Your fleet running reports

[mik]

They came with std power as opposed to the 400-odd bro they were originally planned to have, but with something so special, a few £k to liberate 430-460bhp seems like the right decision. I think there were only 9 RHD cars (?) - that one is chassis no8 (hence the plate)

[integrale_evo]

The wing on the black one with its solid supports and deeper end plates looks so muck better.

[speedingfine]

Caterham 7 Supersport Modifica Grand Touring

No laughing at the back please.

Seeing as everyone else is talking Caterhams, I thought I'd join in as we're taking ours camping in France for ten days next month. Now unfortunately I'm adding quite a lot of weight in this post, not taking it away

There is definitely an element of adding lightness however, as everything I'm adding has to be as small as possible.

Boot space in my Caterham in particular is very limited as it's ex-race. It has a 50 litre tank, rather than a 30 litre tank. The normal boot floor height is where the fire extinguisher is mounted to my knowledge:



The only other packing spaces worth bothering with in a Seven are behind the seats. Now given I'm tall, I've had to have a bag seat on my side, so no space that side. I can however get our coats and some lightweight camping seats behind the passenger side, but that's about it.

Also worth mentioning is my missus hated the tillet seat that side so I've had to swap it for an S Type leather one. I'm afraid I didn't weigh them to get the difference, but imagine it's quite a lot

Forum stalwarts will know I used to enjoy camping up mountains in winter back in the day, so a lot of my lightweight compact equipment has come into play again. But I've had to buy a couple of Thermarest inflatable sleeping mats as my old Exped one had punctured. I also needed a waterproof stuffsack from Sea to Summit as women's extra warm sleeping bags are not compact; neither are Caterham boot cover's waterproof My things will all go in plastic bags in case of downpours



Add a cabin size suit case to the spare wheel carrier (everything enclosed in a waterproof bag obvs), a tent on the boot cover and a spares/tool set under the bonnet next to the ECU and well, you've ran out of space...

[mik]

Absolutely superb Chris

[speedingfine]

Absolutely superb Chris

I'll agree with you as long as the 24 year old kit car is reliable for our thousand mile journey

I used to read the 7 owners Club touring stories in their monthly magazine and always wanted to try it myself. Went to Le Mans in it in 2014 and had zero problems and if this one's successful I'd like to take it to Italy and the Dolomites next time

[IanF]

Absolutely superb Chris

This! Love the suitcase

[duncs500]

Love it Chris. You went camping in your 7 before though didn't you a while back?

I did always like a read of the road trip stories in Low Flying, you'll have to sign up again so you can get your trip report published! Failing that, a trip report in here would be most welcome.

[scotta]

Ooh yeah. The want is strong with that one.

You can keep that...Ill have this please.

[speedingfine]

Ooh yeah. The want is strong with that one.

You can keep that...Ill have this please.

Funny thing is I'd rather have Exige Sport 350. The specials posted all look a bit OTT to me

[scotta]

Washed the three of ours today. Wheels on the R26 were filthy and took a good bit of brush action. Golf was covered in Tar. so a good helping of tar & Glue was deployed follwed by a bit of wax.

fullsizeoutput_8f3 by Scott Armstrong, on Flickr

IMG_0173 by Scott Armstrong, on Flickr

IMG_0174 by Scott Armstrong, on Flickr

IMG_0177 by Scott Armstrong, on Flickr

[ste]

Bravo Mr. Speedingfine. Fair play indeed. “So I put my tent and tools under the bonnet next to the ECU”

[speedingfine]

Bravo Mr. Speedingfine. Fair play indeed. “So I put my tent and tools under the bonnet next to the ECU”

Three edits and I still missed that horrible sentence

I meant to mention that I tried to buy a cheap intercom system. I used one in the old car and when this one had aeroscreens, but lost it, and the cheap replacement I bought unseen from Malaysia, well it's tozz...



Starcom and Autocom are pretty expensive unfortunately and the best advice is set either of those up in Peltor headsets, rally style...£££. I think we'll just shout at each other...

[Gwaredd]

You need to purchase parts that are of a higher calliper.

Excellent quality joke aside, the Transit is now 17 years old & only on its 2nd set of brake pads, (and I was highly dubious that it needed a new set when the garage said it needed them many years back) so it's not done that bad. It really is lack of use that's caused the calipers to fail.

[integrale_evo]

I have someone prepared to take the brm away once I get the engine / gearbox out in exchange for trailering my 1.8 metro over from its council lockup near my parents, and an mgf rear subframe and driveshafts which I will need to fit the brm gearbox.

So spent the day pulling the front end to bits to start pulling the engine out and attempting to free the brakes enough to be able to shift it.

Haven't quite worked out how we're going to get it out though.

[Matty]

Absolutely superb Chris

I'll agree with you as long as the 24 year old kit car is reliable for our thousand mile journey

I used to read the 7 owners Club touring stories in their monthly magazine and always wanted to try it myself. Went to Le Mans in it in 2014 and had zero problems and if this one's successful I'd like to take it to Italy and the Dolomites next time

My boss's husband has a Caterham and they both do Euro travels with a couple of other Caterhams. She tells me they do carry a stack of spares to fix the cars as they inevitably brake down

He's probably on the 7 owners club TBH.

[duncs500]

Clutch and accelerator cabling I'm told are the things to take on road trips, not that I need to tell Chris that!

[speedingfine]

Clutch and accelerator cabling I'm told are the things to take on road trips, not that I need to tell Chris that!

You can see them both just above the fire extinguisher in the boot Alternator belt was a new one on me, but now also in there...

The Lotus 7 Club used to take a Sprinter full of spares inc a complete K series engine IIRC

This is a good page to show what you can fit in a 7 with a normal size boot

http://www.mycaterham.com/36715/index.html

[Sundayjumper]

The Caravelle passed its MOT on Saturday. A pleasant surprise as I've not given it any attention at all recently and it has developed an unidentified clunk from the rear when empty. It had only done 1,573 miles since last year and ~500 of those were when my parents borrowed it to move house ! Now on 249,400 miles.

And they've changed the MOT certificates again, even more shite than before.

[V8Granite]

Clutch and accelerator cabling I'm told are the things to take on road trips, not that I need to tell Chris that!

You can see them both just above the fire extinguisher in the boot Alternator belt was a new one on me, but now also in there...

The Lotus 7 Club used to take a Sprinter full of spares inc a complete K series engine IIRC

This is a good page to show what you can fit in a 7 with a normal size boot

http://www.mycaterham.com/36715/index.html

Ridiculously chosen cars for big adventures are far cooler than a fully equipped overland vehicle

Dave!

[Swervin_Mervin]

Love that Chris

Wife came home on Fri last week complaining of an exhaust rattle on the 125i. She'd had to take evasive action on a country lane and run through a pothole at the road edge, and it started after that. I suspected tail trim had come loose and would need tacking.

However, just been to local Kwik Fit and it was the actuator/valve that was rattling. She'd knocked this spring clip out:



Bodged with a spring washer between the two halves, for no charge.