Croc

Anker is correct, to my mind. You could buy a new Caterham 420R for that money. I’m still confused what engine spec that car had? Inferred as a Cosworth but never got an answer to that question.

Nice video - good clean driving. Good to see someone who knows how to drive a Stalker and keep it on track. You also have a new track buddy in your area. Jeff H from NJ just moved himself and his Caterham to Louisville. He is looking forward to trying out NCM. He keeps trying to get some of us to visit. His profile ID on this forum is "JBH" if you want to ping him with a PM. He does not come on the forum much so if he does not respond, let me know and I will connect you via email.

Well done! Congratulations! Its great to see someone get out and live their dream! :hurray: Do you need wipers? Can you take the windscreen off and say it is an aeroscreen car? no wipers needed. Its a really lazy idea but saves time.

I don't want to turn my build thread into a safety discussion or an analysis of my ability to assess risks. I have had my share of serious impacts and roll overs and I have taken many lessons from that. In 10,000+ track miles in various Caterhams and a Lotus 7 over 35 years, I have only come close to rolling a seven once - last year. Rollovers are fairly rare in the seven world. Mike has pinpointed why I paused on the automatic cage decision that many people automatically made. I am not a fan of the Caterham cage. I do not think it is much if at all better than the standard roll bar with diagonals. I have seen what happens to both of them in roll overs in UK Caterham racing competition. The real danger point in these cars that Mike rightly points out is side impact and a cage does not solve that. I am exploring options around that idea but it is not ready for prime time and I don't share until I am ready to. Otherwise, I would have been sharing this build thread back in 2018 instead of only sharing it in October 2020. By the way, a Caterham is not the riskiest car I drive...

This weeks round up of ads NEW Birkin https://www.wirewheel.com/inventory/available/2015-birkin-s3-for-sale/ and here https://www.hemmings.com/classifieds/dealer/birkin/s3/2446544.html Caterham https://bringatrailer.com/listing/2014-lotus-caterham/ REPEATS Caterham http://britauto.com/portfolio-view/201216-nos-caterham-sv-roadsport/ Caterham http://britauto.com/portfolio-view/2000-caterham/ Westfield https://www.ebay.com/itm/1984-Westfield-7/254777406308?hash=item3b51eab364:g:dMoAAOSwKDVfA58n Stalker http://www.race-cars.com/carsales/lotus/1437589044/1437589044ss.htm Caterham http://www.beachmanracing.com/inventory Caterham http://rockymountaincaterham.com/inventory/ Mitsuoka https://www.duncanimports.com/vehicles/547/1994-mitsuoka-zero1-roadster Lotus 7 S2 https://thesmiekelcollection.com/1967-lotus-super-seven/ Lotus 7 S2 http://www.motorcarcompany.com/1963-lotus-seven-s2-1500-cosworth-2dr-roadster-for-sale-at-motor-car-company-in-california.html and here https://www.hemmings.com/classifieds/dealer/lotus/super-seven/2409828.html Caterham https://www.hemmings.com/classifieds/dealer/lotus/caterham/2416012.html Caterham https://www.hemmings.com/classifieds/cars-for-sale/caterham/unspecified/2439951.html Replica https://classiccars.com/listings/view/1382221/1979-lotus-seven-for-sale-in-arvada-colorado-80005 Wharton 7 https://classiccars.com/listings/view/1299993/1978-lotus-seven-for-sale-in-cadillac-michigan-49601 Caterham https://charleston.craigslist.org/cto/d/charleston-lotus-caterham-seven/7225779452.html Birkin https://phoenix.craigslist.org/evl/ctd/d/mesa-1990-birkin-s3-seven-sprint-lotus/7217260943.html Diva 7 https://phoenix.craigslist.org/nph/cto/d/prescott-diva-roadster-1962-lotus/7215614057.html Birkin https://fortcollins.craigslist.org/cto/d/fort-collins-birkin-s3-super-lotus/7219759246.html Stalker https://indianapolis.craigslist.org/cto/d/carmel-1962-lotus-super/7215599701.html CANADA Replica project https://www.kijiji.ca/v-cars-trucks/chatham-kent/lotus-7/1532626254 MCC 7 project https://www.kijiji.ca/v-classic-cars/mississauga-peel-region/mcc-7/1432118799 Replica project https://www.kijiji.ca/v-other-auto-parts-and-accessories/st-catharines/vintage-race-car-frame-lotus-super-7/1525500819

Catzilla is already the name of a very fast R500 in PNW area. Could not use it again! :seeya:

Chasing intermittent electrical glitches can be frustrating. If it is not stopping you from driving then you just keep monitoring I suppose.

My personal view is that the Simpson Hybrid harness is better than HANS in a seven and thats what I use. It does not need the Caterham belt mount locations modified plus it moves easier from car to car with less issues and it is less bulky for travel. Those considerations are important for me given I drive multiple cars and travel internationally.

Just realized I never responded to a bunch of comments on this thread. No chance on the invoice crown. The orange car was at least another 50% more. I am not in the range of beating that. Hi Rahul - hope you are well? I did consider RST, Hartley and the Synergy V8s. RST produce the 2.4L v8 with 500hp as originally developed for the Caterham Levante http://www.rsperformance.co.uk/ Hartley produce a variety of engines with the headline being a 2.5L to 3.3L V8 with 420-500+hp. The owner of the business installed one in his Caterham https://www.h1v8.com/maxi-v8---specs.html Synergy have a 2L-3L V8 with 400-500+hp https://www.synergypower.co.nz/ Not sure Hartley are producing much these days - never got an answer to my phone calls. I also considered a Millington inline 4 engine. 2L to 2.8L and up to 370hp in an inline 4 package. https://www.millingtonengines.co.uk/new-engines/ With the v8s, they are highly strung, quite difficult to put the entire package together in a bespoke build like this, marrying up to the constraints of a Caterham wiring harness and driveline size/packaging limitations. Then you have the refresh cycle. These engines would require a rebuild at fairly frequent intervals with heavy track usage. Not sure on the Hartley but the Synergy and RST were looking at every 2-3000 miles. The Millington is a more robust package but even so. I went to the workshop to see them being built and find out how easily the engines operate. The Millingtons have a very precise warm up and cool down process and maintenance cycle. Similar for refresh. RST, Synergy and Millington are based internationally - how difficult would it be to refresh locally or do I need to ship back to maker. Most were saying ship it back to them. Importing a non-EPA production approved engine into the US is difficult at the best of time. Then you have to consider that the most hp you can use in a seven is limited by its light weight and ability to put the power down. I have always thought that limit is around 330-350hp in practice. So knowing that, it was fairly easy to go the 2.5L duratec route. They have builds up to 290hp these days. I can get it refreshed locally in country. Its a simple robust package. Refresh life was the longest of the lot. It was far cheaper. Had less issues fitting into a Caterham package - just bolts in. It was a relatively simple decision to spec a hp that allowed a long refresh life but hit a target that was high. No brainer decision at the end of the day. More than that. The diff has a proper cage. Caterham has improved the chassis since mine. I will also go to the standard dash as that allows the customization with an integrated digital screen and switchgear that will improve operation. Peak power is a LOT more. Up from around 270hp to 330hp - about 25% more. Torque is substantially up - final figures to be determined with final tune and it is fat across the rev range. It is dry sumped - Titan or Tilton from memory. With full tanks it should be in the 1350-1400lb territory, no driver. Have not got that far yet. Its yet to be assembled, put toegther and run. Lots of stuff left to happen. Thats last thing after the 3M film. Thanks for the kind offer Sean. This a little different. We have a Caterham wiring loom to mate with a MBE 9A9 ECU (not the Caterham MBE 9A4). Its a full motorsport/production level ECU. It has working OBDII. So a lot more channels requiring additional wiring harness additions. The pin out/in are known so thats not a problem. We just need a robust wiring harness connector that will take all the additional pins needed for the extra wiring channels. ST Motorsport in the UK seems to have them. Its definitely a roller (or as you call it, glider) as you see it in the factory photos. No gearbox. No engine. Thats the only legal way it can be imported into the USA. I think it had a diff but that was replaced by the Tracsport one later. Things are just stuck together for shipping. Not sure how how its done as I never saw it that way. The original US import approach for Caterham was CKD kits. Then they moved to rollers without drive train. I believe thats how they supply to other countries as well. Caterham has to be happy with that approach as its their only way to sell into the US market. Importing complete cars brings with it the requirement for full DOT/NHSTA compliance (air bags, crash testing, etc) - so thats a non-starter. The kit/roller approach keeps it low volume and allows Caterham to still participate in the market. I am not sure Caterham will supply the CSR as a kit or roller in the UK? There is definitely resistance there that means its an off-catalog purchase for the USA. However, it is the only thing homologated in Switzerland or Australia as I understand it so they have to keep offering for those markets. Not sure I have the answers. Forged. I learned from your expensive experiences. I also plan to keep the revs to 7500 or less. Don't need to go any higher in the rev range anyway - better to change to maxmize the torque curve.

Yes that is your ECU and that ECU is not your usual one you find in a Caterham. It comes from a 2005-2009 era Lotus Elise or Exige. A previous owner has gone to a lot of work to make this switch - thats not your normal ECU replacement. It was the ECU on a 1.8L Toyota engine. Not familiar how easily modifiable these are for tuning but I guess it can be easily custom mapped? Other Elise/Exige owners on here can chime in. Someone did something pretty special on this build. Are you the first owner? Did you need OBDII to pass NM emissions? I think this was an early Hillbank car from recollection? The best Lotus specific error code list I could find is here: https://www.lotustalk.com/threads/comprehensive-obdii-list-elise-exige.281258/ or here http://gglotus.org/ggtech/elise-obd/elise-obd.htm But that is only part of the error codes. You also have generic error codes which is what P025a is. Still does not tell me if that error code is valid since we do not know if the previous owner wired the Caterham fuel pump control module it into the ECU? But in addition to trying to replicate the stalling problem by test driving it, there is also something you can check: Lets assume the code is valid - I then suspect you have a loose wire to the fuel pump module which is intermittently stalling you. Thats more likely than the fuel pump module itself failing - although it is still possible. I would locate the fuel pump module - should be somewhere near the fuel pump. Assuming this is still standard Caterham then the fuel pump is a drop in type (fully immersed in tank) - so somewhere around the fuel tank. You will have to remove the boot floor to see it or come up from underneath. It looks like this: https://caterhamparts.co.uk/pumps-senders/5336-fuel-pump-module-seven-485.html Check the wiring from it forward into the loom for evidence of loose connection or fraying that would break the connection. Inspect the module for evidence of failure. You could take the chance and replace it if you want.

There is an anti-profanity filter on this site? Edited to add: Look at that - it works! :bs: Now removed the offending text to avoid upsetting our Puritans. Always wanted to use that emoticon. :rofl: Thank you to John for his tireless work with a buggy website! :seeya:

I have to admit I am puzzled you are getting OBDII read out. Maybe finding and telling us what ECU brand/model you have please? Usually somewhere near the battery or failing that in the passenger footwell. At least that will tell me if you can take the readout code seriously or not which may make the problem solve simpler. I would do a test drive around your neighborhood to determine how/when the engine is cutting out - both in cold and warm engine states. Is it clutch related or throttle related? Can you dip the clutch and blip throttle and not have it cut out? Does it change when you down change gears versus up change? Are the brakes being used or not. Whats the maximum speed the cut out seems to stop happening at? Try a variety of things - the more view of the symptoms we have the better chance we have of seeing a pattern and determining likely causes.

Can I clarify please - where is the code showing? The standard Caterham MBE ECU on a Duratec is not OBDII unless it was upgraded from standard so I would not normally expect a reader to see a code. The readers just do not read the ECU. Is it appearing on the dash electronic readout or are you getting it off plugging the ECU into the laptop and looking at it on Easimap app? If you are getting it off an OBDII reader then I would be wary of the readout. On my ex-2004 zetec Cat with the Ford Oak ECU, I did get OBDII readout but I also had a bunch of faults around fuel tank, fuel pump, transmission, etc simply because the original Ford Focus ones had been replaced by Caterham pieces. You could be getting one of those false echo faults. P025a can mean a bunch of faults depending on the car manufacturer: - transmission - usually auto which obviously is not the case for you! - fuel pump module as you point out - 02 sensor failure - catalytic converter Can I also clarify one extra thing - you say it dies when you kick it into neutral. Is it because you came off the throttle or is it just because you selected neutral on the gearbox. I think you mean the former? Sounds more like a throttle position sensor or something with the fuel/air mix at idle is my initial reaction.

I know you are here lurking - thats why its so fun to troll you! :seeya:

Nothing. You can go to lunch directly from the hairdressers.

Yes - it reminded me of what I do to my tires on NJMP Lightning Circuit and that only has a 15 deg banking although you scrub more as it is tighter. I would not change set up for just one track day. Your Caterham clearly handles well at Barber based on the video and I guess you are at regular circuits pretty regularly while Daytona might be once or twice a year. On balance I would live with it if I were you. Just accept you will get faster wear. I just rotate the tires side to side to balance out the wear.

Good morning! Were you trying to link to your website? Have a linky on me. https://www.timemachineauto.com/caterham-videos.html

Caterham on Bringatrailer https://bringatrailer.com/listing/2014-lotus-caterham/

There is a rule that says you get what you pay for, so I am not surprised. Would have been entertaining to watch. :rofl: Maybe they will work better for trips to the hairdresser, grocery shopping or to see ladies for lunch? Somehow I don't think you do these things....

Oooh its back for sale. It had pending on the ad last weekend so I guess someone got chicken and pulled out. Mitsuoka are a small Japanese car company famous for some questionable looks. They are based on Mitsubishi models for the most part with the odd Toyota piece creeping in. The handling and performance dynamics will be pretty mediocre. Probably designed for ladies who lunch. The looks have not changed from the models offered back in the early 2000s when I lived in Tokyo. Some of their other models: The Rock Star The Himiko - which looks like a Morgan but probably will rust instead of be eaten by termites The Galue. The photo shows off some inartful photoshopping as the car would be underwater if it was there in real life. Its a LHD model with some wonderful front end jowls. I think it would suit Panamericano for a daily driver in Texas. Then there is the Viewt. A cute little 60s Jaguar look. The rear end styling looks like someone downsized Kim Kardashian's ass. The Mitsuoka Zero seven is by contrast a great looking car. Probably the best build quality of any seven ever. Sadly they do not make it any more. Wonder how hard it would be to get parts for it.

I think the banking did eat up the right hand side. Smooth edge grain plus extra right hand side wear on both is indicative of scrub which is what I was expecting to see. Reverse them over and you may even get 2 more days out of them!

Was xcarguy driving? :rofl:

Oh and I also forgot to ask, what was tire wear like at the end of the event. Curious how the banking impacted it.

That was great driving by sf4018. He really showed why it is a special track experience. The plastic tube in the accelerator trick does not work. Tried and failed that one myself! :rofl: The Daytona track has been on my wish list ever since I visited the Historics event there. Its spectacular. The problem is that its at least a 16 hour drive and if I go then I would want to take the Caterham and the BMW CSL. I want to replicate the 1978 photo on the banking - that was the goal I set in 2015 to signify the end of the restoration. Assuming all the winter projects play out as I hope then 2021 may be a go since there will be no international travel in 2021 until late in the year (at the earliest).

NEW Stalker https://bringatrailer.com/listing/2005-brunton-stalker/ Caterham https://charleston.craigslist.org/cto/d/charleston-lotus-caterham-seven/7225779452.html REPEATS Stalker http://www.race-cars.com/carsales/lotus/1437589044/1437589044ss.htm Stalker https://www.ebay.com/itm/1965-Replica-Kit-Makes-Brunton-Stalker/303721304918?hash=item46b7335356:g:FwsAAOSw4dxeD8lq Westfield https://www.ebay.com/itm/1984-Westfield-7/254744837866?hash=item3b4ff9beea:g:dMoAAOSwKDVfA58n Lotus 7 S2 http://www.motorcarcompany.com/1963-lotus-seven-s2-1500-cosworth-2dr-roadster-for-sale-at-motor-car-company-in-california.html and here https://www.hemmings.com/classifieds/dealer/lotus/super-seven/2409828.html Caterham http://rockymountaincaterham.com/inventory/ Caterham http://www.beachmanracing.com/inventory Caterham http://britauto.com/portfolio-view/2000-caterham/ Caterham http://britauto.com/portfolio-view/201216-nos-caterham-sv-roadsport/ Caterham https://www.hemmings.com/classifieds/cars-for-sale/caterham/unspecified/2439951.html Caterham https://www.hemmings.com/classifieds/dealer/lotus/caterham/2416012.html Lotus 7 S2 https://thesmiekelcollection.com/1967-lotus-super-seven/ Replica https://classiccars.com/listings/view/1382221/1979-lotus-seven-for-sale-in-arvada-colorado-80005 Wharton 7 https://classiccars.com/listings/view/1299993/1978-lotus-seven-for-sale-in-cadillac-michigan-49601 Birkin https://fortcollins.craigslist.org/cto/d/fort-collins-birkin-s3-super-lotus/7219759246.html Birkin https://phoenix.craigslist.org/evl/ctd/d/mesa-1990-birkin-s3-seven-sprint-lotus/7217260943.html Diva 7 https://phoenix.craigslist.org/nph/cto/d/prescott-diva-roadster-1962-lotus/7215614057.html Stalker https://indianapolis.craigslist.org/cto/d/carmel-1962-lotus-super/7215599701.html CANADA Champion chassis project https://www.kijiji.ca/v-other-auto-parts-and-accessories/peterborough/lotus-7-replica-parts/1533221093 Replica project https://www.kijiji.ca/v-cars-trucks/chatham-kent/lotus-7/1532626254 MCC 7 project https://www.kijiji.ca/v-classic-cars/mississauga-peel-region/mcc-7/1432118799 Replica project https://www.kijiji.ca/v-other-auto-parts-and-accessories/st-catharines/vintage-race-car-frame-lotus-super-7/1525500819