So, tell us a little about yourselves

[Source]

30 minutes ago, mrmustang said:

 

Yes, it was. Wasn't cheap to ship it to Vegas enclosed with the extra parts. That's for sure.

[Vovchandr]

4 hours ago, Source said:

( My lizard's name is Chapman).

 

Ok. That is fantastic. Kudos

[98 SuperSprint]

Hi all,

just acquired my first Seven actually my first Lotus (Caterham technically).

I had sold cars at Barber Bros. Lotus in Walnut Creek, CA in 1990 and was introduced to the brand selling new and classic cars.  Drove an assortment of Loti while there and attended a big convention held at Sears Point that year.

Fast forward to the present now living in Mooresville,NC and having owned over 60 cars and half dozen motorcycles find myself hanging out with an amazing group of car guys every week.  Well as luck would have it somebody in the group owns a Caterham and has been insisting that I drive it to validate his tinkering and getting car dialed in. I do, it is.

Weeks pass and he emails me asking if I’m interested in the car, I just respond with “seriously?” and leave it alone.

The following week I am out of town on business all week and return Friday afternoon my wife picks me up at the airport.  Usual husband wife conversation which for us includes “So what did you want to buy on Bring A Trailer this week, still looking at Super 7’s?”  Haha no I didn’t try to buy a car …

So we get home and I notice the garage door open as we turn up the driveway there’s the Caterham in the garage!

[SENC]

Excellent addition to the garage!  Welcome!

[kayentaskier]

Super Sprint,

So your wife bought the car for you, without telling you? If so, she is definitely a keeper.

 

My wife bought my first Caterham ( on #3 now) for me many years ago as a gift; it was ordered from the factory so no surprise factor. She's also a keeper after 46 years

Jim

[Croc]

9 hours ago, 98 SuperSprint said:

....there’s the Caterham in the garage!

 

Welcome to USA7s!  Not only is there a Caterham in the garage but as a gentleman of style and substance, you also have a Mustang GT350 residing in there.  Its good to get another Mustang enthusiast besides me on this forum.

[mrmustang]

Ah y7es, another Shelby/Mustang fanatic on board.

[98 SuperSprint]

Been a Shelby owner since ‘94.

That’s SFM6S251.

[Bit1]

Hi All,

 

I keep finding myself looking things up and watching for cars on your site so I figured it must be time to join.  A Seven is one of those cars I always wanted since highschool in the '70s, but I still have never owned one, though even back then my first car was an Austin Healy Sprite and the second a Sunbeam Tiger.  I finally got another long-term dream car, my Cobra (actually Superformance Mk III), almost two years ago and a few months ago thought I might buy a new Caterham from Hillbank, where I bought my Cobra, but found out that it currently isn't really possible to register a new one in the lovely state of CA.  I've been watching for one that has a CA SB100 registration already, preferably as new as possible and probably an SV being that I am 6' 2" 200 lbs.  A nice one sold on BaT today, but after quite a bit of consideration decided I really want a more recent build. 

 

I've always liked cars and have had a few fun ones in my past.  Currently in addition to the Cobra I have a 2018 Porsche 911 GT2RS, a 2008 Hemi-swapped Jeep Rubicon Unlimited and a 2018 F150 and then there is my wife's Macan S.  I honestly have too many hobbies (boat, fishing, cruising with my wife..) to need another car and really need to get rid of a coupe motorcycles and about 5 bicycles to make room in my garage anyway, but if there is a newer Caterham out there for sale with a CA SB100 registration, I doubt I will be able to resist.

 

Nice to meet you all,

 

Jim

 

 

Edited October 27, 2021 by Bit1
change inch to feet typo

[SENC]

Welcome Jim!

[The Fuselage]

Another first post.

 

I'm Larry, an Army-Retired recluse in the northeast corner of Vermont, where the driving season is too short.  I'd never owned a car when the Army sent me to Germany in the mid-60's. It was the golden era of motorsports and I was in the center of it.  I was smitten.  And there were no speed limits anywhere!  I cut my teeth on the old Nurburgring, where the track was narrow, there were no guardrails but nature's trees, and runoffs were not yet invented.  Same for Spa Francorchamps.  I started with a VW, quickly graduated to an XKE, and did post-graduate work in one of the first Porsche Targa's, serial no. 339. The experiences were priceless, to this day.  I was addicted.  That's the right word. I was addicted to the joy and exhilaration of pure driving---not racing, but just pure driving.

 

Fast forward to 2014.  I stumbled upon USA7's.  Bruce Beachman posted that he had a kit CSR 260 coming. I think that that was the last CSR 260 to reach the US. Long story short.  I took delivery of a Beachman Racing-built CSR 260 in June of 2016. Let me say this about Bruce.  If there are angels in the automotive world, Bruce has the largest wings and largest halo.

 

I have driven that magnificent engineering creation for five short seasons, the last of which just came to an end. This week I gave it a season-ending bath, changed the oil, and put it in the barn with 20,875 mile on the odometer.  All of those miles were accumulated on the twisty, turning roads of northeast Vermont that most folks just don't know about.

 

I sort of committed to surrendering my "spirited" driving when I reached the age of 80. That milestone is but months away.  If someone out there really, really wanted to experience that same joy that I have had, ney, thrill that I have had, I'd seriously consider passing both the torch and the car to him.

[JohnCh]

@The Fuselage great story!  If you decide to sell, I'm sure it would quickly find a good home, but perhaps you should think about it for another year.  Just to be certain  

 

-John

[Alaskossie]

@The Fuselage I envy you your "Seven-heaven" twisty Vermont roads (I went to college in New Hampshire, and fell in love with that corner of the country). I've been in Alaska since 1967, where the scenery is incomparable, but the paved roads are not tight enough (with few exceptions) to properly challenge a Seven.  The speeds that make our paved roads interesting are a lot higher than one would sanely choose to travel in a Seven.

 

i urge you to put off your "octogenarian resolution" to hand off the Seven to someone younger.  I'm only a year behind you 
(I'll be 79 in January), and I'm not ready to lean back in the rocker and put my feet up... i

[coffee break]

Only reason consider not driving a 7 is that you can't hoist you hinny out of it.

[Croc]

@The Fuselage Welcome to USA7s!  Thank you for sharing your story.  I love that part of Vermont.  In the late 1990s, I lived in Portland ME and every second week would have to spend a few days in the Burlington VT office - backroads all the way.  I would move up to that part of northern VT if it was not for needing to work near a major international airport.  

 

The CSR still lives and yours was not the last.  There have been at least 4 kits since 2016 - you can still order a CSR.  Its an off-list option that Bruce is very much aware of.  

 

May you keep on motoring - enthusiasm like yours needs a Caterham in your life.  

[The Fuselage]

On 11/3/2021 at 6:11 PM, JohnCh said:

@The Fuselage great story!  If you decide to sell, I'm sure it would quickly find a good home, but perhaps you should think about it for another year.  Just to be certain  

 

-John

JohnCh,

Let me first express my gratitude to you for your administration of this forum. I am indebted to you ( and Croc as an administrator also) for the contribution you have made to my happiness in retired life. Each day, since mid-2014, I read each and every post to this forum before breakfast. There is no better way to start one's day. 

 

However, I must mildly rebuke you for suggesting that I wait a year before deciding to sell.  This is a poorly disguised attempt to lure me into another year of ownership, after which you will renew your advice to wait a year before a final decision.  But I forgive you,  as I would do the very same thing if I were you.  I have since crammed a year's worth of thought into the matter in the past few days and am leaning toward selling.  But if I do decide to sell, I will express my appreciation to you and every single member of this forum by giving a significant discount to the asking price.

 

I have no idea what that asking price might be as I've not seen a CSR 260 for sale ever, period. I won't give it away, but might come close, as I know what give away means. I previously said that I obtained an early Porsche Targa, serial number 339.  In fact, I visited the factory in Stuttgart and saw it being build. ( I have a good story about that visit, for another time). In June of 2016 I was at the Porsche Parade, which is a very big deal for the faithful, in that very same Porsche.  I'd had it for 49 years.  The Parade was about 50 minutes from where I now live.  In the middle of that Parade week, my CSR 260 was delivered to my home and I drove home to receive it. Then returned to the Parade.

 

In 2017, following my first year with my CSR 260, I saw the light and in the 50th year of continuous ownership, I gave away that Porsche Targa (in pristine condition) to my little brother. It was dear to me and of incredible memories, like racing down the Masten Straight at Spa against Jochen Rindt in our Porsches on the eve of the F1 race that gave Dan Gurney his only F1 win. I cannot afford to give away my CSR 260, but would be way more than reasonable in price, whatever that might be.  

[The Fuselage]

On 11/3/2021 at 6:45 PM, Alaskossie said:

@The Fuselage I envy you your "Seven-heaven" twisty Vermont roads (I went to college in New Hampshire, and fell in love with that corner of the country). I've been in Alaska since 1967, where the scenery is incomparable, but the paved roads are not tight enough (with few exceptions) to properly challenge a Seven.  The speeds that make our paved roads interesting are a lot higher than one would sanely choose to travel in a Seven.

 

i urge you to put off your "octogenarian resolution" to hand off the Seven to someone younger.  I'm only a year behind you 
(I'll be 79 in January), and I'm not ready to lean back in the rocker and put my feet up... i

 

[The Fuselage]

Alaskossie, 

 

I have no intent of leaning back in the rocker and putting up my feet, for I am an addict. But I can go for methadone.  Over that past 5 years of driving my CSR 260, here are my stats.  I average 27 trips per year at 150 miles each time on my 150 mile "Targa Florio" lap. Zero traffic lights and I downshift for stop signs. Almost no traffic and even less Smokies.  Twenty seven is not a lot of fixes in a year. And six months of withdrawal is unpleasant. What if I traded 27 exhilarating "trips" for 365 days of enjoyable, if not ecstatic experience.  

 

I learned from experience (given the way I drive) that driving on wet roads is beckoning suicide. Thus I only drive on days on which the prospect of threatening clouds is absent.

 

Of limited means, I will rely on the proceeds of a CRS 260 sale to launch a follow on experience.  I am an addict.

[The Fuselage]

On 11/4/2021 at 6:34 AM, Croc said:

@The Fuselage Welcome to USA7s!  Thank you for sharing your story.  I love that part of Vermont.  In the late 1990s, I lived in Portland ME and every second week would have to spend a few days in the Burlington VT office - backroads all the way.  I would move up to that part of northern VT if it was not for needing to work near a major international airport.  

 

The CSR still lives and yours was not the last.  There have been at least 4 kits since 2016 - you can still order a CSR.  Its an off-list option that Bruce is very much aware of.  

 

May you keep on motoring - enthusiasm like yours needs a Caterham in your life.  

Croc,

My quintessential bumper sticker---CROC FOR PRESIDENT ( the Constitutional requirements notwithstanding).

 

Having read your posts over the many years, I have the greatest regard for,  not only your expertise in 7-matters, but your character as exhibited in your replies to the posts of others. So, it is with trepidation that I address your response above.  Yes, CSR's are available, but I spoke of CSR 260's.  To me that means not only the CSR chassis, but also the Cosworth 260 engine.

 

Having now disgraced myself in your regard, I seek your advice.  In so doing, I realize that I'm asking the fox to guard the chicken house, but what do you consider a fair market price for a CSR 260 with 20,875 miles of travel, all of which are on smooth paved rural roads at 3000 to 3200 rpm for 98% of its life, absolutely absent mechanical issues other than a sticky master brake cylinder that was replaced?

 

 

 

 

 

cSR 260

[Sean]

On 11/3/2021 at 5:57 PM, coffee break said:

Only reason consider not driving a 7 is that you can't hoist you hinny out of it.

 

Somebody tell Mr. Break about Skip Cannon's butt-winch!

 

edit -- Never mind... found it!

 

Edited November 9, 2021 by Sean