Blokko

Looks great. I'd certainly have to think twice before placing an order for a Caterham! I know Mav (Martin Richards) on BlatChat is a big fan.....

Just to join the circle, here's a link back to the original BlatChat post

Hi Martin. Well, I was all up for booking Austin for the F1 but we've just been asked to join friends abroad in July as a surprise 40th birthday bash (FaceBook friends, please don't mention this as it might not then be a surprise :-) ). Not sure whether funds will stretch to Montreal F1 (booked event tickets, but yet to sort accommodation), Austin F1 and a holiday 'abroad' - but I'm working on it ...... :D If I can convert my BA Avios into American Airlines flights or if I can engineer a site visit to our recently signed Client in Austin then I could be onto a winner It would be great if we could arrange for BlatChat and USA7's forum members to meet up in Austin for the F1 :hurray: Where were you based in the UK? Did you do any of the Taffia events (just wondering whether we have met before)? I'll do an update onto the BlatChat thread.....

Unfortunately the migration lost all links, photos and formatting - which reduces the usefulness of the content somewhat IMHO.

Would have thought that Redline would be your first point of call - assuming that Caterham can't help. I am in the UK between Monday and Friday of next week and if you find a source in the UK that won't ship international I may be able to bring it into the us for you if that is any help?

TTIP is still big news in the UK in a couple of areas. First, there are a lot of people in the NHS (health service) who are campaigning against it on the basis that US health service providers will muscle in and kill off the NHS. The second area is the civil libertarians who do not like the way this is being conducted in secrecy and without oversight. That said, maybe it is all too ambitious and nowt will come off it! Assuming it does go ahead at some point, it should at least remove the import duty. The agreement was also trying to get cross border recognition of standards. The example I saw was inferring that a car that met European standards (crash test and emissions for example) would not have to meet US equivalent standards. Whether this vision comes to fruition we will have to wait and see - but it would be fantastic if Westfield could build me a car in Kingswinford and then ship it out to me (I shan't hold my breath)....

I've posted about TTIP before -http://usa7s.com/vb/showthread.php?t=9939 Will be interested to see whether this makes the process of importing any simpler and/or cheaper. Reminds me, must get in touch with Simon to finally get that Westfield test drive when I'm back in the UK later this month....

My first 7 was built for the Academy series but unfortunately the guy who ordered the car failed the ARDS medical due to a previously undiagnosed hole in the heart. He did 3k miles in the first year of ownership (attending the Academy Series races as a spectator) and then did 2k miles in the next 4 years (just 300 miles in the last year). I got a bargain of a car that had been very well looked after, but I'm not sure if I would take on an ex Academy car at that sort of piece that had been through a full season. It's a bit of a rich kids series these days and many of the owners don't normally have to worry too much about mechanical sympathy and keeping panels straight. Edited to add - I think that an ex-Academy car would make more sense for someone who was only going to do track work. That said, maybe the lowly power would very soon lead to upgraditis :-)

I'm not sure whether it is even an option these days - but on a UK L7Club event with turnout of circa 100 cars you would be lucky to see more than a couple of clamshelled cars. Think they were more popular in the US and Japan than they ever were in the UK. I was doing a trackday round Donington a few years back when CC were doing a prospective Client day in the newly released sp300r (maybe even the one in the pics). Turning left into Goddards and this sp300r came roaring up my left hand side and was parallel with me as I was about to turn into the corner. Managed to abort and scoot wide, but came close to Armco in the process. Not a happy bunny. On the same day I saw what happens if you don't go fast enough to get the ground effect aero working. Guy came hammering into McLeans but then I think he chickened out and scrubbed speed before hitting the corner. Understeered like mad and careered into the kitty litter - must have done some damage to the paint / bodywork. When it was being pedaled properly, it really was flying though.

And a lack of a rollbar certainly makes it look different (never seen an S3 without one)

I've seen more 21's than I've seen S4's. Here's a couple of pictures from a Taffia Blat from South Wales up to Portmeirion. The road in question is the Evo Triangle, as featured (not surprisingly) in Evo magazine (it is one of their main test routes) and Top Gear. The base of the triangle is dull, but the two sides are a great route to drive in a 7.

Have you ever seen one "in the flesh"? I believe that fugly is the appropriate word

Mike - my eyes hurt after clicking on that link :ack::ack: I've posted on here before that I'm not opposed to owning a 7esque car. Preference would be for a Westie. The factory is less than 15 miles from my home in the UK and I've had a number of chats with Simon Westwood over the years. I'm back in the UK for a few days in Nov and I'm going to see whether I can arrange a test drive. It will be interesting to see if TTIP does make any difference to how UK kit cars can be sold / imported into the US. I would love nothing more than to get a fully built car (or rolling chassis) shipped over from the UK at a price and spec that is nearer to that of a UK car. As much as I'd love to build a kit I think that a Westie would be too time consuming for me.

Meant to add, the numberplate of the blue 7 on the second AutoSport pic (E1 ROB) used to sit on the SV Caterham that I just sold. Rob Spencer built and run the SV that I later went on to own - but of course he transferred his distinctive numberplate across to his blue 7 when he sold the yellow SV.

Given that only 49 were ever made, it's always great when you get to see one of these cars "in the flesh". Got to see four of them parked up at Stoneleigh back in April. I have in the past "spotted" L7Club member GJT's 21 parked up in Central London (he happened to be working next door to the hotel I was staying at). On one of the Se7ens List tours DH2 turned up in his green 21. Pity that the introduction of the 21 coincided with the release of the Elise.

Inspires me to try to get a Caterham for my stay in Boston. Been looking at houses today - one of the properties we are looking at has a nice garage for working on and storing a 7 :-) Finding a suitable car that can be registered in MA is another question though......

Hi again Jim I'm now in the US, working out of NYC this week. I can get the Petty Strut put on the boat when the removal guys show up on Wednesday, but I have no way of getting it unpacked / photographed unfortunately.

Jim - looking on caterhamparts website it appears that roolbars and petty struts are different for lhd and rhd. With this in mind I think that it's best that we do not proceed....

Sorry for the delay in getting back to you - trying to finish off my work projects and get our household possessions in a state where they can be collected by the shippers has been quite a time consuming task (it is amazing how much "stuff" you can accumulate over 13 years of living in the same house). Anyhow, I have no idea what the US market is like on part prices, so I've gone with the figures converted from the prices I was asking in the UK to USD's. SV Full Hood = £80 = $130 SV Rollbag = £40 = $65 Petty Strut = £25 = $40 All of the above exclude shipping from Boston. My guess is that I will have access to the goods in early December - hoping this isn't an issue as I'm presuming that the sevening season will be over for most by now :-)

Next week my worldly possessions are being collected and loaded up onto a container bound for Boston, MA. I have a few Caterham bits left over from my garage clearout (see list in thread title) and I was wondering whether it would be worth transporting the remaining content across the pond to sell there? The hood and the rollbag should be universal fit - but I've no idea whether the Petty Strut is usable on left hookers (will try to find out). Please shout up before 15 Oct if there is any interest in these items.

I believe that WSCC also went members only having previously been open access. I guess that the new website is going to be more costly to maintain than in the past (when Barry did all of the work free of charge) - so 'monetising' the site by making users join the L7Club makes sense. I'm sure they could have looked at advertising revenue as well / instead - but I know that members have said in the past that they would not like this. I've been a L7Club member since 2007 when I purchased my first Caterham. I get more than 50 quid of value per year out of Tech Talk and ChitChat. I'll continue to pay for membership even though I'll be out of the UK and most likely not own a Caterham. Will be interesting to see whether the latest change will affect membership. May get some new members (like the OP) who previously had free access to the site - but I bet it will lead to others leaving. Not sure if people will drift towards PistonHeads - I know that a lot of club members also post on PH. As you say, referencing existing posts in TechTalk will be pointless looking forward (unless you fancy a bit of cut and paste work :-) ). Personally I liked BlatChat as it was (agree with the sentiments of Angus who posted this - http://blatchat.com/t.asp?id=245321&pn=1&ps=15), but I understand why it had to change. Would have been nice if the new site was as clean and simple as the old one though.....

A Caterham part here (realising that may well not have a Caterham, but it would do the trick) - http://caterhamparts.co.uk/product.php?id_product=232 In the UK you could find something similar at a Radio Shack type place - presume it is the same in the US. I had the above on my last Caterham, but I had a habit of missing the button when I needed to go for it quickly. So I took a leaf out of the Westfield book and went for a flash toggle switch instead - http://caterhamparts.co.uk/product.php?id_product=233 I can say without hesitation that it was a very worthwhile 'upgrade' - I'm sure it saved my car from getting hit on at least two occasions. http://caterhamparts.co.uk/img/p/232-232-large.jpg http://caterhamparts.co.uk/img/p/233-233-large.jpg

At one stage one of the smaller engines in the Volkswagen Group range (also used on Skoda's, Audi's Seat's) contained both a supercharger and a turbocharger, though only one ran at any one time. From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Volkswagen_Group_petrol_engines

The aforementioned topic cropped up in a discussion I was having yesterday with someone in the automotive industry. He seemed to think that this directive could have (positive) implications on the sale of British (kit) cars into the US. Anyone have any thoughts or further information on this? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transatlantic_Trade_and_Investment_Partnership Market Access "Removing custom duties on goods and restrictions on services, gaining better access to public markets, and making it easier to invest" Industry-specific regulation "Improved regulatory coherence and cooperation by dismantling unnecessary regulatory barriers such as bureaucratic duplication of effort." Specific sectoral agreements · Cars http://trade.ec.europa.eu/doclib/docs/2014/may/tradoc_152467.pdf

Unfortunately we should be saying "was" rather than "is" - the car has since been demolished after an 'incident'. Some details here - http://blatchat.com/t.asp?id=221644&pn=1&ps=15 Norman Verona also has the same exhaust configuration. Makes it much easier to remove the engine this way - something that these guys with higher powered 7's seem to have to do on a regular basis