Stang70Fastback

Definitely going to be sad letting it go, but I need to be an adult and be financially responsible for... at least a few months, lol. I'm just glad it'll be well taken care of, and surrounded by people with plenty of knowledge of the car and its unique engine. I made him promise I get first dibs if he ever sells it down the road, as I really would love to have it back some day. An absolute riot of a car that he will thoroughly enjoy... and I have a good friend in Denver that I do visit on occasion, so I'm sure I'll see it again next time I get over there. They say never meet your heroes, but this car was everything I'd hoped it would be, and more. Goodbye, friend!

It is pending a sale. The buyer is coming out January 6th to look at it. I'll update this post on the 6th/7th if he actually follows-through on the purchase.

Bump for price drop to $37k!

Ahhh thanks guys! That makes more sense. Nope. None of that here! Lol.

No petty strut (that's the diagonal brace, right?) I doubt the roll bar is track approved. It's beefy, but I'd want a beefier one for track use with at least one diagonal. Still have all the handbrake components. Personally I'd still rather go out of my way to find a shop that would pass me without it than install it. It's just in such a dumb location. Unreachable by the driver without un-belting. Waste of knee/leg space for the passenger. But yes I kept it all so you could reinstall it if you wanted to. I just prefer to keep a set of chocks in the trunk for steeper parking situations, lol. Haha, I'm looking at more 60's style classic motorcycles (got my eye on the Kawasaki W800 specifically). Maybe down the road if I really get into it I'll pick up something a little racier...

Oh, I agree entirely. The W800 is fun because it's very much an "old school" bike, not just in terms of style, but also construction. However, it has a handful of modern features including ABS, a slipper clutch, and adjustable clutch/brake levers. And yeah, I already bought motorcycle boots, pants with armor, gloves with armor, a leather jacket with armor, and an Arai helmet... all of which I intend to wear at all times

Dear god that is tempting. Especially given how much I love rare and unique things. However, as much as my new motorcycle addiction suggests otherwise, I do not actually have a death wish, and there is no scenario in which I buy something like that and don't immediately kill myself. I appreciate the offer though! I've kind of already picked out my first bike, which will be a new Kawasaki W800 (upon sale of the Caterham, lol.) I did show this to the friend who got into bikes a few months back, and who is the reason I'm now getting into bikes, and he would be pretty pissed/jealous if I took you up on that offer... which does make it tempting, lmao.

Hello Everyone! Well it's only been a little over a year since I flew from Chicago to North Carolina to buy this car and drive it back, but in that time I've had a TON of fun driving my Caterham everywhere. I had originally intended to make it a permanent addition to my fleet, but even the best-laid plans change, and I'm now looking to rehome it as I move on to other endeavors. (For those wondering, I've been talking into giving the two-wheeled life a whirl for a bit.) The vehicle is located outside of Chicago, Illinois, and I am asking $37k. Everyone here should hopefully know the basics of Caterhams, so I'm not going to rehash the obvious stuff. What you may-or-may-not know are the details pertaining to the HPC Evolution specifically. So for the uninitiated, the HPC received the venerable Vauxhall C20XE, described by one of my friends who went for a ride as "the angriest-sounding four cylinder I've ever heard" (probably mostly due to the induction/cowl noise it makes.) The Evolution is a particularly rare option that bumped the already significant 175 HP up to 218 HP courtesy of Swindon Racing Engines. This particular example is in excellent shape. I actually have a number of blog posts that go into a silly amount of detail about this car (again part of my long-term plans to own it forever and document everything in the process.) There are three posts in particular that will furnish you with all you could ever want to know about this car, so if you are seriously interested, I HIGHLY recommend perusing all three (that's where all the photos are!) Post 1: My 1993 Caterham Super Seven HPC Evolution This is the blog post I wrote when I first purchased this car over a year ago. It describes the entire history of the car, some of which required some research to obtain, including reaching out to the archivist at Caterham, as well as other previous owners, but the result is a full and detailed history of the car's ownership from the very start, as well as a deeper description of the car itself, the meaning behind the HPC monitor, and what makes this an Evolution model in more detail. It also includes a ton of photos documenting the condition of the car at the time of purchase. Post 2: Winter Updates: '23 - '24 This post lists out the majority of the modifications/updates I made to the vehicle. This includes, essentially, refreshing the cockpit, as well as other cosmetic maintenance items to clean up the exterior, and fix a lot of things that had been less-cleanly done by previous owners. Note that this post excludes a handful of additional changes I made later in the season. Post 3: Overheating Issues... or Not TL;DR, the ENTIRE cooling system is brand new in this vehicle, and the vehicle is now over-cooled if anything, all as a result of a bad ground wire that resulted in my chasing an overheating issue that turned out to simply be a poorly-grounded temperature gauge. The net result, however, is that pretty much every single part of the cooling system is brand-spanking new. The vehicle comes with full weather gear (side doors and roof), as well as a compliment of spare parts including the heater, a cover, three pairs of spare springs (not sure of the spring rates), and various other knick-knacks. I do want to specifically point out the RuggedRadios setup mentioned in the second blog post (radio, control head, and two pairs of headsets) will also be included, which is a very expensive setup worth well over $1000. Happy to show you the car if interested, and happy to take you for a spin if the weather is cooperative. If you want to test drive the car yourself, we can discuss. On Facebook and everywhere else I mentioned a $1000 deposit merely to avoid joyrides from non-serious buyers, but I'll play it by ear here Feel free to ask questions, or point out something obvious that's missing! EDIT: Adding a few photos just to give a taste. Full catalog of photos are still contained within the linked blog posts above.

There are only a literal handful of HPCs in the country, and it turns out one of them lives just down the street!

Update: Finally got around to doing the same for the high beam switches. I also swapped the momentary switch to a push-button, as I felt that made a bit more sense.

So this lower dash trim piece was split in half when I bought the car last year. Earlier this week it snagged on my pants as I was getting out and completely ripped off, revealing the bare metal "chassis" underneath. Seeing as they're essentially impossible to find now, the only proper solution is to replace the entire dash with the newer one-piece style, but that's a bigger project for another day. In the meantime I figured I'd have some fun with my CNC and my laser engraver. I present" the Caterham "knee plate" which is an ABS plastic "frame" with a black, anodized aluminum faceplate. It's SUPER boomer, super gaudy, and super ridiculous, but it was fun to make and it at least looks better than a torn off trim piece. Next up is designing and 3D printing a black "blend piece" to better merge the broken part of the trim piece that you can still see to the back of the bare metal chassis.

Oh I am driving it whenever I get the chance now! I'm paying too much money each month on the loan I took out to buy it for it to just sit around now 😂😭

Added a new blog post to the OP about my overheating saga! https://www.racecargobrrr.com/post/overheating-issues-or-not

Update: resolved! Took that loose cable and relocated it to use as an engine-to-chassis ground! https://www.racecargobrrr.com/post/overheating-issues-or-not

Sooo, I might have found my issue? Obviously everything is grounded to the chassis through that bolt, but then I was trying to identify where the chassis grounds back to the battery. I know this photo isn't the best, but all I have on the battery is one big ground that goes to the engine block. However, from there another cable goes up and... when I checked to see where it went, it just popped out from under the carb and was apparently not connected to anything. Where the hell is this supposed to go? I still find it odd there's no cable straight from the chassis to the battery, but maybe this just needs to be connected somewhere and all will be well. It isn't very long... I wonder if it's supposed to go to the starter which is right under there. There's no obvious ground from the starter actually. Just a tiny wire going up into the loom.

Is this what you are referring to? If so it does look clean, but I will still take it off and brush it.

Ah! I didn't know about the ground at the wiper motor bolt. I will take a look at that and see if that's maybe my issue. The idea of running a separate circuit just for the fan isn't a bad idea either, but I'm hoping I can chase down a bad ground and that will mostly resolve it. Thank you!

Hello folks! I'll try to get you up to speed as concisely as possible. Bought a '93 HPC last year. Went to drive it 800 miles home (very hot day.) Only made it about 200 miles before we noticed it was overheating. Trailered it home. Replaced the water pump. Still overheating. Replaced the thermostat. Same. Replaced the sender. Replaced the Gauge. Replaced the whole damned radiator and fan. Jacked the car way the hell up and burped all the air. I FINALLY seem to have found the issue. Turns out it wasn't overheating at all. Instead, when the radiator fan kicks on, the temperature gauge jumps up by like 30 degrees. That means on hot days (like say trying to drive 800 miles home on a 90 degree, sunny day, thrashing up twisty mountain roads with a girlfriend and a trunk full of luggage), the engine might tend to run a bit warm... and then you add 20-30 degrees to that reading, and suddenly you have a gauge showing close to pegged near 250. SO, now that I seem to know what the problem is... I need ideas on how to troubleshoot this. The only other gauge that seems to be affected is the oil pressure gauge, which drops when the fan kicks on. I assume that a bad ground is the issue, but I'm not sure what to look for. The grounding strap from the engine to the battery looks to be in good shape. This also happens even if the car is sitting in the garage with a freshly charged battery connected to a battery tender. Is there anything specific for me to look at that might help narrow down the issue? Any common things that tend to maybe cause this exact problem for people? Any help would be appreciated! I know the car isn't overheating now, but it's STILL unnerving seeing the gauge reading that high, and I'd like to fix it completely if possible!

Hello folks! Realized I never actually made an official post here, so figured I would. Kinda awkward, though, as - given I've had bad experiences in the past with seemingly thriving forums suddenly vanishing or falling into disrepair - I've actually decided to post updates on my own website as it just makes things easier. So really this thread is just going to be me posting links to my blog posts as I make them, which is lame, I know. I'll just keep updating this first post with more blog posts as they occur! Post 1: My 1993 Caterham Super Seven HPC Evolution Post 2: Winter Updates: '23 - '24 Post 3: Overheating Issues... or Not

Ok, maybe someone here can help me, because I've posted about this in several FB groups and haven't yet found a good resolution. I've had my Caterham since last fall. For winter, I brimmed the tank, and parked the car, only to notice a pretty strong odor of fuel, and then... a river of fuel running across the garage floor. Long story short, I pulled the trunk cover and found that the fuel sender gasket had completely disintegrated (it's a '93.) So I bought new cork gasket material and made a new gasket. All good, right? Well, no. Because it appears that my tank is vented in the dumbest way possible: a small hole drilled right on the sending unit cover itself - and not just drilled anywhere, but right on the indented ring that normally seals against the gasket. In the attached photo, you can see it in the lower right, between the two bolts. So, I have a few questions: Is this just how it was done in the early 90s, or is this some weird hodge-podge solution? I can't find a separate vent line ANYWHERE on the tank, unless I'm missing something obvious, so I suspect this is the only venting my tank has. For the love of god, does ANYONE know where I can find a complete replacement sending unit for this tank with this bolt pattern? That's where nobody has been able to help me. Ideally I'd like to replace the sending unit entirely (since it's 30 years old), and what I'll do with the new one is drill a hole in the MIDDLE (not where the gasket seals) so that I can install a vent line with a check valve and stop this stupid dribbling of fuel when the tank is full, or when I accelerate, or when I jack up the car.

Another fun [and kinda trippy] one.

Glad you enjoyed the blog! After all the asking of questions and seeming ambiguity with no solid answers, I've decided to just call mine an Evo until someone can provide concrete info one way or the other. All I've gotten to date are wishy-washy responses that end with "I'd say it qualifies," so that's good enough for me. I figure I'm more likely to finally get a concrete answer by calling mine an Evo anyway, since that's likely the best way to piss off some all-knowing purist who might actually have the knowledge to give me a proper answer, lol.

As a member of the younger generation, I can assure you a lot of us are car people, but we just can't afford any of the interesting vehicles we've always wanted because everything is so goddamned expensive these days. I acquired this Caterham by making a rather financially irresponsible decision on the basis that I could always turn around and sell it again if push came to shove. When people can barely afford one car, they tend to buy something practical and useful, and so all of the cool cars go out the window at that point, and you're left with all of the boomers still holding the keys to things that are out of reach of anyone except other, retired boomers, lol. Yes, I'm making some generalizations.

How about I just attach the actual original image and see if that helps :P

This is all very fascinating information. For my purposes, the added value of the vehicle isn't REALLY important to me, as I'm not planning on selling it... (though I suppose ideally it would be good to ensure it's insured for what it's worth.) I'm trying to determine the "authenticity" of it more for my own knowledge, and because I just don't want to spout false information in my blog posts, or when talking to people about the car. I also wasn't clear on what made an HPC an Evolution. IF the only difference between my car, and a "super-duper-official" one is that the latter was built by Caterham (and apparently was bought by someone who took the HPC course) then I think I'll just go ahead and call mine an Evolution unless that's some sort of major faux-pas. After all, the engine would still have been tuned by Swindon, and the only reason it wouldn't have been assembled by Caterham wasn't because it was missing something, but simply because you couldn't legally import one into the US except as a kit. So it's more a technicality than a physical difference in the vehicle. The fact that the first owner might not have taken the official HPC course is hardly relevant in my eyes as well. Those details might matter if I'm trying to win some official Caterham Concours d'Elegance or something, but I feel I can tell people it's an Evolution without offending all but perhaps the stingiest Caterham purists. Seems given how hard it is TO get concrete answers one way or the other that it likely isn't that important either way. Or maybe I'm wrong... but that really was all I was trying to figure out was whether I can say it's an Evo without offending everyone. It certainly is more fun to say it is given the rarity! (Not to try and sound like the typical Corvette owner, lol. "This car is 1 of 1 made in the year 1998 in this color paint with THESE options on a Thursday!")