theDreamer

Not a photo of our Caterham but in keeping with the above Lotus photo I’ll mention this show and the attending Lotus. The Boot and Bonnet car club had their spring Autojumble this past Saturday and the weather was great. We had a good turnout of Lotus with 3 Elise, 2 Esprit and one Emira. Unfortunately not a single Europa or our Caterham. It is back in the body shop to fix the cracked fender. It was supposed to be finished in time for this show but the tint hasn’t shown up. After all the rain, both real and figuratively speaking, there was a rainbow at the end of our day. The wife won the sealed bid auction for the one owner, 20,035 kilometer 1981 Spitfire. Her bid was $19.80 higher than the next closest bid. (Secret tip for closed bid auctions, always end with an odd number.) In the wife’s case she used the car's build date of June 1980 and it payed off. We’re off to pick up the Spitfire in a few minutes. I’ll put the story in the “Other Car’s” section.

Well done you! Now do you make house calls?

We drove Purple Reign (cracked fender and all) to our first event of the season yesterday and today. This marks the one year anniversary of the infamous "stop sign crash." It was on Sunday morning, May 4, 2025 that it happened. We left our home Saturday morning around 8:20 a.m. and it was very cold, only 1c but with bright sunshine. However, it quickly turned miserable with heavy cloud cover and the odd rain drop or ten. Around 1:00 p.m. that turned to ice pellets so we packed up and drove home. It is only a 12 minute drive. Even though the weather was lousy the show lot filled up quickly. By midmorning the vender areas were packed. Sunday was still cool reaching a high of around 8c but with clear, sunny skies. However, nobody showed up. I mean it was dead. There were never more than 25 cars in the show lot and no lineups to get into the flea market. Oh well, it's the Boot and Bonnet Club's spring Autojumble and Car Show this coming Saturday, May 9. Hopefully the fender will be repaired by then and the weather will be as sunny as today was but much warmer. (That’s my brother’s ’59 Corvette he calls Betty Boop beside us.)

Patrick, I think most of us have corresponded with Martin Phipps and received similar info re: HPC’s. But thank you for taking the time to correlate the EVO info which I did not have. (I’m still waiting to get a copy of Chris Rees’ book ver. 4) I found one error or typo in your post. 5. 16 models were produced for the UK, and 9 for the USA; 12 were built at the factory, and 11 were delivered as kits. 16+9=25 not 23. As to your exhaust system I’d be interested to see photos of it. I’ve seen photos of HPC’s with single, rear exit pipe in both the straight back exit on the left and the across the back exit on the right with added resonator. Photos of your car would be nice to see as well.

Just received a Caterham Bulletin that in part says:

I love this one as it shows the clam shell style fenders.

Caterham Seven Miami Special Edition .pdf

Funny coincidence, our little Group of Sevens email list has been discussing some of the problems found by those who imported a car from the UK. One member mentioned that his car was in a pretty sorry state when it arrived, just poorly cared for and not as good as the photos and description had him believe. Furthermore, some issues were not disclosed that should have been. Another member said his car was advertised with 13” wheels but arrived with 15” wheels. Upon delivery he contacted the dealer and demanded the dealer ship the 13” wheels ASAP at the dealer’s expense. There were other issues as well but not discovered until much later so thought that too much time had passed. The worst was the buyer was informed the car did not have a LSD. The buyer paid to have a LSD installed. After owning the car for some months he learned of Mr. Martin Phipps, the Caterham archivist. He asked Martin for and received documentation on his car. It showed his car was ordered and delivered with a LSD. The dealer should have sent the old diff along with the car but he did not. One thing seems clear, many UK dealers are not happy to let the best cars leave the UK. It appears that some use bait and switch tactics. They lure buyers in advertising great cars but then turn them onto the lower quality, high mileage and poorly maintained cars offering reduced prices. Speculation is that they want to move those types of cars out of their inventory. If they sell one to a local and there is a major issue then the dealer has to bite the bullet and fix it. Less likely they would pay when the car is across the Atlantic.

Well, on Thursday we drove the two hours back to the mechanic. I in the seven and the wife following along in her Crosstrek to act as my brake lights. The wife would later tell me that about ½ hour into our journey the brake lights came on and stayed on. The bracket had vibrated lose allowing the switch to move out of position. However, I’d had the switch set so the slightest touch on the brake pedal would allow the plunger to come all the way out. That should have made lights to come on but they did not. The mechanic had the car for 2 ½ hours to fix the brake lights, adjust the steering column so the steering wheel was straight again and to try a new temp sender unit. He did fix the brake lights but says he did exactly what I had done at home. I give up as there must have been something else going on. He says he tried every sender unit he had but none had the correct thread. So the temp gauge is still not fixed. I took the car for a drive around his unit and the wheel was now left of center. We left the car with him for another 1 ½ hours. When we got back I took the car for another test drive. This time the wheel was back where it had been right of center. I gave up on this too. I’ll pay the alignment shop 25 minutes away to get it right. I learned that he never did order the extra parts I asked for. So he is going to do that and again will give me a 15% discount. I will still have to pay duty, shipping and exchange. I got a joke of a quote from the body shop that did the first repairs. To fix the cracks and repaint the fender this time they want $5 grand! The mechanic said he wouldn’t pay that and will get one of “his guys” to do it. Well, I said I’d get other quotes first. Yesterday we took the car to the body shop just 10 minutes away to get a quote. It’s next to a Tim Horton’s coffee shop so my brother drove his MGB up from town and met us there to see the damage for himself. He’s done lots of fiberglass work over the decades and knew immediately what the body shop had done wrong in the first fix. Anyway, we’ve got the car and have had a couple of good runs in it. Now just waiting for better weather and the shows to start back up. First one is this coming weekend just ten minutes from home.

So many stories so little time. If you haven’t read my stories in the “Member Rides” section I’d suggest you do that first. Start with: Our summer fun has been put on hold because Then read: Hopefully we will have our car back soon I have more stories to add as I'm sure others do too.

I would expect he'd do it in true Hot Rod style: Chop, Channel and Section.

I have not seen any of the new style doors, (those with the formed elbow relief) in any other colour but black. However, I have seen the piping done in a contrasting colour. You should be able to (for a price) get the piping done in another colour. This Super Sprint is up for sale and Caterham used white weather stripping between the fenders and the body plus the piping around the doors and boot cover. I would have carried it over into the interior and done the seat piping as well. I love the exterior colour on this car with the white piping but I do not like the red interior.

The wife spoke to the mechanic this morning and learned that he removed the steering column before taking the engine out. He did mark it but now thinks he may have been off by one spline when he replaced it. He is paying for the fender repair and we’ll work something out about the temp gauge etc. Yes, every seven, (heck all sports cars) have their issues and we owners deal with them as they pop up. It was just the end of a very long day full of disappointments and I had to vent to people I knew would understand. Thanks.

Well, multiple phone calls and emails and we finally went to pick up the car today. No surprise it wasn’t quite ready as they had discovered a coolant leak. So the wife went for a two hour coffee break. First big surprise was the bill. YIKES! Not what I was expecting, nor prepared for. Second was a cracked fender. He didn’t think he was leaning on it that hard until he heard the crunch. Third was the 3 ½ hours of labour to fabricate a thermostat. The temperature gauge has not shown the correct temp since I took delivery of the car. The mechanic who did all the work when it first landed in Ontario said the gauge was working so it must have the wrong sender. Questions to forums and suppliers went unanswered. So I drove the car as it was and figured normal was when the needle was just past the first mark in the blue. Hot was when it was just past the second mark and pull over to let it cool down would be anything outside of the cold zone which luckily I never saw. So while it was getting the clutch assembly replaced I asked this mechanic to have a look at the sender. He never got back to me until he phoned to say I could pick up the car. I enquired and his reply was that the thermostat was stuck shut. Now the thermostat and the housing are built as a unit and he could not find one in North America. So he modified the stock housing to accept a standard off the shelf thermostat, also modified. He claimed to have seen a high of 70c on the gauge. Well guess what, fourth complaint was that the gauge did not work at all on my drive home. Fifth item was that I once again had no brake lights. (Thankfully the wife followed me home.) When the car first arrived and everything was to have been in perfect working order the first mechanic found that there were no turn signals, 4 ways or brake lights. The first two were rectified by replacing the flasher relay. The brake light fix was accomplished by disconnecting the pressure switch and placing an electric switch at the brake pedal. During the crash back in May 2025 the bracket that the switch was mounted to was bent and the brake lights stopped working. A slight adjustment and everything was good again. I’m hoping that is all that it will take to correct the problem this time. Sixth BIG complaint is the alignment is off. Now this car had both ends aligneded during the accident repair. I was able to test drive the car and the steering was not right. Turns out the alignment shops machine was in need of repair and recalibration. A second alignment and a much longer test drive showed the car was as I remembered it being. However, the car was not released from the body shop until Nov. 4th 2025. I drove the car straight home where it sat for about two weeks until it was picked up and transported to the shop for the clutch replacement. I suspect that the second mechanic hit a pot hole or something on a test drive and that is why the steering wheel sits cocked to the right when driving straight down the road on my home today. There are some other infuriating items but these are biggies that I had to get this off my chest tonight. I have an appointment tomorrow morning so I won’t get around to looking into these issues until tomorrow afternoon.

I had a 1973 “Millionth Vega” limited edition GT hatchback. The one thing that burned me many times was that the fuel gauge was hidden behind the steering wheel. As they say out of sight, out of mind. I ran out of fuel at the least opportune moments. Since those days I have always tracked my mileage via the trip odometer. In my Caterham I adjust my “fuel left” calculations according to how much of the loud pedal I have been using. I also record each fill up so I can track fuel mileage and cost per liter over time.

It's been done many times before. Here's my friend Richard's 7 as an example.

Caterham (note: Not in USA despite being noted as PA) https://www.facebook.com/share/17GMwh2j9V/ Interesting, this car is still being advertised in Great Britain. https://www.pistonheads.com/buy/listing/20029201 I would take it that like all his other offerings he is just speculating with no actual monies involved until he hooks a buyer. He has been successful if you can believe his Facebook Marketplace 5 star rating. However, I have to wonder about the legalities of "stealing" someone's ad info and re posting it as if it is your own ad. Honestly, if someone wants to buy a Caterham (or any vehicle) from the UK I’d suggest they do their own due diligence and leg work. They’ll get a better feel for the vehicle talking directly to the seller. They will be able to negotiate the price without going through a middle man plus, they’ll save themselves thousands of dollars in Alex Suydan’s fees for service.

Whada flux is a cateringham???

We all feel the same because what's not to love?

The Birkin on Bring a Trailer just sold for $17,500. I think that may have been under value for a screaming Busa powered seven. But then again, I don’t know motorcycle powered solid axle Birkin values. https://bringatrailer.com/listing/2004-birkin-s3-2/

The Exige hood (roof) is removable. It may effect the performance but then if you are wanting the fresh air experience you really aren't looking for the greatest perpormance are you.

Not just the first bid but if you win BaT takes their 5% within minutes. In order to get it back some very elaborate stories have been told, I’m sure. You’ll notice many of the accounts are new or nearly new with no history. In one case I have personal knowledge of the winning bidder’s account that he won on was created Oct. 2019. The first time he used the account for anything was Nov. 2023. I’m sure there are some scammers that have multiple accounts going back several years but never used them. Seems strange that a person would create a BaT account but then never use it, never ask a question, make a comment, or place a bid, right?

Ah… but was it a successful sale or some type of owner buy back? (Seller has friend bid it up. If the friend wins the auction then the seller reimburses the friend for the 5% and moves the car on to the next sales/auction site.) I’ve seen several cars sell on BaT only to show up for sale later by the same owner. BaT doesn’t care as long as they get both their seller’s and buyer’s fees. There is a well-known Lotus Europa in California that sold on BaT but then was relisted on Marketplace by the same guy. Same goes for certain Corvair Spyder that sold on BaT but then was relisted locally by the same person. I’ve also seen bidders who keep bumping up the bids but then there is some problem when they have the winning bid. They disappear or come up with some story why they cannot finalize the sale.

The winning bidder has posted a follow up to some of us who had made comments during and after the auction. He states in part from his perspective: “this is a Superlight R, a rarer model than an R300, built personally by Rich at Kampena, one of the few dealers Caterham USA authorized to assemble the Supersport engine kit. TWM individual throttle bodies, Pectel T2 ECU, Kent Focus 12 cams, Kent valve spring kit, vernier cam wheels, ARP rod bolts, shaved head for higher compression. Is that enough to take a standard Zetec to 200+ hp? I’ll let the engine experts answer that. As to the power pulls in the video it was all for show and sound. He was rolling along probably in 2nd gear and stomped on it for effect. He and the camera van may have been under or near the speed limit for that stretch so the van didn’t need to be anything special to keep up. I posted the video because listening to that exhaust note as the RPM’s climbed and his ear to ear grin sure got me wishing for it to stop snowing here.

Caterham (was Hemmings previous weeks) https://bringatrailer.com/listing/2003-caterham-superlight-r300/ This didn’t hit reserve but just sold to the highest bidder via BaT’s high bid offer rules for $44K (before buyer’s fee). Anyone on here get them self's a new toy or know the new owner? As I posted in the comments; I am very interested in hearing from those who made multiple bids on this car. What was it that drew you to do so; was it the specs, the low mileage or the driving videos? I think driving videos like this one play a big part to get some people into the bidding mood. https://www.instagram.com/reel/DVuPFpsFqtN/?igsh=bDN3ajZodm5kemFv