Another early caterham on ebay

[pierats]

here

 

What engine is that!?

 

PS: Nice horns! hehehe

[Al N.]

I can vouch for the dealer...Peter Sweeny, the proprietor, is a very reputable exotics (mostly V-8 Ferraris) guy up in our area. I'd buy a car from him (though perhaps not this particular one, too many odd details for my taste...like the double fuel filler)...

[locost7018]

Looks like a 2300 ford. But I'm no expert. It is definalty not a Kent xflow. Everything is on the wrong side. Russ

[stevet]

Is it the old Find Pinto 2.0?

[sparecr]

It does appear to be a Pinto 2.0 for a motor. The bonnet sure looks well odd, esp with two pieces. It does appear to be an early car but not 72 (Caterham did not sell a Series 3 kit until 74, which is the build year of my car). I would guess this kit is 78-79 era. Doesn't really matter and would decent registration year for those in emissions areas. Does has the orginal Maserati air horns. Not saying anything is wrong, but the hood bump sure hurts the styling.

[xflow7]

Also looks to me like the front suspension is modified with some kind of forward link for the upper control arm. Hard to see the details, but I'm not aware of Caterham offering anything other than the traditional top-link arrangement until sometime in the late 80's/early 90's.

 

Not necessarily a bad thing, but would be interesting to know the details of the modification.

[breezy7]

I think that is the front anti roll bar, it is just mounted in a different location than what is being used now. If you look close in runs through a block on the chassis and continues over to the right hand side of the car.

[xflow7]

Yeah, but there's also clearly a front A-arm pick up just above and outboard of the anti-roll bar block. As far as I am aware, Caterham did not introduce a top A-arm until several years into the DeDion chassis production. And the details of this installation look somewhat different from the version Caterham ultimately introduced, so I don't think it's a Caterham retrofit.

[breezy7]

Did a little research and Caterham introduced the upper A arm in 1989 according to the John Tipler book "Lotus and Caterham Seven". All the pictures I have show it mounted the same as it is now.

[Martin]

I'm surprised this guy doesn't have the right info on this car for sale. That really won't help his cause.

[RGTorque]

add says manual... but dont see a gear shifter??

[xflow7]

I'm surprised this guy doesn't have the right info on this car for sale. That really won't help his cause.

 

It's not that the information is wrong; just incomplete. By the sounds of it, the seller is not a Seven expert and just kind of "came into" this car.

[xflow7]

add says manual... but dont see a gear shifter??

 

That's a tricky one on early Caterhams. It's pretty much under the dashboard (you can see the shift boot stuck up under there in a couple of the shots). I believe this placed the shifter directly over the end of the tail-shaft on the old 4-speed gearboxes.

 

Later Caterhams with the Type 9 have the shifter in a amore sane location with that 'box's longer tail shaft. In the later chassis, 4-spd fitments got a linkage between the shifter and the tailshaft.

 

Edit: It's also possible this car has an even goofier arrangement given the somewhat non-standard drivetrain.