Seven - The magic number

 So my chassis is built. Neil has been kind enough to post a picture of it.  (It's also coming with ARB bosses - which is nice!) I believe all my other pieces are ready to go - bodywork, and all the interior componentry, wheels, tyres, etc to build the car. The missing piece, unfortunately, is the donor. MK use a local college to break donors for them, and of course, the donor is in Lockdown. At this rate, it feels as if I'll be lucky to get the car before easter. Grumble grumble. It's a first world problem I know. One option I have would be to source my own donor and break it but there are a few problems with this. There are not a lot of decent donor cars around at the moment. I really don't have the room for an MX5 in the garage, especially once I start taking pieces off it, and working outside doesn't really appeal for the next couple of months. Not sure I'd be too popular with my neighbours attacking a broken car with a noisy impact gun late at night which i...

 So - decision made. If you read my earlier posts it shouldn't be a huge surprise, but I have spoken to MK again and have ended up ordering one of their RX 5 kits basically complete from the factory. If you are interested in the same thing, start here..... So - reasons for my choice Money - it works out at about half what my spend was previously looking at. It's a bit more than the base kit price shown there as I have added a few options: Nice Wheels (like the ones on the white car in the picture rather than the standard ones off the donor car) A few things to make fitting the turbo at a later date easier and to save having to replace almost new bits, including: upgraded radiator with intercooler, shortened sump with oil return, strengthened diff. MK are going to strip a donor car for me - saves me having a broken car on the drive which my neighbours would not be happy with Upgraded billet pedal box and better harnesses Floor and copper brake and fuel lines already installed fo...

  So - a short one today. For transparency - I have had to have a bit of a rethink. When I first looked at starting this, you will remember I shelved it because the Caterham costs were way too much. Over the last few days I have done the numbers on the Raptor a load of times and come to the realisation that again, it was coming out much too high. It was basically going to eat a lot of savings for a while and that's not something I was comfortable with - it's not all about me! (To be clear - that's not Raptor's fault, I was basically just overreaching myself). So - I have cancelled my order with Raptor - Andy was awesome about it and really understanding, and I really appreciate it. I'm a bit gutted - and in the future I DEFINITELY want to go back to Raptor and have a scottish made car with a really (read crazily) powerful engine so I will be keeping a really close eye on their progress.  I'm also super interested in the V8 kit they are developing - go take a loo...

 It should be no real surprise, but I LOVE the aesthetics of the seven. The stripped out, racy look of a clean seven is a great thing and I'm a massive fan. Raptor seem to have created a little identity all of their own, with the standard "look" for a RR235 being something along these lines: Predominantly orange, black stripe, black cycle wings, black cage, carbon wrap on some of the exposed parts, aero screen. Colour: As it so happens, I really like the Orange, so I am going to stick with it for mine. However, I am going to change a few bits and pieces to make it more individual. Stripe : Going to keep the colour a surprise for now, but this is the main cosmetic change for me. I may then wrap a few other things on the car to match. NOTE - IVA . As part of the process of getting the car legally on the road, you have to get it certified via a process called IVA (Individual Vehicle Approval). What this does is basically check that the car is safe and roadworthy, you then g...

As I said in my previous post, I have a deposit down. What I have actually ordered so far is a chassis, with a half cage, powdercoated. On addition, I have decided to pay the money for Raptor themselves to fit the floor, and all the copperwork for hydraulics. Given that I have decided to get my engine from them as well, Andy has said that they can fit and wire the engine before I take delivery.  I've mulled this over and gone back and forth in my head. On one hand, dropping the engine in is a big step in any build and I was quite looking forward to it. On the other hand, doing it this way gives me a load of benefits.: I get a chassis where I should be able to handle everything else to get it fully ready for IVA and registration. I don't risk making a hash of hydraulic tubing. From working on bicycles, hydraulics is one of my least favourite things to do, and if I split tubes or do joints badly, DOT is horrible stuff. I will obviously still need to plumb in the brakes but thats ...

 Well - it should be pretty obvious I chose Raptor. So - what were the reasons? Firstly its important to say that every company I contacted has been incredibly helpful. Neil from MK particularly deserves calling out, and had I been living in the south east, MK would definitely have been on the shortlist In short though, one of the biggest single factors for me was proximity. As you can see from the map, MK are not exactly local, and even GBS are a few hours away. This is the first time I have done this, and the ability to drive over and see the company, ask them stuff, and in an emergency get the car to them for help was too big an advantage to pass up. That said, there are also a bunch of other things that I took into account. The other main thing was that Andy was equally as helpful and enthusiastic as any other manufacturer (or possibly more!), and spent considerable time with me working out my options. Firstly the main downside - This is going to cost me a fair whack more than ...

 In July last year, I went to visit a friend as part of a work trip. He'd warned me to pack light because he was picking me up in the Caterham he'd recently finished building. First impressions - wow this thing was small, he wasn't kidding about packing light. Secondly after a "spirited" 45 minute drive home (direct I think it should have taken about 15 minutes but we may have gone a slightly indirect route), I NEEDED one of these.  I've always been aware of "Seven" type cars - I used to go to hillclimbs with a girlfriend whose dad and brother raced a Ginetta when I was younger so I had seen plenty of them, and always liked the look, but had never had a ride before. There are a number of manufacturers of them, but Caterham is the industry standard, and if you are picky about these things, the most direct descendant of the original Colin Chapman car. If you have never ridden in one, do so. The best way to think about it is not as a car, but as a pract...