wdb

It did not happen to me, rather the prior owner. He took the car to a regionally well regarded restoration shop to have the engine fitted and some other items done to get the car completed. As I went through the car after I bought it I found workmanship that was far, far below the standards I would have expected from a shop with its reputation. (I've since been told that the business went through a period where quality slipped a significant amount; I've also been told that the situation has since been rectified.) I guess the prior owner would have liked to know that before sending the car there. And before writing those substantial checks. I know of two places locally that might work on my 7, and that I might let work on it. So far though I'm the only to blame for the horror stories.

I'm laughing *with* you, really! I can recall sharing that joy many times.

I recently asked ChatGPT to find me a good lux meter app for iPhone. It gave me several, with one highlighted as best. I went to the app store -- nada. Went back to the Chat -- oh gee, I see that now, try this one. Same exact result. And a third time too. I gave up, but not before telling the chatbot that it had utterly wasted my time.

Would freezing it break the bond?

Those types would probably need an SV...

It may have heard that people were dying to get into that cemetery and taken it to heart.

A fuel injected car is going to have a return line to the gas tank I believe? My car has Webers so I can't directly comment. I'm thinking of that line at the top of the tank. The @JohnCh loop reminds me of what I rigged up on my car to reduce the gas smell in the garage. It's a looped hose coming off the vent port (with rollover valve) on the fuel cell. The exit is below the bottom of the tank. I believe the science behind the loops is that vapors will condense before making it all the way through. The fuel/vapors will be drawn back into the tank as air is pulled in to replace the fuel being spent on fun things.

I have no direct experience with assembling a Caterham from a kit so please keep that in mind. But it sure sounds like a ground issue. Current is finding strange ways to get places. You might try taking a set of jumper cables and clamping them here and there, the goal being to see if some part of the car is isolated electrically. After that I guess I'd dig into the harness and connections. Headlights and starter are both big users of current, maybe they have some part of the circuitry in common?

On the front page no less. https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/11/business/caterham-seven-racecar.html

"Why it seems to work with engine off but not when it is on is the mystery. " The obvious answer is "nothing is spinning when the engine is off" although I don't exactly know where to go from there. Something heating up?

Two words: de minimis. Put it back for heaven's sake. Let the little fish swim.

I recently used ChatGPT to suss out the answer to a fairly complex question relating to retirement finances. It was an iterative process -- I asked my initial question, then the chatbot came back with more questions, which I answered. On it went until a conclusion was reached. The answer was what I kind-of sort-of more-or-less thought might be the case before I started the process. Now my question is: did my initial question, and/or the responses I gave to the bot's questions along the way, influence the outcome? Did I reach the answer I wanted, in other words.

What a mess. Here's what google's AI has to say about importing wheels.

Knobbies? What are the date codes?

My understanding is that the combination of cycle fenders and full windshield ends up pushing a lot of air into the side of one's head (in my case at any rate). The windshield side wings I added to my car reduce the effect. I suspect it is a swirl/vortex coming off the outer edge of the windshield. I can push the wings out further and feel a further reduction in buffeting, which supports the theory. I don't know how much a half door would do to stop that from happening, but my WAG would be "not too darn much". Everything is happening higher up. Here's a chronicle of one fellow's attempts to 'fix' the situation. https://fernlahone.wordpress.com/2014/08/16/experiments-with-wind-deflectors/

This could be a thread starter all by itself. I have an IRS related story involving multiple years, hundreds of printed and mailed pages, and countless hours on hold, that would fit perfectly.

Wow, I haven't posted here in a while. To be honest the Elan has been getting the lion's share of my attention, first in repairs and then in actual use once it was back on the road. The Porsche was also out of commission for a while so I was using the Elan as my daily for which it was not half bad. It didn't hurt that the weather was so cooperative and I could just leave the top stowed, hop in, and go. I even did the "before we put 'em away" drive in the Elan with the drop head dropped. The flip side is that the poor Cat has been a bit neglected. I did take it out for a drive yesterday, the first 70+ degree day we've had this year. (I also had it out for short jaunts once or twice earlier just to keep it from getting gummed up.) I meant to more or less go around the block, just get the juices flowing properly and get everything fully warmed up and so on, but as things happened I ran through about a tankful. Such a delightful thing. I forgot how much my eyeballs jiggle. I really want to try the brooklands screen. I really need to put some proper tires on the car too. In the meantime it's fun to wear the all-seasons out via lurid (ish) power slides, w00t!

Temporary.

The actual tariff that went into effect today was 10%. Just FYI. I'm sure the importer will have more detailed information as things progress.

You'll change your tune when the Caterham factory opens in the US creating thousands of new jobs!

I'm not sure if I ever finished my tariff tale. After getting a bill for 200% of the cost of the item + fees, plus weeks upon weeks of being on hold with various entities and getting nowhere, I finally refused shipment and the shipping company sent the part back to England -- on their dime. When the seller got it back he immediately sent me another one, marked as a replacement for the returned item. I was not billed any import fees for the second one. An expensive lesson but only in terms of time spent.

Right. They're both cars that you put on like a pair of pants.

Sorry to hear about this. I did a Porsche school there and yes the track is glorious. I did not get as much time as I wanted at the museum though. The grounds are spectacular too. Mr. Barber was quite a visionary.

Right? It's enormous.