mossy7

700newtons, That's really interesting. Mine was originally a 2015 S3 Roadsport 125 in plain red. I have since had the engine and other bits added. Do you think it may be one of your five? Lotus boy, thanks for the info. Andy

Turns out that my S3 Roadsport was originally a "Schools car." Can any one enlighten me some more on this? Purely out of interest in the history of my 7. ( although it may explain some of the slightly less perfect detailing! )

Caterham say the narrowest front track is 1220mm, that being on a 160. I don't know if that is measured centre to centre of the tyre or outer edge to outer edge. What Seven have you got?

SWMBO and I in the Seven today spotted a Gritter lorry going the other way. It's 28 degrees!

A week or so later and I have done some tinkering. I am by no means an engineer or mechanically minded. I wouldn't dream of changing an engine for example or playing with the electrics. ( you pay people to do that stuff don't you?) I could probably stretch to changing the brake pads or discs but I really don't want to. My tinkering therefore has been somewhat limited. I have put some badges on. Step fathers day presents. Proper ones mind you. From Caterham. All period like. Self adhesive they are. I managed that and they are straight! I also managed to find some adhesive backed Carbon effect material that is identical to the stuff used for the stripes on the car. A fair bit of mucking about later, ( I even made a template.. get me!) and both lower front A frames are all nicely protected from stone chips. Look cool too. I have some plans in hand. I am thinking of getting the minillites powder coated either dark grey or black. I had wondered about the rear wheels looking lost in the arches but the more I read, the better smaller wheels seem to be, so I will keep the 14s I have. ( dont want to loose too much ride height by dropping to 13s as loads of speed bumps these days) I may upgrade the brakes to some nice looking cross drilled ones and some performance pads. Wheels first I think. I have a few bits on order from soft bits, and that's about it. Mind you, I haven't yet polished it. Hmmmmmmm.

And so I finally managed to work out how to upload another picture. This one is of the car when I picked it up. Is it just me or do the rear wheels look a bit lost in the arches? Would spacers help? Should I upgrade to 8 inches at the back? Or should I leave well alone? I am reminded of KISS. ( keep it simple stupid)

DIARY PART TWO. It's been two weeks now that the 7 has been home. I have only really be out a couple of times. Today was the longest. A one hour blat ended up being nearly three hours. All on roads I know well. The motorway journey from Crawley had left me a little under whelmed to be honest. I know motorways are not the natural habitat of the 7 but even so I was left feeling disappointed in the performance. It didn't seem to have the snap in acceleration I had expected. I was wondering if 140 bhp really was right or had I got it wrong. Today was the opportunity to really find out. It could all have been an expensive mistake. It wasn't. It's perfect. The engine redlines at over 7000rpm and I haven't got anywhere over 6000rpm yet. The limiting factor isn't the car or the engine, it's the roads. So bumpy are they round here, anything more than 7/10ths acceleration has the car all over the place. And that is quite fast enough thank you. It sounds amazing. It had me grinning like an idiot all morning. In fact, even now, 10 hours later I am still grinning! I haven't got anywhere near the performance envelope of this car on a road. I doubt if I took it on a track I even would then. It suits me just fine. Fast enough to be be a riot but slow enough to be sensible. I have a few tidying jobs to do. Some carpet to stick down. I have sorted a trickle charger already. And I am scanning the forum for ideas. I have wanted a 7 seven since I was a teenager. Nearly 40 years later and I finally have one. It's not the fastest by any means. It's not got all the latest bits. In Caterham circles it probably won't get a second glance. But it's mine. It's all I have ever wanted. I have my wife to thank for telling me you only live once, so get one. She even quite likes it too. I feel rather lucky. I just need to get out, meet up with like minded souls and enjoy. Blat anyone?

I thought I would write a small blog of my Seven. I had always wanted one and could never really afford it. I ran a Westfield for a year when I was 30 and loved every second of it. When circumstances forced it to go, I promised myself a Caterham by the time I was 40. That came and went and no Caterham appeared in my garage. I while later, a long while later, my life took some turns. I met my wife. I sold my house. I had some money. I mentioned the Caterham. A car show later and she told me to do it. A day later and I had. I started at what I thought was the best place, and contacted Caterham South. I knew I didn't need much power, I knew I needed to keep my licence. A 270 seemed ideal but as I had neither the skill nor the time a factory build was the option. They told me a six month waiting list. That wasn't ideal so I explained exactly what I wanted and they came up trumps. A Roadsport 125 in the showroom, 9 months old, 2000 miles on it. Deposit paid and it went into the workshop for a full Supersport 140 conversion, LSD and a rear anti roll bar. I added some carbon stripes, a QR steering wheel and 4 point harness. And waited whilst they did it. It took ages. Weeks. Couple of months actually. But it was less than the 6 months for a new one so all good. The day came to pick it up from Caterham. I worried about the weather. I had seen some pictures but in the flesh it looked great. There was a problem. The brake lights were stuck permanently on. The switch was the culprit. Something maybe to do with moving the pedal box to accommodate my less than long leg length. It took an hour to sort. Above and beyond by James who couldn't have been better and I was on my way. The journey was scary. Motorway most of the way. 2 hours of hot, noisy, intimidating hard work. I was exhausted when I got home. But I had my 7. Finally.

Thanks Martyn and Sig7, that certainly puts my mind at rest. Cheers.

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Jonathan, thanks for the reply. I have found the local group and that probably is the best approach. I just wondered if it was a common thing or problem that others had come across, I have searched the forum but not found anything relevant.

Hi, I picked up my new ( to me anyway) 7 yesterday. It's a Sigma 140. There is a distinct noise rather like tappets from the engine. I suspect it's the injectors or a " they all do that Sir" something, but as its my first Caterham and I wasn't clever enough to build it myself I wondered if its a problem or just normal?