Hi All,
New guy to the 7 world (but not British cars. I have a 69 Federal Spec Cortina GT as an ongoing project.)
I've been drawn to the Cat/Lotus 7 because of the driving experience. The closest I've had was sitting in one a few years back at an Event in CT.
I'm a bit of a track rat when funds allow, I've been running in Lemons for the past 7 years, primarily at NJMP/Thompson. In addition to this, I ride a vintage Honda CB750, and have done a few track days on BMW S1000RRs. I'd say I'm slightly below average on speed (I work in FP&A. By nature I'm fairly risk averse, but I am excited to start on this learning process with the Caterham.)
Ideally I see the car I just picked up as being more track oriented. I'd like to make it as SCCA compliant as possible (if not fully), but still welcome on the street.
I am going to do some digging on the forum, but I'd be curious If there is a resident track guy here who I can connect with for guidance. (Maybe Croc? I've been following your for sale posts for about 2 years now.)
Now let's look at the car:
https://www.lucassportscars.co.uk/cars/caterham/seven/s3roadsport1.8dvak-series/728216/
It's currently at the port in Liverpool (It was originally scheduled to come out of Dagenham, the same port as the cortina roughly 50 years before.) I am using a friend who has imported a few odd cars from Europe (the 037/Stratos running around the NYC area), so I am fairly relaxed with the travel time & in good hands as far as having the paperwork done correctly.
The 1.8 in the car was built by DVA tuning, with new pistons / rods / balancing / paperwork etc. The original 1.4 was a bit slow with the 5 speed, so one of the previous owners had the 1.8 built. It dynoed around 150, and from the builder estimation, ITB's + ECU will put it around 180. I'm looking to just go through it when it is here and get it prepped for the 2023 season. Any advice on these rover K Series engines / USA based engine experts would be awesome. I can't tell if LR or BMW has the spares for the engine. Car has had clean history and I have nearly full paperwork going back to 1995, including original order / build sheets from Caterham. I've been able to connect with a few previous owners as well.
With the fall of the GBP, and shipping costs coming down, I was able to grab this for a price I could just not get stateside. The RHD might be a nuisance, but the purpose of this car is not to be convenient, so I am not too bothered.
Any thoughts / items I should look out for would be certainly welcome. I know the foam baffle was removed as that is a problem point on the sump for these engines.
Also big thanks to Des, who has been putting up with my constant Instagram messages.
-Charlie
