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arty

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Blog Entries posted by arty

  1. arty
    Hi all, Someone is selling 4 wheels that i'd love to buy but they are collection at Raglan services and i am in north yorkshire.
    I have friends in various places if anyone is travelling from there and could help. Obvs i'd pay towards your fuel. 
    Church stretton, Wolverhampton, Sheffield, Congleton ,bury, leeds - any of those locations could suit me.
    I'm in the yorkshire dales
  2. arty

    Great time year

    By arty,

    Fantastic. Cold and dark. Eyes looking through the dark bend as the lights sweep round and catxh up. I love driving in the dark. No street lihhrs just the moon. 4 dehreea half hood. Then tp finish 16 miles all the way to my drive without a mother vehicle either direction.
    Winter it's worth it. .
  3. arty
    Grrrr, brrrr. arrhhh.
    Well pleased really. Whilst fitting a fog light i ended up discovering that the petrol tank was loose. So perhaps that has been the source of the banging noise at the back.
    warning to anyone thinking that an ex race car might be an easy way into road car use, this is just the latest. I know , i know don't buy a race car when you want a road car and vice versa. Now i agree.
    Now just got to find the wire to connect a reverse light
  4. arty

    Start of year of discovery

    By arty,

    I first got in a 7 in about 1994, my mate still has the same car. My first drive was, of course, the same day. Over the next few years i would enjoy the occasional visit and ride, oh how i wanted one, but you can't go kayaking, mtb ing, climbing in one, and i didn't have a garage and of course i didn't have any money. Yes of course that was the main reason.
    In about 2000 another mate bought one and we would go climbing in it. How i love watching the front wheels bounce up and down. How i can't imagine being in a crash in one.
    3 years ago i bought a house with a garage, now that's a start.
    Next year i can access some long term savings.....
    and so i am going to buy a Caterham Seven. This is my 6 months of making some decisions.
     
  5. arty

    oh morgan

    By arty,

    Oh in my goal of getting my 'first' car, that is its not a van for sleeping in, carrying diy stuff or a cheap £300 effort, i seem to have come across Morgans. Well singular really only the 4/4 stacks up for mpg and in particular price.
    Hopefully it seems like the experience of ownership will be so different that all i have to do is drive them both.
    fingers x'ed its that easy
     
  6. arty

    first club meeting

    By arty,

    I went over to Cracoe the other week for my first experience of a club meet. I liked it that when i arrived some were eating and others not and was comforted that it was not going to be a stuffy or over polite doo. After we had eaten i was 'surrounded'  and asked so what is it you want to know?
    After car chat for a good hour or more i know that i should get the upgraded brakes and that 130 bhp should be a minimum. I forgot to ask about wheel size. It also became apparent that unlike my 2 friends who have each had the same car from new and never changed it, the club members were onto their 2nd or 3 rd car which takes the pressure off having to choose the right car. I learnt that suspension can be too hard and that you can make the car too noisy.
    I was also reassured how well they crash with some pictures of one of the cars.
    I look forward to being able to make further meetings.
  7. arty
    In my continuing search for a car i have returned to the original idea and now commitment of a Caterham, for reasons earlier defined. Despite the modern day version of making a decision [hours on the interenet] the best advice was from my mate Rog on the Isle of Mann, to 'drive some and buy the one you like' . Now that is not so easy in the Yorkshire Dales in January although i appreciate that it is much harder for many others.
    So as the 'in laws' live near to Northwich i went to Oakmere. I actually went to look at an SV but i couldn't reach the pedals. The sales assistant didn't tell me or didn't know that it's possible to move the pedals. Anyway as a result i ended up going out for about 20 minutes in their 160.
    It was damp and i had only driven a Crossflow many years ago and remember being a bit scared of it on the right hand side on the road in northern Italy. So after a lap of the car park to find the pedals and controls i pulled out onto the road rather vigorously and the back end did a little dance rather like that of the bumblebee.
    I was impressed that the engine was not screaming away, i loved that you could use the right foot without any dramas and i did not feel small nor vulnerable. Instead it felt like bloomin good fun, if only there were fewer cars on the road then this would be the car for me. However as it is i often 'need' to overtake well i would in one of these and thus i would like more power. Before buying i would also have to drive it with a passenger and a bag of stuff in the boot to simulate real life for me.
    So lately i have been trying to pick an engine.
  8. arty

    Yes - bought my first car

    By arty,

    Well after 2 big drives to get to PTsportscars, i have bought a car and am really happy and excited about it although, it would be great to sleep well again. This is not out of worry or nerves, its out of proper excitement. I mean that real childish excitment. I didn't know it was possible to still feel like that.
    I have been amazed by the help from members. A couple of phone calls of over an hour with owners, who previously i had not heard of never mind met.
    I then traveled from Settle in the Dales to Winsor via Doncaster area to meet a member and look at his car. Overnighting near to Oxford with friends i arrived at PT the next day to drive a Sigma. Turning left out of their entrance, i drove 20m to the traffic lights and said to Ian "crikey its good being in a seven" or words to that effect. I think that the Sigma is much quieter than the K 1600 SS that i have been used to. It didn't stir the emotions as the K does but i reckon it could be better to live with. Anyway by the end of the drive i was quite un-moved by the car. It was ok, it was nice being in the fresh air but it didn't emote me in the same way so i left it. I then went to see another generous member over in Essex. I arrived after tea time and in the dark to look at his Sigma. What a difference a coat of paint makes! He generously took me out in a K1.6 SS and once again that familiar feeling returned. The "i want one of these" feelings.
    Returning home to Low Flying, You Tube and dreams i struggled with the concerns of whether i , and my neighbours, can cope with such a noisy machine on a day to day basis. I also genuinely want to use it with the other half.I then saw that there was a VCT at PT that i hadn't looked at. Could i really cope with another drive down there. Another member called endorsing Ian and i booked to go and see it but having run for 2 hours on the fells i was tired and cancelled. Realising my error i travelled down the following day which was the day before yesterday.
    To be honest i liked it even whilst it was just ticking over, an ex race car with a bashed front nose, no lights, no screen. I can't describe why it felt right, it was like buying a house and not just in money, i just knew it was right for me. But for those iin the same dilemma i will say that the engine sounds different and the car drives differently to that of the Sigma. I bought it.
    So to my mate Roger Callister, you were right as he told me just to drive a few and buy the one i like. True enough that is what it came down to.
    I met Rog in the 90's and would read Low Flying  when he lived near to Swindon. I then drove his x flow when he lived in northern italy and spent some hours with the club mag again. Everytime i would feel the same and desperately wanted a Seven. But without a garage or to be honest any money i just was not prepared to go into debt for the 'want'. So now i have an endowment that will finish this spring that is funding this car [not immediatley Ian, i do have some money]. It was hard paying £47 a month in the early years and my budget was tight even to the extent of no pubs for a couple of months. I was saying this to the salesman at Oakmere and afterwards realised that to some it sounds ridculous as they may spend that amount on Sky or a phone. Well in my time we were told we could buy a house with it. Which was wrong by the way which is why the savings are now there for a car.
    Many thanks to all so far. Now my own chapter can start - well it can when the car is ready.
    See you out there. - Rich - fully endorsing Ian
  9. arty
    "How's things my end?" Asks Ian from PTsports cars -- thought i would post my reply.. 
    Oh you know , you have probably heard it so many times before. Another evening spent on you tube watching others in their Caterhams. Just the sound is energising. I'm so looking forward to my drive home from yours [[Windsor to Settle, N Yorks ] via everywhere. Its going to be B road tastic and weather allowing i will stay at someone's house to max the enjoyment.
    Its just going to be so good.
    Its like taking a bite from the apple for me as when i was 17 i was in the library reading Which mags on mpg for my first car. Thereafter it was always a Major factor. If we are going to Scotland, Cornwall or France climbing then its 60mph tops on the motorways to save  fuel and money .
    Thus this is such a break from normality, its letting the dog off the lead, letting someone else's off the lead, its buying a wig, changing my name. Its future Caterham ownership and lifestyle.
    Cool bring it on.
     
    R
     
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