Dreamer

The mechanic that checked over my car when it first came to Canada had that very unpleasant experience the second morning the car was in his shop. He found a lot of crud in the carbs and so he cleaned them. Obviously the car had sat for a long time and stale gasoline and what not was working its way through the fuel system. I asked about adding a fuel filter but he said only if it happens again. I’ve top the tank up twice now and traveled over 250 miles without a repeat. However, it does sputter and pop and smells like it is running very rich. So having them properly set up by someone who knows is on the “to do” list.

We attended our first car show this past Saturday. It had rained overnight and although the roads were drying up come morning it was still nippy and damp. A couple of minutes in the car with the hood up and the windows started to fog. The heated windshield cleared up right quick but the side windows took a couple of kilometers with the heater on. Had to take the bonnet off and force the cable back to shut the valve. I don’t know if it’s ever been used. Here in the Great White North a heater and heated windshield is needed if you wish to drive your seven more than 5 months of the year. As for tool storage, I’d put things I would need for under the bonnet repairs like clutch or throttle cable repair/replacement under the bonnet. However, for tire repairs I would not want to have to remove the bonnet if I didn’t have to. Where do I put it to protect it from getting damaged? So the jack and handle etc. will stay in the boot. On my old 900 Ducati I have a couple of small zippered canvas bags that hang from the frame rails behind the seat panels. If I can find some bigger I’ll do similar in the engine bay. There is a small area in front of the heater that could be utilised but it would have to be removable as there is an access hole that anything there would cover. The first photo shows the wife relaxing after cleaning all the mud of the car. the second shows the engine bay shelf area that might be used for tools and spare parts.

Don’t think of this as me hijacking your thread but rather I’m piggy backing on your thread with my story (sorry for the length) as a preamble to our own funny way of ingress and egress with the hood up. I had a list of items I wanted to get done on the car and true to “Life with a Seven”; every one of them is giving me fits. I won’t bother you with all of them but I will talk about the biggest problem right now. Those damn hood sticks, the straps and getting the hood on. My car didn’t come with hood sticks. I had to order a new set. These new sticks came with the holes are on the wrong side. Using a small diameter bit I drilled through the internal fastener and out the other side of the tubes. Then I drilled a clearance sized hole from that other side. I wasn’t sure that the threads of the internal fixed fastener were undamaged so I decided to purchase longer 10-32 cap screws and nyloc nuts. I get the drilling done on one side and the power goes out. This is around 10:30 am a week ago last Sunday. First Hydro posted that it would be fixed by 1:00 pm which became 2:00 pm. When they posted again it was going to be 3:00 pm the wife and I went into town to pick up supplies and grab a bite. She had been shining up the bright work, cleaning/polishing the paint (the rear panel of the car behind the spare is nasty) and was going to detail the interior. We got back at 4:30pm just as the power came back on. From then until 8:00 ish we fought with the hood (roof). Turns out after looking at a half dozen videos and pages of photos I learned that older S3’s like mine have the hood stick mounting tabs welded flush with the outside skin. New Caterhams have that same tab welded on the inside of the frame tubes. Hence, my brand new hood sticks are for a newer Caterham S3 and not the older style like mine. Too late now as I have already drilled and test mounted them. Next was attaching the straps. No instructions anywhere to be found. Lots of videos on how you can put up the roof in three to five minutes. None on how to affix those straps. I was horrified when I read in a build blog that I had to drill and use self-tapping screws to anchor the straps. Then what do you know, I found two holes in the boot of our car that would have been used for that very purpose. OK, what size screws should I use in these used holes? And, how do we attach the straps to the secondary tube as we could find no place for it to pass through. The wife figured it required a larger loop at the adjuster. It took two attempts on which way was up. We tried a test fit and that’s what killed it for us. We fought for over an hour, tried everything we could think of but there was just no way we could get the main tube to line up with the Velcro section in the roof. We can get it to within about a ½ inch but that’s it. The roof at this point is under so much tension and the main tube where it bends is pushing out the plastic side windows yet the area around the door is slack. It’s as if that main tube is too tall for my hood. Or, my hood isn’t tall enough for these sticks. I’m quickly learning I have no tolerance for things like this anymore. After fifty years the wife is very patient with me. But, only to a point. Once I start to stutter its downhill from there. So, we called it a night. The car sat for seveal days as I had to take the wife first for a scope on Monday. Tuesday I figured out that there was an area for the tube to slide through. I carefully took a knife and was able to separate the strap to reveal this hidden loop. Come Wednesday and it was another angiogram. Thursday she had cataract measurements and Friday morning she had to see our cardiologist. All things seem good with her so we went back at the hood after lunch. Nope, still won’t fit. I parked the car out in the sun hoping that the vinyl would heat up and we would be able to stretch it that little bit more that we needed to get all the fasteners done up and the sticks in place. Well that worked for the poppers and we got the main hoop into the Velcro but… The secondly tube will not move back into position. I’ve come to the conclusion that these sticks are to clear a taller roll bar and therefore the hood needs to be taller as well. My car had hood sticks for a long time as the paint is worn off around the mounting holes. Where they went, why they were not with the car now is a mystery. Also, this roof looks new and had the zip out rear window. Did Caterhams in the early 90’s have that feature? Anyway I included a photo of the wife working on the exhaust cover. It is covered in marks, tar and/or dried on rubber marbles from old track days. Back and forth I went looking through the Assembly Guides and checking on-line photos, diagrams and videos. Meanwhile the wife kept playing around. The longer the hood sat in the sun the easier things got. In one build thread the guy mentioned that unzipping the rear window made it all work. Before I got outside with this info the wife came into the computer room and told she had it on and all buttoned up. She said the trick was UNZIPPING the rear window. So, we fitted the spare tire back in place, (removed it to clean and reposition the cover) put the doors on and then spent ½ hour testing different methods of ingress and egress. The wife at 5’ 6”uses a butt first, legs in after approach with the reverse to exit. I tried a couple of different techniques. I’m only 5’ 4” but over weight at 180lbs. I found that putting my right foot on the seat, pulling my upper torso in, turning as I place my right foot into the foot well and with my butt half way into the seat drag my left leg and foot into the car as I slide down the seat back placing said left appendages into the foot well. Not graceful but it works for me. Happy with ourselves we took a little 50+ mile drive to fill up with gas. Then took the shorter 40 mile route back home. It was actually quite comfy in there with the hood up. It was about 10 degrees C (50F) outside but very windy. I had on a light sweater and the wife had on her heavier sweater and rabbit fur hat. Now we have rabbit fur all over the interior and the underside of the hood. Well, that’s her job to clean and also remove all the bugs off the windshield. A couple of new problems “popped” up. We both got out at different times and without realizing it we hit and unfastened the first popper behind the doors. Both times I drove off and once up to speed that side of the hood would start to sail off. This is not something that can be popped back on while moving. I think the hood and hood stick issues are sorted now. Although as I type this I realize I still have to screw the strap ends to the back of the boot. We’ll continue to refine our entry and exit moves. Here's a very short video of our drive with the hood up. First time using a phone to record video. https://youtu.be/5SixG5YLC9M

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. 😉