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That's the whole car! No idea, my current Caterham has Nitrons which I don't think are on any of the standard suspensions. I have aeroscreeen and windscreen, it didn't look like you optioned the aeroscreen at all. If you have mirrors mounted to both the swap over is pretty easy. I have had some trouble with my uprated front brakes shuddering at street speeds, it's not a huge deal but the pads and rotors are both pretty expensive compared to the non uprated units. Pretty easy to swap the rotors and pads but you might need to adjust brake balance? https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&f=101&t=379616 I suspect if you are just occasionally tracking you'll be very content with either wet or dry sump and either set of front brakes, even the 360 with standard brakes is more power and less weight than spec miata and they tear it up.

Strong agree on 13" wheels. Also strong agree on lowered floors, even at 5'9" there is no way I'm going to pass a strict scrutineer's broomstick test without them. I have a set slowly making their way from England via Rich. The different suspension packs may feel quite different. I preferred the stiffer Caterham suspension to the softer Birkin suspension but the Birkin is a much more comfortable cruising car. I would recommend trying to sit in one or two of these if possible. I am a strong aeroscreen proponent, the windscreen makes terrible wind buffeting and if you're taking a long freeway jaunt you'll want a helmet and if you're taking a short freeway jaunt you just shouldn't. I notice you didn't add the upgraded front brakes, I don't have much of an opinion here, I have some temperature paint on my brakes and calipers and occasionally check with a temperature gun and they really don't get very hot on even relatively spirited street use, I expect to get a different result on track. I didn't really like the feel of the brakes until adding an uprated brake cylinder though.

Likely, but I am not organizing the route.

Almost certainly me. Black early 2000s car with white racing stripes and I live close enough to be on page mill semi regularly. If you don't make it to 10/6 at Sonoma I will most likely also be at the Golden Gate Lotus Club Casual Drive on 10/8 leaving from Konditorei on Alpine Road in Portola Valley at 9am.

My car was swapped by the previous owner as recorded in this thread. I believe at a rated 260hp, along with the R500 engine this is the among the most powerful naturally aspirated engines that fit in an S3 ( @KnifeySpoony I would love be terrified to do a ride along with you driving it, I'm a pretty slow driver compared to the car, at best I've managed ~2:16 at Sonoma) and Van did a nice job on the initial conversion, some fettling but nothing major has gone wrong. Van considered the Quaife sequential conversion and decided against it and I think I agree with his decision. It is a surprisingly tractable car with the 6 speed manual box, no issues driving in town, I suspect the sequential would be good fun but I don't miss it. Rich has helped me do a pre-track inspection and provided guidance for my maintenance when needed, it was a big confidence boost going into my first track day that Rich was just up the road. If I were to do it again I am not sure I would have gone for the "best" engine since there will always be a faster car and many faster drivers on track and the Cosworth begs to rev out on the street in 3rd and 4th gear but I'll be arrested if I do. I will be at Sonoma 10/6 if nothing breaks before then but I am still in the novice group and cannot give you a ride on the track. @hahuang65we can hit a local road over the lunch break assuming I'm not doing any maintenance.

I have one of the Cosworth Duratec/R500ish on a 2005 S3 Superlight R chassis in the greater Mountain View area. My experience as a novice track driver at Sonoma was that I got to around 80-85% throttle at most and in street driving I of course use considerably less. I am hoping to make it to Loma Mar Store this Sunday if you want to take a look. My experience with Rich at Kampena Motors has been excellent and I am very happy to recommend our local Caterham dealer. He typically has a number of the cars in his shop in Sonoma and can show you the nuances. I know he has a 280R and a 310S if you want to see the R pack and S pack differences.

Hoping you'll make it 10/6. HoD or another group on the same day?

I suspect they were aging out as much as they were wearing out. Starting to get reduced traction under heavier braking and some skidding on understeer. I try to keep them to 22 psi all around.

Swapped to a new set of R888R, took some pictures of the fronts (heavily worn down past the wear bars but fairly uniform) and the rears (again uniform but not as heavily worn). I don't know if it's understeer or normal steering wheels getting worn due to usage, happy to hear any thought on setup changes others might advise based on pictures. All pictures taken as if from the front of the car I probably could have gone with new fronts and kept the rears for a bit longer but they were older date code tires and for safety I chose to replace all four.

Probably. I end up there pretty often. Shoot me a PM if you want to meet up on purpose, happy to throw you the keys

S3 with a CSR 260 engine swap

October 6th through Hooked on Driving. I went with their instructors in July and it was an awesome first track experience so I'm doing the one on one with an instructor again. Hoping to feel ready to graduate to solo but that might have to wait for next year. Not chasing any lap times just looking to have a good time and rev out the engine some. I like the R888R as a street tire because it's quite grippy without requiring a lot of temperature, nominally the ZZS are my 'winter'/wet road tire as they have a lot more tread and the R888R are quite a bit cheaper so pending availability I think it's a good tire to stick with for track and three+ season road tire for now.

Thanks. I think I'll stick with the R888R for this set of wheels, allegedly I'm at Sonoma in October and getting some new tires is probably a necessity before that.

@KnifeySpoony How have your ZZR tires been on the roads near Alices? I have a set of R888 tires that are just about worn out, typically street use but I've done one Sonoma day already and have another lined up in October. I have a set of ZZS that are okay but a little harder than the R888, leaning for another set of the R888R as my local tire shop can get them.

Hello, My Raceco offset exhaust endcap is cracking for a second time. I will be trying to get it rewelded but if anyone has a front end cap or a whole system they are looking to sell shoot me a PM. Thanks

I have a MaxJax. This was the only 2 post lift I could get in under my ceilings. Each post has five anchors glued into six inches of concrete. A little annoying to maintain bleed between the hydraulic rams but otherwise really nice and it uses positive locking ratchets so the car is resting on steep pins not the hydraulic rams.

I have now tried both a motorcycle helmet (LS2) and a SA2020 rated auto helmet (G-Force) for the same ~160 mile mixed highway and surface street trip and the auto helmet is worlds more comfortable for highway use. Much better peripheral vision and more room around the chin to not feel like my cheeks are getting squished in. Full face and aeroscreen is much more comfortable (to me) than windshield with or without helmet for highway use. For me, the windshield buffetting pulled my head back and forth the whole time I was on the highway like a bobblehead toy and the aeroscreen allows for the air to only be pushing the head against my headrest.

Check in with Josh @ Rocky Mountain Caterham. Last I talked to him about harnesses he had a specific Sabelt kit sorted out for non FIA cars.

Differential is filled and brakes are bled, completed 10 miles of testing, so far so good. Thanks to all providing feedback and advice.

After a little artisanal engineering my boot floor can fit again with the additional braces. Pending bleeding the rear brakes and filling the differential, I should be able to put some test miles on this afternoon.

Tried to get all the bolts where threadlocker is appropriate, or that are a prerequisite for a threadlocked bolt, installed and torqued last night. Safety wire on the two lower bolts on the differential (I used one original and one M12 grade 12) to avoid pulling the helicoil if the differential has to be removed again. One question that came up during the re-assebmly process: I added a small amount of grease to the bearing seals to ensure that they didn't run dry, and I added a small amount also to the differential seals to ensure that they don't run dry, is this OK?

Oops. Yes standard M12 so 1.75, I got mixed up with the 1/2-20 bolts that are in a lot of the A Frame

Understood. I believe (to be verified) I have two grade 12 M12x1.25 bolts with appropriate shoulder length ready to go in once the helicoil is delivered and I can get everything reinstalled tonight after work and tomorrow.

Not worried about strength of the bolt, does the shank of the bolt not need to be a close fit to the bore of the bushing to prevent rattling/torquing?

Thanks CarlB, if I didn't have a hard deadline where I needed to be reassembled and on the track 8am Monday morning I would have considered that. By the time I realized I had a problem with the differential it was too late to get any shipments in from Caterham so anything that could not be corrected with McMaster or locally sourced parts is going to have to wait.