New "Smithology" you'll like

[I B Sevener]

Sam Smith has just posted a new piece about Sevens in his latest Smithology column for Hagerty. I think it is a wonderful take on Sevens, sevening and the spirit of the Seven...worth a read: https://www.hagerty.com/media/opinion/smithology/smithology-im-building-another-caterham-would-you-like-to-know-more/

[SENC]

Great stuff, Ross, thanks for sharing!

Henry

[papak]

Pretty accurate article.

[11Budlite]

Cool, thanks for sharing Ross!

[Taber10]

I agree, very good--even fantastic!-article on the Seven. 

I am not a writer--never will be, so while I am not at all qualified to comment on this great article, I would still like to expand on two points:

 

First, the article makes it sound like the engine comes in a crate along with the crate containing the body.  I know Federal Law has changed and is changing, but in many States, esp. Florida, the engine MUST be procured entirely separately from some other major, serialized, component, usually the chassis/body.  State laws may someday update to mirror the 2013 Federal change, but until then, someone may be misled by this article to think they could buy all components in one shipment, from one source, etc.

 

Second, the article doesn't address the myriad of reasons for relatively low mileage on some Sevens, other than the owner bought the wrong car/wrong model of the car.  I was once asked at an event, if I ever drove my Cat7SV.  I enthusiastically replied, "Sure, all the time!"  The questioner was particularly accusatory, and pointed out that the ten year old 7 had (then) only 16,000 miles.  Well, I mentally went through the hot summer months in Florida with a heat-generating 7; the year leading up to, during and after hip replacement surgery; the fact that I was still WORKING--including months-long stints overseas then, and my (and wife's) other SIX vehicles, four of them convertible sportscars.  Sure, the Cat has LOW mileage by some measures, but I never felt that I bought the wrong car/model back in 2007 when I put it on order.

 

Again, GREAT article that any Se7ener would enjoy reading.

 

Taber

[Vovchandr]

Great article. I think it should be linked to the "Looking for a 7" article section of the site.

 

With that said..

 

Quote

“Seven people” have a saying for those moments of marque-specific quirk: “It’s part of the charm.”

 

This might have to be added to my lexicon. 

[Mark IV]

He is incorrect saying a Caterham is only available as a "kit" in the US. You can get a factory built "rolling chassis" that only requires the powertrain to be installed. We handle the Federal requirement of the powertrain being sourced from a third party by having an unrelated company import and sell the powertrain to our customer. In the Cobra world some dealers have tried to use a another entity that they also own to do this and I know that California has caught one and refused to register the car causing the dealer to have to repurchase the car from the customer.

[Kitcat]

M IV: I didn't know about the rolling chassis option. What does it cost and how does it compare in quality to builds your team does? And, you describe importing your engines. Is there a option to use domestically sourced Duratecs (which are plentiful) as well? Or, are these imported Duratecs and Sigmas Caterham-specific engines mfg in Great Britain?