Stuart Miller 7

I was just leaning on the side of serious as opposed to wind up from a conversation or three I've had with David. I had to restrain myself from offering £50 on the for sale section. Class 2 should be scared! Seriously though, this is a very nice engine for anyone wanting to upgrade.

Hi Simon Yes it's a "caged" cage. It was a new SLR cage fitted by them in 2010 - Upright diagonals, no leaning forward involved, with the mounting holes for the head restraints in both sides. I only ever fitted the drivers side restraint having bought one for each side. My car is a 2002 SLR. I can't see how what Caterham have listed as the part would fit on the caged cage. Anyway....

caged cage and bolt holes through the diagonals on mine. Anyway....

Found the bit - still packaged from Caterham. I also have a set of SS nuts and bolts I made up to go with. Not sure your picture of the head restraint is correct. Mine is part SKU59045S which fits my SLR cage on my 2002 SLR perfectly - i.e. the bracket part is straight. I also have a fuel pipe cover cover if you want it. No good to me any more with external fuel breather and diff catch tank fitted there. Let me know. Contact details above. Stuart

I think I have one of these spare (new head restraint) - just need to remember where it is. You can get me on stuart@srmmarine.com or zero 777 five 677076. I'll have a look tonight

If that's your car in the picture, it's the SLR full cage? I'm guessing you haven't got the little mounting plates that are welded to the tube to attach the infills. I remember Caged asked me if I wanted them or not when they built my cage. Might be better to have something made locally - it's only a flat sheet of Ali or Carbon cut the right shape, and come up with a mounting solution. (short of welding on the mounts and re-powdercoating the cage?) Good luck.

Steve, sorry had a bit on! I've just texted you. I'll call you shortly. Best Stu

That's okay Nick, nothing at all personal. and, no exclusion - I was "having a moan" too - bad day in the office so to speak. I do get where you're coming from but there is the other side of the story to discuss too. I just think that £15 a corner is a perfectly reasonable fee to pay someone to do the job properly. I would imagine that if one of your wheels were damaged during the fit and you were paying £20 cash for the lot, you would be bang out of luck. The reputable firm at £15 a corner would likely make good and do the right thing. I haven't bought 021's or years and years. Isn't £126.50 fitted about right if you let them make £20 a corner profit for the supply/fit? I just happen to be someone else with rather large overheads and many thousands of pounds worth of tools that a. I've bought and b. I need to replace or maintain, not to mention the 25yrs of experience. If someone I don't know from adam wants a favour for £20, the answer nowadays tends to be no I'm afraid. I hope you find somewhere friendly an local to do the job.

£15 plus Vat a corner seems perfectly reasonable to me. Having a moan on here that you think they're taking the p*** and suggesting what they should charge is not on. If you don't like it, you can go elsewhere. If it were me, I'd be charging at least £20 a corner - you hadn't even bothered to come to me first and see if I could supply (and fit) the tyres for you. They have big overheads and expensive machines to run and maintain, not to mention the fact that you can't exactly do it yourself. Also, their margins are small enough as it is. Obviously, if you went to your local tyre shop (as I do) and spent £1K a year on tyres for your other vehicles and then asked them nicely to do your Caterham ones then the story will be different. I pay somewhere between zero and 20 pounds to have a set changed over. It seems to me that everyone wants everything as cheap as they can get it nowadays. The problems is that more and more people now know the cost of everything but the value of nothing.

Steve, I'll call you later

JuJu http://www.avonmotorsport.com/road-legal/performance/cr28-sport available from BMTR who will send them anywhere in the country you like. Ask for their motorsport department. 0121 331 1122 Cr28 185/60/13 and 205/60/13 if you happen to have 8 inch rears - or CR500. Both list 1B i.e. grippy. Or Yoko 539 which is not so grippy but good pattern (not sure if you can get these wider for the back if rqd) probably George Polley or similar. Or 021's if you can still get them. You might be lucky if you stick a "wanted" ad up.

That'll be 204 down to 149.9 thank you. I wouldn't want to take advantage. Things are looking up however as Penske just got back to say they are considering doing a "special" just for me. Perhaps I might be competitive after all despite your winter testing. Assume you've got the full team out there with you driving in your roadsport

Excellent, that's all decided then. As Mr Sankey is now the most "senior" member of Class 4 I'll go with his take on the reg's and we'll all race in Class 4 in one big happy family I think in fairness Shaun, I didn't have to haul that big heavy duratec up that very tight narrow hill (or change into 3rd gear)

Agreed Chris but I think you slightly miss my point as in classes 4 and above we have programmable ECU's. This means that I am fully in compliance with all the rules in 4 as my map is 188 point something BHP but my engine is capable of producing the 204BHP figure. I believe Mike has similar figures and David 209 / 190 maps also. There are probably another 2 or 3 cars also over the 190 BHP on "full map". Now is this "exploiting the regulations" (as has been the status quo for the past few years) or is everyone happy? Basically, are we all going to race in C4 as usual or C5? It's quite nice to race in a bigger class that's all. When I turn up I want to have an enjoyable weekend - bit of driving and a nice meal out, and not have a discussion about power outputs (unless or course I race in C5 and happen to run quicker than shaun that is whereby you can be sure I'll take the moral high ground that "power isn't everything )

Whilst I was thinking on the subject of upgrades and winter work I was having another look through our regulations and came across a new one - 4.6. In particular: "but expects the drivers to respect the spirit of the championship by not exploiting the regulations to gain an unfair advantage" So what are we saying here? I read that with 204BHP I probably ought to be in Class 5 and that maybe the reg's are suggesting that if you're more than say 7, 8, 9, BHP over a class band then you maybe ought to be in the class above and not tap the top end off to take you to the one below? I don't want to enter class 4 and get grief but then again, I don't want to enter C5 and find all the other 200+BHP cars in 4 and me on my own. Happy either way and in any event, may not be able to do 7 events this year so might be irrelevant. Just thought I'd see what others thoughts were and the general consensus. As long as we're all happy, that's the main thing. Happy New Year!

Have you looked outside the window recently? I can see rain, quite a lot of wind and if I walk outside and get my binnoculars out, a rather large ship which appears to be sat on the Brambles Bank (actually I don't need binnoculars) The 7 is still sat in the trailer and I haven't touched it I'm afraid. I was thinking about a class 2 entry but Mr Bowler has scuppered that idea for me with his addition of 27 way Penske dampers and I don't think my one way would compete on equal terms. Never mind....

Alan, are you sure you are getting rid of these over those new 3-way Penske things you're bolting on as a replacement. It's only a bit of club motorsport........

Rob That'll be the same hump (hollow) that was still present in T1 for Martin and T2 for me. The only difference being that I was fortunate enough that the grass had dried sufficiently for me to steer away from the hedge! I know it was part of the course but I do think it should be rectified as the corner is faster than the hollow will allow - accident waiting to happen in my opinion - think I said as much to Shaun and Gill when we walked the course Saturday a.m. I am surprised at what they've done putting armco there - hardly the ideal solution. I would have thought that a tyre wall or rectocel would be more appropriate.

as announced in the LDMC bulletin and hour ago

Hi Mark Have you asked BJ to make you one or for their advice on what to do now? I understand that they don't make the trailer anymore and therefore have discontinued the spare parts (barring consumables) but it seems a little short sighted of them not to help you out with a tyre rack. I can't believe they don't have the facility to knock you one up or at the very least (if they really can't be bothered) provide you with a drawing and send you in the right direction. If I were them, I'd build you one, charge you a small premium (because it's discontinued sir) and then be looking forward to you coming back for your race transporter 5 in a couple of years time. Anyway ... I use the jerry can holders that Chris has posted the link to - they are bolted under the tyre rack. Let us know how you get on. Stuart

I'd be happy with a control tyre but maybe not the Kumho with it's concrete sidewalls and heavy weight. I think the Avon ZZS fits into the new 1b list - good dry AND wet and a proper motorsport tyre to boot. Don't get me wrong, I actually really like driving on the Kumho (not to mention it's probably quicker on 60s plus sprints) I just think the Avon is better and more consistent. The other reason is that the Kumho means a cycle wing and wing stay modification for anyone is class 3, 4, 5 & 6, adding to the cost. Just my tuppence .............

Thanks Roger Yes, the trackday "chicane" was flat in 5th so may as well not have been there. The third chicane will certainly slow you down which is proably sensible for the sprint to be fair. Clark corner was certainly a challenge, trail braking from over 130mph with a corner entry of 90mph in fourth - certainly more chance of an off without the chicane and especially when you are pushing it hard on the sprint. Look forward to the circuit guide.

Excellent - be nice to have a report then Roger

So am I right in thinking that the sprint is one and one third laps, starting at the pit exit and with no less than three coned "chicanes" to slow you down? I hope they put the finish line before the braking point for the first set of cones! Roger, unless you've done an actual sprint there on this format, the club track day that we attended will have almost no likeness to what we'll have to drive for the sprint.

Alan, you forgot also, sub section 8 and 9 of that rule: drivers must make at least 2 gear changes per run in addition to the selection of 1st at the start line (although I think that was generally ignored) Also the class 4 specific rule (I think 1002 part A - can't remember the sub-section) that allowed flat shift for yellow cars running a "historic" engine. I believe this exception was granted because we all knew that the operator, due to his advancing years would probably forget to use it.