Graham Hutton

Sounds like a basic error from the Caterham guys being complacent and they should definitely pay for the retest. Sorry to hear of your frustration. I took the long way to the IVA station when I did mine and spent as much time on the brakes as I did on the accelerator I reckon. I'm sure it'll be sorted soon

Definitely smart to get the dealer to present it but I do have a satisfied selfie from when I beat the beauracrats and passed!!! You chaps will love it when you get the car out on the road and start asking questions like, shall I take some nurofen before going out or wait until I get back 🙂

Well I never knew that was possible. If I had got Williams to do my IVA I could have been on the road 6 weeks earlier!!!!! I'm completely over it, honest....

That's very interesting. Can you use a normal CTEK type battery conditioner/trickle charger on a lithium battery?

nice colour scheme 🙂

Well done Ainsley! Brilliant job. I really hate to put a downer on anything but just be aware that the DVLA are a bit crap at turning around a V5 once you send off the IVA pass certificate. I had everything printed and ready and literally posted it on the way back from the IVA test centre......still took just under 6 weeks for the V5 to arrive though. And it was sunny every day just to spite me!! This was back in 2021 so perhaps they will have got their act together by now 🙂

I bet within a week of waiting you'll be sat in it in the garage making broom broom noises!!

As Cobar says, very important to bend those aluminium mounting plates so the front face is parallel, then slot the holes if necessary and use some extra spacing washers to make sure there is no residual bending stress in the radiator. Learned from experience I am afraid!

Hi ducatidentist - is it a carbon centre one you have?? I am looking for one of them!

When I fitted my engine and gearbox it touched the side just like yours but I managed to get it nudged over slightly by loosening the engine mounts at both the chassis and engine ends on both sides and then pulling it over with a strop before tightening it up, gearbox end first. It only moved a millimetre or two but it was enough.

I got 28 litres in mine the other day at the bottom of the red bit and that is as low as I have risked going before!!

It's very interesting. I also much prefer my car with a relatively stiff rear ARB. My Core 1 setup transformed the front massively but it took a bit of playing around to to get the rear to feel better. I actually ended up making some massive changes to the damper settings to make sure I could feel the difference and ended up settling on a setting which is about 75% of the way to the hardest setting. I found the most annoying bumps were those long duration ones like the dips you sometimes get on dual carriageways. The compression at speed took ages on a soft setting and was over much quicker and more comfortably with a stiffer setting. Not what I expected at all but to be honest, I am very happy with it now both on the road and the track.

Yep, go right ahead and enjoy the IVA experience, I thought it was fun. It's like giving birth......... but much more painful 🙂 

I had Simon at Meteor sort me out with some CORE 1 way adjustables with softer springs and digressive pistons and it is brilliant on the road and trackways. BUT whilst this made a decent improvement over my original Bilsteins, the first proper flat floor setup that I did after I had driven it for a couple of months completely transformed things. It was spectacularly better, more compliant, less skittish, less bump steer etc etc. So if you haven't had it setup like that first, I would strongly advise doing so before deciding whether to spend out on new kit.

Yes, I had to strip the pedal box off but somehow I had managed to get my lights adjusted correctly at home!!! My experience on the V5 was that it took 9 weeks of which every day was sunny!!!!!

Ainsley, my mods were combination of 3 things. Bending the aluminium brackets either side that hold the radiator mounts to ensure the front flange was absolutely parallel to the radiator. Slotting the holes in those brackets to allow the bobbins to better line up with the radiator holes. Using washers behind two of the bobbins so that all 4 bolts pinched up equally. Last thing to note is that if you go for a radtec radiator, they site further forward so the top hose needs to be a it longer. If I was building a new car now, I'd genuinely stick the caterham radiator up for sale and go straight for the radtec.

Ha! I'm sure you'll smash it out of the park Ainsley. You seem to be taking a lot of care.

Yes, no doors and mirrors on windscreen stanchions.

I was chuffed that the only thing Williams found to do on my PBC was to add a single cable tie to the end of the throttle cable where it joins the inlet manifold. I still have no idea why either, it seems completely pointless. Oh, and they lent me the collapsible steering column too.

Yes to both. I got my car insured from when the kit arrived. It is a cheaper premium during the build which steps up when the IVA was passed.

The sequence is important Ainsley, you want to start with the longest runs from the master cylinder and work back towards it. If you have the big brakes, don't forget there is a bleed nipple on the inside and outside. The recommendation is to do the inside nipple first so that all bubbles are eliminated up to that point before before moving on to the outside one. This seemed to work well for me anyhow 🙂 

Yes, you can definitely drive to the IVA. I throughly enjoyed doing so as it was a beautiful day and the journey home was even better.....and a bit longer 😉

I would say it is helpful to bed the brakes in properly on the way. I think that helped as my handbrake was still a little bit marginal at the time of the test. You also need to turn up with nearly full fuel in the car I seem to recall. I found a fuel station a few miles out of my way so I could enjoy the journey!!

I use the Sealey one and it seems great.

What a brilliant little app! Will try it next time I'm out in the Caterham.

Thanks

My kit was delivered in 2020 but my reg was 1/4/21. I only wish the DVLA would also recognise how low impact our caterhams are and stop charging us so much for road tax!

Sorry to hear that John. Looking for parts seemed to be a recurring theme for me too. I was adamant that they had only given me one of the carbon rear wing protectors until it tuned up packed in between the two rubber floor mats in a completely different box to the other one!

I'm enjoying my motamec side mirrors on the aero screen but I need a carbon post mounted central mirror that matches...... and Motomec don't make one! Anyone know of one that looks very similar?