity for carrying luggage? When we lived in the UK we used to do 2 week tours (circa 2.5k miles) in our 7 and the wife never really got the hang of packing light :-)

Our friends hubby would love to join us, I'm sure. He was previously a mechanic for a wealthy business owner and looked after his Lotus Cortina and Porker at various classic events in the UK and Europe. The ladies though - that's another matter!!! The only thing that is keeping us sane in all of this snow is the promise of some sunshine to warm our bones in a few months time :-)

Damn and blast - booked up for Cancun to meet up with a friend for her 40th birthday. Mike - as an aside, I may be working in NYC during March. I've dropped Angus a line - I'll let you know nearer the time in case you are around and fancy food / drink......