Alaskossie

Skip, The white car at the beginning of the Clarkson Escort Cossie video was the Ford RS200, the mid-engined 4-cyl. turbo 4WD Ford Group B rally car that was built about 10 years before the Escort Cosworth. It is much rarer than the Escort Cosworth, since only 200 were built to meet homologation regs fro Grp. B. When Grp B was cancelled in 1986 due to high risk of death and injury to spectators and drivers/navigators alike, Ford marketed the leftover RS200s through Ford dealers in England. Ford disassembled about 15-20 of them for spares, and tried to sell the rest, even putting out a glossy showroom brochure for what could only be described as a thinly-disguised race car. Bob Sutherland of Colorado Springs bought a bunch of then, intending to sell them in the US as both a race car and as a licensed street car, but ran into EPA/DOT problems, and I think the only ones he actually sold here were for race only. The RS200 is at least 500 lb lighter than the Escort Cosworth (perhaps more), and in original; trim had about 220 hp. In the Evo version, the hp went past 520 hp, and the Evo version is in serious contention for being absolutely the quickest car on the road, anywhere..... I know a fellow in Portland who owns both a standard and an Evo version of the Ford RS200, and he drives them on the street, on dealer plates...... Today, the going price for a standard RS200 (if you can find one) is about $100,000, with the Evo version another $25,000 or so. Tom Meacham

The only Ford product that I have ever owned (in 50 years of licensed driving) is my present 1995 Ford Escort RS Cosworth 4X4 -- yes, it's a Ford "Escort," but not the sad American tin-box slug we're all familiar with, but instead a super-performance rallying hatchback 2-door, with body by Karmann and engine by Cosworth UK. Only 7145 Escort Cosworths were built, but Ford in Europe sold a whole passel of lesser Escort compacts on the strength of this competition version. What did Ford US have that compared, in performance image and affordability? Nothing. Tom Meacham

Al, Really looking forward to meeting you on this "Rocky Mountain High" 7s tour -- assuming that I get my Caterham 7 S3 in Coloraqdo finished and shaken down by early July. Would you or your wife be up for some short stints riding shotgun with me during the tour?? (I have to add the caveat that I've got Tillet carbon/Kevlar seats, which are not for the (ahem) circumferentially challenged.... I even notice the beginning of a press fit if I haven't exercised faithfully for a few weeks....) Tom Meacham

I have a pair of stock Caterham S3 polished stainless steel sill protectors (unused) for sale. I'll sell them for 2/3 of what they list for in the Caterham on-line catalog, whatever that price is, plus postage. Tom Meacham Anchorage, Alaska

I've already got two on order -- very efficient overseas order placement through a PayPal invoice!

Bob, Yes, we've been to Leadville........ It was in September of '05, if I recall..... Should we warn Gert about inviting us on his Tour? Maybe if there are no Brits in V-8 Westfields aboard, we won't be set up for another gas station dust-up -- and if I'm driving, perhaps I'll be less inclined to deliver gratuitous obscene hand signals....! Ah, the stories... Alaskossie

That Mazda looks like a lawsuit waiting to happen.

There are some good due-process arguments against speed cameras. The company providing the cameras has a financial incentive in getting as many convictions as possible, and at the highest fines; the company has a contract that grants it a fixed percentage of revenues from fines, etc. (If the city just bought the cameras outright and then ran the program itself, this undue financial interest would be eliminated; but that rarely happens). Thus a private financial incentive is injected into what should be a pure public safety matter. When Anchorage had speed cameras in school zones, the people running the cameras were not even certified law enforcement officials. As a result, a local ballot initiative was passed which prevents anyone other than certified law enforcement officials from issuing traffic tickets (and even parking tickets). (Another unforeseen problem was that sometimes, the violation photo showed a fellow driving around during the day, with a female front-seat passenger who was not his wife.... no doubt this led to some marital discord at home, and some additional resistance to speed cameras....!) For starters, anyone nailed by a speed camera who wants to fight the ticket should demand to review a copy of the contract between the city and the camera company. With red-light cameras, there is often a clause in the contract between the city and the camera supplier that specifies the length of time the yellow caution light will show, and prevents the city from lengthening the yellow caution period during the life of the contract -- this is a deliberate, inexcusable attempt to boost the number of red-light violators, in order to guarantee a revenue stream to the camera supplier. This is outrageous. The sole municipal incentives should be to reduce accidents, and reduce the incidence of red-light runners -- not to assure a revenue stream. Pat Bedard of Car & Driver Magazine has had several good editorials regarding speed cameras over the years. Anyone interested should look them up. Alaskossie

Gert, I'm very interested in meeting up with you, if my car is finished and running by then. I have a commitment on July 4 in Alaska, but could come down that evening to Colorado (car willing). I'll coordinate with Skip,and Bob Simon (Loveland, CO), if he can do at least a part of it. Tom

Tony, I can't believe that you got a ticket in Colorado for no front plate, when your state (Michigan) does not require them. That would seem to be a violation of the "full faith and credit" clause of the U. S. Constitution. My best strategy (I'm a lawyer as well as an occasional speeder) is to plead Not Guilty, then write the court clerk after the trial date has been set, and ask for a re-scheduling to a later date because you have a pre-existing conflict on the original date. If you really want to push the envelope, repeat this process as soon as you get the re-set date. With luck (it has worked for me twice), the citing officer will either forget the court date, be on leave or in training, or will no longer be with the force. Without the complaining officer present (you have a constitutional right to confront your accuser), then the ticket should be dismissed. With an aerial (airplane) stop, both the air officer and the fellow who pulled you over on the ground should be present in court to face you at trial. Otherwise, the judge should throw it out. Photo radar (used in some cities) may require some special considerations re a trial with your accuser (including the camera), and the person standing in court, who presumably did not witness your violation, but only looked at the film. My last ticket, about 4 years ago, was for 97 mph in a 55 mph zone 4-lane highway in Anchorage, Alaska, in my Audi S4. I was in fact trying to avoid a side-swipe by an accelerating BMW 5-series who apparently did not see me, and was moving across into my (inside) lane as we were accelerating onto the highway at around 55 or 60. I had nowhere to go, and the only way I could avoid a collision was to keep accelerating until I cleared him, and I did that until he and I both reached around 100 mph, at which time I got nailed by radar from the next overpass. I pled Not Guilty and tried the re-schedule ploy, but the cop showed up on the new trial date. So I asked him questions about what had happened (he testified truthfully, and largely upheld my version of what had happened, including the BMW next to me). I then told the judge that under the same circumstances, I would do the same thing again, as it was the only way I could avoid an accident. He gave me the 6 points, but reduced the fine from $350 to $110. All in all, an acceptable result, I thought. My funniest result was, a few years ago in Alaska, a 60 mph ticket in a 55 zone, in my Porsche 944 Turbo (I passed a state Fish & Wildlife Enforcement pickup with an ATV in the bed, because I did not want to hang behind him for 120 miles of great driver's road coming up on the Richardson Highway from Delta Junction to Gulkana, Alaska. The jerk pulled me over for passing him; I pled Not Guilty because I knew that his pickup did not have a state-trooper-calibrated speedometer. I played the re-schedule ploy, then drove 250 miles to to Delta Junction in -40 F. degree midwinter to attend trial in Delta Junction. The Trooper showed up; but I convinced the judge that the cop's speedometer was only an estimate, and that what I had done (clear, dry road, signalled pass, etc.) was not unsafe at all. The Trooper had to admit my arguments, and the judge said Not Guilty. I thanked the judge and the Trooper, and drove all the way back home in the cold and dark. The next day, the Trooper called me, and asked me if I would represent him in a personnel matter with the Dept. of Public Safety!! (I told him that was outside my field, but referred him to another attorney, and he thanked me). Ah, the tales.... Alaksossie

Gert, Re your route: I can't get the Google Map display to stop jumping around between street maps and hemispheric views. Could you post a day-by-day list of your propsosed destinations (with dates and distances if possible)? Thanks.

Here's almost as nuts: snowboarding off a peak in Alaska hardly wide enough to stand on: Must have been a thrill... Alaskossie

No Brylcreem here: Alaskossie

Gert, you're right -- the PNW Tour that I was aiming for was in 2007 (that's still an ungodly long time for me to be still assembling my Seven!). Some of the Colorado mountain passes do resemble freeways with curves, but often these are 2-lane highways with long passing lanes. On the 2005 Sevens Tour, Bob Simon and I in his S3 VX Evo stayed in the passing lane on Red Mountain Pass (I believe it was) through the entire ascent, and we just flew by everyone else -- very satisfying indeed!! I'll let Skip speak for himself, but I think his potential medical limitation in driving his Seven may come not from sitting in the car itself for long periods, but from hoisting oneself in and out (something that is much less of a problem in a Miata). I have had surgery (not arthroscopic) on detached rotator cuff tendons on both shoulders, and during the recovery period and in early physical therapy, I could not have come near hoisting my bod into or out of a Seven. Most cars with doors don't present this barrier to mobility (though I hope no ADA complaints have been filed against Caterham Cars yet!) Tom

Gert, I wish you could plan to go a bit further south during the Colorado portion of your "Rocky Mountain High" Sevens Tour 2009. There are some great roads in the Telluride/Silverton/Ouray area, as well as one along the north rim of the Black Canyon of the Gunnison that I've driven once, gritting my teeth in my vague, wallowing rent-a-tub. I found that the latest spiral-bound multi-page Colorado road atlas by Rand-McNally (?) shows the roads in sufficient scale that all of the really twisty main roads and back roads show up in good detail. This makes it easy to choose the real driver's routes, sight unseen. I picked my copy up at a Kinko's. Perhaps there is one printed for Wyoming, also. (With both Wyoming and Colorado, you can pare the weight of the atlas down to Seven-economy style by discarding all of the pages that cover the billiard-table-flat eastern halves of these states). Gert, while in Wyoming, you should drive Snowy Range Pass out of Laramie, and return to the Eastern Slope and Skip's house by way of Cameron Pass and the Cache la Poudre Canyon....then a little trip over Trail Ridge Road in Rocky Mountain National Park (altitude 12,183 ft.), and return to the Eastern Slope by Berthoud Pass, the Peak to Peak Highway, and St. Vrain Canyon. Skip knows all the routes -- it makes my mouth water! Skip, do you think I'll have my Seven built and shaken down by July 3rd? (No, don't tell me the truth!). I'm assembling the car in northern Colorado, so maybe there is a chance I could tag along on part of your tour, Gert. After all, it was your Pacific Coast 2005 Tour that I was originally aiming for in assembling my car -- no luck there, though! Tom Meacham

Patrick McGoohan, the protagonist in the "Prisoner" TV series and premier Seven pilot, has passed away at age 80: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/7829267.stm Alaskossie

In the December 2008 issue of Performance Car (UK), there is a nice driving test of the Caterham R500, followed by a comparison test of the R500 (£36,995) against the Porsche 997 GT2 (£131,070). Despite the wet weather, the R500 stayed with or ahead of the GT2 in acceleration up to 110 mph, when the brick-like aerodynamics of the R500 seemed to become evident. The testers did take the R500 up to 150 mph apparently (21.2 seconds from start), which is about the fastest I can ever recall a tester actually driving a Seven. The R500 had the Quaife sequential 6-speed transmission and a 3.62 rear end, and 13-inch Avon CR500 tyres. On the Bruntingthorpe road course in the semi-wet, the Porsche was 2.2 seconds faster than the R500 in a flying lap (1.222.4 vs. 1.24.6). All in all, not a bad showing for the Seven. Alaskossie

This is the second winter of my discontent. When I started work on the Caterham S3 kit in June of '07, I thought, "Piece of cake.... I'll have this ready in plenty of time for the CCC '07 Pacific Coast Tour in September of '07" (which was my original objective). But living in Alaska and working on the car on periodic trips to Colorado hasn't moved the project ahead as quickly as I'd hoped. Add to that an engine that went back to Caterham to solve a corrosion problem that developed mysteriously during dry storage, plus my inborn tendency to want to do my own fixes and upgrades and tweaks and mods as the car is being assembled (rather than after it's been on the road and has to be taken apart to some degree for these mods), and it has been a drawn-out process. Guys who can pop out to the garage every evening or so for a couple of hours of work on a Seven are the ones I envy. Every time i get back to it, it takes me a half hour to remember where I left off.... The garage in Colorado where I'm working (when I'm working) is probably pretty chilly in Colorado's cold snap right now, even with the heat on (Jeff, don't let the beer freeze!). I'm just hoping to finish the car before the 2-year license tags expire and I have to renew.... Tom Meacham

Just picked up EVO Magazine #125 (“Car of the Year 2008”). The Caterham R500 was in the mix with nine other “affordable” performance cars (Mini JCW, Renaultsport Megane R26.R, Subaru Impreza 2.5 WRX, BMW M3 saloon, etc.). The R500 finished third in the subjective evaluation, behind the Megane and the Mini JCW. The editors opined that, “If Caterham was a new company and the R500 had emerged this year as a completely new car (like the KTM X-Bow) then it would have won easily. But essentially it is the latest, fastest brilliant incarnation in a long line of brilliant incarnations. As a result everyone was in agreement that it should be singled out for a special lifetime achievement award.” With this backhanded compliment (or an excuse to discount longevity and consistency?), Road Test Editor Henry Catchpole bestowed on the Caterham R500 EVO’s new “Lifetime Achievement Award”: “The Caterham Seven. We love it. Its uncompromising focus makes it hard to place in a test like this, but if you ask anyone at EVO to name one car that encapsulates the thrill of driving, then without hesitation they will say a Seven. If you want to learn about driving, really driving, then slot yourself into a Series 3. It doesn’t matter which: from a 125 Roadsport all the way to a R500, the principles of perfect tactile interaction are the same. It sets benchmarks that no other car can live up to. We feared that it might finally, after 50 years, be shown up in 2008 with the arrival of the carbon-tubbed KTM. Not a bit of it. The R500 shone brighter than ever, emerging, crown gleaming, as the undisputed king. As long as the Caterham Seven exists, so will the thrill of driving.” I guess the folks at EVO liked the Seven......

Ian, The car is still in Colorado, being assembled (slowly). Don't forget, in Alaska our season may be short, but our summer daylight hours are long...! (At least, That's what I keep telling myself!). Tom

Check with Ben at Rocky Mountain Sports cars, but I believe (after talking to him last month) that their price for a Caterham now includes all of the "go faster" parts that are needed to bring a cooking Duratec crate motor (supplied by the customer who purchases directly from Ford) up to Caterham performance specs; and the unneeded stock parts are simply stripped off the Duratec and replaced with the performance parts that came as part of the Caterham kit. Due to DOT/EPA regulations and certification/crash test requirements, RMSC cannot supply the entire car, even if it is in pieces. The customer has to supply the engine and transmission, which he purchases directly from Ford or somewhere. I bought my kit from RMSC in 2007, my transmission from the US Caterham distributor, and my tuned Duratec 2.3 from Cosworth USA. Tom

My plan for the winter? Just finish the damned car, which has been resting on bsimon's sawhorses since June of '07. (I know, I know, upgrade-itis bit me even before the car was built and running. I was obsessed with the idea of doing things the first time that I was sure I would want to do later (scuttle layout planning, insulation, honeycomb fuel tank, etc.), but that would require disassembly if I waited to do them later. So my '07 Caterham Seven build has, so far, been a running build/upgrade, which hasn't got it on the road anytime soon. But hope springs eternnal.....

Scannon is basically right -- a complete car is difficult to import, unless it is 25 or more years old at the time of import (the 1967 deadline is no longer the benchmark; the 25-year rule is). I speak from experience. I imported a 1980 M-B Unimog in 2005 with no problems from EPA or DOT. However, in 2001 I attempted to import a 1990 8X8 diesel truck from UK, that had an EPA-exempt diesel engine. The truck sat in bonded storage at the Port of Anchorage for more than 4 years (at $150 per month) while I argued with EPA and U.S. Customs over whether it should be classed as an "on-road vehicle with an off-road engine" (not importable), or an "off-road vehicle with an off-road engine" (importable if its max. speed is 25 mph or less). The EPA functionaries in DC were (and are) clueless about anything mechanical, but they throw their weight around like they are experts. Busanostra wrote, If I am not mistaken (someone can correct me), you can import any car in the world, bring to the US, but does not mean you will be able to register until you meet EPA, DOT or U.S. safety standards. That is not correct -- registration is the last step, a state-level function, once the vehicle has been released buy the Feds (if it is released). Until it is released, it sits in a no-man's land of bonded storage -- technically not yet physically entered into the USA. During this time US Customs tells you repeatedly that you have a deadline to either take the vehicle to a certified modification/conversion specialist to get it altered to meet US specs; re-export it back to where it came from or somewhere else; involuntarily allow US Customs to auction it off for re-export; or cut it up for scrap on the docks. Some choices.... Alaskossie

A fellow named Tony Lloyd in UK used to sell a generous-sized windwing for Sevens made out of polycarbonate, and using the standard Caterham hinges. These were longer than the standard CC ones, extending a bit higher at the top, and several inches lower at the bottom. The bottom edge was turned at right angles to the windwing, toward the car body, with the edge resting on the car body. This edge was tapered in a wedge shape, so that the trailing edge of the windwing was held outward from the body a distance of about 1 inch to maybe 1 3/4 inches. Unfortunately Tony no longer makes these for sale, but they should not be difficult to replicate. From my experience as a Seven passenger, holding the lower corner of the stock CC windwing just a little distance away from the body seems to reduce the buffeting considerably.

The latest issue of EVO (No. 123, Nov. 2008) drove the KTM X-Box (est. 300 turbo hp), the Ariel Atom (300 supercharged hp), Lotus 2-Eleven (252 supercharged hp) and the Caterham R500 (263 naturally-aspirated hp) on a fast road course in North Wales. They pronounced the R500 as "most ably living up to the best-of-all-worlds ideal" of speed, handling, and practicality. Interestingly, it was the only "old-fashioned" chassis layout of the four, with its front engine/rear drive. There is a degree of predictability there, not found in its competitors. Alaskossie