AntonyH

Orange with twin black stripes, tillets, FIA double-diagonal rollbar; White with twin lime green stripes, leather seats, standard bar; Yellow with single dark green stripe with white tramlines, leather seats, standard bar in yellow. In convoy through Cley on Tuesday, all (I think) 2-up. My cousin may have babbled something about how his cousin had a Caterham, at the crew in the white car as he hastily took several pictures from the garden of the George Hotel.

Very green R500, including green roll bar. Appeared behind two of us in traffic just before we had to stop for fuel (I was on vapours!). Half expecting to see you later on that evening at the Cheshire & North Staffs meet, but apparently not. Being totally masked in black, you blended into the tillet perfectly, giving the impression of a driverless Caterham at first glance!

It's that time of year again... Here are our July 2016 numbers: 2005 Roadsport SV / 1.8K / 140bhp / 7,000 road miles / fully comp / self+MrsH / garaged / suburbia / licences since 1989 and 1995 / no points / no convictions / one DVLA-aware medical condition / legal fee cover / no track / Caterham owners since 2012. Excesses are total / windscreen replacement / windscreen repair, wherever we got that far on the call. COMPANY PRICE EXCESSES NOTES Adrian Flux £181.59 (£100 / £75 / £0) Glynwood £228.00 A-Plan £230.86 (£150 / £90 / £0) 6,000-9,000 mile bracket Peter James £232.65 MSM £236.56 7,500 miles. Relies on mirroring 5+ years NCD on MrsH's tintop. Classic Line £265.86 (£150) 7,500 miles Crosby £278.26 (£250) Lloyd & Whyte £280.41 (£200 / £80) 5,000-10,000 mile bracket I've had 10,000 miles for the last two years because Lloyd & Whyte were offering such a bargain price it wasn't worth not taking them up. However, we have been within 7,000 miles for the last couple of years, and L&W's previous underwriter has withdrawn from the market. As a result, apparently, their quote was up by £50 this year, from last, despite another claim-free year of experience, whilst their excess got a bit worse. The fact they're now the official "Caterham Insurance Services" broker is, I'm sure, irrelevant. A-Plan's price was looking excellent had 7,000 miles not been enough; for a mere £15 more they also offered a dizzying 12,000 miles, so worth a look if that's a factor.

Glad that's sorted Dave.

I think I've spotted the problem Simon - your car looked a bit high at the front...

For a small fee I'm sure MrsH would be willing to sell 24-hour non-driving part-shares in her Defender, on competition days.

Cracking run at the very end of the day. We thought Simon's T2 time was going to be "it".

Michael, I think Lyn was wondering when you were going back to finish the excellent ploughing job you'd started on the infield.

We tried that in the paddock office too, but Chris insisted we record the actual times... What a cracking weekend, thanks everyone. The Saturday BBQ was great, I can't remember laughing so hard for so long at a competition weekend for quite some time (comparing against weekends of other sports I've been involved in, not other L7C or other sprint weekends). Note to self, don't have that final beer just before bedtime when the bathroom is more than a stumble across the landing away... Sorry, too much information, probably... The August event is in the diary, see you again there.

Both sold, thank you gents.

Mark, you have first dibs on one strap; first first dibs was also on one of the pair. See you at Curborough.

Noted Mark, second dibs on one.

First dibs on at least one of these (possibly both, checking) has been claimed, provisional on viewing at Curborough on the 15th. Second / subsequent dibs still being taken, obviously.

Both sold, thanks! Posted in the general "for sale" area, but of possible interest to a sprinter wanting to add a crotch strap to an existing 4-point harness. http://www.lotus7.club/forum/sale/titon-6-point-crotch-straps-clip ​Came with Titons but I'm 99.9% certain the buckle plate is compatible with the Caterham/Luke rotary buckle. Never used or fitted, competition dated to 2020. Can bring to Curborough sprint on the 14th/15th either for sale or test fitting.

For sale, two crotch straps from Titon 6-point harnesses, in black. These have the clip-on anchor plates for use with eye bolts, rather than the flat plates you'd bolt down. Manufactured April-June 2015 and competition dated until 2020. Buckle plate is a T-piece which clips into the bottom centre slot in your 4-point harness quick release. I bought Titon 6-point harnesses originally but decided to use them as 4-points, hence this sale. Never fitted to any car, pristine condition. £10 per strap, plus postage at cost or free collection (from Sheffield), or I can bring them to the Yorkshire Pie Run, the club sprint at Curborough, or anywhere we happen to fancy a scenic tour to one day, including potentially any monthly club night within a couple of hours drive if it's a sunny evening (South Yorks obviously, plus LADS, MADS, Cheshire, Mid Staffs, North Yorks, West Yorks, Leics/Notts/Derby). Club night delivery not guaranteed and very much on the basis of weather, available time and personal inclination to go out or not that day.

I think I have one in usable condition, can check if you want? The other one disintegrated so I had a new pair in carbon... as you do...

Provisionally sold to NickH's friend. Ian, come back in a few years as it's pretty much a certainty that it's replacement will be!

Thanks Nigel.

Currently on 98,000 miles and we said we'd keep it to about 100,000. 2008 on a 58 plate. Mrs H's business transport, but also our daily driver. Full main dealer (Bickerton's Skoda, Sheffield) service history. Two owners; first had it for about 8 months (he typically buys a new car at least once a year, i.e. money no object). Since then we've also maintained and serviced it regardless of cost; it's never even had budget tyres. The majority of its most recent 90,000 miles have been motorway cruising. Black, with factory-original lightly tinted rear glass ("privacy glass", Skoda call it, as a factory option - it's not drug-dealer blacked out or anything silly). 170bhp diesel, six speed manual box, pulls like a train and will add pace past 100mph without fuss or any appreciable increase in noise, should you find yourself on an empty autobahn. Mrs H gets comfortably over 50mpg from it (more like 60mpg on a motorway), I get... er... nearly 50mpg, mostly. Lots of toys and comfort: Front and rear parking sensors; Auto-park (yes, it will reverse park for you if asked); CD / DVD / MP3 / SatNav (all of Western Europe) touchscreen system with internal hard disk and SD card slot, plus a 3.5mm line in jack socket in the centre cubby; Black leather seats all round; Electric adjustable front seats (fore/aft, seat height, seat tilt, back recline, lumbar support), with 3 memory settings on the driver's side; Electric heated front seats (3 heat settings); 5 seats all with adjustable head rests and 3-point belts (i.e. the rear centre seat has a proper belt, not just a silly lap belt); Reach/rake/height adjustable steering wheel; Twin zone climate control with various vents in the back; Twin-lift boot (boot lid or full hatch); Cavernous boot; Massive front and rear legroom (even with a 6'2" bloke like me in the front there's space for another me in the back, with space to spare); ISOFIX child seat mounts; Automatic wipers (if you want them to be); Automatic lights (if you want them to be) with front and rear fogs, 'puddle lights' under the door mirrors and 'welcome home' lights that stay on for an adjustable period after locking in the dark so you can see your way to the front door; Pre-DRL but can be set to always run with dipped headlights (has the advantage of also putting the tail lights on); Bi-Xenon headlights which are outrageously good and auto-adjust to point in slightly different places based on speed of travel; Headlights can be reset to continental setting (i.e. point the other way) with a couple of button clicks while you're on the ferry/shuttle to France; Selectable speed warning; Adjustable cruise control; 12V outlets in the front, and the rear, and in the boot; rSAP bluetooth phone integration; Voice-controlled phone operation; Expected controls for phone and audio on the steering wheel; Even still has the Skoda umbrella in the rear nearside door; 18" alloys (refurbished last year); All the usual computer aids - ABS, PAS, Stability, etc, electric windows all round (childlockable - driver can disable the rear window buttons), electric adjustable and heated mirrors, fold-in mirror housings, auto-dipping nearside mirror (you select reverse and the mirror will, if set to do so, dip down to show you the nearside rear wheel and surrounding area), anti-hijack autolocking doors (if set to do so), remote central locking with one door / all doors unlock and independent boot release, boot lid auto-lifts on release and auto-settles when you get it mostly shut (no need to slam it!); Split-fold rear seat complete with centre arm rest (includes cup holders...) and "ski hatch"; Pull-up mesh sunshade screen in the (removable) parcel shelf; Headlight washers; Er... plenty more I've probably forgotten. It was the top spec Superb when the first owner bought it (there wasn't a Lauren & Klemment edition at the time) and then he added some optional extras on top. In its time with us it has been used as a bridal car and also in a funeral cortege and hasn't disgraced or even looked out of place in either role. All-round it's an excellent car - one might even say "Superb" (you'll note that Trading Standards have never complained to Skoda about the name...). We've also used it as a pan-European cruiser and it's taken us to and around France more than once, and to the far side of Italy (get to Slovenia and take three paces back), in reliable comfort, just chewing the miles without complaint and maintaining a steady 18 degrees in the cabin in 30+ Celsius heat, over alpine passes, etc. We are not smokers, not dog owners and not parents so the car is in excellent condition internally - the rear seats have had minimal use, ever, and the carpets don't have chocolate ground into them. Paintwork has autoglym "lifeshine" cover so has been kept shiny. It *does not* have a tow hitch, but these are not hard to acquire and fit (the mounts are all there, I believe) and if you did it would make a very competent tow car. We're probably looking to replace it within the next month or so, so the mileage will be more like 100,000 when we do, but you are unlikely to find a better-kept example of this particular breed and age. Offering it here first to club members. Message me for pics or with any other questions. £6,500

If it had red seats, it might have been Dave P; otherwise, possibly Philip. I don't think either use the forum.

Just as well really, if that had made no difference I'd have been spending £70 on a speedo sensor that may or may not have made a difference!

Interesting fuel test. As JK says, some blinding wouldn't have been difficult and would have been useful. Additionally they didn't test for fuel consumption, which is another claimed benefit of the posher fuels, nor did they do any long term testing of any fuel. If a particular fuel does have any cleaning effect (or the opposite) you wouldn't expect to notice a difference on a single test using part of a five litre tank, but over time you might see a change in mpg or power output (up or down). We used to use a certain unnamed supermarket station for both cars because it was near to home and cheap - there were "more reasons" to shop there but that's not important right now. After a few months the Caterham developed a misfire (turns out the spark plugs had gone furry) and the (diesel) Skoda wouldn't settle at tickover, but hunted +/-100rpm or so. We stopped using that particular forecourt, moving instead to Shell for the most part, and both cars have been fine since.

Our K had the engine replaced (before our stewardship of the car) due to the foam disintegrating. For some reason the then-owner didn't remove the foam from the new engine, but we have done since (and it was at that point crispy and starting to fall apart in places). On the flip side, one of the mechanics at Caterham Midlands GTKY7 two years ago advised against removal for fear of oil surge. So, um... Obviously for road use it's very unlikely you'll ever pull anything like the g, for anything like as sustained a period, as you might on track, so possibly he was referring primarily to track usage. He also didn't say that he'd ever necessarily seen a K damaged by oil surge, if I recall correctly.

Seemingly now sorted, update in previous thread: http://www.lotus7.club/comment/2178257#comment-2178257