theDreamer

I love the image of your new to you 7 as seen in the rear view mirror. When I picked up my MV Agusta F3 in 2012 I had the same view every time I looked in the mirror. For nearly four hours I was staring at that gorgeous red upper fairing. I could not help myself from thinking about the opening line of the Richard Thompson song “1952 Vincent Black Lightning”: Oh, says Red Molly to James, That's a fine motorbike… So I called her Red Molly. (I do not know when we started anthropomorphising our possessions but all my guitars and our toys, (both motorcycles and cars) have names.)

I’ve seen the aftermarket Catherham nose cone badges (the ones with a single threaded fastener) used to fill that spot as well as a fastener. (see images) I’ve also seen one where the owner ran the wires thru a hollow thrended fastener that they used to attach the rear plate light with.

Welcome to the addiction. Which engine?

Nice route! We have nothing like that in southern Ontario.

This is what the removable hoop bracket looks like.

Actually that is a very useful piece of kit. I’ve see people remove the spare tire to use it to carry other items like a large water tight suit case, a picnic basket and even fuel jugs. I suggest if you believe you’ll never ever need it then do as others have done and saw it off flush with the rear panel. As for the large plate and light, cut the tubes off a couple of inches from the plate bracket. Then find (or machine) a bar that is about 3 to 4 inches long that will slip into the tubes on both the car and the plate bracket. Have the bars welded into the bracket tube ends. Then slip the other ends into the open ends of the tubes on the car. Drill through the tubes and the bar so you can fit a hitch pin clip through the parts to hold them in place. This will give you your plate bracket, wiring and light but without the large gap from the missing spare. But save the off cuts! If at some point you wish to return it to use for a spare tire (or other items) just make two more inserts for the off cut tube bits. Have these welded into one of the open ends of each off cut tube. Slide them into the tubes on the car and drill the bar using the holes in the existing tubes. Measure the distance from the weld bead around the plate bracket tube bars to the holes in the bars and then mark the open end of the tubes accordingly and drill them as well. Two more hitch pin clips and there you are.

You might try John Watson of the Historic Lotus Registry. He may have info on when the car was ordered or shipped, possibly a few more tidbits. He will ask for the cars chassis number as stamped by the company that made the chassis and the Lotus number which was used as the cars VIN back in the day. It will be stamped on the data plate. Where the chassis number is depends on which company made it. This is the relevant page for your car on HLR site: http://www.lotus7register.co.uk/ser2page.htm Good luck with your search.

@sergio brambillasca This car appears to have been a Caterham racer. I have discovered some interesting things about the cars used during this period. The Caterham Scholarship entry level cars were live axle 1600cc (not 1700) Ford 'Kent' Crossflows with rear-exit exhausts. The spec included a Caterham lightened & balanced flywheel, uprated competition clutch cover and drive plate, Caterham distributor with Ignitor electronic ignition, two twin choke Weber 40 DCOE carburettors with K&N filters. Power was rated at 100 bhp at 6000 rpm. I did not find any info on the transmission used but would expect it to have been the four speed. In 2001 the name changed to the Caterham Academy as too did the cars. The entry level was now the 1.6 K Series Rover in a De Dion chassis. Again, no info on the transmission used. However, I’m sure someone here would know. If you send your VIN and car details to Martin Phipps ( Martin.Phipps@caterham.com) he’ll search out any documents the factory have on your car. At least you’ll know how it left the factory.

Welcome to the asylum hehehe

I looked up the UK plate number and this is what it was: Vehicle make CATERHAM Date of first registration March 1997 Year of manufacture 1996 Cylinder capacity 1600 cc CO₂ emissions Not available Fuel type PETROL Euro status Not available Real Driving Emissions (RDE) Not available Export marker Yes Vehicle status Untaxed Vehicle colour BLACK Vehicle type approval Not available Wheelplan 2 AXLE RIGID BODY Revenue weight Not available Date of last V5C (logbook) issued 26 October 2009

We are in a similar position here. The BIG difference is neither of us work, we're both retired. We each receive two small government pensions that increase slightly over time but does not meet inflation. I have to top that up by pulling funds from my retirement account. We pretty much break even at the end of each month. But the retirement account is disappearing faster than we projected way back when we first set things up. Our financial planner, like so many, looked mostly at the favorable factors and didn’t consider worse case scenarios.

Thank you for your comments but... Whatcha talkin’ ‘bout Willis? To prevent this thread from going off the rails I’ve started a new thread in Off Topics. (Perhaps these comments could be moved over, (hint, hint) @rick rYou are invited to read my reply to your post. I really don’t want to get into a long protracted debate though. You are welcome to refute my position with actual facts not just opinions.

The US GDP has been up and down over the last 10 quarters. It has been as low as -.6% and has high as 4.4%. That’s not “stable” in any economists view. Unemployment figures from the government are not complete so therefore not accurate. They only show those who are actively looking for employment. Those figures do not take into account people with a part time job who are looking for more hours or a second job. These figures also do not show those whose household incomes are under $26,000 or the hundreds of thousands of homeless who want to work but cannot get a job due to their circumstances. So the US government says it’s around 4% and independent research says it is more like 24%. Your statement; "discretionary spending robust and insensitive to inflation" is false. Discretionary spending is always sensitive to inflation more so for some than others. Yes, high income households (millions in assets) will be able to sustain their spending habits. However, the middle to lower income households (the majority of the country) will feel the pinch. They will slow their retail activity and be very selective with major purchases. The lowest income households get hit the hardest and are the ones who can least afford it. Discretionary spending is slowing down. So much so that new car manufactures are extending lease and loan periods while offering incentives to move inventory. Same for furniture and major appliances. You are seeing a lot of cars coming to market because many of those middle to low income people are selling off what they can do without to make sure they can afford what they truly need.

I have had a number of people, (OK, men and boys) tell me that they play a video game and their favourite or one of their favorite cars is the Caterham. I’m not into consoles so I do not know which games these are. I do know that one individual said his game had a R500 and IIRC he played it on a PS3. I also know that the PC game RACE released a Caterham expansion pack in 2007 to celebrate Caterham’s 50th anniversary. (They claimed you could choose from 50 different models covering all 50 years but then some of those would have to be Lotus 7’s.) Back in the day the sym games I played all had problems as the cars never drove like a real car did. Have they developed consumer grade games to the state of the art that the Formula 1 teams use?