Stang70Fastback Posted October 30 Share Posted October 30 (edited) Hello Everyone! Well it's only been a little over a year since I flew from Chicago to North Carolina to buy this car and drive it back, but in that time I've had a TON of fun driving my Caterham everywhere. I had originally intended to make it a permanent addition to my fleet, but even the best-laid plans change, and I'm now looking to rehome it as I move on to other endeavors. (For those wondering, I've been talking into giving the two-wheeled life a whirl for a bit.) The vehicle is located outside of Chicago, Illinois, and I am asking $39k. Everyone here should hopefully know the basics of Caterhams, so I'm not going to rehash the obvious stuff. What you may-or-may-not know are the details pertaining to the HPC Evolution specifically. So for the uninitiated, the HPC received the venerable Vauxhall C20XE, described by one of my friends who went for a ride as "the angriest-sounding four cylinder I've ever heard" (probably mostly due to the induction/cowl noise it makes.) The Evolution is a particularly rare option that bumped the already significant 175 HP up to 218 HP courtesy of Swindon Racing Engines. This particular example is in excellent shape. I actually have a number of blog posts that go into a silly amount of detail about this car (again part of my long-term plans to own it forever and document everything in the process.) There are three posts in particular that will furnish you with all you could ever want to know about this car, so if you are seriously interested, I HIGHLY recommend perusing all three (that's where all the photos are!) Post 1: My 1993 Caterham Super Seven HPC Evolution This is the blog post I wrote when I first purchased this car over a year ago. It describes the entire history of the car, some of which required some research to obtain, including reaching out to the archivist at Caterham, as well as other previous owners, but the result is a full and detailed history of the car's ownership from the very start, as well as a deeper description of the car itself, the meaning behind the HPC monitor, and what makes this an Evolution model in more detail. It also includes a ton of photos documenting the condition of the car at the time of purchase. Post 2: Winter Updates: '23 - '24 This post lists out the majority of the modifications/updates I made to the vehicle. This includes, essentially, refreshing the cockpit, as well as other cosmetic maintenance items to clean up the exterior, and fix a lot of things that had been less-cleanly done by previous owners. Note that this post excludes a handful of additional changes I made later in the season. Post 3: Overheating Issues... or Not TL;DR, the ENTIRE cooling system is brand new in this vehicle, and the vehicle is now over-cooled if anything, all as a result of a bad ground wire that resulted in my chasing an overheating issue that turned out to simply be a poorly-grounded temperature gauge. The net result, however, is that pretty much every single part of the cooling system is brand-spanking new. The vehicle comes with full weather gear (side doors and roof), as well as a compliment of spare parts including the heater, a cover, three pairs of spare springs (not sure of the spring rates), and various other knick-knacks. I do want to specifically point out the RuggedRadios setup mentioned in the second blog post (radio, control head, and two pairs of headsets) will also be included, which is a very expensive setup worth well over $1000. Happy to show you the car if interested, and happy to take you for a spin if the weather is cooperative. If you want to test drive the car yourself, we can discuss. On Facebook and everywhere else I mentioned a $1000 deposit merely to avoid joyrides from non-serious buyers, but I'll play it by ear here Feel free to ask questions, or point out something obvious that's missing! EDIT: Adding a few photos just to give a taste. Full catalog of photos are still contained within the linked blog posts above. Edited October 31 by Stang70Fastback Added some photos. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vovchandr Posted October 31 Share Posted October 31 (edited) Are you willing to entertain a trade on a a certain bike? There is a local with some high end bikes for sale who's looking for a Caterham. One of them is SB8k. Unlikely that this matches up but can't hurt to connect the two. Edited October 31 by Vovchandr 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stang70Fastback Posted October 31 Author Share Posted October 31 (edited) 3 hours ago, Vovchandr said: Are you willing to entertain a trade on a a certain bike? There is a local with some high end bikes for sale who's looking for a Caterham. One of them is SB8k. Unlikely that this matches up but can't hurt to connect the two. Dear god that is tempting. Especially given how much I love rare and unique things. However, as much as my new motorcycle addiction suggests otherwise, I do not actually have a death wish, and there is no scenario in which I buy something like that and don't immediately kill myself. I appreciate the offer though! I've kind of already picked out my first bike, which will be a new Kawasaki W800 (upon sale of the Caterham, lol.) I did show this to the friend who got into bikes a few months back, and who is the reason I'm now getting into bikes, and he would be pretty pissed/jealous if I took you up on that offer... which does make it tempting, lmao. Edited October 31 by Stang70Fastback 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
toldfield Posted October 31 Share Posted October 31 A man has got to know his limitations. Dirty Harry. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slowdude Posted Friday at 02:49 AM Share Posted Friday at 02:49 AM On 10/30/2024 at 10:03 PM, Stang70Fastback said: Dear god that is tempting. Especially given how much I love rare and unique things. However, as much as my new motorcycle addiction suggests otherwise, I do not actually have a death wish, and there is no scenario in which I buy something like that and don't immediately kill myself. I appreciate the offer though! I've kind of already picked out my first bike, which will be a new Kawasaki W800 (upon sale of the Caterham, lol.) I did show this to the friend who got into bikes a few months back, and who is the reason I'm now getting into bikes, and he would be pretty pissed/jealous if I took you up on that offer... which does make it tempting, lmao. As a rider of 15+ years, please get a bike with ABS. I don't care if it's a honda, kawi, ktm etc. If you have a family and are a new rider, airbag jacket + ABS are absolute bare minimum. If you thought you were invisible in a 7, the bike is 2x worse. Ride safe, train consistently, and realize that skimping on a bike or gear will have payoffs later. Japanese bikes are excellent reliability, but you'll need another 4k to make it a good bike. </rant> 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stang70Fastback Posted Friday at 04:41 AM Author Share Posted Friday at 04:41 AM 1 hour ago, slowdude said: As a rider of 15+ years, please get a bike with ABS. I don't care if it's a honda, kawi, ktm etc. If you have a family and are a new rider, airbag jacket + ABS are absolute bare minimum. If you thought you were invisible in a 7, the bike is 2x worse. Ride safe, train consistently, and realize that skimping on a bike or gear will have payoffs later. Japanese bikes are excellent reliability, but you'll need another 4k to make it a good bike. </rant> Oh, I agree entirely. The W800 is fun because it's very much an "old school" bike, not just in terms of style, but also construction. However, it has a handful of modern features including ABS, a slipper clutch, and adjustable clutch/brake levers. And yeah, I already bought motorcycle boots, pants with armor, gloves with armor, a leather jacket with armor, and an Arai helmet... all of which I intend to wear at all times 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slowdude Posted Friday at 12:33 PM Share Posted Friday at 12:33 PM 7 hours ago, Stang70Fastback said: Oh, I agree entirely. The W800 is fun because it's very much an "old school" bike, not just in terms of style, but also construction. However, it has a handful of modern features including ABS, a slipper clutch, and adjustable clutch/brake levers. And yeah, I already bought motorcycle boots, pants with armor, gloves with armor, a leather jacket with armor, and an Arai helmet... all of which I intend to wear at all times Absolutely. Was deep into the W650 at the time. Couldn't justify it based on a lack of an IMU + I'd need to do a new seat ($400) and new suspension (+$2,500). The upgradeitis is real on bikes. I don't want to do the math on my GSA. 😬 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greg Davall Posted Tuesday at 02:13 AM Share Posted Tuesday at 02:13 AM Hi, I tried to go thru all of the posts but couldn’t tell.. is the roll bar FIA track approved and does it have a Petty strut? i understand you removed the hand brake which is required for NH inspection— do you still have it? Thanks! FYI if you are into trick bikes you might check out Motion SBK modified Ducatis. Brad Miller can put together a world class race bike that is sort of street legal… I’ve owned a couple of them.. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stang70Fastback Posted Tuesday at 02:23 AM Author Share Posted Tuesday at 02:23 AM (edited) 33 minutes ago, Greg Davall said: Hi, I tried to go thru all of the posts but couldn’t tell.. is the roll bar FIA track approved and does it have a Petty strut? i understand you removed the hand brake which is required for NH inspection— do you still have it? Thanks! FYI if you are into trick bikes you might check out Motion SBK modified Ducatis. Brad Miller can put together a world class race bike that is sort of street legal… I’ve owned a couple of them.. No petty strut (that's the diagonal brace, right?) I doubt the roll bar is track approved. It's beefy, but I'd want a beefier one for track use with at least one diagonal. Still have all the handbrake components. Personally I'd still rather go out of my way to find a shop that would pass me without it than install it. It's just in such a dumb location. Unreachable by the driver without un-belting. Waste of knee/leg space for the passenger. But yes I kept it all so you could reinstall it if you wanted to. I just prefer to keep a set of chocks in the trunk for steeper parking situations, lol. Haha, I'm looking at more 60's style classic motorcycles (got my eye on the Kawasaki W800 specifically). Maybe down the road if I really get into it I'll pick up something a little racier... Edited Tuesday at 02:47 AM by Stang70Fastback Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Croc Posted Tuesday at 11:42 AM Share Posted Tuesday at 11:42 AM 9 hours ago, Stang70Fastback said: No petty strut (that's the diagonal brace, right?) I doubt the roll bar is track approved. It's beefy, but I'd want a beefier one for track use with at least one diagonal. Just to clarify, the roll cage on this car for sale is the basic standard Caterham one. I agree with you in that it is inadvisable to track the car with this roll bar. In the UK you would be excluded from certain track days with this roll bar (for example, C&L7C, Lotus on Track, RMA, etc.). Not the case in the USA but that does not mean you should do it. The upgrades for track use had (depending on the year for sale) one or two diagonals from top of one corner diagonally down to the base of the opposing shock tower. This provides additional lateral bracing in the event of a roll over. Back in the early 1990s this was sometimes known as an "FIA Rollbar" in the Caterham catalogs. I vaguely recall it was still allowed for racing in the UK Caterham series at that stage - something I find a little shocking given the comprehensive cages used today. I think you can still use that roll bar in the UK for certain UK hillclimbs and sprint competion events. A petty strut is different. The FIA roll bar was only technically compliant with FIA regs (at the time - we are early 1990s here) if a petty strut was fitted. It was a removable strut that ran from the roll bar forward into the passenger compartment chassis bar to provide additional reinforcing and driver space protection in a crash. A passenger could not use the seat (or th a Tillet had to be removed) if the petty strut was installed. In the photo below you can see the components. The petty strut is the long separate bar independent of the roll bar. You would bolt it in separately from the roll bar. Roll bar was a permanent installation but the petty strut could be added for a competition and removed afterwards for passengers. You can still buy roll bars with diagonals from Caterham for this car. Not a great photo from Brands Hatch, but the petty strut is the yellow bar running forward into the passenger space. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
11Budlite Posted Tuesday at 01:47 PM Share Posted Tuesday at 01:47 PM (edited) Not a great photo, but a little bigger anyway. FIA roll bar with petty strut. Edited Tuesday at 01:48 PM by 11Budlite 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stang70Fastback Posted Tuesday at 02:28 PM Author Share Posted Tuesday at 02:28 PM Ahhh thanks guys! That makes more sense. Nope. None of that here! Lol. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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