Dreamer

The wife says its purple with grey interrior. So this may be the car (advert) that influenced the original owner. Now to search for a copy for my archives.

Oh, I know how rare this little jewel is. I've tried tracking down both an HPC and a 16 Valve one and there are just none to be found, at any price. Closest I found is 4 plastic (vinyl) 40mm HPC stickers for wheel center caps. at 100 Euros plus approx. 14 Euros for postage to Canada. That's like $169 CDN.

The best gift was in that little white Lotus box. Early on in the auction the seller said that there was no Caterham badging or logos. The owner had switched everything he could over to Lotus. Later he said they found the Caterham nose badge but did not elaborate on which it was. It might have been plain or the 16 Valve model as this was a knocked down kit. To my great surprise I discovered it was the proper, original HPC nose badge and I don’t think it’s ever been on the car. In one of the assembly binders the wife found a detailed list of notes that the buyer sent to the dealer re: Special Instruction for Assembly. He very clearly states that the Caterham badge was not to be mounted. Instead they were to mount the Lotus badge he had sent them. Also, that heavy duty camera mount that was in the auction photos came with the car. It wasn’t listed and I thought it belonged to the photographer who took the shots and videos for the auction site. I’ll write up a bit more later.

Well... my car finally showed up. It was delivered to the shop that is doing the safety inspection. The seller had packed all the extra bits in the boot and passenger foot well. Included was about 30+ issues of Low Flying. They start August 1993 and go through to I think December 1996. What I found very interesting is that the back cover of the 93's through to the March 1994 issues have the same ad showing a Series 1 and what appears to be a Series 3 HPC. My wife tells me that the HPC shown is painted in the same Cadbury's purple colour as my car. So, who knows what about the car in this ad?

Funny how so many of us have a background in drafting. I hope your board finds a good home. I still have mine complete with the then, latest of drafting machines. It’s an indexing head on a movable arm with two rules set at 90 degrees. I wanted to be a designer but ended up doing civil drafting for first the Ministry of Revenue, Assessment Office and then, the City of Oshawa, Planning and Development department. I went on to spend over 40 years in the precision sheet metal trade. The last dozen years as a CNC programmer for punch presses and laser cutters. Yes, I sat in front of CAD computer using a specialized software package. BUT… my years of sitting at a drafting table gave me a leg up on my co-workers. It didn't hurt that my drafting teacher (Norm Sterling) literally wrote the book used to teach high schools students. When I was working on the floor I had my drafting table at my work station. I could quickly markup blue prints on the fly as changes were made to products. Later as the Quality Control Manager my drafting table came in handy for many projects both on and off the books.

Yep... oldtimers ya know. The first one was just a test anyway.

Jonathan, that is perhaps a better solution. People don't need to know all the other info, just your name. In the meantime I created my own name tag showing the three main 7 owners clubs I am a paid member of.

Being new to the club I was very happy to receive my membership card. Even more so when I discovered it fit into a clip on, clear plastic name tag holder I had on my desk. Problem is my name is printed rather small. If I was at a meet and saw someone wearing their membership card as a name tag I’d have to get right up into their business to be able to read their name. Would it be possible to decrease the size of the logo in the lower right corner, the club’s name up the left side and motor sport UK | Recognised Club in the upper right corner? Thereby giving more real estate for the members name to be printed in a larger type face. I did a quick mock up but forgot to move the Solid Line up. It’s just a thought.

I might as well join in here too. In for a penny in for a pound as they say. There are a growing number of seven owners in the southern Ontario region. Some of us are on the USA7's forum as well as others being members of the Lotus Club of Canada. There are three or four of us planning a day trip around Prince Edward County sometime this spring. We are also going to the British Car Day At Bronte Creek Provincial Park between Hamilton and Oakville in September. https://britishcarday.com/BCD/

The invoice for my car shows the engine number as KD-2673-VX However, the section of the VIN that is for the engine number stamp is blank. This is very common for CKD (kit) cars. I understand that some people did have an engine number stamped by the factory on their VIN plate as the engine was shipped with the kit. BUT… Where the heck did this character string come from? The four digits coincide with four from my car’s VIN and VX obviously is for Vauxhall. What does the KD stand for? Why do other HPC's not have a similar character string? What significance (if any) does the engine number have? Are these numbers actually stamped on the engine someplace?

I've been in contact with Martin Phipps. As can be expected, things are in flux due to the relocation. If he can find anymore info/documents/photos it may not be until sometime in April. Thanks for the links.

I am looking for any and all info on my “new to me” 1993 Caterham Super Seven HPC Evo. The original owner was a member here. There are 40 issues of the club magazine coming with the car. The seller has two pieces of paper from Mr. Phipps. One is an order confirmation notice from the US dealer with hand written notes. The other is the Caterham build sheet. The first document makes a curious statement; “I know that your car will attract the same envy and admiration that the factory show car did at the London show.” Hand written with an arrow pointing to this text is the words “Purple Car/Grey Int. On the second document under the section titled “Non-Standard Paint Colour is printed the words “Cadbury’s Purple”. In the section “Additional Notes” the last of eight options is ‘S’ Type in Grey as per Cadbury show car”. This is in a different hand & pen than the other 7 items and seems to have a signature over top of it. So, my car is thought to be a copy of a London show car. My questions are: What year/which show? Had to be prior to April 1993, the date of the first document. Is there any documentation and better yet, photos/videos of this show car on the Caterham stand or anywhere? I have found a BBC video on YouTube of the 1991 Earls Court Motofair in London. However the Caterham they show is a Blue HPC that has a plate with the word Auberge on it. That is of course in reference to Chris Rea’s song, video and album of the same name where his personal Blue Seven was showcased. After days of searching this site, (there are over 1040 pages referencing HPC) I’m going blind. 😉