TheDingo8MyBaby

A friend is looking to sell his retroford 13x6 steel wheels - made to look very similar to the steel wheels used on lotus cortinas. Bolt pattern is 4x108mm so this is the same as a caterham. He has 5 wheels with hubcaps, so these would be perfect for a seven with a rear-mounted spare. - Five of these, new in box: https://www.retroford.co.uk/product/lotus-cortina-steel-wheel-6-0j-x-13-w6-0/ (only one was removed from the box to check fit on a caterham) - Five of these, new in box: https://www.retroford.co.uk/product/hub-cap-for-lotus-steel-wheel-replica/ - New price on the wheels is now £85.10 before shipping (~$107 at current exchange). - New price on the hubcaps is now £14.72 before shipping (~$18 at current exchange). He's looking for $90 per wheel and $13 per hubcap. The best part is that you don't have to pay shipping from England (Nearly $300 when I price it to my destination here in California). Location: Knoxville, TN

@Vinman1, I can ask for you on a couple of facebook groups, if you'd like. I'd estimate parts to be somewhere between $100-250 and shipping to be another $100+, but if you're a serious buyer comfortable with those prices, I will ask. Just to confirm you are comfortable with 8" or 9" brakes for and english axle?

A 1970 cortina will likely be the 9" brakes, but they still should work. Dave Bean or JAE may have them. If you're willing to pay for international shipping, there are some UK cortina facebook groups you can try.

Sounds like this is pretty well settled, but thought I would share the BAT link about the car in question for anyone's future reference. https://bringatrailer.com/listing/1966-lotus-seven/

Tony is also on facebook - you may try him there with more success?

Unfortunately I am out of town, but would definitely be fun to get some seven owners together for a drive. Morgan Segal (orange superlight in walnut creek) just got his car back up and running; we've been talking about doing a drive soon.

I find the local O'Reilly's carries 20w-50 VR1, but it may be stored behind the counter (I checked first on their website where it was in-stock). It's not that much more than expensive than diesel oil.

Being vintage, I assume your car is running drum brakes? Are they 8"/9" Ford? The braking is impressive compared to my S2.

Yes LC and HC are low and high compression. That image was posted on another forum. I do not know it's original origins. I recall there was another website that was a great reference for identifying precrossflow heads, but I can't seem to find the link at the moment. \ In any case, the 1500GT casting does tend to have the larger ports, but the other heads can all be ported out too.

Earlier this year I bought a 1966 35k mile Mk1 Cortina with a built x-flow from eastern pa (Reading) and was intending to sell my 1972 BMW 2002, but ended up keeping the 2002 and the Cortina. The 2002 is much more refined and performs much better over rough roads, but is very utilitarian and isn't nearly as fun to drive as the cortina. The seven blows them both out of the water in that regard, though. Looks like a great car that you can enjoy and improve over the years. Congrats! I have 3 cars with dual 40DCOE's in my garage and I can attest to @coffee break's point.

Hi Ted, Glad you're back in a seven! Steve Beck is a Caterham owner and also owns/operates Checkpoint automotive in LA. Steve was a founding member of the Shelby Club of LA and has worked on several original cobra's and GT350's. I've never had a car serviced by them, but Steve and the shop seem to be well-regarded.

Using a mirror - look under the thermostat housing for the casting numbers.

Happy to help however I can. I know Josh at RMC and have bought parts from him before. I've also bought parts from Rich Kamp and Bruce Beachman as well and haven't had any issues. I suggest you research and speak to each dealer to see who you're most comfortable working with. I was only noting that Josh has a customer in San Jose that I've never met. Great discussion in this thread. My 1963 Lotus Seven Street Car (120 horsepower) and heavily heat-cycled treaded race tires will lap Sonoma at 1:59 with an unskilled driver (myself), for reference. Another point of reference was most pre-1990 911's I was running with were 2:05+.

Not really sure you can buy a kit, but you should be able to piece one together from Burton/Dave Bean. You will probably have to buy/make custom lines. This thread is a good reference (BDR and x-flow should be essentially the same for a dry sump kit) To find used parts, you may want to try apexspeed.com. I would suspect that is a far bigger market for x-flow dry sumps there.

Hi Howard, I am in San Jose (Willow Glen), but I own a modified 1963 Lotus Seven and it probably won't be very representative of a 420/620. I'm happy to show you the car if you like. I'm aware of two other Caterhams in san jose: one a highly spec'd (R500ish) duratec of @Sean. The other is a SVT zetec powered car, but is not running right now. @KnifeySpoony I think has a 420R in the bay area, but I'm not sure where he's at. You may also want to try talking to Josh Robbins of rocky mountain Caterham. I believe he has at least one customer in San Jose. -Geoff

As far as I know, Atlas is just a name of the axle type. There is a lot more information here. There is also a Koln axle which is from the same era. I don't believe caterham ever used Koln or Atlas axles.

From what I understand, Blackline helical is a chinese copy of the quiafe "ATB". I have heard that the perform as expected. My only experience is a Quaife ATB on an Ford "english" axle. It works well on the street; low maintenance and noise, but I found it not aggressive enough for tight/twisty hillclimb-like roads for my driving style. If anyone happens to be in the market for an quaife ATB for an english axle, let me know!

I don't know what caterham used, but there may not be any valve guide seals. My pre-crossflow has bronze guides and runs without them. After several thousand miles, it does have similar problems with fouling and smoke on #4. It's getting time to have the head refreshed. Head gaskets, Guides and seals are not very expensive. Machine shop labor shouldn't be so bad either. While you're in there, you should have the rocker geometry looked at to ensure that there is minimal wear to the guide.

The photo of the cover @Nick OTeenposted is the same style that was on my race motor with roller rockers when I purchased my car. It is sold by burton: https://www.burtonpower.com/parts-by-category/engine-components/rocker-covers-engine-covers.html?appl_engine=Ford+Cross+Flow+(Kent) I think Ken at Mountune USA is also working on getting a period-looking valve cover, but not sure it's ready yet.

Most precrossflows in SCCA FP that I'm aware of are closer to 165-170.

From simple sevens: http://www.simplesevens.org/anglocanadian/angloParts.htm There were two factory approved constructors of the mild steel Series 2 and 3 chassis, Arch Motors, and Universal Radiator. Arch Motors preceded their chassis number with the letters A/M. Universal Radiator used the letter 'B' (possibly followed by an 'L' if the chassis was left hand drive) with four numerals for the chassis number. This letter/number combination was normally stamped on the angular steel bracket that held the front mounting of the master cylinder bracket. It should not be confused with the actual vehicle serial number (V.I.N.) such as SB XXXX or LSBXXXX. For what it's worth, My July 1963 Car (SB1762) has a B stamped infront of the frame number on the master cylinder mount. Here is my Lotus Components Plate. The only other person that knows the frame number is John Watson. I believe that the best way to preserve the integrity of these cars is to keep the frame number private so John can use it as verification.

Thank you, Bruce. I fancy yours too. Those Lucas 594 look much more period correct the standard Caterham taillights

Last I heard David Painter was no longer making the replacement Wingard 1055, but you should try the email in the link @11Budlite posted. They occasionally come up on ebay and go for $250+ for a nice set My S2 (and several other vintage race cars) had Lucas 549's until I changed them. They do look similar to the Wingard 1055, but they don't exactly fit the curvature of the rear wing/fender. This is relatively minor though. If you do buy Wingards - make sure to use the right bulbs in them. Several people try to use what "fits" which causes them to melt. I did fit a Lucas 594 (not to be confused with 549) as a 3rd brake light on my car as the Wingards are not very bright.

Why don't you take off the nose cone? It will give you a few inches of additional space. I don't see where he said he wasn't going to tie down the car on that trailer. There's lots of space through the spokes of those panasports to tie down the car using some proper straps.

Did that car previously have a single downdraft setup? It looks a lot like a car I had previously completed a PPI inspection on in Los Gatos, but it had a downdraft and the large circular filter stuck out of the bonnet. Great photos! Thanks for sharing. I really enjoy doing multi-marque rallies and the California central valley and coast offers some fantastic roads for an event like this. I previously ran the Faultline 500 in my seven which goes through the same area and it was miserable. It was 105F+ degrees in Parkfield. I'd rather drive in the cold any day (so long as it's not hail). I agree 17mpg is low. My old super sprint used to get 25mpg on the highway. One thing I've found is that DCOE's are always stinky, no matter how lean. Another downside of a wet sump with a crossflow is oil starvation; I found the best solution was a dry sump setup.