So, tell us a little about yourselves

[Vovchandr]

4 hours ago, Croc said:

 

I do like your style....I really do...  

 

We have a single car garage at the house. 

 

Or as I like to call it. 7 + 2 bikes 

[Croc]

3 hours ago, TheKid9 said:

I have tried to get in contact with this owner/seller as I do see a windshield in the pictures and other parts but had no luck.

 

 

The trick with reaching a seller after auction or actually anyone on Bringatrailer is to find an auction where they commented and simply add a post to the end with a @NAME  [swap in their profile name] and say you are trying to make contact and provide your email.   Most users have it set to get an email if they get an attribution in a Bringatrailer post.  It may just work this time for you.  

[DemoDan]

Another new guy here. Do you know this car?
My brother in law passed away last summer and I have had the good fortune to inherit his Birkin S3. He was another 'Dan' from Sebastopol Ca. and could have been a member here or in similar clubs. The car was built by Birkinsport (ser#000002) in Vacaville CA and I've been trying to learn more about that company and this car's history.
It appears that the car has not been driven in a few years but only needed a new battery and fresh gas to get running again. I've adjusted the pedals to almost fit my feet and found the defective brake light switch down by the differential, weird. There are 19.5k miles on the odometer and I've added only about 50 so far. I've made great strides in completing the title transfer by securing an appointment for a State Patrol VIN inspection the first week June. I'll probably get a trip permit or two if I can't resist taking it out of the neighborhood for a spin before then. Mt Rainier is looking better and better every day!
I'm another old Dan and have lived it the Tacoma area since the 70's. Boeing machinist until Y2k then CDL towing and automobile transport for over a decade, now driving a dump truck for a small family owned construction company. I haven't built a kit car or bought a turnkey or had such a fun toy but I used to build and race hobby class and demolition derby until they closed my local track back in the day. It's been a little while and I look forward to that sort of fun again!

I truly hope to meet some of you and I'm excited to be here right now! 

 

[JohnCh]

Welcome to the forum and se7en ownership!  I'm sorry to hear about your brother-in-law but it's great to know his car is staying in the family.  Woody Harris was the Birkin dealer in Vacaville.  I haven't connected with him in over 10 years, but I do have an email address that might still work if you want to get in touch with him.

 

-John

[chronoso]

Hi all, I just won an auction over on BaT to finally have a Seven of my own and figured I'd say hi.  The Seven will join a family of carbureted, fuel injected, and fully electric machines, each slightly less "practical" than the last.  Thank heavens for a patient and understanding wife

 

Looking forward to bringing the little car to the greater Boston area real soon. Not super looking forward to what registration and inspection will be like, but I'm sure it'll be an adventure.

 

-James

[JohnCh]

Congrats on the purchase and glad to see you understand the importance of decreasing practicality in the garage.  It's surprising how many people have trouble grasping that concept 

 

-John

[Tperthame]

Hi everyone, 

 

I’m Thibault, I’m living in Montreal and for a few years now I have been thinking of importing a caterham from somewhere in Europe (probably from UK or from France). I thought that was a good place to get some info and hopefully share some owner experiences in the future

[DanM]

8 minutes ago, Tperthame said:

Hi everyone, 

 

I’m Thibault, I’m living in Montreal and for a few years now I have been thinking of importing a caterham from somewhere in Europe (probably from UK or from France). I thought that was a good place to get some info and hopefully share some owner experiences in the future

Hey Thibault,

 

Im in Ottawa and in the process of importing a Westfield kit from the UK.  Happy to chat with you about my experiences so far. I went the Westfield route because I want to build the car and Caterham didn’t seem to offer a Canada import compliant kit.

 

Dan

[jzleach]

Hi everyone, I'm a new forum member in Maryland. Although I don't own a Caterham, I did have the opportunity to drive one last weekend and I'm hooked. I will be in the market for one sometime in the near future.

 

My goals will be street legal with the occasional Auto-X or Track Day.

[JohnCh]

Welcome @jzleach!  Are you planning a new build or a pre-owned Caterham?  If the latter, there are a couple of nice cars currently listed in the for sale section and if you haven't seen it, @Croc updates the thread below each weekend with cars listed elsewhere.  

 

-John

 

[Croc]

Welcome @jzleach  You are in a great location for the se7ening community - lots of people with se7ens around where you are.  

 

 

[Tgarr]

Howdy from the Pacific Northwest; just here to lurk and gather info at the moment.  Hopefully purchasing in a year or so.

 

One thing I'm hoping I can get some insight into is: Why do Caterham's appear to hold their value better than the other brands (Westfield, Brunton, etc)?  Is the build quality better?  Kit more complete?  Or is it largely brand recognition / heritage?  

[JohnCh]

I can share my opinion as someone who has owned Westfields for 20 years and who recently put down a deposit on a new Caterham.  I think there are a few things at play.  Westfield, for reasons I've never quite understood, has never gained a strong foothold in the US.  Elsewhere that's not the case.  According to Westfield they've sold 13k cars since '83, which isn't too far behind Caterham.  If you visit both the Caterham and Westfield club forums in the UK, you will see the latter has a very substantial and active user base, and like Caterham, has had a race series for many, many years.  In the US, there are very few of us.  Fewer cars means less awareness and brand enthusiasm, which in turn impacts resale value.

 

Westfield does place more of the onus for quality on the builder than does Caterham, which also plays into resale value, however, I'm not sure that is a big percentage hit on cars in the UK.  Yes, a used Westfield is less expensive there than a similar spec Caterham, but so too is a new one.  Regarding build quality, I've seen some Westfields that were noticeably inferior to a Caterham, and others that were their equal.  Lastly, higher spec, well-built Westfields rarely come up for sale here.  Most of them seem to come from the mid to late '90s, and build quality back then was more...variable.  My initial car was built by the US distributor at that time for magazine tests (he liked to build the cars), and let's just say I was not impressed; magic marker cut marks were visible on the body, interior panels weren't installed as per the build manual, alignment was not done well, etc.  My current car is at a completely different level, but as some here can attest, I'm anal and picky  

 

-John

 

 

[Tgarr]

Thanks for the insight!

[jzleach]

Thanks @JohnChI haven't decided yet if I want to build you buy one already completed. I've seen a few nice cars for sale and I just found @Croc's list. That's a great resource.

 

I probably won't do anything until maybe this Fall. I'm in the midst of starting a 40'x28' garage and that needs to get completed first before I spend more $$$.

[SENC]

2 hours ago, jzleach said:

I probably won't do anything until maybe this Fall. I'm in the midst of starting a 40'x28' garage and that needs to get completed first before I spend more $$$.

Restraint.  I remember that, vaguely.  Not generally seen amongst Seven owners.  You might rethink your decision now, while there is still time.

 

Otherwise, welcome to the roller coaster (the old school pre-Nader kind), you'll have more fun than you thought possible on four wheels!

[924s]

15 hours ago, Tgarr said:

Howdy from the Pacific Northwest; just here to lurk and gather info at the moment.  Hopefully purchasing in a year or so.

 

One thing I'm hoping I can get some insight into is: Why do Caterham's appear to hold their value better than the other brands (Westfield, Brunton, etc)?  Is the build quality better?  Kit more complete?  Or is it largely brand recognition / heritage?  

I did quite a bit of research before i bought a replica/clone 7.  What I found is Lotus super 7's (made by Lotus) are usually the most expensive, they only made 2500, out of those the series 4 was often the lowest priced because they are not liked as much. Caterham's are the only legal continuation of the Lotus 7, they paid for the rights to the design, but they do not use the name Lotus, they are the second highest priced below usually the real Lotus 7 by Lotus.  (I don't know if Lotus sued clone makers, Catarham did sue clone/replica makers). All the rest of the super 7's are replicas/clones, they are usually lower priced then the Lotus or Caterham 7, maybe because they are replicas. It might partly be supply and demand, 2500 Lotus 7's, 14,000? Caterhams, 8000? Duttons, 13,000 Westfields, plus another 150 companies built 7 replicas, who knows how big that number is.  In some cases the replicas might do 80% of what the Lotus or Caterham 7 does and maybe in some cases the quality is similar. There is some high quality 7 replicas in Europe like HKT, I don't know how quickly they depreciate, another one is the Donkervoort (a 7 replica) they are a very expensive car around $150,000 to $300,000. 

[panamericano]

As a bit of clarification (aka 2 bits).  Caterham has sued just abut all accurate replica makers.  Too bad Ford did not take such care of the Cobra.  The only case they lost was against Birkin.  As I  read the case, there are some interesting points.  The original contract from Lotus to Caterham was for continuing Seven production (the Series 4), and for supplying parts for all previous models (S1,2,3).  At the official introduction of the Birkin, the entire Lotus Formula One team and Chapman family were in attendance.  The Birkins were sold in S.A. through authorized Lotus dealers.  Of course, the case was before a South African court, which may explain the absence of Birkin in G.B.  

 

Not to PO my Cat brethren, but I find the Birkin to be an excellent Seven.  

[924s]

I couldn't find info on Lotus suing over 7 copies. Did Lotus sue over Elan copies?  Colin Chapman's son said they shouldn't have stopped production of the Elan, Lotus sold 16,000, Mazda sold over a million copies (the Miata).  

 in the 1960s, Toyota wanted to show that it was a player on the world automotive scene and they introduced the 2000GT

Under the 2000GTs skin, though, the car is a near copy of the Elan’s chassis.

There is no question that the Elan’s backbone frame, Chapman strut rear suspension, and general layout was copied by the 2000GT. Other than the two extra engine cylinders, the two cars’ chassis look almost identical.

the Mazda Miata was an Lotus Elan copy.

Tom Matano and the other Mazda designers involved with the first Miata used the Elan as a design brief is common knowledge. someone  had the opportunity to ask Matano how it felt to be “the most successful sports car designer ever”.

Matano told me that because the Miata was based on the Elan, he was actually prouder of the last RX-7, which was a clean sheet design.

[UglyFast]

Hey y'all. J here. Just ordered a '22 420R SV via Bruce@BeachmanRacing.  Very good experience so far. Bruce knows his stuff. I should be bombing around some mountain curves by late spring 2022.  Catch me if you can lol.

 

Prolly gonna IG/Twitter this thing @uglyfast, of that's a thing y'all care about.

 

We shall see.

 

Very, very amped to finally get a 7.  Should have done it a decade ago. Truly.

 

Also kinda seeking a nice FJ60 or 62. Need a family hauler with some flavor.

 

At any rate, nice to "meet" y'all all, and I look forward to learning everything I can here and inn the real world from y'all rascals. I'm in the Upstate of South Carolina, just across the state line from Asheville, NC. Come on down. Plenty mountain roads for us all.

 

The garage is currently stuffed with the following:

 

•  1976 BMW 2002 racecar rustomod (badass, unique thing, mayyyybe for sale soon)

•  1977 Toyota Land Cruiser on Durty5's with a 1974 1F motor with bad bearings (patiently waiting on a Mosley Motors HiPo 4.4)

•  2006 MINI Cooper S convertible (quick lil thing, for sale soon)

•  2008 Toyota FJ Cruiser on Durty5's

•  Brand New big Honda Something Something SUV (wifes car, fancy, practical, boring zzzzzzz, sorry I fell asleep on the gluten free leather seats)

 

I also mess around with drones and kayaks. This makes me sound like a pretty one dimensional guy only interested in internet-Car-ing, but I know I have other, real world hobbies, just can't think of them now. I promise I'm a full fledged, witty, interesting, well rounded person. Just ask my Mom!

 

J.