Mankee

Bit of a long shot this one, but I am after the above as my passenger floor is all saggy. If anyone has changed to a lowered floor and has a standard panel sitting around then I may well be interested depending on distance and condition. Doesn't have to be mint condition as my track car is a scruffer anyway! Just need all of the rivet holes to be intact so that I can fix it in place and bolt my Tillet back in. With strengthening this time! Cheers.

Simon, I will have a set of adjustable runners available soon. They are currently attached to my passenger Tillet which is in my mum's living room. 😬 I'll be converting to fixed seats once I've sorted out my floor. Drop me a note if you are interested in them. :)

I had a small fit when I saw a Caterham in my mother's small town of Saxmundham in Suffolk as it's a fairly sleepy little market town. I was just leaving with my track Caterham on the trailer and I waved madly at a lovely green with yellow stripe 7 with windscreen and a chap with a helmet behind the wheel. I think he must have thought I'd gone mad behind the wheel! Car looked lovely though. 😬

I'll check mine later on in the week as my car is up the road, but thanks for all your help SM25T.

That's my next thing to check Peter!

I had exactly the same problem as Mark-G but from reading your initial post, it sounds like you've had it working in the past, albeit with a slightly different laptop spec. As mentioned, it's something to do with the drivers (built-in or otherwise) messing about as my touchpad went a bit mad when I was initially trying to hook up my Emerald! If you are still really stuck, drop me a line as I'm only up in Ipswich and have the Emerald K3 software on my laptop. My USB/serial adaptor is 25 miles up the A12 though, but I don't mind experimenting with your adaptor to see if we can get it to work.

Hmm, that's interesting. So assuming all things being equal between my engine and pukka Caterham 1800Ks, then the mid-point between the end of my dipstick and the hand-made mark is just above the MAX level? Thanks for the measurement!

Hi all! Haven't posted for a while. This isn't the normal "how to check your oil level" question. My engine is an 1800K from a standard S1 Elise. The previous owner fitted it, along with the Caterham sump and a modified dipstick. What I need to know is whether I'm checking my oil level properly. Can any of you kind souls with a Caterham 1800K do some measuring for me? The total length of my dipstick from where it stops in the tube to the end is about 415mm. Picture here. Then, I have a hand-made notch at about 400mm, near a V mark. Picture here. Where should my level be, assuming I'm checking with the engine running, warmed up and Appollo full up? Hopefully that makes sense! I've been putting off doing my first oil change precisely because I don't actually know how what my oil level should be! Many thanks in advance.

In the middle of fixing my passenger floor at the moment and I've decided to swap from runners to a fixed seat when I eventually bolt it back in, so these are up for sale. I've not got any pictures as they are still attached to the bottom of the Tillet, which is sitting in my mum's living room (! 😬) but I am pretty sure that they are the same as the ones here. Price is £30 including delivery, but would be interested in some fixed seat box sections. Thanks. Edited by - Mankee on 27 Apr 2010 23:25:25

Oddly enough, I've just finished MOT'ing a Peugeot 106 XS! It's an M-reg 1.4 petrol that I bought for my sister as her Rover 200's K-series has done the head gasket but she's still driving it around with no heating! Being a female of the species, she hasn't decided whether she wants the 106 or not yet. Anyway, it's red, done less than 80k and has a few battle scars, i.e. dents and usual Peugeot peeling lacquer on the roof and bonnet. JVC CD player, components in the front, 6x9s in the back, alloys... Full MOT as said but no tax as it's currently SORN'd. Fitted a load of new bits to get it through MOT, which cost me about £100. I'm after £400 for it but I'm based down in Suffolk, so a good few hours drive from Derby. ☹️

Seeing as it's my birthday on 12th July and I've never driven the GP circuit before, it'd be rude not to. Will email you shortly Geoff.

Where are you trackdaying this week, sir? I met you at a cold and wet Bedford Autodrome back in December. The advice on checking tread, pressures, fluids and general spanner checks is spot-on. Don't forget your license and enjoy yourself!

The Emerald website is woefully out of date in terms of the software downloads, as it only has the M3D stuff on there. Leoni helpfully emailed me the K3 software and v0.57 of the manual, which are the latest versions that you have.

Matt, the weather is saying a few showers in the morning but OK in the afternoon now. Hopefully it won't be too bad. I'll be leaving the flat at about 7am, but if you need anything give us a shout. I might still do Snetterton on Sunday as the weather looks cloudy but dry. It'll have to be a single-seater though, but as I've never driven my car on my own before, it might make a big difference not having to lug a passenger around the circuit! Think I'll properly assess the floor issues I have some time after the weekend and get it all sorted out before the next outing. If anyone else has any advice or suggestions, then I would be most appreciative. Thanks.

I knew there would be a funny one, Dave! I won't point it out to my missus, otherwise she'll hunt you down. Seeing as people replace their standard floors with lowered floors, is it worth me finding an undamaged but used floor? Haven't rung Arch for a price yet but seeing as the rest of the car is battered, I'd quite like to keep the er... "weathered" theme continued!

Thanks for the guidance chaps. The driver's side looks fine so far, touch wood. I think the previously owner has had it like that for quite a while with a Tillet. I only fitted the passenger Tillet after I got the car last summer. The driver's side has a bit of strengthening from the side impact/wheel intrusion bar possibly? I'm thinking of getting rid of the runners when I refit the passenger seat anyway. Will these box sections be the ones I need?

Please excuse the state of the underside of my car, but I'm more worried about my passenger falling out at the moment! I've managed to rip out 3 maybe 4 rivets so far, with more to come, but I don't use the car much as it's track-only. Pictures here and here. I've got a Tillet on runners bolted to the floor. Maybe I've done it wrong somehow and put too much stress on the panel? Is this going to be a replacement (standard) floor job or can it be rescued? I've not got a rivet gun myself. Based in Suffolk if anyone can share some of their experience and lend a hand fixing it. Bum. ☹️ 🙆🏻

No probs Trevor. Good luck in your hunt.

Trevor, I'm not sure if these would be of any use to you? They came with my 1997 Supersport, but I don't know if I'll ever make my car road-legal again.

Not strictly speaking disposable gloves, but I use these from Kimberly Clark. They are relatively expensive (think I paid £20 for 12 pairs via some garage mates) but I find them far, far better than latex or vinyl gloves that split easily. They are washable, resistant to a bit of heat and thin enough for fiddly jobs. I probably would have gone through several boxes of disposable gloves in the time that I've had to bin/give away half of these so far. Highly recommended if you can find them.

Yeah, I know exactly what you mean Kev. It's depressing if you've spent a load of cash on a trackday only to be turned away because of noise. Most companies will work with you if your car is too noisy. Just have to hang back on the revs near the noise meter and be sensible. Fingers crossed that your car will be fine wherever you decide to loon it around though.

Have you had your car tested for noise first? My blown-to-bits 4-1 long-primary (race) system with 5" silencer was 103dB at 4500rpm at Bedford, but they still let me on even though the limit was 101dB. Fitted a 6" silencer bought from another member and it was much quieter at 94dB at 4500rpm at Brands on Wednesday. DJ did explain to me how he modified his silencer. It's in one of my old threads here.

Is your car mainly road or track use? My (track-only) Caterham came wth 1144s and I wasn't that impressed by them the first few track days I did with them and was generally unhappy wth the braking system. Put fresh budget Halfords DOT4 fluid in, raised the brake pedal so that I can heel-and-toe properly and fitted some Hawk blues in and I'm really pleased wth them now. The Hawk pads might not be appropriate for your use, but I would definitely change the fluid and hand-clean the disc and pad surfaces using emery paper. Maybe use some brake cleaner to get rid of any oil residue on the discs as well.

Hmm, that is a good point actually and one that I'd thought about previously. 144bhp at the wheels sounds like a lot from basically a standard engine. Unless the Jenveys really are amazingly good at freeing up a standard strangled K-series! What spec is your DVA engine? When/if I decide to upgrade, Dave Andrews will be the person I choose to go to. But then I really will scare myself stupid if I decide to go for more power.

Hello! I'm probably going to crack open a massive can of worms when it comes to engine power ratings, but I am a curious kinda bloke and can't just drive my car to the local rolling road due to it being non-road-legal and lack of time etc. etc. Anyway, my engine is a standard (118bhp as far as I know) 1800 K-series plucked from a low-mileage Elise, but with 42mm (I think) Jenvey DTHs and an Emerald strapped to it. From Dave Walker's notes on the map, it gives a power reading of 144bhp. The previous owner mentioned 165bhp if I remember rightly. Now, I can see it having 165bhp if it had Supersport cams in it, as per what I've read from Dave Andrew's helpful and informative website. But can a set of bodies and mappable management really give a gain of over 40bhp or am I dreaming? Car will pull all the way to 6900rpm in 5th, which is where I had my soft-cut before I fiddled about with the settings. I've got nothing else to compare it to from my personal experience, but a few more experienced racers/Seveners have said that it my power might be closer 165bhp than 144bhp. At the end of the day, I'm only thinking out loud and power isn't really important and depends on a million other things. I still had a bloody good time at Brands yesterday, now that I can trust my brakes (even if one of the calipers is borrowed from another BC member!) and am starting to learn to control the car now. 😬