theDreamer

Interesting happenstance, I was going through the three Assembly Guide binders that came with my car and I found this technical piece penned by Jez Coates. Among other questions it seems the original owner of my car had a similar issue with what was described as steering slip. Jez' first comment was to check that the grub screw in the steering clamp was tight. (see attached image)

Folio

Here's a photo of what CarlB was talking about.

Not so much glamour shots but my attempt at interesting, artsy and humorous photos. These were taken yesterday at a cruise night about an hour from our home. The first shows the size of our HPC relative to the area designated for parking the latest Land Barges. The second is proof that something is watching us. The third shows that purple knows no age.

Sorry John my bad, I have now corrected my post. I was just surprised because I thought I had read that these only came in RHD. I learn something new every day on here. Again, I’m sorry for any problems my post may have caused.

This is the first LHD CSR with the rounded tube interior that I think I’ve seen. I thought I read that they only made this style CSR in RHD. I have seen LHD CSR’s with the more familiar, standard style flat dash interior. like the one from Toronto that was sold on BaT. Both styles use the same type suspensions, in-board up front and full IRS in the back.

If you are hitting both the throttle and the clutch pedal when you apply the brakes than you’re doing it wrong. Your pedal problem is more about technique than shoe style. Do you blip the throttle on down shifts? I wager you do not. The technique used by most is to use the left side of the ball of the foot, (large hard area below the big toe) to apply pressure to the brake pedal and then rotate the ankle so the right side, (area below the last two toes) contacts the throttle pedal with a quick motion to “blip” the throttle as you shift down a gear. What you want to do when applying just a little brake to scrub off speed is to do the same without the “blip”. If you are needing to make a panic stop that’s when you may want to use the center of your foot but, as stated already, clutch in first. In the last 40+ years I’ve driven dozens of Sevens and the pedals were all different. I’ve included two photos of pedal placement. The first is of a 1992 Zeta (Zetec) powered Caterham with a hydraulic clutch. Pedals are oriented to the right with a nice gap left of the clutch to sneak one’s foot past to rest. The second is my HPC with cable clutch. Greater space between throttle and brake which means I have to point my left foot down to get under the clutch to rest it. I’ll bet if everyone here posted a photo of their cars pedals you would see very few if any that were exactly the same. I will again mention that a trip to a large shoe shop, sports or outlet store will yield you results. I have a short, wide foot. I often have to get shoes a half size larger because of this. The Deck shoes I mentioned fit very snug with enough give that I did not have to go up in size. I have several pairs of leather dress shoes and one pair of faux leather that work well also. My wife packed up all my racing gear two decades ago and can’t find that box now that I want those shoes. As for leaving the car unattended, mine came with two sets of tonneau covers. One set of factory black covers which fit over the headrests and a set of custom made grey vinyl that require the headrests be removed. This past weekend we, for the first time, tucked the grey set behind the seats for our trip up to Mosport. We used them while we walked about at the Field of Dreams Car Show held during the VARAC Vintage Grand Prix at Mosport, (OK, it’s really called Canadian Tire Motorsports Park). I didn’t get a photo of them both on but have included one shot with the passenger side in place and the doors still on. Everything fit nicely into the foot wells and boot including the steering wheel. I wear glasses almost all the time now and have clip on sun glasses that fit over my regular glasses. With the doors on, a cap and my glasses I have yet to have any problem. My car does have one thing your car does not, full fenders. After every trip the wife goes around with tweezers and picks out all the little stones and stuff that gets lodged between the fenders and the body. Also, stuff that gets under the windshield seal and into that hard to get at little area at the base of the stanchions and the windshield frame.

Are you thinking about the Donkervoot? You need to contact the seller via the “Contact Seller” button. You should ask him what company was used to bring it into Canada and what was required. Also, how long he is willing to hold the car should you be the winning bidder. Organising transport isn’t an easy or fast process. You should contact Transport companies that specialize in antique, classic and collectable cars. Make sure they will cross the border. Some will not and therefore use one company to pick the car up and cross the border. Then another company will pick it up on the US side to deliver it to you. They may even move it from one transport trailer to another several times. Ensure the company has a good broker to make sure all the paperwork is done correctly well ahead of time. And there is a lot of paperwork. Or, get yourself a broker. You can do it yourself but if you are required to attend at the border crossing then you’re screwed. I used TFX here in Toronto to pick up my car in Utah and bring it across the border. They can hold cars in their warehouse if need be. The broker they use is very good. Now that I’ve done it I could probably do the next one myself but for a few hundred bucks why would I? I have no knowledge of the Donkervoot other than it was up for sale for a long time on some Canadian sites. The seller was wanting all his money out of it. I suspect his reserve will be near to what he paid for it.

Randy, the driver who delivered my car was a big lad who had to remove his shoes to drive it. He said it was not pleasant as my car requires a lot of effort to depress the clutch pedal. I suggest while you wait for those fancy shoes to arrive go to your local shoe shop or outlet store and get a pair of plain old canvas deck shoes. When I was with the Bridgestone Race School F2000 series we let the drivers use these with their Nomex socks in the rain so as not to damage their high priced racing shoes. I can tell you from firsthand experience they do they trick.

I’d love to have them for my car but the wife says NO! The shoulder straps in “our” car have had the Caterham panels removed. But, we have them and she is clear that these can be sewn back on. She also points out that our faded belts are the originals that came with this car and have the red cam lock hubs. I tried to point out how much better your brand spanking new ones would look especially the black hubs with the Caterham 7 logos. NOPE, she won’t budge. As I have a long wish list and who knows what maintenance issues we may encounter I’ve decided to let her win this battle. Sorry

Randy, to quote Jeremy (Stang70Fastback on here) Hooray! ONE OF US! ONE OF US!

Well, as you can see my US car has the more bullet shaped lens with the chrome ring. When we had our Europa it was always fun going around at car shows picking out what parts came from which cars. Like the Europa’s front bumper is an Anglia’s front bumper turned upside down. And the rear bumper is actually a Ford Cortina’s front bumper. The rear taillight lenses look the same as V12 Jag but the Europa’s has a white segment for the backup lights that the Jag’s don’t. Colin was known for being a parts bin specialist. Why design and contract out manufacturing for stuff that others have already put the time and money into? Smart lad that Colin. Nearn learned his lessons well.

So lots of good advice here even if some of it seems contradictory. Let me tell a little story. A long-time friend and I used to road ride motorcycles. We both built and enjoyed riding our Yamaha RD 350 café racers. I was racing vintage GP bikes and then moved into Amateur Production Classes. After several years my friend decides to get into racing too. He bought a used TZ250 GP bike and did a super ground up rebuild. It was better and faster than when it was new. He did the race school and loved it. He went to open practice days and couldn’t get enough. Then came his first race weekend and his first heat race. He pulled into pit lane after the first lap. I ran over to him expecting he’d fouled a plug or worse. Instead I found him sitting on the bike shaking. When he finally was able to talk he said he couldn’t do it. Building the bike and running around the track at speed was fun. Racing, dicing inches apart from the next guy was something he was not prepared for. It scared him sh*tless! Nobody knows how they will react to a given situation until they find themselves in that situation. All I can add is; ‘Tis better to have loved and lost than to have never loved at all. (Alfred Lord Tennyson) In my case, I’m 70 and have had my first Caterham Seven all of three weeks now. I’ve had sports cars like a Lotus Europa Twin Cam Special so I’m used to very small cars. I’ve been riding motorcycles for over 50 years so I’m used to being vulnerable in traffic. I’ve raced karts, cars (both tin tops and open wheeled formula cars) and motorcycles both on and off road. I had driven lots of sevens over the years but never owned one until now. It’s not what I remember it being or what I was expecting. But now old, over weight, out of shape and in general poor health I’m glad I went for it. I’ll keep this car as long as I can. As to size, I’m sure you have seen comparisons before but here’s my car beside a Land Rover 4x4. Photo was taken this past Saturday at a British car show. And yes, that is the actual size. The photo has not not been photo shopped or altered in any way. Oh, did I mention that a guy in a Jeep Cherokee ran a red light and literally drove over the front of my Europa? I didn’t see him until a split second before because I couldn’t see over the front fender of the Chevelle station wagon that was beside me.

Video URL has too many h's... This works:

Jeremy, I meant to add this after your 2nd blog post. I love all the extra bits you've added. Especially how you etched the Caterham logo into the steering wheel. I think you should see about removing the emblem on the shifter knob and replacing it with a similar black back ground etched HPC Logo to match the wheel. Your car is all black and red and the burst of colour sort of distracts from the rest of the interior. (Oh, by the way if you do this and the old shifter emblem comes out in one piece I’d be willing to take it off your hands.)

WOW, Is this the car? If so very interesting... https://gglotus.org/blog/2010/09/20/super-907/

Good onya, and ta for the update.

Yep thanks, we figured this out when Mudder put his new one up for sale because it was too short.

My wife is 5’6” and she has always maintained that the Europa was the most comfortable car she has ever been in and I agree 100%. She was most happy for this while she was pregnant with our first daughter. So much so that when she found out she was pregnant with our second she had me look for and buy a Europa seat for her to relax in at home. I lucked out and found a pair from a wreck. We’ve used them ever since for watching TV and Gaming. As far as the Seven goes, not so much. I keep my wallet in my right rear pocket and all my I.D. and cards in my left rear pocket. These happen to hit the seat's sides and so all my weight rest on those two areas. I'm looking for a small pillow to place on the seat cushion to raise me up just enough to take the pressure off my cheeks. I’m getting used to the left knee bent and foot up so as not to ride the clutch pedal. I’ve done one 2 ½ hour stint and three 1 hour or less drives without getting out of the car. Still lots to learn and tweaking to be done. Note the difference in the two photos. Arrow indicate pressure points.

Half hood is on my list, (see parts for sale/wanted).

Hood sticks are on the car now. Still looking for a half roof that will fit my older S3 with the vertical roll bar.

Back and forth I went looking through the Assembly Guides and checking on-line photos, diagrams and videos. Meanwhile the wife kept playing around. The longer the hood sat in the sun the easier things got. In one build thread the guy mentioned that unzipping the rear window made it all work. Before I got outside with this info the wife came into the computer room and told me she had it on and all buttoned up. She said the trick was UNZIPPING the rear window. So, we fitted the spare tire back in place, (removed it to clean and reposition the cover) put the doors on and then spent ½ hour testing different methods of ingress and egress. The wife uses a butt first, legs in after approach with the reverse to exit. I tried a couple of different techniques and haven’t settled on the best one for me yet. However, happy with ourselves we took a little 50+ mile drive to fill up with gas then took the shorter 40 mile route back home. It was actually quite comfy in there with the hood up. It was about 10 degrees C (50F) outside but very windy. I had on a light sweater and the wife had on her heavier sweater and rabbit fur hat. Now we have rabbit fur all over the interior and the underside of the hood. Well, that’s her job to clean and also remove all the bugs off the windshield. A couple of new problems “popped” up. We both got out at different times and without realizing it we hit and unfastened the first popper behind the doors. Both times I drove off and once up to speed that side of the hood would start to sail off. This is not something that can be popped back on while moving. I will bring up other issues in new threads. But for now I think the hood and hood stick issues are sorted. Although as I type this I realize I still have to screw the strap ends to the back of the boot. Ah, it’s getting late, I’ll wait until tomorrow.

I had a list of items I wanted to get done on the car and true to “Life with a Seven”; every one of them is giving me fits. I won’t bother you with all of them but I will talk about the biggest problem right now. Those damn hood sticks, the straps and getting the hood on. You can see in the photos of my sticks that the holes are on the wrong side. Using a small diameter bit I drilled through the internal fastener and out the other side of the tubes. Then I drilled a clearance sized hole from that other side. I wasn’t sure that the threads of the internal fixed fastener were undamaged so I decided to purchase longer 10-32 cap screws and nyloc nuts. I get the drilling done on one side and the power goes out. This is around 10:30 am last Sunday. First Hydro posted that it would be fixed by 1:00 pm which became 2:00 pm. When they posted again it was going to be 3:00 pm the wife and I went into town to pick up supplies and grab a bite. She had been shining up the bright work, cleaning/polishing the paint (the rear panel of the car behind the spare is nasty) and was going to detail the interior. We got back at 4:30 just as the power came back on. From then until 8:00 ish we fought with the hood (roof). Turns out after looking at a half dozen videos and pages of photos I learned that older S3’s like mine have the hood stick mounting tabs welded flush with the outside skin. New Caterhams have that same tab welded on the inside of the frame tubes. Hence, my brand new hood sticks are for a newer Caterham S3 and not the older style like mine. Too late now as I have already drilled and test mounted them. Next was attaching the straps. No instructions anywhere to be found. Lots of videos on how you can put up the roof in about three to five minutes. None on how to affix those straps. I was horrified when I read in a build blog that I had to drill and use self-tapping screws to anchor the straps. Then what do you know, I found two holes in the boot of our car that would have been used for that very purpose. OK, what size screws should I use in these used holes? And, how do we attach the straps to the secondary tube. The wife figured it required a larger loop at the adjuster. It took two attempts on which way was up. We tried a test fit and that’s what killed it for us. We fought for over an hour, tried everything we could think of but there was just no way we could get the main tube to line up with the Velcro section in the roof. We can get it to within about a ½ inch but that’s it. The roof at this point is under so much tension and the main tube where it bends is pushing out the plastic side windows yet the area around the door is slack. It’s as if that main tube is too tall for my hood. Or, my hood isn’t tall enough for these sticks. I’m quickly learning I have no tolerance for things like this anymore. After fifty years the wife is very patient with me. But, only to a point. Once I start to stutter its downhill from there. The car sat for a few days as I had to take the wife first for a scope on Monday. Then another angiogram on Wednesday. Thursday she had cataract measurements and today she had to see our cardiologist. All things seem good with her so we went back at the hood after lunch today. Nope, still won’t fit. I’ve parked the car out in the sun hoping that the vinyl will heat up and we can stretch it that little bit more that we need to get all the fasteners done up. Well that worked and we got the main hoop into the Velcro but… The secondly tube will not move back into position. I’ve come to the conclusion that these sticks are to clear a taller roll bar and therefore the hood needs to be taller as well. My car had hood sticks for a long time as the paint is worn off around the mounting holes. Where they went, why they were not with the car now is a mystery. Also, this roof looks new and had the zip out rear window. Did Caterhams in the early 90’s have that feature? Anyway I included a photo of the wife working on the exhaust cover. It is covered in marks, tar and/or dried on rubber marbles.

Back in the day when the “cold air” heater was introduced it was thought to have several bonus features. By keeping the heater cable pushed in (in the "Off" position) then hot coolant would by-pass the heater core. This meant that whatever the outside air temp was would be what flowed into the car and thus help keep the leg area cooler. Also, with a flow of air coming up from under the dash it would help to lessen the draft of turbulent air rushing in from behind to fill the void in the cockpit. From your experience, is this how it works with the heater fan on full and the cable in the “Off” position? Or, is the reality that it just kicks up the dust from the foot wells into your eyes?

Addendum to my previous post: I forgot to mention that with my size, arthritis and shoulder problems I have found it difficult to snap/unsnap the doors. Also, I have to remember to do this before doing up the four point harness. Best way for me is to use my right hand (car is LHD) across my midsection to do up the lower snap. Then turning my upper torso left while lifting my left arm and shoulder use the right hand for the upper rear snap. I’ve seen skinny young fellas use their left hand and bend their left arm in some unnatural positions to accomplish the same task. Positioning the rear view mirrors is a two person job. In fact, there are a lot of things you’d never think about until you have a seven that now requires you to. Those who have owned sevens for some time have found these to become second nature to them. But, for new owners we have to go through this learning curve. Like riding motorcycles you have to remember to cancel the turn signals. My wife had a 1986 Ducati 650 Indiana and it had the loudest turn signal beep I’ve ever heard. You never forgot to cancel those signals. But in the seven I can’t hear that click, click sound. Plus, in day light I can’t see the lights on the fenders, (front wings) when they’re flashing. I’m sure I’ll remember more things as time passes.