Road Ready

Where should I shop for driving shoes? The searches that I have done so far always result in a selection of shoes more designed for style rather than the narrow confines of a 7 footwell and my size-13 feet.

I now live 20 minutes from the Blue Ridge Parkway but I grew up in the Northern Va. suburb of Great Falls. I traveled Georgetown Pike almost daily--a very curvy road with hills and trees a few inches from the pavement. Late at night, early in the morning and everything in between. I once ran out of gas late at night and had to walk a ways home. i found a stolen Pantera de Tomaso abandoned at the foot of the driveway. I'll always regret that I called it in to the cops instead of parking it in the back of the barn and stacking hay bales all around until the statute of limitations expired. The best car that I ever drove that road with was an old Saab. Anybody here ever driven it in a Seven?

Does your state require an annual, biannual or ever inspection of your 7? For reasons that will remain forever a mystery, the NCDMV titled my '07 Caterham as a '57 Lotus 7 'replica' so because NC does not require inspection of vehicles over 30 years old, I don't ever have to submit to an inspection. How does your state handle this?

Some people are so into keeping the car as light as possible that they go to weight-saving measures like manual wipers to get through the annual safety inspection and counting on Rain-X for the unexpected shower. Many of us have tires that are not optimized for the wet, or even carry the top.

When I called Hagerty to see about getting my newly-built Seven insured in NC I was given a quote but subsequently turned down. I then went to my regular insurer Nationwide, which turned out to have a special relationship with Hagerty. I did eventually secure that insurance, at a lower price than the original Hagerty quote. If you can't get insurance directly through a specialized insurer, try sneaking in through a major company like Nationwide. This may be peculiar to NC but it's worth asking about.

My best friend's son runs this website. He restores old straight razors and is really good at it.... http://www.mancardrazors.com

Discovered a split in a ball joint cover on our '07. Anybody with suggestions for finding a replacement in a more expeditious way than ordering an new one through Caterham?

Probably. If I sell the car to someone out of state it's the buyer's problem. If I move in-state it's the same deal as where I live now. I'm pretty entrenched where I live now.

I've not actually gotten an actual weight of the car. Should I include my weight when I get that? For the Seven, the operator's weight is a much more important factor than that for some super car the weighs 3X as much. What do Caterham Super Sevens actually tend to weigh with fuel and driver?

I'm the newbie here; wondering what y'all do about the heat issue? Do any of you have scar tissue on the right side of your right leg from touching the bare metal of the tunnel? I've seen some footwell pictures. Glorified floormats? Special insulating material? How is it attached?

It's the bonding agency, not NC that retains the bond payment, and they're responsible for the payout if somebody determines that the engine or trans was stolen. Forever. That's a sunk cost. On the other hand, I never have to get inspected.

The final stage of getting our Seven registered was like an episode of 'Andy of Mayberry.' I went to the next (more rural) county over from ours because I knew the lines would be shorter. When I presented all my documents to the girl at the counter she said that "mary" would have to handle it, would I mind waiting. Having already waited years, I was well prepared to wait as long as necessary. The process took an hour and a half. I has already obtained an indemnity bond as NC required, gotten a title for a '57 Lotus "Replica" as NC required and had a stack of signed and notarized documents. In the course of the session I discovered that "Mary' had been to our house back when she and been a FedEx driver, what medical conditions she suffered, who she knew (everyone) and what kind of cookies she liked. The next day I brought the cookies to her office. She was thrilled.

What do you guys do about the clutch pedal position? I'm thinking that a parking space for your left foot like a dead-pedal or footrest would be a good idea. Has anybody here built one of those?

If I recall corruptly, the SAAB owners' group for those cars was 'Smoke Signals.' The freewheel is your friend but don't neglect the brakes!

Finally, everything came together. I had my first (legal) drive today, with a chase car, just in case. I was impressed and came away with a list of things to do: 1) move clutch pedal position adjustment as far down as it will go. 2) tighten hat 3) loose 20 pounds 4) make some brackets that will allow mounting of the side mirrors directly to the windscreen What do you guys do about your left foot when it's not on the clutch?

This is torture. I've been told that the financial disclosure was acceptable, the bond has bee approved, but the letter that officially says so is being snail mailed to the insurance agency. Nothing will happen until it's received. I'd never seen an insurance agent put her head down on her desk before. Meanwhile, the Seven sits in the garage, fueled up and ready.

Insurance secured. NCDOT requires a bond on the car BC there's no legible number on the engine and we've not found the one that may be on the trans. Because of the peculiar way NC does titles, this '07 Caterham Super Seven be legally titled as an 57' Lotus 'Replica.' The amount of the bond that I'm required to get broke some sort of threshold and now the bonding agency wanted a complete financial disclosure from me. Cash on hand, savings, short term debt, long term debt, income, real estate, insurance policies, stocks and bonds, the works. That could take days.

I ran into difficulty with the inspector. We do have a VIN for the chassis. Officer Goheen was concerned that we lacked ID numbers for the engine and transmission that we got from Caterham USA. Although we have the invoice for those components, there are no ID numbers; the number on the engine is only partly legible and we've not found one on the transmission. Caterham USA has no record of the numbers. Although the NC-DOT regulations don't seem to require ID numbers, Officer Goheen is being a bit of a stickler, but a good-natured one. Our original tack was to get the car titled as a custom vehicle, defined by NC-DOT regs. as completely reconstructed or assembled from new or used parts. Year of the vehicle will be year of assembly. Now we are shooting for a Replica Vehicle title, defined as 1) a motor vehicle which is a replica manufactured from a kit and sold unassembled; 2) titles as the make and year model intended to be replicated. I have no issue with either method of titling, but it does seem a bit odd to get a genuine '07 Caterham Super Seven titled as a '57 Lotus Seven. At least they look pretty much the same to the untrained eye.

My son and I (mostly my son) have completed our build of a Caterham Super Seven. The build was a long process with some long pauses while we figured things out. The original starter was faulty and our first attempt to start ended with some melted wiring.... Now we're dealing with the intricacies of Titling and Insurance. We live in North Carolina which is apparently not the easiest of states in which to accomplish this. Any NC Caterham folks out there that could give us any pointers? John Weaverville, NC