Chris71

There's no shortage of K-Series powered ex racers for £10k ish, and that's only marginally less than I paid for it, so I was slightly surprised by the level of interest the car generated. Several people called the day it went up and it has now been sold. I'm sure I'll be back at some point, but for the time being I'm off to find something a little more cossetting and practical for long distance touring.

Fully road legal ex-racecar. Only one previous owner who campaigned it very successfully in the Scottish Caterham Championship during 2001-2004 before re-commissioning it as a road car last year. It's now SVA'd with a full-height heated screen and sidescreens, two seats and a recent conversion to Caterham road-spec springs and dampers. Good mechanical/structural condition and an excellent spec that includes: * 1.6-litre Supersport K-Series (circa 140bhp) prepared by Minister Power * 6-speed close ratio gearbox * Limited slip diff * Wide track * Caterham dry sump system * Recent Soft Bits for Sevens half hood * 13" Minilites with CR500s all round * Cross braced roll bar, four-point harnesses and MSA cut off Taxed until 28th Feb 2011 SVA'd and correctly registered MOT exempt until 7th May 2012 I've owned the car for a year and a half during which time I've given it new road-spec springs and dampers, a new starter motor, new steering UJ and a new dry sump catchtank, as well as carrying out the starter motor 'relay mod'. All parts were genuine Caterham items and fluids (changed once) were Mobil 1 to recommended spec. I've kept a record of the work done on the car whilst I've had it and there are various receipts and bits of history from the previous owner too. Car has been garaged and seen dry use only during my ownership. The reason for sale is a change of job which means I rarely have the time to play with such an uncompromising toy or take it on track, so I'm looking for a more practical GT (Coincidentally, a Lotus Excel or front-engine Porsche in very good condition may be considered in part-ex!) The car has covered 3,966 recorded miles since being put on the road and I estimate its mileage before that to be less than 5,000 miles with an engine rebuild said to have taken place in the middle of its racing career. The downsides are largely cosmetic: There are various stonechips to the aluminium body (some quite deep) and several areas of cracking or crazing to the fibreglass wings. The interior is pretty spartan with no carpets and there is no heater currently. The chassis has no significant areas of rust (unlike many of this era!) but could do with a preventative coat of POR15 to ensure it remains that way; the alternator belt is slipping on start up; there's an intermittent fault with the oil pressure sender; and it currently has a secondhand de-cat exhaust, which may need to be changed for the MOT emissions test (in 2012!) I've kept these odd jobs (and the cosmetics) in mind when pricing the car and I will also throw in the spares package (including a full cage for racing and a set of racing springs and dampers) in for the stated asking price of £9,975 Some potos here: Roadsport A gallery and here: Pistonheads ad PM for more information, more photos or to arrange a viewing. (edited to add mileage) Edited by - Chris71 on 7 Oct 2010 19:43:32

When you say parts... What's actually involved? I assumed it was just a single bolt.

I keep driving past a Vauxhall-era 7 (an HPC perhaps?) in the Whetstone area of North London, often on Friern Barnet Road. Anyone on here?

Yep, that's where I thought it would go. I don't have one of those I'm afraid. The slot is there (obviously), but not the bolt.

Will double-double check, but we had a pretty good look before!

Ah, okay, I think I got the wrong end of the stick - so it is only those three bolts and you have to apply the tension manually? Hmm, wonder what the problem was last time, I could swear something wasn't quite right, but I can't remember what...

This is basically what I did before with the help of a friend who is knowlegable in all things Caterham. The thing is, he reckoned the fixings were different to normal and we had some trouble tensioning it, we only just managed to up the tension and that solved the problem for a few months, but now it's back... It only occurs on start up and when you have a very rapid change of engine speeds, blipping the throttle to change down, so I presumed it was just a little loose.

That's because the bracket on there - which sticks out at right angles rather than sweeping forward - places the tailpipe too far back to clear the rear wing if it's on top. It's the previous owner's bodge basically, and one which leads to the exhaust grounded (hence why I'm looking to change it). I just wanted to make sure there wasn't any other reason for the non-standard bracket being on there.

Sorry, couple of numptie questions, but thought it wise to check... My alternator belt has started squealing badly again and there's no obvious means of tensioning it as it stands. There are only the three main bolts: alternator fixings Looking at the Caterham website I gather there's usually an adjustor bolt on the right hand side of this shot, but it's not present on mine. I presume it's just a missing bolt rather than a different type of adjustor or anything? Presumably once I've sourced a bolt all I need to do is losen the top mounting bolt and the bottom right mounting bolt, set the belt tension (just 'twangable'?) and then do the other two up again? There's no obvious sign of damage to the belt, but it has been slipping quite a bit on start up (on and off) for a while - should I replace it do you reckon? Secondly, the rear mounting point for my exhaust has what looks like a DIY bracket: bracket pic I take it'll be a straight swap for the normal S3 Rover bracket (https://www.caterhamparts.co.uk/product_info.php?products_id=3164&osCsid=73faa81852190a57c096b8593ccf668d) - i.e. there's not a special Roadsport A exhaust or anything like that? Can anyone remember how the bracket is attached to the chassis - is there a captive bolt or something or am I going to have to remove the inner skin of the door to get to it? Edited by - Chris71 on 31 Aug 2010 12:22:22 Edited by - Chris71 on 31 Aug 2010 12:23:55

Thanks all. Will take a look, sounds like a worthwhile upgrade. Edited by - Chris71 on 26 Jul 2010 12:05:57

Cheers gents. So is it likely to be the sender itself as opposed to the wiring? It's due for an oil change before too long, so I presume that'd be a good time to pop a new sender in? (I take it this isn't something you want to do with however-many litres of oil in there!)

Hi, The oil pressure readings on my 1.6 Supersport (ex Roadsport A) are a bit eratic. Normally it reads a little over 4 bar under load and a little over 2 when idling. However, occasionally it'll drop right down - either for a split second or sometimes a couple of minutes - before returning back to the normal level for the conditions. The engine runs okay and there are no signs of significant oil loss (the dry sump system coughs up a tiny bit into the catch tank, but we're talking millilitres since the last oil change) so I assume it's a sensor or wiring fault. The only thing is sometimes it drops right off the dial as you'd expect from a dodgy connection, but sometimes it drops very low but still reads (<1 bar), which is a bit more alarming. Is it possibly a very high resistance on a poor connection with some voltage still getting through?

Hi, Occasionally my oil pressure gauge registered a very low signal or drops out altogether. The oil level is fine, there's no sign of any consumption and the engine runs well, so I'm assuming it's a gauge or sender issue. Are these common and what's the best way to diagnose it? Cheers, Chris

I know broadly speaking it's a question that's come up before, but this is a tiny bit different. Rather than normal road or track use I'm off to a drift day in a couple of days time to finish off the remains of my CR500s and I wondered what people would suggest in terms of pressures? Obviously I'm not worried about outright grip at all, I'm just trying to get as much use out of them as possible before I stick the new set on for the drive home. The general consensus does seem to be that it's woth raising the pressures, but nobody can agree on how much! Chris