fordy

My new seven actually arrived back in late September 2018. Despite putting a sizeable budget together, I realised all of the cars that I really liked were located down south, I couldn’t be bothered with the trek though (I was ill at the time) so I bought the first one I saw locally. It wasn’t quite like that. Well, it was a bit.

I quickly decided to go down to the MADs area meet and another chap from LADs said he’d bring his seven to the meet for me to see. I’d been looking at his for sale ad quite obsessively for some weeks but it wasn’t really the kind of seven I thought I was looking for. I envisaged myself in an R300, blowing all of my budget and then some but there was just something about it that I really liked so I took a good look at it at the club meet. As previously mentioned, of upmost importance to me on old K series cars is the condition of the chassis and skins. They are notorious for corrosion and this car had been extremely well looked after by its 3 prior owners. Being a naked car, it can’t hide this sort of thing and the chassis and skins were just perfect. Unbelievable for a 22 year old car but with only 15K miles up it had evidently been cherished. Despite me actually liking the bare ali and red look with the ‘bingo wings', it still comes across as a bit ‘Robin Hood’ if you know what I mean. The spec is also a bit on the poverty side as a 1.6 base K series with absolutely no upgrades at all. Blank Canvas? I thought so, the price was right and so I bought it. First car I saw. What can I say? I was desperate to get back into a seven!

We took it directly to the Evo Triangle for a little familiarisation blat and took these snaps. Joy. Pure Joy.

We didn’t get to use it much over the winter period as other obsessions (yep, more vehicles) and more illness  took over but we have been thinking long and hard about what to do with this ‘blank canvas’. Just as in my previous periods of ownership, I started to follow the parts for sale on the forum and elsewhere and within weeks had brought home a 6 speed gearbox and a low miles VVC engine. I NEED the 6 speed and part of the adventure with this car is to complete some unfinished K series shaped business. Ultimately I want to build my own fancy engine and I know the humble 1.6 is probably not the right base so I jumped on the opportunity for a stock 1.8 VVC from a Caterham. The engine, box and apollo tank have sat there until spring.

I’ve learned the hard way before with a used 6 speed that if you put it in the car, you’ll take it directly back out again when it jumps straight out of second on the first drive. As its an ex-race 'box it would probably need a refresh anyway. “Only two races since Phil rebuilt it, honest guv!”. Yeah right. I ascertained it would need the drive gear for the speedo putting back in so off to Phil at Road and Race Transmissions it went for a check up. It did need a couple of new synchro rings so I was right to be cautious!

I’ve a bit of a dilemma now as I’d like to use the car for summer but the ever growing pile of bits are calling to find their way onto the car. More than anything I want to get the 6 speed in the car but if I'm having the engine out I may as well go the whole hog while the access is good and realise the emerging vision for this.

There is a strong vision now too but I’m not going to share that with you yet.
 

Yoroshiku Onegaishimasu

It was very nice to read your blog post. 7's and Japan are two of my favorite things :-)

It brought back the many happy memories of 3 years living in Tokyo.

kinds regards

Carl.

Great story :-)

Although I’ve had a few Caterhams in the distant past, this prepares me for what’s ahead. Some great reminders in there!