Slonie

Yeah, my old policy with Hagerty used to be under $500. It's crept up a little bit (and then crept up more than a little bit when I bumped my agreed upon value up by 33%) but nowhere near that quote, @SENC. I had no idea until now that they varied so much on a state by state basis.

That Motogadget looks trick (and aesthetically nice as well). And @JohnCh, that's a really good gauge layout you've got there with the Racetech water temp and dual gauge for oil temp/pressure on either side.

To your point - I've watched videos with Caterham staff pronouncing the V as "five", so I believe it really is the Series Five. Unfortunately it's very hard to convince my brain to say it properly out loud, and especially knowing that people won't understand. So, SV it is.

BMW N52 engine and a Quaife sequential! This has gotta be my favorite build of a Stalker. https://www.caranddriver.com/features/a38224306/gm-engineer-alex-macdonald-fabricates-sports-car/

Met this gentleman yesterday and knew I had to get a photo... (it's the Snyder Special, circa 1950s — iirc a 1939 Mercury chassis shortened to 100" wheelbase, Oldsmobile Rocket power)

Friend sent me the Birkin above before I could even notice it here. I really need to drive one with a bike engine, just to get it out of my system... Smog-exempt SB100 car too, for the California folks... (it seems to have been SB100'd when it was first built around 2005 with I assume a Zetec. Swapped to the 'busa engine in 2008 and received the Speedway rear end in 2021?)

Whoa, I didn't know this. Neat! As to the original question, I was just asked by a cyclist stopped behind me at a stoplight (I could only see him in the rear view mirror) what it was just last weekend. I yelled that it was a Caterham Super Seven and when he said "a what?" I said "it's uh, like a Lotus 7!" and that seemed to satisfy him. On the other hand when I was driving around at car week I'd have guys in crosswalks saying "nice Caterham!" so you know some folks can actually can tell these cars apart.

And are those (four) 7 front fenders (excuse me, cycle wings) on the trailer? I love it.

I know, right? Maybe it started out as an enclosed trailer and they melted the rest of it down, filled the frame rails with it?* *I stole this joke from an old review of the Chevy SSR, which was somehow I believe heavier than the truck it was based on despite having objectively less vehicle.

Yeah, the old ones were tricky, for me it was actually the license plate frame (welded in, and made out of thick steel) that felt like it was gonna tear out my oil pan getting the car off the trailer. I eventually backed it up to a curb to get a gentler angle and rolled it off that way. The new trailer U-haul launched (the officially "Toy Hauler", despite some people calling it the trackday trailer) has amazing features and can carry anything from a truck to a three-wheeler, but weighs 3165 lbs empty(!). For Sevens, I think people have gotten away with their motorcycle/utility/equipment trailer.

Oh, local car! Tom's good people, we went out on a blat last year. Clean car and SB100'd for the California people! I should have asked to drive it when I had the chance... Although he's not on USA7s, he's off to a responsive start in the auction comments if anyone has any questions about it.

Just like the OP said, I looked up Serpent Express and wow, they look really trick! I don't want to know the price. https://serpentexpress.com/home It's cool that you can order them with the "escape door" (their term) located for your car. Not that we need the extra clearance to open a door with our cars... Their ordering seems to be very customizable, normally the roof is 72" tall but this orange one is super low, must have been ordered by one of us:

Looks like we finally have an asking price for this car, the one that didn't meet reserve on BaT at $13k, twice... Seems a bit optimistic.

I don't want to ruin a good joke but @Croc is not, in fact, a bot. However, he tirelessly maintains a thread here listing known Seven auctions/listings on countless sites. You'll also find some good discussion on the listings in here.

I seemed to recall Hagerty promising an automatic increase per year back when I signed up but apparently you have to ask. I was well below market values on mine so I asked for an increase of $10k and they asked why, but no further questions. Of course my premium went up, but I think it was worth it.

Wow, I did not know this was a thing, but I definitely want to inquire about it now. That being said, I know somebody whose car was insured by Hagerty and totaled, they were paid out their exact agreed value as promised, and they were able to buy the car back too. I don't know what I don't know, but this experience could be wildly different with another carrier (especially "regular" car insurance). I also know Jason Cammisa had a similarly good experience and he dedicated a whole podcast episode to the experiences with different insurance companies (full disclosure: he also works for Hagerty's Youtube Video Making Department, a point he has to make frequently whenever discussing his customer experience with Hagerty Insurance) Personally, and not to sound like I'm shilling for Hagerty I like the certainty of getting the agreed value if the worst happens to my car — I don't want to find out the hard way from my regular car insurance company that they're undervaluing my car. It was all kind of moot when I signed up though, as IIRC my regular carrier did not want to deal with a Caterham at all.

How far of a move are we talking here? Enterprise does say that their 3/4 ton pickups from dedicated truck rental locations are equipped with towing equipment. Too bad it's not 20 years ago, when every GMC Envoy was equipped with the towing package. That got me to a trackday or two relatively cheaply!

I've been eyeing a Built By Basil knob myself, because he'll do the custom shift knob of anyone's dreams, but that's really satisfying to create it yourself. It looks great, bravo!

Oh, good to know we've got sizes now! Testing (probably from @Croc) to come, and these could be totally arbitrary, but... Toyo's own internal performance ratings for the Proxes Sport R top the R888R in dry and wet performance (5.0 and 4.5, up from 4.5 and 4.0). They also gave it a 2.0 for tread life while the R888Rs scored a 4.5(!)* *OTOH I just read the thing about only comparing ratings within the same category of tire, and the R888R is a "DOT competition tire" compared to the Sport R's Extreme Performance Summer. So yeah, you're either right or we won't know until we test it...

Found some official pics showing the significantly different interior (now with such real-world niceties as seatbelts and door handles)as well as the new rather generic taillights. Interior

Not a lot of or even any good photos in the PR piece but Caterham posted their press release on the TAS prototype here: https://caterhamcars.com/us/news-us/project-v-latest-prototype-unveiled-at-tokyo-auto-salon They also talk about updates to the interior while, frustratingly, not showing it. Finally, they note that this prototype uses a tubular spaceframe, which makes sense for a prototype (or a car from Caterham in general) but I wonder if the final car will utilize that type of construction.

I'm optimistic for the Project V and even heartened by them saying they're planning to bring it to the US, but the things I don't like are - The cost overrun into Porsche 911 territory - Potentially throwing their US dealers under the bus by hypothesizing an "alternate dealership network" while also claiming they've "ignored the US market for 50 years" (I'll let the "you're all loaded" slide for now). This all said, the Tokyo Auto Salon has begun and I've spotted my first photos from the show floor (from: https://www.instagram.com/p/DTR0-d-j4VS/ ) So far I can spot new wheels, new color, new side skirts and lower cladding, and new real door handles (no longer flush), new mirrors, and now-functional cooling visible behind the front grilles. I think we have new taillights too but these photos didn't show the whole back. ICYMI, the car shown at Tokyo Auto Salon is purportedly a functional prototype as opposed to the show car/roller they debuted previously (and is now the white one on the show floor at CES)

Oh, and this is rather interesting too. I wonder what their plan actually is.

It's a big week for the Project V as they're showing the existing concept at CES in Las Vegas, and then the new first functional demonstrator is going to debut at the Tokyo Auto Salon. This article has plenty of (often cheeky) details, many of which are relevant to the US market, such as the intent to bring it here, and the target price (now raised to $135k, ouch). https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a69934972/caterham-new-ev-sports-car-america-details/

This is really interesting! I went down the rabbit hole on temp senders when I was redoing my cooling system, this may have been an interesting solution. It says it has five calibration points, could we even use it to make the OEM fuel gauge read a little more accurately?