Smithy77

Thanks!

If you're reading John, I tried to PM you but I got the admin error that seems to be popular at the moment! I have read your great article here and, as my CRB is fairly new, I want make the same modification. As it was written a few years ago now, I just wanted to make sure I get the same springs as you did. Is this the correct spring? If anyone else knows, feel free to chip in

Being a 5'7" short arse I had no choice but to go for the clear Meteor aeroscreen. Hunkered down, with a lowered floor, I'm peering through the top of it! Would definitely recommend it as the visibility advantage outweighs the aesthetics IMO. If you haven't got the "quick release" captive channels on the inside of the scuttle, they are well worth getting if you want interchangeable like myself. It really is a 10 min job to swap. I don't mind how they look either....

I must be in the minority regarding RARBs then. I run 8" rears, softly sprung Quantum One Zeros and adjustable front and rear ARBs. I mentioned in another recent thread that I had the car set up at DPR Motorsport, and on the subject of "settings" for dampers and ARBs, they gave the following advice: "for trackdays you want maximum damping and stiffness, and for road you want minimum damping and stiffness." Pretty generalised advice I know, but it works and works well. So before each trackday I give the dampers +24 clicks all round and set front and rear ARB to 100% stiffness, then when I get home the dampers go back to 0 clicks and ARBs to about 25% stiffness. This flexibility is amazing because on the road I have a car which has an incredibly refined ride, soaking up bumps better that any hot hatch, but on the track it handles like it's on rails. On track with fully hard ARBs, it's hard to say if I had rear wheel lifting. None of the pictures show this happening at least. I did, however, get a bit of front wheel lift on corner exit.....

£20 inc. delivery

I've had confimation from DPR on the spec of my Quatums: "The front springs are indeed 150 lbs/in, the rear spring is the std Caterham-supplied progressive rear spring #71198 which is 110-130-200 lbs/in.".

Well, the front springs have "150" stamped on them, but the rears have no such markings. To say I have "150lb ALL ROUND" was a bit of an assumption based on the fronts being 150lb

Since I've owned Caterhams with Bilsteins and Quantums, and was earlier referred to by Mankee, here's my 2p worth... My 1st Caterham was a 140bhp ex-academy car converted to a road car with leather seats etc etc. This car retained the race spec adjustable Bilstein dampers. I'm sure on a track it would have stuck like glue, but for the road it was just way too hard - too skittish and dangerous on B-roads at times and generally uncomfortable for a "road car". My 2nd Caterham was a 190bhp car which was specced slightly more bias towards a track set up, but crucially, had the softer standard road spec adjustable Bilsteins. The difference on the road was unbelievable, soaking up bumps in its stride and gave more confidence when pushing on B-roads. He is talking about my current car, purchased nearly a year ago and came with Quantum One Zeros. He is right - they are amazing! I thought the ride on my 2nd car couldn't get much better for a Caterham, but the difference between the Billies and Quantums is night and day. It's hard to explain, but the Quatums give a better/softer/smother/more refined ride, but also gives better handling round the twisties. The previous owner, who specified and ordered the dampers through DPR Motorsport, was quite passionate in his explanation of his chosen suspension specification - digressive valving, modest damping to compliment the 150lb all round spring rates with progressive springs on the rear. He was adamant that a lot of Caterham owners over-damp/over spring their 500kg cars, and I tend to agree with him. Personally, if your Caterham spends any amount of time on the road, I wouldn't go harder than 150lb springs (speaking of S3s here, SVs may be different). My current car also has a Freestyle adjustable "blade" front ARB and standard 4-way adjustable "underslung" rear ARB. After swapping tyres from CR500s to ZZRs, I decided to take the car back to DPR for a full set-up and corner weighting. On the subject of "settings" for dampers and ARBs, they gave the following advice: "for trackdays you want maximum damping and stiffness, and for road you want minimum damping and stiffness." Pretty generalised advice I know, but it works and works well. So before each trackday I give the dampers +24 clicks all round and set front and rear ARB to 100% stiffness, then when I get home the dampers go back to 0 clicks and ARBs to about 25% stiffness. Both set-ups provide a very well balanced car and have not left me with any desire to start fiddling with the settings or "dial in" the front or rear. It just works. I was able to keep pace with a Radical SR3 race car (on slicks) round the twisty bits, so that's good enough confirmation to me that the Quatums are good and set-up is spot on. Then on the road, and in road set-up, the car has a superior ride/comfort to most modern hot hatches. If you were Lewis Hamilton, you might benefit from finding a couple tenths here and there by fine tuning the balance front and rear, but as long as oversteer or understeer isn't a "noticable" problem, life is too short to worry about it. Can't comment on Nitrons though....

Darren - thanks, I've now swapped my engine breather to the front outlet, so our set-ups now sound the same

Aren't we all?? So in summary, I'll swap my engine breather from the small rear breather to the larger front. Will leave the oil tank venting straight to catch tank.

Ah yes, forgot about the gearstick. That helps

Probably best to drain the oil to avoid making a mess. Undo the engine mount to chassis bolts, remove speedo sensor and reverse switch, then simply ease it forward and out

A subject discuss a lot before, I know, and from what I've been reading I don't want to entertain the idea of having a sealed engine, so no need to go down that road. I have a Minister R400 engine with Caterham belltank DS system. The engine and swirl tower are both vented, but from what I've seen/read, my particular breathing plumbing is not quite aligned with the 'norm' with this engine/DS set-up. I have a scuttle mounted catch tank (with vent in the top) and the breather from the swirl tower vents directly to this. I also have a breather from the smaller REAR cam cover outlet which vents directly to the catch tank. The larger FRONT cam cover outlet is blanked. Most people with this engine/DS system seem to combine the breathing circuits, either a) venting the swirl tower to the rear cam cover outlet, and then venting the front cam cover outlet to catch tank, or b) blanking the rear cam cover outlet and connecting the front cam cover breather into the swirl tower breather with a T-piece, which in turn vents to the catch tank. So my questions are: Am I ok not having the circuits combined? Does it make any difference which of the 2 cam cover outlets are blanked/vented?

Expiry date 2007, little bit of ware on the shoulder straps where they pass through the tillets, otherwise reasonable condition for age. Facebook link below for pics: https://www.facebook.com/groups/403110953197008/permalink/700245733483527/?sale_post_id=700245733483527 £20

I have one Will send you a PM

Looking for a set of Q/R harnesses (Black or Red), must be in good/reasonable condition (no belt fraying) and the lap belts must be the pull up (towards the buckle) to tighten and not the pull down (away from the buckle) to tighten. Expiry date is not important, would consider either 4 or 6 point harnesses. Thanks!

I could be interest subject to condition... Will PM you

Wise words there from Revilla. In fact, you will probably still see them flash with your eyes closed

Cool dash! Is that your existing warning light above the starter button? Looks a bit like the standard Longacre lamp which I got with the OP warning kit. If so, the LED light you ordered is MILES brighter! You'll have planes trying to land behind you and all sorts...

I originally wanted to fit it just above and in between the tacho and speedo, so directly in line of sight, but it is just a little too big. Instead I'll fix it just to the left of the steering wheel above the wiper/washer switches. Yes it is indeed surface mountable (and comes with a 3M profiled sticky pad), just a small hole in the dash required for the wiring. The light might even be large enough to cover the hole left by your original warning light, if the location suits?

I've just bought one of these for the same job. Incredibly bright and with 10 different flash patterns

Maybe I can rig the warning system to active the horn? And the wipers and windscreen washer...

Paul, That LED lamp is MASSIVE! Perhaps a little too industrial to mount on the dash of my road/track car. I was going to suggest these with tongue in cheek, but it would seem yours isn't too far away! Maybe something like this could be a good compromise between brightness and elegance. Presumably this will also need some sort of resistor too? (forgive my lack of electrical knowledge)

Hi Paul! Yes sorry, this is purely precautionary. Having learnt the hard way about the "quirks" of DS maintenance, shortly after getting my current car, I'm determined never to have to deal with another impromptu rebuild. EVER! So fitting a low OP warning light is a no brainer, but because I do indeed have a Titan scavenge pump and OEM pressure pump driven off the crank, I think that it makes a lot of sense to try and fit a belt failure warning in conjunction with a low OP warning. I have already ordered the Longacre kit I linked to in my original post. I'll test the included lamp for brightness when I get it, but I'd be keen on replacing it with the brightest LED lamp possible. Maybe something like this? Not sure I'm keen on any kind of "optical" sensor/switch. Due to the location, keeping it clean could be an issue. Think a mechanical microswitch is the better way to go

From my reading, the preferred method is to have a micro switch on the auto adjusting belt tensioner mechanism, so nothing actually has to touch the belt. Belt breaks, tensioner instantly moves, switch is activated. That's the theory anyway