One of the cheapest modifications you can do,
not really an upgrade. My 7 grill remained the
basic grey for a while and then got colour coded
to match the car when it gained it's yellow stripe.
It, of course, was again painted when the car
changed to silver & red. On the first trip
out with it on the car, whilst in a small convoy
with Simon, Rory and Chris, I picked up a nice
big hole in the radiator some 60 miles from home.
Rory dashed off and managed to find some RadWeld
and we fixed it up to get home. Needless to say,
some fine (10mm square) mesh was then bought,
painted black and cable tied behind the 7 grill
and I have not had a problem since.
The original wheel was too big for
me. It clashed with my knees and I found the horn
switch in the centre a little over-sensitive,
resulting in a few embaressing moments.
I looked around at the club meeting and decided
I liked the feel of the Racetech wheel and the
fact that it was half the price of equivalent
Momo was a big bonus. I also liked the fact that
it came pre-drilled and counter sunk to suit the
new boss.
Some people don't like the Racetech feel, the
soft and somewhat flimsy construction. But in
a 7 I have never found it necessary to feed the
wheel to get around a corner. So the 'wobbly'
top doesn't bother me at all.
The only other wheel I have so far come across
that I like the look and, more importantly, the
feel of is the Momo with the cut-out top section
and flat bottom. I know it is a bit reminisent
of Knight Rider, but having held one, I have to
say it was very comfy, and I would again be able
to see the top of my dials. So when the Racetech
need replacing I'll probably give one of those
a go.
My favorite seven picture
when I was saving up was the aniversary HPC shot
on the beach on some very flat sand. The sun was
just at the right point and the car looked great,
16" wheels, S-type leather, etc. When I bought
my car, however, I couldn't afford to have this
so I settled on an BRG. It wasn't until a couple
of years later that it dawned on me that I could
actually add the yellow stripe. A few phone calls
and quotes later and I arranged to drop my car
to Mark at Ratrace
one Saturday morning. To keep the cost down my
father and I stripped off the windscreen once
there. A couple of weeks later (as Mark also MOT'd
it for me) Mandy drove me there to pick it up.
Wow, just like I had always wanted! A few minutes
to bolt the screen back on and it was ready to
go. The drive home was great, I just kept on looking
at the stripe stretching down the bonnet and the
yellow reflection just in view in the headlamp
bowls.
It might have been around for a while now, but
I still think it is one of the best colour schemes.
Those in the know will recognise the Lotus relationship,
but for me it just enhances the cars lines, making
it look longer. Hence I kept the scheme when I
redecorated.
A great, cheap upgrade for the feeling
of the gear change. Removing the rubber thing
and directly mounting a nice Ali ball makes a
nice positive change. It does get a little cold
though and it does clash with my wedding ring,
so I swap that to the other hand for driving the
seven.
Not excactly the last
word in stickyness, but when you compared them
to the Michelin MXT's that came with the car,
it was like chalk and cheese. They offered wet
weather grip which was a whole new experiance,
and were perfectly suited to the 100bhp x/flow.
I did find that they went off after 4 years, but
that could also have been the fact that I was
then asking them to deal with the Zetec power
and torque.
I changed to the 510's just before the French
Alps trip and that holiday was marked by the ability
to become intimate with anything that raised itself
more than 3mm above the road. See Dampers &
Springs.
This I think should be standard
fit to all cars. It is a vital safety item and
something which I had tried to justify for a long
time. Taking Mandy on a long trip to the Alps
gave me a very good reason - it wasn't just my
life I would be risking. It don't half weight
a lot more, but you feel safer with it there.
It also gives the car a much more macho look,
purposeful I guess you'd say.
After the trip to the Alps, it was
obvious that these were now required. Scraping
the sump over every road imperfection or slightly
higher curb wasn't enjoyable. This was at a time
before I was on Blatchat, so the different opinions
of dampers was not availiable. I therefore took
the easy route and choose more Spax, although
the Bilstiens were tempting, they'd have needed
an adjustable kit which added another £100
or so. I also took the easy route and copied a
friends spring rates of 310lb/in front and 115lb/in
rear. Surprisingly this all actually gave a better
ride as well as improving the handling no end.
The front end stays absolutely flat when cornering
while the rear rolls slightly. This is due to
the softer rear springs required for the live
xle, which would otherwise bounce and loose traction
over bumps, normally mid-bend.
There is loads of good infomation on handling
here
In the run up to the
Zetec conversion I decided that I wanted to get
the side exhaust for the X/flow. This wasn't the
most cost effective way of doing it, but it did
mean that I got to enjoy the last year of the
X/flow more. Steve
helped with the fitting, where we used a drill
powered nibbler to open up the hole before finishing
with an compressed air powered grinding tool.
Everything went together fine and we even got
a trip to the local pub to award ourselves.
The side exit really did liberate a couple of
hp, but the other two benifits were better. The
first was that the rear area didn't get covered
in soot, which only took a couple of minutes to
form. The other was more important and that was
that exhaust fumes were no longer coming back
into the car. I am convinced that there is a rear
vortex which used to cause fumes to be blown into
the car. I didn't really notice this, but Mandy
used to get headaches after an hour or so in the
car. The side exit cured this, so now she just
falls asleep instead!
I'd been tempted to do this for
a while, but my problem was that a bad paint repair
on the rear quarter would have been very visable
with no wheel fitted. I decided to copy the rear
sticker on Steves car, but unfortunately Caterham
had stopped producing these. A few phone calls
later and I found a local sign writers that could
scan in the logo (from my build manual) and produce
a large sticker. Removing the wheel rack was just
a case of using a hacksaw and masking the area
to prevent accidents. I don't particularly like
the look of stubs sticking out allowing the rack
to be re-fitted, so I went for a clean removal.
The last bit was filed down flat before being
given a coat of black Hammerite. I positioned
the number plate so that it covered the remains
of the rack. The final job was to fit my nice
big 18" Dia sticker.This was quite easy,
but I did get a few bubbles, but these went over
time. The end result was great, the bad paint
job was masked nicely and the car looked less
like a 4x4 without the spare wheel.
Oh, and all of this was done the night before
the handling day at Curborough, so it was fun
getting used to the changes is weight distribution,
but around 15kg were removed.
This is a great little addition
to a seven as it lets you see just what speed
you are doing. The Caterham speedo, certainly
from my cars era, are not too accurate, especially
when you then change the tire profiles, changing
the gearing. The fitting is simple, although the
wiring does need extending to reach the wheel.
A magnet is removed from its holder and glued
onto the wheel rim. The sensor is positioned 1-2mm
away from the magnet and hey presto, you'll get
a reading. I made a bracket that came off the
steering arm bolt when the car was running flared
wings. The cylce wing stay is ideal to mount the
sensor on if you have cycles, although I had to
pack it out to get the sensor close enough. Now
all you have to do is calibrate it according and
find somewhere to mount it. I made a clamp for
the steering column but found the wire required
to allow turning got in the way, then I put it
on top of the scuttle which was good, but after
the respray I made a little bracket and it is
currently hanging from one of the central toggle
switches.
Jason's excellent guide can be found here.
