tomperkins

Hi Paul, I'm interested in these, could you send me some pictures please? Tom

Thanks Giles, some bedtime reading

Thanks Andy, very interesting. It's amazing it gave no weight saving don't you think

Are there any photos online do you know?

Thanks for the link Nigel, looks awesome!

Cool, thanks for the info David.

Wow, do you have any more details?

Interesting, amazing there was no weight saving. Bet it looked amazing!

Just wondering, has anyone ever seen a full carbon Caterham, either full carbon fibre body panels and skin or maybe a carbon fibre chassis?

I'd agree with that Tom, I love CR500's

"At low cost- upgrading to LiPo (5.66kg)" LiPo?

"Turn the rev counter around a bit so I could see the important range through the 260mm momo" That's a great one, simple but effective

Sounds like money well spent

I recently had my throttle stick wide open at around 90mph. Thankfully I was on a fairly open stretch of road but still eye opening to say the least. To avoid the same thing happening again I took a look at the linkage between my throttle cable and my Jenvey throttle bodies. There was slight play in the linkage so I improved this with some plastic washers so there's now zero play. When doing this I also re-balanced the throttle bodies using a Synchrometer that a friend lent me (thanks Alex). The result of these mods, which cost a couple of quid and no more than an hour or two, is the car feels a million times better. The throttle response is much improved and the engine responds really smoothly at lower revs. In light of the big difference this simple adjustment has made, I wondered what your best quick win has been? What simple change have you made that's made a big difference?

Thanks for everyone's thoughts on this. Sorry I can't be more definite on answers but figuring this one out as we go. We do indeed use plug in headsets (3M Peltor ear defenders modified to make a headset). The microphones do have a foam cover but I guess wind noise is a possibility as we all run aeroscreens. I guess the cheap radios is also a possibility. In the first trip I mentioned the guys using more expensive Kenwood radios didn't have issues (with aeroscreens and the headsets I mentioned above) but I did have issues using my Binatone (£40) radios. The more recent experience was also using a different set of similar £40 Binatone radios. Guess we need to start doing some scientific tests to try to narrow down the possible causes.

In the more recent experience there was just me and a friend with identical battery powered radios. It's very difficult to track down as it doesn't happen when stationery, only when moving and seems to get worse with speed. In that situation there was interference at both ends (i.e. When transmitting and receiving). Hope that helps to clarify things?

Just battery powered radios

Interference seems to be worse with speed. Radios work fine when stationery with engine running

We've ruled that one out sadly, happens even if we're right behind each other. Also using identical channel and sub-channels. Puzzling hey?

Hi there, I have a 1.8 DVA tuned k-series car running an emerald ECU. I have mid range Binatone radios. When on blats with friends we try to use radios and headsets to communicate. For some reason my car seems to be causing interference with the radio. Went on a trip last year with a Duratec R300 and a k-series superlight. They could both communicate clealy with each other (they were using Kenwood radios) but their transmissions to me were very distorted and hard to hear. I then went on another trip with just the R300D recently using a different set of Binatone radios and we could hear each other fine when stationery but as soon as we started moving the transmissions were broken and again hard to hear. Has anyone had a similar experience? Any ideas on a solution? Thanks in advance, Tom

Hi Graham, when I calculated usage before the rebuild I think it was around 1litre per 1000 miles. I did check plugs and compression when I first started investigating and plug colour and condition was all good, as was compression. The rebuild did include rings, liners and valve stem oil seals but usage has improved only slightly, probably 0.5/0.75 litres per 1000 miles. Other than rear crankshaft seal, that still leaves me scratching my head then. It's not the end of the world but a bit of a pain and always in the back of your mind when pushing the engine. Any other thoughts?

That's interesting. When I say I prefer to fill rather than run lean, I only ever fill up to the full mark on the dipstick when the engine has just been switched off. Obviously if you switch off and then wait a minute or two fir the Apollo to drain it would appear to be over full but I believe this isn't the case as the Apollo holds a certain amount of oil when running. Mine's running a standard head.

Good to hear, thanks Dave

I'm running a 1.8 K-series, DVA tuned to 200bhp. I've owned the car for 2 years and it's always used lots of oil. I had the engine refreshed by Dave Andrews last winter, which made a slight improvement in oil consumption but not a big difference. I installed an Aluminium oil catch tank last winter and I've just noticed that it's full! I've probably covered 2.5k miles in the past 12 months. My engine's got an Apollo and I've always been told, by multiple people including mechanics and Dave Andrews, to check the oil by running the engine, then checking the level right after switching off the engine. I'm now wondering whether by topping up the oil this way I may be overfilling and forcing the engine to spit out excess oil. I've always wanted to air on the side if caution to make sure the engine has sufficient lubrication. Does anyone have an Apollo and use a different technique to check levels? Does anyone have similar levels of oil appearing in the catch tank? Does anyone else have similar levels of oil consumption? Thanks in advance, Tom

Great suggestion, I'll give that a try for sure, could solve the need to get the lap belts super tight!