Alaskossie

7veloce, Let's plan on it! I intend to come down for some shorter shakedown drives in northern Colorado, as soon as the car can hit the road under its own power, and my schedule permits -- like in February or March. You, Howard, bsimon, Derek, Jeff, and scannon are all in the plans. How are you enjoying your own Seven? Let's all stay in touch!

I grew up in Colorado, so know many of the mountain roads well (but not from the driver's seat of a Seven). During the 2005 "How the West was Driven" UK Sevens Tour, bsimon and I drove the entire ascent of Red Mountain Pass in the passing lane, simply flying past all the dawdlers and strugglers! No slowing for the corners in his Seven..... quite thrilling.

JohnCh, Your idea sounds like a great kickoff for planning an extended westbound/northbound "moveable feast!" Perhaps, if it develops, we can move it to a separate "event" site on the USA7s site. It would be great to meet and drive with Seven owners who live along my route -- advance planning is the key. My tentative plan is to drive from Colorado to California, visit my son and a friend in LA, also rendezvous with Pierats and Sean and Slomov and others in California if possible, then head northward into Oregon and Washington, then angle eastward into Idaho and western Montana, then head northward to Banff in Alberta. There is a National Forest road outside Boise that I recall from years ago that I really want to drive in a Seven (mainly to see if my memory of it is accurate), and I'm tentatively planning to rendezvous with my wife at Banff, Alberta for a conference in the third week of July. After that, I would head for Dawson Creek, BC, and start up the Alaska Highway to Anchorage. I picked up a spiral-bound Rand McNally highway map book for Colorado, and to my amazement it shows mountain roads in enough detail to indicate whether they would be curvy enough for spirited Seven driving. I plan to pick up similar maps of the other states I would be driving through, to try to hit "the best of the best" along the way.

Al, Isn't that what the rodders today are calling a "rat rod"? I like it -- a "rat Seven...." (a "vermin Seven.....?")

I seem to recall reading or hearing somewhere that the Canadian company's arrangement with Caterham in UK required that they only offer the bigger SV chassis, so they would not be directly competing with Caterham's own bike-engined Series 3 Sevens.

Tom, While my thanks to you were initially mis-directed to another Seven-er, I want to acknowledge again the encouragement and example you gave me when we met at Vail on the "How the West was Driven" UK Seven-ers' Tour in September 2005. I m planning to drive my Seven from Colorado to Alaska in the summer of 2010, taking the "scenic route." My younger son lives in LA, so I am planning a swing through southern California on my way north. I'm assuming that such a trek has not yet been done in a Seven, so it should be interesting.

athens7, Most people would view my "attention to detail" as a bit excessive, and not necessary for a fine-performing and fun car. I would have to agree. At least I lack the patience and skill to build and modify a "chrome Seven" like the "Sugino Seven," or to build a Seven with all carbon-fiber panels, like some are doing in UK.....

Al, Thanks for your "golf clap!" I guess you could say that my Seven is the result of 48 years of pent-up fantasizing.... I almost wish I was restoring a vintage Series 2 Seven -- I would be much more constrained and careful about what I did to the car, to remain historically accurate and maintain its historic value. The thing that drove me in the direction I took with a current Caterham Seven is that, 52 years after the Seven was first introduced by Lotus, you can still buy it in a crate and build it yourself -- and when you're done, it can still be as quick (or likely, quicker) than almost anything else on the road. What other car can claim a half-century's dominance like that?

Thanks all for your questions and compliments. This Seven is the culmination of a dream that I've had since July of 1961. I think I may have gone a little overboard on the details that I have incorporated into the initial build, rather than living with the car and gradually upgrading it over time. But some of my desired upgrades are most easily done when the car is not yet assembled. I went for lightness with the carbon fiber, then added some heaviness back in with extensive engine bay insulation, carpeting, undercoating the front and rear wings, etc. My objective was to have a "Superlight" Seven in concept, but not too stark, and with some touring amenities. My chief wrench Nathan Down has looked a bit askance at it; but he's a tolerant guy, and has dubbed it the Seven "Executive Superlight" model. I guess that fits it as well as any other description.

Spaz, "Super 7" is a name for certain models of the Lotus 7 and Caterham 7 that has been used off and on since at least 1961. The present Canadian "Super 7" company does not have a corner on the use of that name or the identification of its particular car as a "Super 7,", and from the photo posted of the Thunderhill car, I'd venture to say that it is not Hayabusa-powered.

DeanG and drew, I got the carbon fiber 5.75-inch headlamp buckets from Fluke in UK. (I have heard the argument that the "traditional" Seven should have 7.5-inch headlamps. What is forgotten is that the original 1957 Seven S1 had two Lucas lamps of approximately 5 inches diameter, one being a fog-lamp and the other a long-range beam; they were switched on and off alternately, for low beam and high beam!). I also got a pair of c/f turn-signal covers from Fluke, which Nathan is modifying to fit my small Hella full-time-on halogen running lights that will mount where the turn signals usually mount. My turn signals are LED motorcycle signal lights, and mount off the body/frame where the nose cone joins (not yet installed, in the photos). My sill protectors in the "doorways" are in the silver "alutex" c/f material from Fluke. The c/f rear light blocks are from Carbon-Bits in UK (made by the late "RiF", "Richard in France," Richard Lee, who passed away suddenly on December 14, 2009 -- RIP) The Duratec cam cover is genuine carbon fiber from Reverie in UK. I persuaded Simon Farren of Reverie to make a c/f Duratec cam cover that would be specifically designed for the coil-on-plug design of the Cosworth ignition, and I got the first (and perhaps only, to date) example for that application. I also ordered this cam cover in a low-profile design, and with no oil filler hole and cap since I have a dry sump. I had the cam cover clear-coated, and added the silver "Ford Cosworth" badge that I found on eBay UK (these are fairly scarce, I've learned). In the engine bay, I've tried to consistently use black fabric-covered hoses by Fragola, and Fragola's black AN fittings. Other plumbing fittings have been powder-coated black to match. The formed aluminum radiator pipes will be powder-coated black, also.

Any idea on what the engine/transmission specs are on this car? A job well done, in any event!

Jturrell, Cosworth USA supplies the correct ECU; the supplied wiring harness was a problem, since I got the one for the Cosworth "crate" motor and not the one specific to the Caterham, but that was resolved. My ECU is mounted inside the passenger footwell, on a hinged, drop-down panel (thus keeping it off the scuttle, and perhaps better protected). The engine was run on the Cosworth dyno before shipping. I bought the dry-sump version of the engine from Cosworth; the pump is integral with the oil pan, so there are no external oil lines, except to and from the dry sump tank. The dry sump tank is a Brise tank (UK) which i had built with the inlet and outlet ports and the breather ports, and a bottom drain plug, located and sized where I wanted them. it also has an oil temp. sensor in the tank, and a 110v pre-heat coil in the tank. i got the pre-heat coil and the tank cap from Peterson Fluid Systems (USA) and sent them to Brise to have them install these items on their tank. The use of the Brise "kidney" tank in front of the engine obviates the need to shorten the passenger footwell to locate a conventional round dry sump tank; it also removes the d/s tank from the heat of the exhaust headers. Caterham uses a similar tank (of their own manufacture) on the new R500 Series 3 cars

No, this is the narrower original Series 3 model.

The body color is 2004 Audi light silver metallic. I chose it because it was closest to the early, traditional unpainted ali on the first Sevens. I had the CC 15-inch wheels repainted an Audi grey color -- in my opinion, the stock CC wheels in dark graphite color are way too dark, and the wheel gets lost in the tire. If I had it to do over, I might have chosen an even lighter silver/grey for the wheels. The front and rear wings are carbon fiber. The nose is also carbon fiber, but I had it painted body color, as I don't care for the Sevens that have a nose that is not colored the same as the rest of the body -- they don't look "of a piece," but instead like some beaters that you see with a replacement fender or door off a similar car but with another color......... just my opinion. I'm considering body stripes, but haven't followed up on that yet.

DeanG, Here are some more photos of the CC carbon fiber airbox. I'm not sure how it fits "stylistically" (or even if such a word can be used in conjunction with a Seven). The standard, long dome-shaped foam Pipercross air filter that came with the Cosworth Duratec was an air-restrictive press-fit inside the airbox, so we substituted individual foam socks over the inlet trumpets. Cutting the hole in the bonnet is an exercise in 3-dimensional jeopardy, like cutting the side skin for the exhaust primaries. Nathan has done it more than a few times, but this may have been his first with this airbox. He said it was his most difficult and time-consuming. (Note the copper-wire jig he solders up to position the opening in the right place on the bonnet).

Tom, In my haste, I think I got the wrong "yellow Seven." I confused your handle with the yellow Seven of Tom Jones (California) who I should know is "pierats" on USA7s. Sorry to you both for the confusion....

Tom, Thanks for your note -- you should know that you were an inspiration for me when I met you and saw your car on the 2005 Sevens Tour at Vail, Colorado! Yes, mine is one of the last of the Arch Motors S3 chassis; purchased before anyone at CC had put a Duratec into an S3 lhd chassis. So CC helpfully installed a Zetec wiring harness; Nathan had to pull more than 50 feet of additional wire into the harness to get the current Duratec functions to work with the Zetec harness. I believe that all of the S3 lhd chassis now coming out of CC are the new metric chassis, with a completely different pedal box, remote brake and clutch reservoirs, etc., among other changes. I definitely wanted the Arch chassis, because Arch is the original maker, from 1957.

I faced reality in early July 2009 that the major mechanical fitment of my 2007 Seven S3 would never get done at my present pace (I started assembly in June 2007, still had the engine/trans and major electrical to figure out and install in July 2009). The car was in Colorado, i was in Alaska, and my 14 round-trips to work on the car over 2 1/2 years (141 days total) just weren't getting it done. (Little did I know in July of 2009 what major obstacle -- an incorrect wiring harness -- still lay before me). So I trailered the Seven to Thomas Vintage Motors in Boulder, CO, where ace Seven mechanic and ex-pat Brit (and former Caterham engineer) Nathan Down works in restoring and fettling such local vintage racers as a Lola T-70 and Alfa T33/2. Nathan is both an imaginative problem-solver and a perfectionist, with an encyclopedic knowledge of Caterham Sevens (he designed the SV model). My car is now in the carpeted garage at his home, where he can pop out to fiddle with it on days when he doesn't go in to Thomas in Boulder. (He has thus been able to satisfy much of my upgrade-itis, even before the car turns a wheel under its own power!). Last week we rolled her out on Nathan's snowy driveway (no driving under those conditions, unfortunately), and fired up the 250 hp Cosworth Duratec 2.3 to check the sound level (it's not quiet!). There are still a few bits to finish (rear wing guards, exhaust location and mounts, etc.), but next time I'm down to Colorado to actually drive the car (weather permitting, of course). Attached are some snaps.

Why is Log 30 scheduled so late in the year (second week in October)? I attended Log 27 in Aspen, and it was in early September. I would have seriously considered attending LOG 30, but I have to be on the road to Alaska at least by early September, in order to beat the snow.

Reading slngsht's short thread on fiberglass, I got to wondering if there is anybody on USA7s who is familiar with working with carbon fiber -- forming curing, etc. I have never worked with fiberglass (which I suppose should be a first step for a beginner), but the items I'd like to make would be more appropriate in the more "high-tech" medium. Any tips?? Any books to recommend??

A wild guess, based on no facts at all: 1215 lb. without pilot, and with half-tank of fuel.

What, no "bonnet off" photos in the auction listing? How can we be certain it has an engine?

Scannon, I know the person you are referring to....just keep using your best powers of persuasion on Mr. S., ok? This doesn't qualify under the criteria of time-of-acquisition to-time-of-completion because the clock is still running, but I have been informed by a reliable source that a fellow in Denver owns several early Lotus sports racers which he keeps in a barn and never shows or drives -- and he also owns an original Lotus 7 Series 2 kit, still in its original crate from Lotus, never unpacked or assembled.....a virtual time capsule. At this rate, the car will probably be buried with him....

I believe that Ted Lewis, the club racer in UK for whom the First Lotus 7 Series 1 was built, is still living. He lives on the Continent now, and he attended the big 50th Anniversary Lotus 7 gathering in England in 2007.