Paul D

I don't really rate Glen Coe as a great drivers road - mostly it's too straight - but go early enough on the right day and it's still brilliant.

Routes / roads.

Just like in Dorset, getting out early paid off with quiet roads. Add some excellent weather over a long middle weekend meant I got about 1200 Scottish miles in, and just over 2000 miles including the English parts (two days each way doing as many roads on my hit list as possible).

Scottish highlights (many as described in the thread above):

• Dukes Pass North of Aberfoyle (so good I turned round and did it again the other way), a quintessential Caterham Seven road
• A816 Oban to Lochgilphead (still my favourite road anywhere in the UK)
• A82 Tarbet to Inverarnan (another historic favourite, did it twice)
• A702 Dalveen Pass (nice and quiet even at midday on a Friday)
• A815 along Loch Eck
• A814 Garelochead to Arrochar (my old commute 25 years ago, got all four wheels off the ground just like old times, but wasn't as quick as I was in my Escort in my fearless twenties!)
• A86 Spean Bridge to Laggan
• A889 Laggan to Dalwhinnie
• B842 Campbeltown to Carradale (but the rest of the Kintyre pennisula roads weren't worth it just for that one)

A822 Sma'glen was probably great but I was stuck in traffic and its too twisty to overtake for most of it.

Take care about the average speed cameras along the A85 either side of Crianlarich.

I was amused by the racing line painted guidance into corners on many of the roads; for motorbikers with more HP than talent!

Fuel in and around Argyll.

E5 was a lot easier to come by than I expected, the only place that let me down was the Green Welly Stop at Tyndrum which I was a little surprised by as the amount of bikers that were there on a sunny Saturday lunchtime you would have thought they could sell as much Super unleaded as they could get their hands on. 

E5 confirmed available at the following places (May 2024):

In Argyll and Highlands:

• Dunoon BP
• Cot House Jet (near Dunoon)
• Helensburgh Esso
• Dumbarton Morrisons
• Campbeltown Esso
• Fort William Morrisons (although they had run out when I was there, hence went to Esso)
• Fort William Esso
• Lochgilphead Esso

Travelling there and back:

• Moffat Esso
• Sanquhar independent

I confirmed no E5 only E10 at the following places:

• Strachur filling station
• Arrochar Gulf
• Tyndrum Green Welly Stop

I finally managed to do a two week work trip with the C7 in the last couple of weeks and thought I'd drop a few notes onto the end of this thread for anyone else that finds it when searching.

I was based near the village of Strachur on Loch Fyne.

6'2" in an S3, and with practice have found I can get in reasonably quickly if (with the steering wheel removed and a little cover fitted over the splines as I always drag my leg on the greased part) I climb in with my left leg, put backside halfway up the rear of the seat then, holding myself in that position with the left leg, drag my right foot past the dashboard and into the footwell.

Still causes some mirth from onlookers but is at least over with in seconds. 

Had a search but couldn't find an answer so...

What would people consider the maximum safe weight to hold in the boot of a seven? 20kg? 25kg? If spread and not point-loaded?

Car is a 2008 metric chassis Roadsport if that makes any difference (just in case the superlights had paper thin boot linings).

I need to transport my pile of gold bars incognito. 😉

On 06/01/2024 at 08:47, J Seddon said:

I may have a tall track day bar, single diagonal for sale. It's off a 2002 S3 so imperial. Not sure if it can be made to fit?

I will admit I don't know whether an imperial roll bar will fit a metric car. PM me a price and location and I'll have a think.

Mine is a 99.9% road car, I just fancy a track day after two years of ownership. I really don't want a full cage for road only use, for numerous reasons including seat access, never intend removing the windscreen and minor worries about my un-helmeted head rattling off the cage as I'm 6'2" and don't have a lowered floor (yet).

I have a friend who races MX5s who can get me a rollbar made; what spec do I need to comply with for club track days?

I've failed to spot any that have come up for sale over the last six months early enough as they sell quickly, so let's see if a wanted and will work.

I'm after anything that will swap out for my standard roll bar to allow me onto the club track days. 

On 26/05/2023 at 20:27, SLR No.77 said:

I have some somewhere that will be available but you might need to bear with me, we've recently moved house!  Some years ago a club member arranged to have the lens supplier supply the various components to enable the lenses to be made up as you need, IIRC I bought two full sets but have never used them.  I'll start digging over the weekend.

Stu.

Hi Stu. Did you ever find these? I had forgotten about it until today.

Yes, Autoglass last summer via Adrian Flux insurance.

They went to Caterham and bought a full screen and surround as obviously Caterham themselves won't sell official glass-only.

The only hitch was they were insistent I went to Southampton not Poole as they had an experienced guy there who would fit it.

So I drove the C7 instead of the estate car...then they just handed it to me and looked nonplussed when I asked about the fit. But seen as I had preferred to fit it myself in the first place, I just swapped it out there and then having done a few screen swaps before, took about 15 minutes.

Perfect, thanks for that!

In a couple of weeks the planets look like they might align and I may be able to take the C7 up to Argyll, Scotland whilst working up there for a couple of weeks.

I used to live in Glasgow so I know many of the roads in the area but I am looking for suggestions for up to 200 ish mile routes for the few days off I might get whilst I'm up there. I'm looking for driving experiences not slow roads to good views.

So far I have two in mind:

Arrochar - Crianlarich (love this road if you get a clear run) - Fort William - Spean Bridge - Laggan - Pitlochry (anything better than the boring A9 for this bit?) - Killin - Aberfoyle - Faslane - Arrochar (also love this road along Loch Long, proper rally special stage).

Inverary - Dalmally - Oban - Lochgilphead (another favorite road) - Inverary (used to do this loop in my old hot hatch when I was younger)

Questions:

I've never been south of Lochgilphead; do the roads go to singletrack? Worth a drive to Cambeltown?

Anything worth driving south of Greenock if I get the ferry across from Dunoon?

I don't know the area to the east of a Glasgow-Callander north-south line; any bucket list roads around  there without going all the way across to Perth etc?

Stu, that would be ace, thank you!

I am on the search for a pair of rear light glass covers that (centre to outside) are red-red-clear.

I have the JAL LED rear lights and currently have the clear-red-clear glass that comes with them (like the picture below), but I dislike how pink the LED brake lights are.

I still have the original light glass in the parts box but I found it impossible to separate to get the red brake-light side apart, and don't want to go back to the yellow indicator glass by using the whole original glass unit.

Has anybody seen a red-red-clear glass I can buy off-the-shelf?

Either new or used (possibly even scruffy used ones if very cheap!). Anything considered. What have you got?

I have a black frame with some cracked glass in it. However, probably of no help to you as it's in Dorset and I'm not back there until after Easter. Let me know if you don't find anything else and maybe we can work something out.

I've got a black S3 screen in which the glass is broken (I went down the insurance replacement and they did me an entire screen.

If you don't find a complete one and mine is any use to you drop me a message. It's in Dorset but I could post as they can't do anything worse to the glass!

I will have an S3 one available once I switch it out for my other one just repainted. Separate & logo and mesh pieces (from memory).

#10

Likewise, mine switch from the DRL white halo to the amber flash. Haven't yet assessed how visible they are with the headlights on as only fitted them this summer.

I'm agnostic about how visible my indicators to some extent (as I know they are more visible than many current cars as you allude to). I just don't want an MOT fail at the start of next year and have to reinstate the indicators, or have an insurance company suggest my illegal indicator setup might be contributory if I have a crash. Might go and have a conversation with my tame MOT tester down the road as it'll be his say so on the MOT in the spring.

Thanks for the thoughts so far.

Yeah, keeping wing repeaters, it's just the simplest solution to me destroying my cycle wings when I forget and go to full lock as I bump up the dropkerb onto my drive!

https://www.instagram.com/tv/Cd1d7P1KUUp/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=.

Another members vid, mine are the same but halo ring rather than horizontal bar. MOT stations generally ok with these if I remove the original indicators and just leave the headlights and wing repeaters?

I've been debating for a while what to do about my cyclewings touching my indicators at full lock. As I have LED headlights with indicator function as well as wing repeaters, can any one confirm whether these will likely still pass an MOT if the original front indicator pods are completely removed?

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