Graham Hutton

I am off to France in my Caterham in June and on another thread was very helpfully warned of the crit air sticker things you need in certain cities. The problem is that I can't seem to work out what one I need for my 2021 310R. I presume it must be to a pretty decent standard but does anybody know which? Thanks very much

Enjoy your build John. It is a pleasure. I also trimmed the full length of all the holes through the chassis skin as I think it looks better (personal opinion) It took a bit of cutting of the back section of the trim to get it past the tight bits. I also found that the holes in the skin for the steering rack were not quite in the right place and rubbed the rubber boots. Easy to grind a bit of the ally skin with the dremmel but worth checking before putting the trim on. Top tip is to WD40 the grinding stone otherwise the soft aluminium chokes it quickly. In terms of cardboard protection, I put some on the inside faces of the start of the transmission tunnel to help when sliding the gearbox down on engine install day. I have seen a few people who have torn the tunnel insulation and this helped avoid that mistake.......I made plenty of others though. No downside to sorting the front wishbones early except the wing stays will keep catching your legs! Have fun

I did the spiral of silicon sealant too and it has worked fine.

That IS a great idea! I keep thinking of building another one and a rebuild could be the perfect solution. II found the diff fairly easy too once I took the boot floor out. I used some pin punches in the bolt holes to get it suspended easily before taking one out at a time and bolting up. The headlights will be fine as long as you have 3 hands, each with 7 long fingers. They were a bit sniffy about the alignment of them at the IVA and it is not the easiest to adjust because when you undo the 22mm nut, everything just goes floppy. I marked the necessary alignment on the inside of my garage door with masking tape and set the beam pattern up. It passed the test, just!

Well done Ainsley. The build is a real pleasure because of these diversions.........well it is retrospectively! Have you done the headlights yet? That was the worst job by far!!

Here it is! IMG_3768.HEIC

Here is a picture of mine albeit on a sigma 310R engine. I think the starter motor is the same though.IMG_3768.HEICIMG_3768.HEIC

Cranbrook in East Devon?? It wasn't me by the way but I live nearby

My 310R kit had that exact cable arrangement and it worked brilliantly. It was just the +ve cable that was a bit too long and I kind of cable clipped it to the loom to keep it tidy. I did take a picture off the internet from a blog showing the cable connectors to the started motor to make sure I din't completely cock it up and I'm delighted that I didn't.......on that occasion 🙂

Aha, thanks. Nice motor! Looks like mainly a track car???

I think the LSD means they can't test the brakes properly on the rollers so at my IVA they did a test by blatting it around the yard and getting the fronts to lock. They used a decelerometer device in the car. I turned up with 18psi all around and it worked fine. The handbrake was a bit marginal though and after 3 years it only just scraped through it's first MOT too. Worth bedding in the rears with a few handbrake runs on the way to the test I reckon

To the chap in the Tesla with the 'Superlight R' I just got chatting to. Get in touch if you can and perhaps we can go for a blat. I'm still getting over how much faster my car was with the aeroscreen!!

btw, I had my MOT done at Volkscraft in Exeter and the owner (Matt Smith) was awesome. We basically did it together and he let me have a good poke around on the ramps. Noticed a few little things to fix etc (none of which affected the result). Will certainly go back next time.

Have fun! The build is a special time. I loved every second of it. Just had my first MOT this morning which means 3 years since I finished it. Where did that time go? When I finished the build I remember saying to my wife that I have enjoyed it so much it is hard to imagine I will have a similar number of enjoyable hours driving it. How wrong I was, it's been a blast and 9000miles later it's part of our family.

Thanks for the advice, much appreciated. In the end I opted for Volkscraft down on Marsh Barton. The guy who runs it is a racer and helped me setup the corner weights and geometry when I built the car. I'll let you know how I get on, if badly, I'll be off to Tipton St John!!

As a young structural engineer, I had that exact same drawing board in the design office in 1991! Brilliant bit of kit. I still work in the construction industry and for all the advances in computer based design software, none of it replaces brain power. As I say to young designers keen to rant on about the necessity of 3D modelling, Sir Christopher Wren seemed to manage OK when he designed St Pauls!

Good looking car! I did exactly the same thing when I built mine. I like the foam on the end of your front axle stands. How many times have you whacked your shins on them so far. I was quite good at that 🙂

My experience was similar but with some added bleeding knuckles and a whole bunch of grinding dust from the stemmed to clean out of the cockpit. Brilliant little upgrade though, gives you a few hours in the garage without interruption 🙂

I use the racetech mirrors from demon tweeks on the side stanchions and they work great on track days.

I'd be interested in the Caterham indoor car cover if you wanted to sell that on separately too...?

It's a great job to do though, the car looks much snazzier with the black catches

I like the idea of knocking out the pin first, great idea.

Be careful when you drill out the rivets for the old silver ones. It’ll be awful if, say, your drill bit snapped and put a horrible scratch in the side of your chassis skin……. Don’t ask me how I know….

Hi! My 310R is going to need its first MOT next month (where has that time gone!!) and I wondered if anyone has any experience of a decent test centre near Exeter that is used to doing Caterhams and may let me loiter around etc. All/any advice appreciated.

Sorry I missed this but I've been skiing! Err, what everyone else said!!!