paul w

Courier any excess stuff to your next destination each day. A few quid per day and you haven't compromised your 7 or its driveability.

Someone like Ken at K.W. Historics here in NZ (www.lotus.co.nz) may know who has the original patterns to make doors and hoods to factory spec. Club Lotus NZ owns the jigs and moulds for the NZ assembled S4 and I would imagine that they would at least know where the patterns are for the interior and trim etc.

Aha! Same question posted elsewhere! The answers to many of those questions are in Tony Weale's excellent book. There is also a good resource for parts info at: http://www.gglotus.org/ggpart/sevenxref.htm Rear brake shoes - From gglotus site - (Girling 64937096LK {Capri 2000 Rear}) Handbrake lever and cable - I'm going out on a limb here and predicting that the correct answer for lever will be Renault R16 - the same as the Europa. Cable will probably be bespoke. Speedo cable - Should be a ford item as it is a 2000E box to a Smiths speedo Bonnet catch - The ubiquitous rubber units that you can buy from any car parts place, under bonnet catch - no idea sorry. Front side lights - I believe someone in our club (NZ) sourced some from Redline recently Sidescreen twist & turn catches - I bought some last year, sourced from Redline Brake master cylinder - From gglotus site - Girling 64067651 ARB front shocks - from gglotus site - Spax S 195-620 (Europa S2) front springs & rating [pounds] ciggy ash tray Redline components, http://www.redlinecomponents.co.uk/main.htm

Bizarre! Where did my posting go? I found most of the parts on he gglotus site parts list and listed them!

This makes for some interesting reading! http://www.simplesevens.org/gallagher/index.html Make sure you click on the 'next' at the bottom of the page, it is quite a long story of the development of probably the most famous rotary seven.

Oh yeah, if you ever get desperate for new panels etc the NZ Club has a set of original jigs and moulds. They are strictly for members only and only to replace damaged parts, so you'd need to join the club first........

Funny thing is I just came across your site when looking for the photos I have seen before. They are definately two of the best conversions I have seen, the main problem is that they need to either make the sides all alloy, all 'glass, or at least paint the sides one colour. Your car looks fantastic on your website, I'd be very interested to see how it looks with cycle guards.

Damn. the site with a bunch of piccies has gone AWOL. Below is one from Japan. http://www.geocities.co.jp/MotorCity/2823/13z-01.jpg I looked closely at it for my S4 but in the end decided that call the cycle guard conversions I had seen looked pants. I would be very happy to be proved wrong however so if you get some piccies of an S4 looking good with cycle guards I'd love to see them.

I just skimmed a few of the last postings so please forgive me if I am repeating previous theories. I believe the extra weight of the deDion setup is in the chassis. As the diff is mounted to the chassis it must be strengthened (the chassis!) due to the increased torque loads etc.

A good excuse to go electric isn't it?

Check with someone like Neil Fraser before you bring your car over, he is a certifying engineer and he knows what hoops you will have to jump through to get your Caterham on the road, not to mention any costs incurred. Regulations are always likely to change over a period of time as long as two years so check it out carefully when the time comes. It would be a hell of a long way to bring a car that couldn't be registered for the road or needed several grands worth of modification and re-certification. Probably there would be no problems at all - just a reminder to do your homework.

The Frasers are also very well proven for racing, having been extensively raced and developed over the past sixteen years or so, both on the track and also on rallys such as Targa etc. Like the PRB, they have the option of inboard front suspension and also wide-track for racing applications. I don't know what the situation is like in Aus but Caterhams where just way too expensive here in NZ. They were getting up to NZ$100k and that was nearly ten years ago. By contrast, they reckon in the latest Classic Car Mag that a new V6 Fraser will ping you about NZ$60k

The Fraser is the best of the several 7s made in New Zealand and they regularly export to the well-heeled consumers up in Japan. They are so close to looking like the Caterham that they would probably be in trouble if they were in England. The quality and engineering is second to none, several members of this board have visited Fraser during trips to NZ and I believe all have come away very impressed. A local chap who set himself up some years back to import Caterhams could not get any interest due to the Fraser. In NZ we are able to more easily source engines etc from Japan than you are able to in Europe and Australia as we do not have a local industry that is being protected. The Toyota 3SGE twincam and the Ford/Mazda quad cam V6 are popular engines as they are incredibly reliable, even when tuned. The result is that there are Frasers driving around with 200-250bhp that never over-heat in traffic, always start first time, run on pump gas and have an expectation of tin-top reliability and service intervals. http://www.fraser.co.nz http://www.trademe.co.nz/Trade-Me-Motors/Cars/Fraser/auction-13927690.htm http://www.madmotors.com/fraser.htm

Grab a NZ made Fraser. Widetrack (inboard) front suspension, de-dion rear, etc etc.....

A lot of those types of spares seem to be more common here in NZ. Try Ken at www.lotus.co.nz, he generally knows how to get his hands on any litle piece. If he can't be arsed dealing internationally with such a small item tell him you have a club-member who will do the leg-work (me). In that case I'll pay for it and send it off and you can fix me up when it arrives.