Alaskossie

Skip, It is 986 highway miles from Ft. Nelson, BC to Tok Junction, Alaska. Tom

Skip, Based on my 2010 experience, 91 (or up to 93) octane is available until north of Ft. Nelson, BC, when the highest octane available is usually 89 octane, until you get into Alaska. (This is the R+M/2 octane of octane calculation, not the European straight-R (?) method, which results in higher numbers for the same grade of gas: 97 Euro is equal to 91 North American, I believe). I was worried about the lack of 91 octane (with my 250 hp 2.3 Cosworth Duratec), but the engine management computer took care of everything, and I did not notice any difference in the way the car ran. But of course I avoided any full-throttle, high rpm runs. Perhaps the PBB 2015 support vehicle could carry some higher-octane gas for those who may have problems -- or at least, plenty of octane booster bottles.

Bruce K -- You've hit the nail on the head. None of our Sevens or Seven variants would (or could) hew to Chapman's original "light, nimble" brief if they had to meet the evolving governmental safety mandates, and also cope with increased power and evolving tire technology. So the basic reason we can still enjoy a Seven that is so close to the 56-year-old original (in everything but performance), is because the car has been able to legally slide under the increasingly-strict governmental safety radar, while still being a commercially viable product. On this Thanksgiving, we should all be thankful for that!

Then and now: The Porsche 911 -- 50 years apart. The Lotus/Caterham 7 is 56 years old, and the same view of a '57 Lotus and a 2013 Caterham would not show nearly as wide (!) a divergence today, from the original compact, light, nimble concept for a sports car. Somewhere along the way, the 911 lost the message.

Terry, Do sign me up -- but wait, I'm already in Anchorage, Alaska! Maybe my Seven and I could take the Alaska Ferry down to Vancouver, and then motor back up with you. I'm sure the "cruise" from Alaska back to Vancouver will be on the Alaska Ferry System, through the fantastic Inside Passage -- which means that you car will be with you, drive on, drive off.

Very neat installation! Is this a Series 3 Caterham? (Looks like it). Is the Duratec a 2.0 or a 2.3? What transmission are you using?

Road & Track certainly did not pan the Seven, either in 1961 or in later test drives -- including the infamous Lotus twin-cam SS in 1968, or in later Caterham iterations. R&T has usually pointed out the shortcomings of the car (yes, it was a "dated" design, even in 1961), but the magazine has been consistently enthusiastic about the driving experience, and how the performance of the hottest versions consistently matched the quickest cars of the day (a fact that's even true today, 50 years on). The only Seven road test or driving impression that I can recall reading that was entirely negative was one a few years ago in Car & Driver -- clearly, the author just didn't understand or appreciate the purpose of the car. Skip, I believe the clamshell fenders were first added to Sevens (the "7 America") exported to USA to meet then-current SCCA or club-racing requirements, which did not allow open-wheel (including cycle-fender) cars.

The MGA coupe was the first sports car I really fell in love with, when I saw one (robin's egg blue) at Kurland Sports Cars in Boulder Colorado, around 1958. I still remember those nifty little vertical door handles....

Skip, It looks like you guys had great weather, and got up Left Hand Canyon just ahead of the tremendous flash floods and cloudbursts. Lucky you didn't schedule your blat for the next weekend .... Growing any rice in the paddies presently around your house?

Strange bedfellows in my garage.....

John, That is really terrible news. What a great Seven enthusiast, and a fine touring companion! I knew that you and Ed had done some long Seven drives together, and were planning more. I first met Ed in Vail, Colorado in 2005, where I participated with bsimon in the Colorado leg of the Brits’ “How the West was Driven” epic Seven tour from Houston to San Francisco. I was not a Seven owner then, just a wannabe, but I recall how open and enthusiastic Ed was in discussing the details of his fast, extra-wide-track, aluminum-block Vauxhall-engined Series 3 Caterham. It wore South Carolina plates, but he shipped it all across the country to participate in Seven trips. After finishing my Seven build in Colorado in late July 2010, I drove from Denver to the Monterey Historics, where I met you and Ed for our planned tour up through California, Oregon and Washington, before saying farewell to you two near the British Columbia border, to continue my journey to Alaska. Those were some of the most intense day-long driving experiences I’ve ever had, getting acquainted with my Seven on routes entirely suited to the Seven’s purpose, following you and Ed mile after mile after mile, no holds barred, on narrow paved roads through forests and pastures, with Ed’s turn signal continuing to blink for miles on end (as often as not), while he continued to insist that he certainly did not need an audible beeper to remind him to cancel it! At the Monterey Historics, Ed lusted after a race-prepared Jaguar E-Type that was for sale, and it was fun to be hanging out with a guy who was actually in the market for such a car. Several years later, I e-mailed with Ed about his Haggis Tour through Scotland in a rented Seven – he said the biggest hazard was pulling out to pass, and then realizing part-way through the maneuver that he was in a 140-hp rental Seven, and not in his own powerful machine. I am attaching three photos taken on our 2010 drive from Monterey to northern Washington. Ed, you will be very sadly missed by all who knew you – you have left the Seven community much too soon.

Kitcat, Can you describe your fuel tank (approx. dimensions, etc.)? Is there any boot space for "boot"? Where is the filler neck located?

Does anybody know if the new 620R is based on the Series 3 chassis, or the SV chassis? Hard to tell from the early photos..... What is the rain performance of the ZZR tyres? Doesn't look like much grooviness on them.

Mike, What did you use to remove the individual coils from the valve covers on the LS3 and mount them remotely? That design feature of the stock LS engines is their most visually unappealing aspect.

Croc, The general thought on the UK forums is that the nose vent and internal fairing on the CSR directs the air through the radiator quite well at speed, but that this results in the air behind it in the engine bay not being pressured to move anywhere, and becoming hotter and hotter. Makes sense. This is probably why you Seven is the hottest one you've experienced. I wish someone (Caterham or aftermarket) made a chin spoiler for the narrower Series 3 nose. I'm almost considering buying a SV/CSR chin spoiler, and seeing if I can section it to fit my S3.

MoPho, The signed print arrived safely, and it will make a great addition to my garage-wall art! Thanks so much for doing this. What brand of contoured half-doors do you have on Mr. Orange? Are those the standard Caterham half-doors? (I was not aware that Caterham apparently offers the bottom halves of their side-screens as half-doors, until recently).

The June 2013 issue of the British magazine CAR contains an article titled, "Seven Reasons We Love the Caterham 7." Check it out.

MoPho, I'd go for the $18 print, and if I felt that I really wanted a higher quality, I could contact you for the high-end version. I'll certainly initially take a chance on the $18 one. Thanks for looking into my original suggestion that you make prints of your great photo available to USA7s member.

MoPho, What size is the $18 print? I'd spring for a $70 print if it was of good size, and suitable to be framed for my guest room. You're a professional photographer; please don't sell yourself (or the subject matter) short!

Has anyone used, for impact and abrasion protection on their Seven, the type of "tear-off" windshield film that is available in custom-cut kits for some cars? See: http://www.protint.com/Racing/to_proshield.htm I haven't checked yet to see if a simple, flat film suitable for a Seven is available. I am replacing my windscreen, and would like to give it some protection against the stone chips that my present windscreen has picked up. A friend from Australia, Giles Cooper, drove his Lotus Elise from California to Alaska and back last summer, and he told me the stuff worked well on his long-distance car. See his trip blog: http://elsiefrombottomtotop.blogspot.com/2012/07/my-whole-trip-in-summary.html

jlumba81, Darn -- I just ordered one tube from the company, at $31.00. I hadn't thought of looking on eBay. Thanks anyway.

Skip, I don't have photos of the mods. I'm not sure how a photo of the dark interior of a black filler neck would have shown up in a photo anyway. Removal of the inner triangular cone in the fuel neck that once held the spring-loaded flap is pretty self-evident. It is a restriction that, when removed, allows the full diameter of the fuel neck to be available for insertion of the fuel nozzle. As I mentioned, the new Caterham fuel necks do not have the internal rolled flange intended to latch a conventional gas cap. I suppose it would be possible to cut out this flange from inside an older-style fuel neck, to give the clearance advantage that the new fuel necks have. I don't know how resistant powder-coating is to gasoline. I assume that it is at least as good as conventional paint. The original Caterham fuel necks appear to be powder-coated. I don't know what else could be used except paint or powder-coat -- chrome, perhaps? Thans Skip and bsimon for the advice re Hylomar Universal Blue.

Caterham owners are too familiar with the car’s dreaded ”anti-fill” fuel filler system, caused by a minimally-inserted fuel nozzle, frequent automatic nozzle shut-offs, and pit stops that take four or five times longer than they should. One of the first bits of advice has been to remove the internal, spring-loaded flap in the Caterham’s steel fuel neck. However, this only slightly lessens, but does not solve, the basic problem – which is that the fuel nozzle, due to its curvature, cannot go far enough down into the Caterham’s fuel neck. I have the Caterham “aero cap” for the fuel tank; the latest models have a larger recess machined out of the top quadrant of the outer aluminum ring, to supposedly give more clearance for the top-side of the curved fuel nozzle; but this alone does not solve the problem of minimal insertion of the fuel nozzle. After my test run yesterday, I think I have the solution. First, I had to disassemble my fuel neck and cap because Caterham, in its wisdom, supplied a low-grade, non-fuelsafe section of hose to connect the fuel neck to the tank. After three years, this had split, and it leaked fuel onto the ground at each fill-up. Not good. Then I bought a new steel fuel neck from Caterham. The new ones do not have that circular flange turned inward at the opening that the old ones had (the flange with two notches in it, presumably to latch a conventional gas cap). So the elimination of this flange gains an effective one-half inch increase in the effective diameter of the fuel neck – one-half of that increase coming at the point where the curved fuel nozzle meets the top part of the filler neck opening. Next, I removed the spring-loaded flap from the new fuel neck, following conventional advice. Then I took a Dremel tool and ground out the spot welds that held the cone-shaped metal bracket to which the flap had been attached, and removed the bracket. This piece of metal had the effect of reducing the internal diameter of the neck at that critical point. I smoothed out the Dremel cuts with Emery paper, and then had the fuel neck powder-coated. I assembled the whole shootin’ match with a short section of fuel-rated hose from NAPA (an RV accessory part, available in the proper diameter only as an 18-inch piece with a bend in it, for $28.00 – I only needed five inches of it) – And to make a long story short, the fuel-pump nozzle now goes all the way into the fuel neck, and there are no more exasperating multiple shut-offs and hiccups and delays at the gas pump! One continuing problem is that fuel sloshing in the tank and up the filler neck still weeps from around the aero flange and down the back body panel after hard acceleration or cornering (what, in a Caterham?!). Anybody solved this problem? Is there was a way to seal the point where the steel filler neck meets the aluminum aero-cap flange? Is there a fuel-rated silicone sealant, perhaps?

MoPho, I'm thinking 12x16 inches or 16x20 inches -- a nice, standard size and proportion for framing. I would want to make sure that this Seven light is not hidden under a bushel.....

Skip, Yes, that's the photo. Mopho, it turned out great! I recall the efforts you describe going through to get that photo. Any chance you might make available for purchase by USA7s members a larger print, suitable for framing, of this great shot? I'm sending you a PM re obtaining a copy of this issue of LowFlying. I was able to do that after the magazine printed the cover shot of my Seven on the Alaska Highway in July 2012 (although I'm a member of the Brit club, I wanted a couple of extra copies for bragging purposes).