pethier

Just curious. Folks who run big tracks in their Elise cars tell me they run Hoosier A7 because the car is so light. Seven cars are lighter than Elise cars. Why would you want to run R7 tires? I'm an autocrosser, and I found out that with a good suspension on my Elise I couldn't heat Hoosier A7 tires. I went to Yoko 052 tires on the Elise and did much better. When I got another Caterham, the Yoko 052 was the obvious choice. I am on stock size tires on the Caterham. 195-50-15 on 6.5 x 15 Prisoner wheels. I have the Bridgestone RE-71RS tires for my Cayman. That's a heavy car, and the suspension geometry is not all that great.

Port is comfortably left of the centerline so my iPhone cable will be well-clear of my left arm. I have a bunch of battery minders lying around. Each of them came with both a pair of clamps and a pair of terminal rings. The rings will be used as-is. As for the clamps, first I labeled the wire for the black clamp POS POS POS. Then I labeled the wire for the red clamp NEG NEG NEG. No, that's not wrong. Then I cut off the clamps. Here is the complete wiring harness for the project. The rings will get stuffed one at a time through a grommet in the firewall. Figured out yet why the labeling is not wrong? A well-dressed harness. The connector and its grommet is at the lower left. The port is rated at 7 amps. Fuses come as 7.5 amps. I don't have one anyway, so I put in a 5-amp fuse. It has tested OK for my air compressor. I will address that loose wire in another thread, as it has nothing to do with this project. In the engine room, I tied the wires to the plastic air horn to stop them playing with the steel horn brackets bolted to the heater box. Before I connected the rings to the battery, I confirmed the polarity with a voltmeter and my Porsche charger. See, I told you those labels were not wrong.

Just go AutoZone and spend six bucks. /s

Tell me again why you don't leave the original rivet in place and put a new rivet near it.

I imagine that Caterham Cars LTD designed the Prisoner wheels to be fitted on the Prisoner Special Edition. The hubcap fits the wheel in only one way. Why did they put the air valve in a position where access with many air tools is blocked by the number-plate mount?

i first used these when I worked at 3M Central Research circa 1970.

BTW, the covering on the dash is very tough. I had to use the carbide end of my scribe and it took several passes.

Twenty years old or the company is not still making automobiles is the law in Minnesota for collector plates. And any car eligible for collector plates, whether or not it actually has collector plates, is exempt from the requirement to display a front plate.

Port is mounted. There is an existing 3/4" hole dead-center on the dash, below two gauges. Nope. Too small, too low for the unit to clear the steel tube at the bottom of the dash. Just put back the rubber plug. Left of that pair of gauges is a pair of rocker switches. The bottoms of these switches are higher than the bottoms of the gauges. Bottom tube plus the aluminum/vinyl dash skin that wraps under it is 1.100". By coincidence, that is the the diameter of the outer shell of the power port. Radius of power port is therefore 0.550". 0.550" + 1.100" = 1.650" Round up to 1.750". Set my Starrett angle-head to 90 degrees. Pop in a rule and set it to 1.750" with my caliper. Scribe a short horizontal line roughly directly-under the gap between the rocker switches. The depth gauge on my caliper is just a little narrower than half the distance between the rocker switches. I pressed this gauge against the left edge of the right switch and scribed a line where the opposite edge of the guide crossed the horizontal scribe. Reversed the procedure for the other switch. The two vertical scribes were very close together. I drilled a tiny hole between the two vertical scribes and directly on the horizontal scribe. Followed that up with a 1/4" drill hole. Grabbed a conventional 7/8" hole saw and worked it by hand to score the vinyl. Probably didn't need to do that, but taking no chances. I happen to have a five-carbide-tooth 7/8" hole saw designed for trepanning metal. I had used that when mounting the ports for my trailer camera. Chucked it in a drill motor and started making aluminum chips all over my lap and inside the car. Installed the inner core and rubber plug in the hole, then threaded on the outer shell. Did a little back-and-forth to get the text on the rubber plug right-side-up and to get the male spade for the ground on the bottom of the shell. Shop-Vaced the aluminum chips off me. Shop-Vaced the aluminum chips (and the usual small stones) out of the footwell and off of the seat. It looks like I will have lots of clearance from the phone cable while practicing my left-hand shifting. No pix yet. I forgot to bring my phone with me. My second daughter is worried that I will get stuck in the car. No problem. I have the shop land-line cordless... Next stage: Run wires from battery to power port, using grommet and an inline fuse. This is not a racecar, so having the power port independent of the external shutoff is not an issue. Autocross rules don't care if you have an external shutoff.

Not planning on fishing around under the dash for the port. The choke, the ignition, and the heater control are quite enough, thank you.

Just a plain old 12v port from AutoZone. Drill or punch a 7/8" hole through the dash. Insert the core. Reach forward of the dash and screw on the outer shell. Put a negative wire with a LuCar female on the outer shell. Put a positive wire with a LuCar female on the inner core. Run the wires through a rubber grommet in the firewall to the battery (don't forget a fuse on the positive side) and Bob's your uncle.

Disregard

1. My iPhone battery tends to not last the day when I am out. 2. Sometimes at an autocross, I'd like to use my little air compressor. 3. I'd like to use a battery tender in the garage without removing the bonnet. I don't smoke, but I'm putting in a cigarette lighter. I had been thinking already about the first two birds, and then I remembered that they all were similar to the situation with my Cayman. They had been resolved when I bought a used genuine Porsche cigarette-lighter charger for a decidedly-non-Porsche price. The Cayman, of course, has two such ports from the factory. All need to do is drill a 7/8" hole in the dash in an area where the charging cord does not interfere with gear changes, and a smaller hole in the firewall for a couple of wires directly from the battery. This will be a short run. A bit of wire, a grommet, an inline fuse, and I will have a circuit independent of my cutoff switch. I hope I remember to take pictures.

I have 74PHIL. In 2008 I got it, my wife still had her Triumph TR44SUE. Collector plates in Minnesota never need replacement or yearly fees, so 74PHIL was still reserved for me when I got my current Caterham. I had kept the physical plates when I sold off the other car in 2010, so I was allowed to register the same plate on my "new" car. 218 bucks to register the car and I never have to give another dime to the State.

You don't need to send to England for a cutoff switch. Summit and other racecar suppliers here in the USA will be happy to sell you a switch. External system switches are required in many different kinds of motorsports, so even your local circle-track suppliers should have them. There is a special style for cars with alternators, but you don't need that; this has to do with turning off the switch while the car is running, which is something you will never do. The simple switch is all you need. I don't have to install a cutoff switch in my current Caterham since the original owner in Northwich specified one in his complete car kit from Caterham in 1991, but trust me on this, Summit and the like on this side of the pond will sell you the same thing. Looks the same and mounts the same way. Whether you put the required-for-racing decal on your car is up to you.

I believe that in this context, "cats" means "Caterham cars"

Another sad victim of an enthusiastic but stupid spellchecker.

I think I need to go over my reading-comprehension skills again. I'll show myself out.

Why not just replace the spark plugs?

3M Peltor X1A Over-the-Head Ear Muffs, Noise Protection, NRR 22 dB

I have a big Red Ensign. I would like to say my Great Great Grandfather John Cavanagh nicked it when he was a merchant seaman working out of Liverpool but that would be a lie. I really got it from a Lebanese-American school librarian. I once left the flag at the TRF Summer Party, and a kind LBC guy mailed it to me. The bit about my Great Great Grandfather John Cavanagh serving under the Red Ensign is 100% true, though. It's on the 1864 birth record of my Great Grandfather John Cavanagh. The flag I got for free. The birth record i had to pay for.

This clarification was was not meant to correct you. Your text was perfectly logical. The clarification was for others who may have been confused about these two materials. I have seen this happen before elsewhere.

To me, and thanks again!

I only had two places I could mount it. The rollbar was out, because I often have the top on. Either on the front or on the license-plate assembly on the rear. Because I wanted the flag to me seen from a car I was beside, the front won out. The parameters are not the same for a Seven in street traffic as they are for a buggy in the dunes. For a buggy in the dunes, the priority is lots of height, not placement on the buggy.