Road legal at last!
Feb 4th, 2004 by Tim Skipper
Today I made the journey I’ve been looking forward to the most since I finished building my Academy car back in December – to the Caterham factory in Dartford to collect my now road legal car following it’s successful SVA test yesterday.
Ideally I would have got the train to Dartford and driven it home, but getting from Norwich to Dartford via train is a painful and expensive process that involves going into London, across the City and back out again. Stuff that, I’ll be wasting precious blatting time!
So instead I hooked up my Brian James Minno trailer to my BMW 535i Sport and set off at half past eight. By ten thirty I was sitting in reception waiting for Simon Lambert, Caterham after-sales manager, to bring me the bill. I have to say Simon and his crew do Caterham proud with their level of service, from prompt and courteous telephone or e-mail contact down to helping load/unload the car from the trailer.
Another few quid lighter, I eagerly set off for home. So far it had stayed dry and reasonably warm and I was praying to the Rain Gods to clear off and rain on somewhere else thanks very much all the way back to Norwich.
Once home, the first job was the ceremonial un-SVAing of the car. All those pesky little bits of rubber trim, pointless bolt head caps and tie-wrapped foam coverings were reconciled to the bin in short order. Woohoo! Time to go and play.
I reckoned I could do without a hat since it was warm, and just put on my ski jacket and freshly unwrapped Stand-21 Nomex leather racing gloves, clambered into the car and… ok who moved the pedals 3 ft forwards?!
Obviously whoever had driven the car to Gillingham for the SVA was not of my economic stature (“built for speed”, I like to think) and had shoved the seat back as far as it would go. And it didn’t want to move forwards anymore either. Bugger.
The next 30 minutes were spent alternately grunting/heaving and swearing about overly tall people as I tried to move the damned seat forwards to where I needed it. No good, it wasn’t budging. Even a broom handle down the back couldn’t persuade it forwards.
As a last resort I broke out the toolkit and undid the bolts holding the seat rails to the floor in the hope it would help. Eventually after some more sitting in the car and hurling myself forwards whilst holding onto the seat and swearing profusely it made a loud twanging noise and shot forwards!
Now I can finally press the Big Red Starter Button I asked Caterham to fit while they had the car. Much quicker than faffing around under the dash trying to start the car with your knee!
I didn’t really have any particular route in mind and so elected to head out of the estate via the five mini-roundabouts, usually a tedious affair that I avoid, but much more fun in a Seven! Previously I had only manoeuvred it around the driveway and a short way up the road, which left me with the impression that the steering was too slow. It isn’t. I can get enough lock on to navigate a mini roundabout without having to take my hands off the wheel. This is a good thing as I was a little worried a lot of arm twirling was going to be necessary given the tiny diameter MOMO wheel.
I opted for the composite Tillet racing seats that are a very snug fit – there’s no padding whatsoever but they fit me so well it doesn’t seem to matter. So far anyway! Because the Academy cars have a lowered floor I don’t seem to be able to hold the wheel with both arms straight – my left arm is raised slightly by the transmission tunnel. It’s not uncomfortable though and I don’t think it’ll get in the way of expert wheelmanship.
First impressions of its performance (given I’m still within the 30mph confines of my estate) is that it has a very quick throttle response and instant go from low speeds in the first three gears. A good prod of the throttle in second elicits a purposeful sounding bark from the side exit exhaust and objects in the rear view mirror start disappearing rapidly! It really doesn’t need a first gear at all, with so little weight to move it will execute a pretty rapid standing start from second without complaining in the slightest.
The steering is very direct indeed – I swear you could steer this thing by wiggling the appropriate eyebrow, the vibration from which down to your hands would be enough to changes lanes! It’s more responsive even than the Lotus Sport Elise 190 I owned during 2002. This means I’m wandering around a bit until I recalibrate my steering sensitivity.
The (Ford) gearbox is very sweet, not a desperately short throw, but very positive – after all there is no linkages involved other than a short lever directly into the top of the gearbox.
Even though I’ve only driven a mile or so, I’m very aware that everyone is looking at the funny little car going past.
I decided to head out to the Norwich southern bypass to get some speed up and see how it goes through the gears, and had a whale of a time giving it some welly in second in between roundabouts and other slower cars on the way. Just before you join the Norwich southern bypass from where I was approaching there’s an industrial estate (which normally provides my route off of my estate to the bypass, avoiding all those mini roundabouts), which starts with a short stretch of dual carriageway with a big wide roundabout at the end. It’s always deserted, so well it would have been rude not too.
Into the roundabout in second carrying a fair amount of speed, a quick back off and sharp prod on the throttle and away she goes into a lovely controllable slide, opposite lock on throttle buried and back down the other way again. Magic stuff!
Out onto the bypass it’ll get up to 80mph in no time at all, but my word it’s windy! My head is getting buffeted around like you wouldn’t believe (no doors on my car remember, most road cars have side-screens or half-doors fitted) and it’s making my eyes stream, and forcing air up my right nostril! I had no choice but to slow right down and fish my shades out of my jacket pocket just so I could see where I was going. I think wearing my crash helmet while out driving is the way forward here.
I came off at the next exit and headed back onto the ring road to catch my breath again, then took a minor road out towards Wymondham for a blat along one of my favourite Norfolk roads, the B1135 between Wymondham and Dereham. This is a twisty, bumpy, up-and-down road with every kind of corner and camber change you can think of, and a couple of hump-backed bridges (or yumps in the right car!) thrown in for good measure. There’s also plenty of places to overtake slower cars, and unusually for Norfolk, hasn’t been dumbed down with pointless speed limits.
I won’t describe the whole drive along it as its 10 or so miles, but aside from a making my face hurt from grinning so much here’s what I learned about the Seven.
Steering: As mentioned previously it really is very direct, and very sensitive. Care is needed to avoid darting around the road unintentionally, but of course, this is a very good thing.
Ride: Given that it feels pretty stiffly sprung, certainly at rest you can barely move the suspension by rocking the car, the ride is surprisingly good. Even on this terribly bumpy road I was never left with the feeling that one or more wheels were having trouble keeping in contact with the road (well apart from one yump ).
Handling: You point it, it goes there. No question about it! While I’m still getting used to it I’m not throwing it into corners particularly hard but I had no trouble at all carrying a lot of speed into and through the corners, and often exited thinking that it would have gone plenty quicker still had I had the confidence to do it. I’m really going to enjoy learning this car and putting it through its paces on a smooth race track. If I have any complaint it was the odd low-speed corner where the front end seemed reluctant to bite, maybe that’s just the crappy Avon CR322 control tyres we’re forced to use.
Braking: The jury is still out here but to be fair with barely over 100 miles on it I expect they’ve got a fair bit of improvement to come yet. I kept feeling like the right rear was going to lock up before the others, which made it a little unstable when braking hard over bumps or with any lock on. This may also be down to ride height and corner weight issues, which will be resolved when I get it flat-floored soon.
Performance: No complaint here at all. Although I was mostly short-shifting at 4,000 rpm (redline is 6,750 rpm) its pace and acceleration belies its little 1.6 engine – the benefit of not having much weight to haul around (approx 600kg with me in it).
It was refreshing to find other cars being keen to move over a bit and let me through whilst I was on my charge through the twisty bits, everyone seems to like the Seven and it’s all but impossible to drive past any small people without them tugging on their Mum’s coats and pointing and waving. Definitely not a car for the shy retiring type! I certainly never got that kind of reception in the Porsches I’ve owned.
So as you can tell so far I’m very impressed and happy with the car. The fact that I built it all myself is just the icing on the cake. I look forward to many thousands of fun filled miles with the Seven, and of course this year’s Academy championships.
The first track outing will be on Saturday 21st February at Mallory Park, on a Book-A-Track track day.
Here are some more impressions having driven the car for another 30 odd miles last night in the dark.
The headlights work well with a good spread of light and main beam seemed pretty effective the one time I used it. I braved another stint on the bypass only without being able to wear my shades for obvious reasons it really is tortuously windy on the eyeballs!
I seem to have adjusted to the super sensitive steering now and was able to place it on the road exactly where I wanted it – makes diving through a series of roundabouts a real fun experience when you can take aim and fire through.
Muppets in Corsas and Saxos cannot resist lining up against you at traffic lights. This is too funny; you don’t even have to rev the Seven and drop the clutch for a super fast drag start, just let up the clutch with barely more than tickover revs and then nail it. Bye bye!
You get an odd sensation when turning hard into a corner. It feels like you’re about to lose it when in reality it’s still planted to the road. I think this is because you are sitting only six inches or so forward of the rear axle, and there’s a lot of car in front of you that turns first. Imagine sitting in the back seat of an ordinary saloon car and steering from there!
I’m using a bit more of the revs range now and it’s definitely got more go above 4,000 rpm, and makes a great noise!
The standard dash configuration doesn’t have an oil temperature gauge, but for a small fee Caterham will fit a toggle switch that lets you switch between oil and water temp on the existing water temp gauge. I would advise everyone to take this option. The oil takes a long time to come up to temperature, a factor of the 7-litre capacity and Apollo anti-swirl tank I suppose.
When the water temp has reached normal, the oil is barely off the stop – something to remember before getting too excited with the loud pedal. Usefully the normal temperature for both is practically the same, so a quick flick of the switch back and forth is enough to confirm all is well.
For reasons I cannot even begin to imagine, this toggle switch (which is identical to all the other toggle switches on the dash) is an SVA failure, so it has to be done after the test. <sva rant>Apparently, the powers that be are now even considering whether the engraved gearbox pattern in the top of the lovely aluminium gear knob is hazardous and also a failure!!</sva rant>
Still loving it…
