pickles

Ballistic Orange Caterham 360 … Always a very, very brief history as some have never heard of Lotus, let alone Caterham and then I always refer people who asked about the car back to my wife … “He’s an idiot … I am 10 years younger and given that women tend to live an extra 10 years, I already have a good chance of having 20 years dancing on his grave … but then what does he do? He buys this Orange Coffin. Not only is it going to increase the duration I will have of being a dancing queen, but also I will save on funeral costs … The 18-wheeler that mows him down on the interstate will just leave an orange smear that will blend into the other road markings!” So sadly, I had to sell it! … and buy a 620 … and to quote another notable (Bruce at Beachman Racing) “Are you sure !? … there are probably not many other cars that will try and kill you every time you get in them!” I have not told my wife about this prediction! Pickles

OK ... I came across the YouTube video from James at ACaterhamCalledFern ... the link/email to the maker is in the YouTube summary. I contacted them and got the light in about 5 days. Have not fitted it but it looks good!

Hi Just had to share this, it came via DHL about 10 mins back. Will Post further details once I finish a few tasks. Here's a couple of photos. Cheers Pickles

In CT 13" !! No steering wheel shall have an equivalent outside diameter less than 13" at its smallest radius (except if approved with special license from the Handicapped Driver Training Unit) or have pointed or sharp protrusions

Put a bit of effort into the car today, am gearing up for the dreaded CT DMV inspection. I located the bumpers that I had fabricated and mounted to my previous Caterham. They mysteriously fell off on I95 on the way back from the DMW inspection center in 2018 So have to install these. A couple of other things, have to take out the seats and the existing 4-point harnesses to install a couple of $26 dollar lap belts. (Because they are sooooo much safer as they have an FMVSS-209 label on them) A couple of red reflectors on the rear of the car (Again they may just fall off at some point!) Then lastly (Hopefully!) Got to make the steering wheel bigger! But am a dab hand at this, take a length of garden hose, and use bicycle handlebar tape to wrap the wheel securing the length of hose around the perimeter of the existing wheel. Cheers all Pickles

Hey CarYenta All i can say is you need to write this adventure up into a "How to Guide" ... absolutely confident you will get to the end (after you correct those headlight angles ) Because I may want to steal this, when it all works out! And also, isn't it "Bob's your uncle Fanny's your aunt!" Pickles

What are you saying!! I figure at least 0.25 HP extra

WOW! this is a journey! I do not want to know how many $'s you are putting into this Not to mention the hours! But congrats on getting this far.

OK don't laugh, this is version 0.1(beta) Got rid of existing piece of rubber on the air-box, which was really not doing much. I went to Home Depot and got 1in. x 6ft Rubber Self-Seal Pipe Wrap. Grabbed a few cable-ties, and this what I got. Is it perfect, not yet! But is a better than previously? I would argue yes. It does make putting the hood back on a little more difficult but not by much. I think for version 0.2(beta) I will enlarge the 3 screw holes in the bottom of the air box where it attaches to the car, install some rubber grommets. May also play with some extra rubber washes to change the height/angle the box sites out for a better fit. (Plus, I have another 5ft of rubber tube to play with ) Pickles

Hi Jmaz RE: Maneuvering the crates. So my last 2 builds I did not put the crates in the garage, you will soon run out of room. I unboxed in the driveway, moving what I could on my own into the garage, wheels, gearbox, various parts. Left on the driveway was the chassis and engine, on a few pallets Here I grabbed a few friends, for the chassis I set out my 4 axle stands roughly, and we carried the assembly into the garage with a 5th person quickly moving the stands and directing ... just make sure everybody knows the plan is beforehand The engine is awkward but I had an engine hoist ready to go, so this was just a question of hooking up and then wheeling into the garage. That just left a bunch of crates and pieces in the driveway. I put these on craigslist as 'Free to a Good Home, first come first served!' ... You will not believe this, but both times, the takeaway was to build a chicken coup! ... The last person who took away my 620 boxes drops a couple off a dozen eggs every couple of months! A Caterham build leads to many different rewards! Cheers Paddy

I know this is going to be a source of contention and debate, and has probably been debated many times, but here goes... On both my previous 360 and my current 620 ... the alignment of the airbox/filter intake does not match the hood cutout. On My 360 I replaced the whole airbox with a K&N cylinder filter, at the same time I replaced the Cat with a straight through connector ... It must have added at least 100HP ... obviously I jest! It did not, but it sounded like it did; the intake was throaty, and exhaust sounded like a whaling banshee! So now I come my 620 ... it too has a similar mis-alignment :- Now I could spend time correcting and adjusting the airbox to match the hood opening, so here's the question(s) ... is it worth it? Is there some other configuration I should be looking at? Feel free to beat me up on a subject that probably has already been ... beaten to death! Cheers Pickles

Unfortunately, it sticks when running as well and does not show the correct temp

Oh! Please excuse dusty gauges

So have had running issues, sometimes the car would start and idle fine. And then for some reason it would be 'off to the races', jumping to 2K RPM and then hunting up and down. This would happen even if I were not in the car, so no change in throttle input (Well at least by me) Went over CarYenta's build post and followed his direction to play about with idle setting. Initially via Easimap, Throttle Site was reading 0.1 and the Voltage at 0.54V, would out the idle screw probably 1/4 of a turn, now sat 0.0 / 0.52V. After this have not seen the previous issue. Will need to monitor this, as I am only playing with car at the moment in my garage and driveway, and it is 34F out side, can't get it on the road until I do the dreaded CT DMV inspection. But onto the next issue ... a sticky Water Temp gauge! The two images below are taken with the ignition off. Also when idling the car and checking the cooling fan kicks in correctly I looked at the gauge and it was only reading 60C, turn the ignition off then on the gauge jumped close to 100C, which is where it should be for the fan to kick in.

I always describe the build as akin to Lego ... this car has been in production so long they have ironed out 'most' of the kinks. Bruce at Beachman Racing thinks I may hold the record for the quickest build, but then again, my wife on more than one occasion came down to the garage at 5 or 6 AM to find me asleep under the car Wrench in one hand ... Beer in the other! Trust me you will have a blast!