A Gathering of Colorado Sevens

[scannon]

The Se7en plate has been on that car for over two years while the car was being built. All the Alaska DMV required was a peace officer's VIN inspection to issue plates even though the car had never been in Alaska. It doesn't get any easier than that to register a new kit car.

 

After four days of warm Spring weather, it is raining this afternoon and the forecast is for 6 - 10" of snow in Denver by tomorrow evening.

 

The unidentified Seven in the second row belongs to Andy Aust whom I don't believe is on this forum.

[Alaskossie]

yellowss7,

 

Sorry for the late reply, I'm just now getting back to my computer at home in Alaska.

 

My car is a 2007 Caterham S3 ("classic") lhd with the older Arch chassis (not the "metric" chassis). The engine is a 250 hp Cosworth 2.3 Duratec with dry sump; transmission is he Caterham 6-speed; rear end ratio is 3.31:1. The wheels are 15-inch Caterhams with Avon CR500 tyres, with the wider 9.5-inch CSR rims on the rear (they do fit, despite what Caterham says!).

 

There were no particular physical fitment problems in putting this engine in this chassis; the dry sump tank is a Brise tank, fitting in front of the engine; this eliminates the need to chop[ off the passenger footwell.

 

The biggest unanticipated problem was that all lhd Caterham chassis shipped to the US through 2007 carry a wiring loom for a Zetec engine; the functions related to the Duratec and its engine management are so altered from the Zetec spec that without Nathan Down's knowledge and help (gained from years of working at Caterham in UK), I would have never figured it out for myself.

 

As it turned out, Nathan spent hours and hours stringing yards and yards of new wire into the loom, and he provided me with an 8-page summary of the wiring changes he had to make, in order to get the engine to mate with the chassis.

 

Skip is right that "upgrade-itis" captured me when I originally started assembling the Caterham kit in July of 2007; some of my mods (engine bay and tunnel insulation, for example) would have been impossible once the kit was built, without taking it apart again. But I'm very happy with the resulting Executive Superlight --even if it does weigh 1408 lb.

 

I can always diet.

 

Scannon, thanks for organizing the great Seven coming-out party last week -- let's do it again!