theDreamer

My thought exactly!

Which "BIG" show is this????

A 1972 Europa Twin Cam auction just ended on BaT yesterday. Have a look at the text and photos. Then read the comments from bottom up. Pay particular attention to how long the Seller took to make his first post and then how the auction went downhill from there. This is a prime example of how NOT to win friends and influence people. There is a link to an older BaT auction in my comment. It is to one of the best ads I’ve seen on BaT. https://bringatrailer.com/listing/1972-lotus-europa-twin-cam-18/ Bottom line, engage with the bidders and answer all their questions as you are doing. It doesn’t hurt to throw in your own stories. I have also won once on BaT.

ah... What is SOLD???

What a plethora of 7’s. Whatever you want there seems to be a colour, type and price range for anyone interested in owning a se7en right now. I’m surprised that Birkin https://www.facebook.com/share/17rfoY4Lva/ has been up for nearly a year and no takers. I have to wonder how long it took to build if it’s a 2001 kit but only has 500 miles on it. Still it’s the IRS version with a Dunnel Z-Tech which the seller claims is making 215hp.

When our car arrived from Utah it had a number of issues that where not mentioned in the comments or correspondence. An oil leak being one major ones. As I had budgeted for changing all fluids I had thought about the sump gasket but not the cost. The mechanic tried to tighten the sump bolts and then dropped the sump and used a liquid gasket on both sides before refitting. A large amount of expensive oil was on the floor the next morning. So I agree, whenever you drop the sump replace the gasket. The good thing is it shouldn’t need to be removed for some time. Se7en years seems a fitting number.

You need to have a look at what your car has. There is NO cork gasket! There are two rubber (or other flexy material) gaskets held together with rivets. The C20xe has a windage tray the sits between these two gaskets. You can buy the gaskets separately and rivet them yourself, buy them riveted together or pay more and get it complete with a new windage tray as seen in the photos. You cannot use just a liquid type gasket. Sorry I can not find a photo of the foam baffle. it's just pre cut open foam with a cutout for the pick up. You can check with Chris at: https://redlinecomponents.co.uk Phone works better when it works. Yo can also find him via several of the Caterham Facebook pages.

I do not see it listed so am I correct to assume this is using a Cortina solid rear end? Is so what's in the diff?

Today was the Boot ‘n Bonnet Club’s spring tour. It was not supposed to rain but it was only 7c when I left the house so the wife made me wait while she put up the hood. As she says it’s her job and I’ll only screw it up. I left it up all day. Although there were lots of clouds it was a high UV day and I have to protect my skin. Plus, it was better for the high speed Super Slab drive to and from the event. (About an hour and ten minutes one way.) We had 14 LBC's in total. We drove some very nice hilly, twisty roads well within the legal limits. (I will go back later in the year to re visit a couple of these roads and I will maintain a higher average speed.

Yes, this is a full on smog edition, single carb, all the air pollution controls, 53 BHP model with, as noted, the rubber baby buggy bumpers. Although many late model spitfires have those converted to earlier style chrome bumpers it is thought to be sacrilege to do so to this final model year. Speaking of which, with its build date being June 1980 and the last UK model being built in August of 1980 that makes the wife’s car one of the last North American Spitfires to be assembled. It was bought new in February of 1982 so it is also one of the last Spitfires sold. As to the fuel issue the garage discovered a cracked rubber fuel line and thought it was sucking air. This after the car lost almost half a tank of fuel while it sat waiting to get looked at. Sounded plausible and the car started and ran fine for them after they replaced that hose. The mechanic did adjust the carb and reset the timing as well. However the carb needs a full rebuild so a kit is on order. We picked the car up late Friday and the wife drove it home. When we arrived she jumped out screaming it was on fire. I raised the bonnet to find it was just coolant burning off the exhaust manifold. When she went to restart it so I could look to see where it was leaking, you guessed it, it would not restart. She washed and detailed the car. That took about two hours at which time it fired right up and she drove it into the garage. Go figure, eh! The car sat all weekend as it rained off and on. Yesterday, (Monday) she decided she wanted to drive it over to the nearest gas station to add some carb/injector cleaner and fill the tank up with fresh fuel. It fired up and drove over without incident. I took a can of Quick Start just in case it wouldn’t start. I figured it should fire up with a squirt of that stuff. However, it didn’t start after filling up nor after waiting several hours regardless if I used the Quick Start or not. So, Hagerty roadside assistance came in handy yet again. The car is now back at the shop and the wife doesn’t want to see it until they can prove it will start repeatedly whether within minutes or hours of being shut off. I’ve researched this issue and it seems lots of Spit owners have had this very problem before. However, each seems to have had a different cause and therefore needed a different solution. From carb rebuilds or replacement to filters and switching to electric fuel pumps. Then there are the electrical fixes from bad earths to lose or broken wires to replacing the coil. I’ll keep you informed as to what the problem and cure is/was. Meanwhile, I’m off in a couple of hours in Purple Reign to the Tuesday night cruise meet about a half hours pleasant drive away.

Nose badges on steering wheels is not new. The Original owner of my car wanted anything that said Caterham replaced with Lotus. He said as much in a detailed letter to the shop in Delaware that was building the car instructing them to use the Lotus nose badge he mailed them. I believe this was because the car was licensed as a Lotus back in 1993. I returned the car’s badging to being 99% Caterham. I ordered an HPC nose badge to replace the Lotus badge on the steering wheel. The only thing left that says Lotus is the small shifter knob emblem. I like that big chrome ball. Plus, I like to tell the story of how the Caterham 7 logo came to be and point to the shifter emblem so people can see the connection.

In the “Photo of Your Car You Took Today” thread I mentioned the wife won a sealed bid auction for a 1981 Triumph Spitfire 1500. A local LBC (Little British Car) club known as the Boot ‘n Bonnet Car Club inherited the one owner, low mileage 1981 (build date was June, 1980 but VIN model year is “B” for 1981) Spitfire as seen here: Spitfire Auction n.pdf . She beat out the next nearest bidder by $19.80 because she used the cars build date of June 1980 in her bid. It had been sitting for over three years before the club took possession. Because of this it has some issues. The club member who was storing the car said the automatic choke was stuck on and would cause the engine foul the plugs and stall. It would require removal and cleaning of the plugs before it run again and of course he’d have to repeat this after so many engine starts. When we first went to see the car we noticed the rear end was damp as were several other areas. We knew it would need some things done like replacing dried gaskets and seals and rubber items like wiper blades and tires. The wife had a devil of a time getting her insurance company to honour their quote. Three phone calls and over three hours and they still won’t sign off on what they had quoted. Five minutes on the phone to a Hagerty rep and her new car was on our policy with all the same items including Road Side Assistance. She also had a fight at several Service Ontario Centers trying to get the ownership transferred. They all required a new appraisal. They would not accept either of the two that came with the car. Finally she called a friend in the business. Was able to do a quick appraisal using the Governments 1 page form. He did note all the items that would have to be repaired or replaced in order for it to pass safety. We went back to a Service Ontario Center and they accepted the paperwork without questions. So Linda finally got the ownership transferred into her name as an unfit vehicle and a temporary plate good for 10 days to allow us to drive the car home and to the shop that would do the safety check. With everything now done we arranged to pick up the car. The day came and we went over everything with the cars recent custodian. We decided to drive the car home from where it was being stored because I wanted to give it a good shake down. The plan was for me to drive it part way home and stop to fill up with fuel. I would go over everything I had learned with Linda and then let her drive it the rest of the way. I pulled out of the driveway which was on a step hill and put my foot to the floor. Clouds of grey black smoke billowed out of the exhaust pipe and I could not get it above 30 kph it was running so rich. After a couple of kilometers it started to clear itself and before I knew it I was doing 80 kph in top gear. It seemed to be running fine. I made it to the first stop sign and turned south onto the main road and the little Spit hummed along rather nicely as the engine temperature had started to rise. However, it died after only 6 kilometers. We phoned the chap we had just left and he came with some tools I did not have. He snapped in a spark check viewer and there was plenty of spark. Next we pulled the plugs expecting to find them fouled yet they were clean but DRY. They should have been wet from all the cranking so the verdict was fuel starvation. Lucky for us a call to Hagerty and a flatbed was there within the hour. It was delivered to the shop that is doing the safety. They will be going over the car and get it running as well. I expect there will be a list of items that we will have to address. It has been sitting at the shop for week now as they were backed up. Tomorrow it is supposed to be first in. Being Friday I don’t expect to see the car until sometime next week. Little British Cars, they always need something, right? I’ve attached some photos we took on our first visit to see the car. These are not in the ad I linked above.

The plate USA 7S is registered to a Grey 2014 Mini Paceman Cooper 4x4 which the last MOT showed having 76,862 miles. No personal info available. Sound like a car owned by anyone here?

Sorry, we're getting a little off topic here but I had to join in. Our 1973 TCS (registered as a ’74) was yellow. After a Jeep Cherokee ran a red light and drove over the front end it spent a year in the body shop. During that time I decided to have the colour changed to red. By the time it was finished we had become a family of four. So we sold it to a young mechanic who lived in Toronto. Years later he decided to strip it down to restore/repair/modify it. I’m sure I saw it up for sale as a stalled project a couple or three decades ago. I have no idea if/when it sold or where it is today. I’d like another one but I’m very picky about them now having learned all the problems that came with them after owning one.

We had a long weekend up here so Sunday afternoon we took a drive. We traveled south east about 27 miles on nice sweeping back roads to fill up with fuel. We save on average 32 cents per liter, ($1.12 per US gallon) by buying on the first nations land. We continued back west along some very scenic roads approximately 39 miles to arrive an hour early for the Sunday Cruise Night in Trenton, Ontario. We ate an early meal on the covered outdoor patio at the grill overlooking the parking lot and watched as others started to arrive. It was a great turnout for the first show of the season with 110 registered cars. Dozens more came and went over the course of the evening. By 7:30-ish we were beat and decided to leave. We drove almost straight north the 14 miles to arrive back at home. In total about 80 sunny, fun filled miles. Tonight, (Monday) was the Brighton Ontario Cruise. The wife spent all today working in the garage to make room for her new to her Spitfire and was too tired so I did this event solo. The first photo was taken at the Trenton show and the second photo at Brighton. I put the plexy wind defectors on just for show. I prefer to drive with the doors on to cut down on the wind.