petefoster Posted June 15, 2013 Share Posted June 15, 2013 Time to go, new project looming Linky Cheers Pete Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SUPERLIGHT91 Posted June 15, 2013 Share Posted June 15, 2013 that's fabulous Pete - very nice indeed. I'm still waiting for one of the 5 original Blackbird powered cars to come up (narrowly missed one about 10 years ago when I bought my R500K instead). I have driven the Fireblade 7 and they are very nimble and great fun once you get used to them and yours looks one of the best around. I was sorry to hear when James Whiting stopped building them, as I've fond memories of his white demo car with chrome stays and red Honda livery - looked brilliant. If I hadn't recently picked up and R500D I'd be coming to have a look. All the best with your sale, someone will bag the utimate 'Super-light' Seven there, good work putting that together Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete - W.Sussex Posted June 15, 2013 Share Posted June 15, 2013 If only..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Area Representative bluenose Posted June 15, 2013 Area Representative Share Posted June 15, 2013 Matt 5 original 🤔 Where did you get that number from? When I did a register I found 12 cars of which 2 were built by Caterham, the rest by Blackbird Motorsport/Four Wheeled Motorcycle Company. This Fireblade is lovely 🥰 , good luck with the sale, wish I could own two BECs, they are all fantastic, and this one is very special. 370Kg, wow Nick Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SUPERLIGHT91 Posted June 15, 2013 Share Posted June 15, 2013 Nick - I have an early version of the book 'The Magnificent 7' and I believe that quoted '5' for the number of official Blackbirds - this figure was probably out of date when the book went to print. I still think they should have made the Blackbird cars all black as standard with a yellow nose cone :) The one I narrowly missed was one of the 3 original B&H promo cars de-stickered and in light yellow, with stack insrument, and basically full R500 mk.1 spec. but £10k cheaper to buy than an R500K at the time - seemed a brilliant idea, and I wish they had made more like 100 of them, a shame it didn't catch on. Amazing weight and spec. Pete's Fireblade car - and the CBR900 'blade' engine in more readily available than the CBR1100XX 'bird' - (although the 'bird' is turbine smooth and pulls like a trail - in a bike anyway). There is plenty of fun to be had revving a Fireblade engine though - as with most Honda kit, they are pretty bulletproof at silly revs. compared to a car engine anyway. M Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Area Representative bluenose Posted June 15, 2013 Area Representative Share Posted June 15, 2013 Matt I do not think there is such a thing as an "official" Blackbird or "an original" one, from what I have gathered talking to various people it was all a bit mix and match when Doug Newman, Paul Harvey and Andy Beveridge built the cars, and cars where swopped around depending on what was required at the time. Mine has the Stack dash and injection engine, some had the Blackbird clocks and carbs. There have been quite a few that have come up for sale over the years including one Caterham built in house. Engines are still readlily available on Ebay. I have also driven a Fireblade, brilliant car, felt really nimble. Nick Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SUPERLIGHT91 Posted June 16, 2013 Share Posted June 16, 2013 I see - interesting, and I always assumed Caterham endorsed Blackbirds were the ones they arranged orders for. They had a dark blue one in the showroom years ago for ages, it had the original Blackbird console clocks to start with that put me off, but after several months of not selling it they changed the dash to a stack unit and sold it fairly promptly after that. Pete's car here is very impressive on the dash/controls /wheel set-up its a lovely build, I've not seen another with such a good spec. and build, it looks amazing. Someone will be very pleased with that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Piper Posted June 16, 2013 Share Posted June 16, 2013 Could've sworn that the factory sanctioned the build of some cars such as the 2 Jordan liveried cars. I had a tilt at one of those some years ago but the owner was very honest about their propensity to consume gearboxes. I know that Nick Chan is a bit of an expert on these; he's owned a couple from memory. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AdC Posted June 16, 2013 Share Posted June 16, 2013 Hi Pete - your car looks great - lots of really nice touches. I've already got one so sadly am not in the market, but I hope it goes quickly. If you wouldn't mind commenting, I'd be interested to know how you've got on with your Avons. JW suggested they'd give me the dainty feel I'm after, but a Formula Ford racer at work warned against them due to their wet weather ability... Thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SUPERLIGHT91 Posted June 16, 2013 Share Posted June 16, 2013 That's right Mark - it was one of the first 2 or 3 yellow cars I missed: - originally these were Jordan/Benson&Hedges livery, Caterham promo vehicles. I still have the press release article from back in the day with someone like Jarno Trulli using them at a few events. I thought the Caterham approved James Whiting Fireblade project was much closer to making a success of 'official' bike-engined Caterham, a shame that stopped to - I loved his rear disc conversion for the live axle - brilliant. Ofcourse there have been many one-off and homebuild BEC sevens since with the mighty 1300 Suzuki Hayabusa being the most popular choice for good reason. For me though, due to sanctioned Caterham development, the only BEC seven is either a Fireblade or Blackbird, although I admit it would have been great if they had a go at a Hauabusa (but of course the Lotus/Honda F1 relationship is more befitting a Caterham). I recall the brilliant LCC Rocket with its Yamaha R1 derived power-plant - they had one of those in the Caterham showroom around 2001 - and I wished I'd bought that - (they've doubled in value since) another brilliant concept and Murray designed too, but the one I'm waiting for is the Ford Eco single seater if it makes it into production - no bike engine there though - but a tri-turbo 1.0 Duratec essentially - great platform for a BEC though if they ever make it to production. That said - I'd be very happy with Pete Foster's Fireblade 7 as its probably as much fun as all of the above and a great concept in building a super-lightweight seven - sub 400kg - more people should have them, brilliant! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Area Representative bluenose Posted June 16, 2013 Area Representative Share Posted June 16, 2013 Well I have a record of 11 BB chassis numbers when I started the register some years ago. 2 have the S in the number indicating factory built, the rest have a K for kit built i.e. BBMS/FWMC. Unless these chassis numbers were made up at the time which I assume not this indicates two factory built I have found so far. These are all so called original cars, there are several other cars with chassis numbers indicating they are converted from X flow/K series cars. I also looked at the dark metallic one at Caterham some years ago and it was owned by Simon Summerville(Ming on here) and then sold to Rod Hudson. The first owner of that car was Steve Frost. The gearboxes can break....so can K series engines, I have had one go in the 13,000 miles I have driven mine, and have been to Le Mans 3 times. The cost of repairing a Blackbird compared to an R400/R500 is peanuts in comparison. Nova Racing do a gearbox replacement set which is supposed to be much more robust and should I have any problems in future I will fit one of these, although Ebay engines still come up that can just be shoved in without any modification. Anyway, lets get this post back on track and leave Pete to sell his lovely car. If anyone wants to talk to me about owning a BEC then please blatmail me. Whoever ends up owning this car will experience a Caterham like no other. Nick Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Piper Posted June 16, 2013 Share Posted June 16, 2013 6 Speed box circa £500 refurbed by RRT, but aside from a rare bearing failure, I haven't had a problem with them in the 5 6 speed cars I have owned. I can't see how the motorcycle gearbox in a blackbird is going to be much less...I will drop a line to Nick Chan for the definitive answer...haven't spoken to Paul for 5 years, since he went off and played with those MINIs 😬 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Lynch Posted June 16, 2013 Share Posted June 16, 2013 you can scare yourself s**tless on your own when it’s yours Well said Pete 😬 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
petefoster Posted June 17, 2013 Author Share Posted June 17, 2013 Thanks for your kind comments guys, although I have to say the credit for the bulk of the build has to go to Paul Harvey, including the ingenious gear lever controlled clutch allowing for two pedal operation on track. AdC, the Avons certainly provide good grip in the dry, not sure about the wet, with no roof or screen I don't go out when its raining *redface* Quite a bit of interest so far, so fingers crossed new toy could be on the drive soon 😬 😬 😬. Cheers Pete Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeMolloy Posted June 17, 2013 Share Posted June 17, 2013 Quoting petefoster: ...including the ingenious gear lever controlled clutch allowing for two pedal operation on track. That sounds very interesting! Any chance of an in-depth description with pics? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
petefoster Posted June 17, 2013 Author Share Posted June 17, 2013 Better still Fred, I'll sell it to you and it comes with a free car 😬 😬 😬 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neilg Posted June 17, 2013 Share Posted June 17, 2013 I've got one of the original Jordan Blackbirds and now in Buzzin Hornet livery as apposed to Benson and Hedges! In four years and many many trackdays i've come to learn how to drive it to minimise gearbox issues. I've got a couple of engines and a Nova gearbox although the present gearbox is standard. Brilliant fun , great noise, just different to the car engine cars and you just adapt driving style, particularly the downshifts to be sympathetic to the fact that the dogs are as big as your front teeth. Cheers Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeMolloy Posted June 17, 2013 Share Posted June 17, 2013 Quoting petefoster: Better still Fred, I'll sell it to you and it comes with a free car 😬 😬 😬 Cool! I'll offer 50 quid... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
petefoster Posted June 17, 2013 Author Share Posted June 17, 2013 Thanks for the offer Fred, but I'm afraid you've been outbid *eek* I will pull together a quick summary of the system and a couple of photo's and post it over to you, but it will probably be next week now as I'm off to France for a few days. Cheers Pete Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeMolloy Posted June 18, 2013 Share Posted June 18, 2013 Sweet. Thanks! Edit: Ummm, out of curiosity what is the actual asking price? Aren't you obliged to post that in any "for sale" threads? Edited by - Fred Gassit on 18 Jun 2013 10:47:49 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The_ASH Posted June 23, 2013 Share Posted June 23, 2013 I'd also be interested to know what your price is and then I could decide whether I'd be seduced by the charms of another BEC or not. Also interested in your MOT strategy, presumably you have a strap-on Catalyst and ecu map adjustment to assist in passing emissions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
petefoster Posted June 24, 2013 Author Share Posted June 24, 2013 £19,000 ovno and its all yours Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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