huwp

Thanks chaps. Will book the car in... At least I can replace the crappy radiator with a Radtec alternative at the same time - which is the other thing on the list. Huw

Quoting John Vine: Hmm....bizarre. Let's see if I've got this right so far... 1. You were motoring along in 5th (at X, say) when suddenly the car began to slow down. 2. While you were slowing down, you "stabbed the throttle" and the engine revved. 3. You then selected neutral and coasted to a halt. 4. The engine remained running after you had stopped. 5. Throughout 2 and 3, the speedo continued to display X. Perhaps you could expand on a few points: Re 1, was the car behaving as though you had simply taken your foot off the gas? Re 2, when you say the engine revved, was it as though the car was in neutral (or the clutch dipped)? (In other words, did the engine speed increase sharply, even though the car was slowing?) Re 3, was the engine running at tick-over speed at this point? All bar 5 suggests to me that the car had jumped out of gear. What's truly bizarre is 5, as that points to an electrical problem. Trying to reconcile the two is a challenge. JV[throttle. John 2-5 were certainly as you summarize. With regard to the first, and upon reflection, I either lost drive whilst in 5th or I selected 5th and got no drive. The engine was running as it should throughout not racing as in a slipping clutch but rather responding to stabs of throttle. With no drive the car just coasted to a halt - initially in gear (But with no drive) then in neutral. My own thought process is of suspecting some sort of failure in the gearbox? Huw

Quoting Jonathan Kay: I don't understand what the speedo was doing: was it showing the (approximate) road speed correctly throughout as you slowed down? Jonathan No, as I slowed it was stuck at the speed when drive was lost.

Yes, remained in gear.

Engine carried on running but drive was lost. The car remained was still in gear as I began to slow. A stab of throttle and the car revved. Then put it in neutral until I coasted to a halt - still with engine running. Then waited a couple of minutes and off I went.

Car is a Sigma 125 with a 5 speed box. Towards then end of a 50 mile drive today I was exiting a 30 mph zone in 3rd. Accelerated up through 3rd, 4th and then into 5th. After approximately 30 seconds in 5th I lost drive. The car coasted to a halt. The speedo stayed at the indicated speed when drive was lost. Cue lots of swearing and wondering what breakdown outfit I'm with. Then after a couple of minutes I started the car. The speedo re-settled and off I went. Drove the remaining 7 miles home with no incident. Thoughts? Huw

BTTT

Apologies. It was there a couple of days ago but I see is now gone.

One for sale on PH at the moment.

Simon YHM Huw

Suitable for an 07 Ford powered car. Preferably an anniversary badge but otherwise a standard one would be fine. Huw

Quoting Guy Lowe: Sorry BETTER LINK Guy Do you mind me asking how the price compared to CC? Just a "more" or "less" will be fine. Thanks

Proxy response - that was Geoff Brown's R400. I was his ballast for the day. Bloody hell the car is fast. My Sigma 125 will never feel the same again. Really enjoyed the racing.

I would start by speaking to Neil Garner in Kemble to see who he would recommend. Whilst not a bodyshop he does look after a number of Caterhams (including mine) and in fact races one himself. Neil is a good chap.

Safely received - many thanks. Huw

If another batch were ordered I would take 2.

Green with yellow nose-band WX60 ***, two up near Farringdon traveling north at about noon.

Hi Andrew Don't recognise the car but you've given me some inspiration for my circuitous route home! Thanks and catch-up soon. Huw

Personally I would still use protectors as any larger stone can still damage the fibreglass even with protective film. I had ppf on my tin top. A large stone managed to penetrate it. Each to their own though. Those that I know with ppf on the rear arches (with protectors) don't seem to have a problem with polishing. Fitting seems to be the biggest fiddle. I used rubber sheet to line my rear arches. I used an aerosol contact adhesive. Works well.

Quoting Grubbster: Prepreg should be lighter and have a tougher surface finish - wet lay up is nice and glossy until it gets pitted with stone chips. Has the Ultimate Carbon been resistant to the elements in your experience? Also I'm hoping that it might be more durabe and more resistant to the star crazing that GRP picks up? Feedback much appreciated. Huw

I recently enquired of PP. The 155 conversion was just over £4, 000.

Sorry to hijack, but what is the difference between wet-lay and pre-preg? Is one better than the other in resisting the elements for example?

About 3.15 today heading in the direction of Cirencester. May have had a silver stripe: not sure, I was travelling the other way.

Quoting K T Scott: I'm good friends with Stuart at Premier Power. He has developed three performance upgrades for the 1.6 Sigma engine. Premier Power has a lot of experience with these engines having run them in European Formula Ford with a lot of success. Stuart's previous experience is building championship winning engines for Nissan and Ford in the BTCC in the late 90's and 2000. In fact he still builds the 2000 spec Rapid Fit Ford Mondeo engines at Premier Power. The three performance upgrades are 155 horsepower, 175 horsepower and 200 horsepower. I've driven the 155 and 200 horsepower and have been very impressed. I myself drive a Caterham 150 Sigma and even the 155 Premier Sigma is a big improvement over this in terms of throttle response, driveability and performance. The 200 horsepower Sigma is great fun and Premier Power have spent a long time developing this engine to give this level of performance with good driveability and reliability. This engine has been the culmination of a lot of dyno work, rolling road testing, road driving and track testing to optimise the set up for the engine. They even have their own Caterham development car which is fitted with some impressive data logging equipment to help carry out development work. Premier Power is achieving this level of performance with the engine only revving to 8000rpm and with running 95 octane fuel. One question that Stuart often gets asked is how reliable is it. His answer is "we haven't had any issues, we often strip the engine during the development process to inspect various components and everything looks very good". "This is not a standard engine, but one that has been heavily engineered to last". Stuart's response to this question is that no one asks this question about an R500 which is revving to 8500rpm. Does the fact that it's got a Caterham badge or a Cosworth badge on it mean its immune to engine failures?. Another thing that's worth mentioning regarding the Premier Power Sigma upgrades is the weight of their engines. The Premier Power Sigma weighs up to 22kgs lighter than a Duratec engine. They have engineered the engine to be up to 8kgs lighter than the standard Sigma engine. Surely this reduction in weight puts their F175 Sigma upgrade in the performance bracket of an R300 or new Supersport R? I understand that Low Flying will be running an article on the F200 shortly as they are sending some guys down to do a track day with Premier Power later this week, so watch this space. Any idea on the cost of the F155 upgrade? I've emailed PP but am yet to get a response. Happy to receive a BM if that's more politic. Huw

Apologies for the delay in returning. Perhaps I should have made it clearer from the outset. The car is on Axel stands so won't be going anywhere. I just wanted to run the engine for a while and wondered whether I would need to remove the conditioner. Thanks for the replies. Huw