Installing SLR Cage Fitting to S3 Imperial Chassic

[Monte Busa]

Greetings all. I am finally getting started on outfitting my relatively newly purchased 7 for track day duty as a more pure alternative to my Rover-engined Elise.

 

The 7 is a 1996 Rover K 1.6 Supersport S3, Imperial chassis. I ordered a large amount of parts from Caterham UK, and they came today, so I stated digging in.

 

First order of business was mocking up the SLR cage to the car. The main hoop attachment points and the rear legs lined up nicely, which put the large front attachment bosses lined up nicely on the top chassis rail where they should be. Chancing a miss, I drilled a pilot hole to see if there was a boss on the top rail. The inner panels were glued and riveted by the previous owner of the car, so there was no removing them without permanent damage, so this was thought to be the right approach.

 

Suffice to say, hunting around a few more times after the initial pilot hole through the skin, I can say with certainty that my frame does not have bosses for the cage front mount. It does have bosses on at least one side for the Petty bar location point for the cage though, as the PO use a Petty bar with his Vauxhall-style single sided roll bar.

 

Needless to say, I'm a little perplexed, as I was under the impression that all the later S3 chassis had cage bosses, and doing this right (welding in sleeves into the chassis) is going to mean de/re-skinning the whole car if what I found is indeed the case. I had read somewhere that there might be some sort of bracket to adapt the SLR cage to older S3s, but I haven't been able to find much if any details, other than a picture of a nondescript bracket on the Caterham Parts page...

 

Any ideas?

 

Thanks in advance for your reply.

 

Aric

Edited May 7, 2014 by Monte Busa

[yellowss7]

Hey another Rover K series caterham.:cheers::hurray: that makes at least 3 of us.

 

I have a 2000 S3 and my car didn't have the bushes either. I ended up just doing a Roadsport cage which uses the petty strut bushes on both sides.

 

I've seen a thread on Blatchat where a guy used a hole cutting bit to remove enough of the skin, then drill out a bush sized hole and then welded it in. without having to re skin. I'll try to find the pictures of the process.

 

Tom

[yellowss7]

http://web.mail.comcast.net/service/home/~/?auth=co&loc=en_US&id=511568&part=2

[yellowss7]

With bushes welded in.

http://web.mail.comcast.net/service/home/~/?auth=co&loc=en_US&id=511572&part=2

[Monte Busa]

Hi Tom - glad to hear there are more K Series guys on here. I love the K personally - great engineering and very light weight for it's power potential, and I thrash the heck out of my K Series Elise with nary an issue (knock wood), so I'm really looking forward to getting the 7 on the track.

 

I have another monster engine I'm building up (1.8L, tuftrided VHPD crank, forged pistons, Andrews Head, Jenveys, Emerald ECU, shooting for 205BHP) I'll be putting in the Caterham sooner or later too, whenever I can get my head back from England.

 

I think I might have stumbled upon the same link you were trying to post pictures from since I posted above - not sure though, your links appear as "default" with a little "piece of paper" icon

 

In any case, thanks for the quick reply.

 

Aric

Edited May 7, 2014 by Monte Busa

[yellowss7]

My Kseries was built by QED in England about 14 years ago. VHPD head, Forged Pistons and Rods, Jenvey DTHTBs Dry Sumped. If you are planning on tracking it with slicks, definitely get it dry sumped. My Dyno sheet shows, 195.2 bhp with 150 torque. Runs great, but falls a little light on power vs Croc's 285 and Karl's 309. :banghead: But it still keeps me in the hunt, although another 40 hp would be nice. :jester:.

 

Oilyhands is great and builds a nice engine. K's Rule!!!

 

Tom

[Monte Busa]

Awesome sounding engine! The current 1.6 K in my car is dry sumped (earlier pink pump), bit I'll probably upgrade to the gold pump and "conning tower" system on the recommendation of Dave Andrews when the 1.8 goes in the car. Cheers, Aric