Roger Ford

Pagids are great for racing (though some find them a bit on/off) but the race compounds don't really work on the road as they don't tend to reach high enough temperatures. They're also not technically road legal, which could possibly cause problems with insurance if you have a claim.

Good pads are all that's needed on the front (eg. Mintex 11/55). Standard brakes are used on race cars up to 310R (152hp) and are plenty strong enough to lock the wheels. Presumably you've got drums on the back which I understand benefit from careful setup, but I don't know much about them.

There are two types of stop/tail light - straight pin and offset pin. The offset ones have one locating pin higher than the other. Make sure you've got the right type - should be fairly obvious if you look at the holder. Edit: Obvious problem 1: the first one is clearly not a stop/tail bulb. Problem 2, if the pins weren't offset then there's be no way to orient it correctly. So actually I think I'm talking bollocks - the straight/offset issue must only applies to single-filament bulbs .

2014 Academy cars (supplied late 2013-early 2014) were TiVCT. Not sure if they continued to supply the earlier engine for road cars.

One on eBay for £500. "Just rebuilt" though why they didn't clean the head cover while they were rebuilding it I'm not sure. Remember you'll need to swap your sump, bell housing and possibly starter motor and alternator if sourcing a non-Caterham engine.

Those are 6+8, rather than all sixes. And include tyres which the OP probably doesn't want.

15w50 is a bit thick at the cold end. Fine if you warm your engine properly before starting but if you tend to just jump in and go I'd suggest 5w50 was a safer option. Like others I used to use Comma 5w50 Motorsport in my race K series. Some used to go for 5w40 or 10w40 for lower resistance (and therefore possibly higher power) but it did have a noticeable effect on oil pressure. Though losing the sump plug had a much more drastic effect on oil pressure, and was quite common when you ran the plug over kerbs. Hence many of us had the sump plug relocated to the other side of the sump - and I'd strongly recommend that mod to anyone who runs the kerbs a lot on a K-series.

Went to my local Ford dealer, and the left hand nut is now £18 - so even more than Caterham. The parts guy did say Ford have bumped up the prices on lots of their older parts. Have asked Chris@Redline to supply one. Waiting to hear whether it's 41 or 42mm or whether he can supply either.

For £17 (Caterham price) or £3.20 (Ford price)?

Never mind, found it in this thread

Anyone know the Ford part number for the nearside (reverse-thread) rear driveshaft nut? Also if I order one from my local Ford dealer am I likely to get 41mm or 42mm? If it's 42mm, I'll need a new socket.

As a complete aside, don't you love those eBay buyers? "Collection only" "Would you mind boxing up and waiting around all day for the courier to arrive some time between 8am and 6pm? Thanks very much"

I looked at the Blue Book. It's pretty clear: S10.2.14. Fire Extinguishers – K.3.1 recommended. So since they're only recommended, there's nothing to stop you having a non-compliant system fitted.

2019 is only relevant in that new-build vehicles (actually vehicles first raced or modified for racing) after 2019 had to comply with the new regs. For 2022 all racing vehicles have to comply, regardless of build date. I don't, however, know how the regs apply to speed events.

Rubber wellnuts are another option.

#17 indeed, but "it's no worse than the previous version" has never struck me as a good sales pitch.

#7: "The CC ones don't need a new flasher unit" Interesting. How do they manage that? I imagine it must use a ballast resistor which wastes enough power as heat to fool the flasher unit into working properly. To my mind that defeats one of the advantages of LED lights, i.e. low power usage. If you're stuck at the side of the motorway with a low-capacity Lithium Ion battery and your hazards on, you might certainly wish they'd just provided a new flasher unit with the lights, rather than using a ballast resistor.

Using your multimeter to measure the parasitic drain is very easy. Connect the leads to the currrent sockets of the meter (most meters have a common negative and then one socket for most measurements and one socket for current, often marked "10A"). Set the dial to amps (if there's several choices 1A should be sufficient). Disconnect your battery earth and then connect the red lead of the multimeter to the earth lead and the black to the battery terminal. Your multimeter will now read the constant parasitic drain. If it's - say - 0.1A and you have a 30AH battery you can expect the battery to be drained in around 300 hours (12.5 days). It's possible that you might need to cycle the ignition and immobiliser to get a true reading.

The metric chassis is considered stiffer. That's not necessarily the same as stronger - in an accident the brazed chassis might be able to flex and absorb more impact without permanent damage.

Primary difference (apart from metric versus imperial fasteners) is that the imperial chassis is brazed, whereas the metric one is welded. Originally they were supposed to be robot-welded, but I understand they couldn't get the robots to work properly and switched back to hand welding everything (though I guess that could just be an internet rumour, I don't have any sources for it).

Good lithium batteries have a built-in battery management system. I certainly wouldn't buy one without. I don't know how comprehensive they are, I doubt that they include cell balancing, for example. I suspect they just prevent over-discharge and possibly overcharging as well. Once you have a cut-off at a low voltage (essential to prevent full drain and (a) destruction of the battery and (b) a fire on attempting to recharge from flat), it presumably isn't too hard to disconnect the battery completely if it's at maximum charge and still has an external voltage.

It doesn't need to be particularly secure, its purpose is to absorb an impact which might otherwise puncture the fuel tank. Being on top, it's not really designed for a rear impact (the rear panel one does that) but to protect from anything coming in through the boot. If you've ever seen one of the more extreme crash videos, you could expect an impact coming from almost any direction. No suggestion currently that bag tanks (or fuel cell tanks to be more accurate) will become compulsory for racing generally. I think it's unlikely that Caterham Motorsport would go that way either, as it's a big extra expense which they'd have to add onto the Academy price. Of course they could make it part of the paid upgrade to one of the higher such as 270R or 310R.

Yes, that's something I've often wondered as well (why a LiIon can't cope with a standard charger, but doesn't mind getting a full 14+ volts from an alternator). There seem to be a couple of possible explanations that I can think of: A standard charger might decide that in order to get the battery up to (say) 13.5 volts, it should put 16v across the battery, which would be too high for LiIon. An alternator puts out rectified AC current. So although it might be supplying (say) 14.3v or so, it's not a constant 14.3, it actually varies between 0 and 14.3, and the battery can handle this much better than a pure DC 14.3v.I'm not totally convinced by either of these explanations, and would love someone who actually understands the issues to explain them.

Mask the whole thing and cut out the 7. Much easier than trying to mask around it. Kicked myself when I realised that.

From the website of that JMT battery.... *** IMPORTANT *** Although JMT lithium-ion batteries discharge at a slower rate than coventional batteries it is vital that they are not allowed to go completely flat. DO NOT buy that battery. If the warning is correct, it doesn't have a proper battery management system which cuts the connection when the voltage drops too low. I've left my ignition on a number of times with my Jack Webb Motorsport battery, and it just cuts off at something like 10.5v. You then connect the charger and the BMS reconnects the battery and it charges as normal. Without a BMS it would have killed it stone dead. Each time. I know some people don't like to deal with the Webbs but the product is very good. People get quick hung up on capacity. Capacity for a starter battery is almost irrelevant unless you're running electrics which exceed the output of your alternator. That's unlikely on a Caterham, unless you're trying to put a tent up using your headlights without the engine running, or something similar. The only thing that normally matters is the cranking current.