CaterhamSVT

About inspections in Massachusetts... If this is the first time the car is being registered (new build), you have two levels of inspections to worry about. First is a State Police inspection. You will need a receipt for each and every component of the car, in order to prove that no parts from stolen cars have been used in building your kit or custom car. Secondly you will have to bring the car (on a trailer) to a DMV Tech center for a technical inspection. You will have to show that your completed car exactly matches the design of a productiuon car in terms of emissions. They are going to be concerned about the N/V ratio, that is, the roadspeed versus RPM. Basically, unless you have a single donor kit, and you transplant the complete drivetrain (including all emissions devices and ECU) your going to be fighting an uphill battle. I spoke with a very helpful Inspector, and he admited that the rules and regulations are so obtuse, the Inspectors did not always understand the point or goal of some of the regulations. But the bottom line is this, the State will attempt to follow the Fed rules, and the completed car must match a configuration that has an EPA certificate. It is not practical to get a certificate for a single car, and there are no Fed inspectors to issue certificates for kit cars. If you don't match an existing EPA certificate, no VIN. This is the reason to go single donor in your building a new car in MA. This simplifies the State Police inspection (assuming you have title on the donor), as well as the DMV Tech inspection. On the other hand, once a car has been issued a VIN, say by another state, then registration is simply a matter of transfering an out of state car and generating the title. Then you go to your local inspection station and get a sticker, by whatever means. If your car has OBD2 and it will report ready, MIL off, and all monitors complete, your ready for the road.

Hello, I have a 2004 Caterham registered in Massachusetts. By far, the most practical way to get one of these cars registered and on the street is to buy an already registered car from another state. Then you simply fill out an inter-state transfer with the DMV. Your insuruance company will probably do this for you automatically. Then all you need to worry about is state inspection (not trival). Massachusetts will not register your car as a replica. The Factory Five crowd used this trick, but the DMV caught wind of it, and this is not a legal option at this point. There is a 'limited use' catagory, but this sets limits on how far you can drive per year, etc. Technically, there are also limits on the cars top speed also. This is not the way to go. My Caterham is registered as a 2004 Caterham, which is a listed make in Mass. If your building the car from scratch in MA, you should have some very detailed discussions with people who have been through this in MA before you commit to this. Buy a car that already has a state issued VIN number, then sweat over the inspection process. The Caterham VIN number will not do you any good in MA.

I have a Caterham SV with the wide track front suspension and Bilstein shocks, and I'm trying to understand the different suspension options available. I'm running the 16 inch tires and wheels. Caterham's web site lists several front and rear suspension options, but gives zero information on each one. Even basic information like spring rates, and the adjustability of the valving, etc. is completely absent. My car currently has low ground clearance under the sump, and the lower A frames actually slope upwards away from the chassis to the uprights. This is not ideal geometery, the A frames 'should' be parallel with the ground for best handeling. Is there a (good) reason the car is setup like this? My plan is to add the adjustable spring perch kit to my existing dampers, but the parts for this kit are backordered. I see other options exist, but I have not found any information to make an informed choice. Does anyone here understand the differences between the several different sets of coil overs available through Caterham, or from third party suppliers like Nitron? Also my car is currently setup with a fair amount of rear toe-in (1.5 degrees). This seems like a lot of toe-in for such a light car. What suspension setups do people reccomend for these cars in street, autocross, and road-race applications? A suspension setup FAQ would be a great asset.

Hello, Yes Skip, thats my car on the dyno. By the way, I have your sub-frame brace installed on my 2000 Miata. That car is set up with a BEGi Series II+ turbo, factory sport suspension & LSD, FM butterfly brace, single turbo exhaust and free flow cat, AEM air fuel meter, AEM alcohol injection, HardDog roll bar, GoodWin rotors, and Hawk HP pads. The BEGi fuel system allows me to make power and never worry about the CEL. All in all, its a very well ballanced car. Good enough that I don't miss the Elise when I'm driving it. Ok, about the SVT... Power curves, yes, there is a dip, a bit below 3000 RPM. Not as bad as it was with the stock tune. That dip is present on factory stock Focus SVT's. My exhaust system is unlike the SVT Focus, so I do not beleive that is the root cause. As for the oil cooler, Ford's SVT team installed the oil cooler for good reasons. Many Focus SVT drivers add an external oil cooler as well, as do some Caterham drivers with the 2.0 Zetec. Given that the SVT motor has a higher red-line, some form of oil cooling is a good thing. Also Ford uses a better oil filter, again, cheap insurance. In the Caterham, neither of these will clear the passanger side motor mount, and that is the only reason they are removed. I'm more thinking of being stuck in traffic than I am thinking about the track. So adding the oil cooler and remote filter brings the engine back to something closer to what the SVT team designed it to be, with the right oil filter. As far as the ECU work... This is still a work in progress. Once complete, Sevens & Elans will be able to offer an 'upgrade' to make the cars pass OBD2 inspection. There are at least two ways to acheive this. One 'sorta' works, and is fairly easy. The other is a little more work, but might be the 'right' way to go in the long run. Its also possible to do this with the Duratec, but it would envolve tossing the Caterham ECU and wiring harness. But you would have a 'legal' car.

The BRG STV is no longer at Sevens & Elans.:nopity: Its now parked in a garage, next to my Elise, and turbo Miata!:drool: After buying the car, it was trailered to Fastrack Automotive (and magically appeared on their Facebook page) for upgrades, while waiting for the road salt to clear. The car was also taken to SV Engineering for dyno tuning, and SV Engineering placed videos of the dyno runs on their Youtube channel. I've added a third brake light (for inspection). I discovered that Caterham's SVT engine installation deletes the factory oil to air heat exchanger, and uses a standard Zetec oil filter in place of the larger unit that is standard on the Focus SVT (all to clear the motor mount on the passanger side). This has been corrected by adding a remote oil filter kit, Caterham front mounted oil cooler, and thermostatic cooler bypass valve. Now I use the (larger) original Focus SVT filter. Adjustable spring perches are being added (backordered!) to raise the ride height slightly, as my lower control arms are not parallel with the ground, but slope upwards to the wheels, and I frankly need a little more ground clearance for the speed bumps in the parking lot at work. A lot of work has been done to make the ECU happy, so it will pass state OBD2 inspection. I warned my Wife, its loud, the ride is stiff, and just about every other thing I could imagine to try to keep her away from the car. Basically all the things I tried to tell her when I bought the HRM Special Elise. It didn't work. She loves riding in the car.:banghead: Thats the second time I've been totally disappointed by a Lotus design, in exactly the same way. Just over 750 miles on it now. Fastrack is having a Lotus suspension setup day on April 3rd, and the car will be making an appearance there, weather permitting.:driving: