sjmmarsh

Graham The millwood tyres info: We have left 5.6" x 13" Superlight wheels Black centres/polished rims inc.centre caps Tyres-Yoko AO32's 2 or 3 just legal 2 illegal.....but all ideal for dry track days £250 plus vat...delivery free! The ebay info: tyres are 185/60/13 Avon CR32s described as 'not very good' - I guess they may well need replacing, but should be a lot cheaper. Steve

I have just made Rob an offer - assuming he says yes, then they are sold. Anyone else who is looking for something similar may want to contact jon.vicker@millwood-mc.com who has 5 similar wheels for £250 +VAT. Alternatively, there is an older set of KN caterham wheels on ebay here. Steve

The one I used was made by "Sutars". Their website, http://www.sutars.se lists UK distributors as: Great Britain Burden Group Tfn 024 76470470 Nimbus Products(Sheff) Ltd Tfn 01142-432 362 E.C. Smith & Sons Ltd Tfn 01582-29 721 The Burden Group is listed as the caravan supplier. The part number you need is 1218. See here Steve Marsh C7 RSV My Caterham Page

I have 205/45/16 Avon ZZ1s on my SV at the moment. My local tyre place (I was there getting a wheel balanced) tells me that these are now discontinued, although there are still stocks around. He suggested the ZZ3 instead. Has anyone tried these - are they any good, or is there an alternative I should consider? Steve

Peter I have just done this! See here Steve Marsh C7 RSV My Caterham Page

I have now installed a cigarette lighter-type socket on the dash of my SV to avoid the need to remove the bonnet to plug in the battery conditioner. An account and pictures of the installation are on my website here. All (any!)feedback will be gratefuly received! Steve Marsh C7 RSV My Caterham Page

Rob Apologies for using blatchat slang - 'YHM' is used to let you know that there is an e-mail relating to your sale in your inbox. You haven't replied yet, so I assume you aren't able to access hotmail from work. The questions were: 1. What is their condition? Any pics you have would be appreciated 2. How much tread is on the yokos? 3. Where are you located? Steve

Rob YHM! Steve

I have a 2001 SV with a de dion axle. I am looking for some 13" wheels to use on trackdays rather than trashing my more expensive (and less suitable) 16" ZZ1s. I have seen lots of descriptions used for the wheels on sale here; De Dion and Live I understand, but often wheels are advertised as 'Ford' or PCD fitment. Can anyone tell me the definitive spec for the wheels on my car so that I don't buy the wrong thing? Steve

Use 50:50 - make sure you use distilled, not tap, water! Steve

I had a similar problem. I tracked it down to a slight leak in the hose joints - there was no residue visible on the pipes and they only leaked when hot and under pressure (i.e. engine running). On topping up the tank (with the proper Red stuff) I noticed that the level in the EXPANSION tank moved up and down - the tank, if filled to the mark when cold, comes up to the cap when it is hot. If you are filling the tank to the line when it is hot, then the tank looks almost empty when it cools. If you fill it beyond the mark, the coolant expands to the top of the tank and then any excess vents out of pressure cap, so some will appear to leak (it does, but it is meant to!). I hope this makes sense - and helps! Steve

Derek I have a 1.8 VVC with a 6spd box and 3.92 final drive ratio. I too was concerned that I was missing out with the 'wrong' drive ratio. I have worked out that, on 16" wheels, there appears to be little difference between the two setups; as the aero drag means that the top speed is virtually the same (about 120mph). Having the 'shorter' diff just means the engine is redlining at the time it hits the limiter. If I were to put the 3.62 diff in (in theory) I would hit the same top speed but at lower revs and take longer to get there! 15" wheels are slightly smaller radius, so you will run out of puff before hitting the aero limit. I will also have the same problem if I have a following wind, am going downhill or put an aeroscreen on (and hence reduce the drag). I suggest that you download the software I used (Car Test) here. If you download my data file here and merge it with the CT.DAT file that comes with the program then you will just need to change some of the tyre sizes. Have fun! Steve Marsh C7 RSV My Caterham Page

Other advantages of a foam seat not mentioned in this thread are: a) Less wind buffeting coming over the top if you have a full screen and b) a better view through the screen (I used to look at the road through the top of the windscreen. Also, I only have about 5mm of foam at its thinnest - if it was 2" thick it would defeat the object! Steve Marsh C7 RSV My Caterham Page

My experiences of building a foam seat are on my website here Steve

... but most of the watches sold on ebay are copies, so make sure that you make sure that its provenance is sound. Steve

Guys I have tweaked the web page so that it downloads a lot quicker now (700k vs 3.5Mb 😳). All the pictures can be downloaded in a ZIP file if you want the full resolution. Steve Marsh C7 RSV My Caterham Page

K. Russell - "opened his door onto my pass side panel and then did a runner" He must have been in an RS6 if you couldn't catch him! Steve

Thanks for your comments guys. The SVA test allows the true speed at an indicated 70mph to be anywhere between 53mph and 70mph (and a similar % range for lower speeds), so the speedo is legal but I agree that it is uncomfortably close. I tried to allow for parallax, but was difficult to achieve consistently so I recorded the speed as seen from the driving position. For 30-50mph allowing for parallax would reduce the gap by around 1mph. For 70+, there is little error as the needle is towards the vertical. Most manufacturers of tintops build in a deliberate under reading to allow for manufacturing tolerances and (I suspect more importantly) to avoid claims from owners caught by cameras when they thought that they were below the limit. The MicroPilot uses several satellites to get a fix, and shuts down if it can't get a reliable fix. It appears to update the display several times a second, but there is a slight lag (about 1sec) when accelerating before the gps 'catches up' with the speedo. What is puzzling me is why the difference is not linear. Steve

I have a Morpheous Micro Pilot on loan to me at the moment and jury-rigged it into the Caterham today (I don't have a lighter socket yet). The standard display on the MicroPilot is a GPS speed reading, so I calibrated the car speedo against the GPS readout. The results were interesting: Indicated True 20 19 30 29 40 38 50 48 60 59 70 70 80 82 90 93 The results were a lot closer to the true speed than I had been expecting and the car must have only just scraped through the SVA (if they had them in 2001). They are also quite different to my tintop (S-Type jag) which consistently reads 6-7% above the true speed. I think that the high end results may be affected by the tyres 'ballooning' because of the centripetal forces. As the Speedo is digital (but analogue dial), I would have thought that it should be accurate - do you know any better? Oh, I have an SV, 3.92 diff and 6-spd gearbox with 16" wheels with Avon ZZ1 205/40/16 rubber. Steve

My wife has the same problem - even an adjustable seat doesn't get her far enough forward. Her being 5'2" in an SV doesn't help.. She says it isn't too bad as I have a 4-pt harness, so you might consider this as an alternative Steve Marsh C7 RSV My Caterham Page

"I should use light (green)" - Does this mean that there is a green gearbox oil? I am trying to track down a fluid leak under the gearbox. I am getting one drop of a green fluid after garaging the car - I think it is coming from the speedo cable where it plugs into the gearbox, but another thread on here was dubious that CC use green oil. I have a 1.8 VVC SV with a 6-spd box. Steve Marsh C7 RSV My Caterham Page

That sounds like my problem - there is often one drop of oil underneath the car after I take it out of the garage and I have been trying to sort out where it has been coming from. I wasn't even sure that it was oil as it is greenish in colour whereas the engine oil is a more normal brownish colour. Presumably the gearbox uses different oil to the engine? Steve Marsh C7 RSV My Caterham Page

Jan I may have overdone the height a bit, which is why I mentioned perhaps having another go at making a seat. I'll wait until I have a helmet though (I hope to pick one up at the Autosport show on the 10th). That said, the seat is comfortable and using the ignition key alone means that my knee isn't fouling on the key fob, so maybe I haven't done too bad a job. I think the problem is that the position you take when sitting in a car is different to the one you take when driving it. Unfortunately, It isn't easy to drive on setting foam..... Being so low in the car also means that I am looking 'along' the bonnet rather than 'down onto' the bonnet and there is better visibility through the screen and less wind buffetting. Steve Steve Marsh C7 RSV My Caterham Page

BigYin Thanks for the feedback! You are quite right - I am quite big. Something I will work on in the new year. 😳 The Ashby-Stamford Route is still Gatso free as far as I can recall (but I only use the bit Stamford to Asfordby regularly, so can't promise that the Ashby-Wymeswold bit is still free). I have just updated the site to include a blat - let me know if you have any suggestions that would make it easier to follow. Happy New Year Steve Marsh C7 RSV My Caterham Page

Dave To get my head lower I am almost lying down in the car, so my buttocks are now resting on the front bar of the seat frame. The wedge of foam you can see towards the rear of the base actually supports my back (lumbar region). I used the Oxted seat base because there is only about 1-2mm of foam in the centre of the seat base, which wouldn't have been enough provide the necessary strength to hold the base together. There actually isn't that much room at the side of my legs or body either (I am 6'4" and 115kg) which is why I needed so much vertical expansion room - the only place the foam could go was upwards or to burst the bag, hence all the masking. I may give it another go if I need to redo the seat, using your method. Steve