theDreamer

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.

FYI The 1966 Lotus 7 S3 that was on Facebook Marketplace at: https://www.facebook.com/share/178YRz7o5t/ (Link listed above is dead) The seller has placed another new ad at: https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/27170235592582954 This Seven was for sale on Facebook Marketplace for some time. An interested buyer pointed out some problems and owner/seller took it off Facebook Marketplace while he had a mechanic check things out. The owner/seller had been claiming it was an original 1966 Lotus 7 that was completely restored and updated using Caterham parts in 1992 by Sevens and Elans. He had been asking $49,900. I messaged him several times with questions and comments but he has never responded to me. He posted it on the Lotus Club of Canada’s Facebook page and yesterday I noticed he’d changed his ad text both there and on Marketplace. He now admits it’s a Caterham and that the Lotus registration was a “US import practice”. However, he is still selling it as a 1966 Lotus because that is the way it’s registered in Quebec. He has also lowered his asking price to $42,000 Canadian.

It's a small world when you love these small cars, eh!

The Green Elise' owners name is Eric. He also has a Lotus Cortina and an Elan. However, his son drives the Elise and does track days and some competitions and his name is Rod or Rob. Sorry, my poor hearing is only surpassed by my increasing lose of short term memory. Sound like someone you know or have met? My wife took the rainbow photo at the end of the day. It was a short but heavy shower after a picture perfect brisk spring day on Ontario. I've attached anther photo of the Elise.

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.