Caterham 170 experience

  Another must-have on my list : the long nose shower cap. Most useful when you don't have a garage and enjoy driving with the roof off. It was made to order by Soft Bits For Sevens , really a premium product. The underside has a metallic coating that doubles as a heat shield. With the new type of tail lights and no independent fog and rear lamps to attach to, the shower cap comes with additional plastic hooks to catch the bottom of the rear body panel. I'm happy that I can rely on the spare wheel carrier instead. Weight without the pouch : 1130 grams EDIT on 2025-09-03 : specifications to order one for a 170 (any) or 165 (with a spare wheel)      SCL 2 : Long Nose Shower Cap - Door Mounted or Tripod Mirrors      Car Specification: Series 3 , Non FIA ( H2 )      Mirror Style: Standard or Eccles door mirrors      Rear lights: LED lights  pro-tip :    F or extra versatility,  ask Soft Bits for ...

I'm not sure this one changes anything. Maybe some street cred' or style points of some kind. I think I hear the air whoosh in a bit more loudly, but it might be in my head. Reference of the K&N filter is 33-2036 , as found in some Caterham 420 racing regulation. Caterham themselves are not consistent with the one they ship when you order from them. So 33-2036 it is. Perfect fit, just 6 screws to remove from the airbox, easy game. A long PH2 screwdriver is required. It is pre-oiled, you just put it in there and close the lid. For reference, the original paper filter was a Ford unit with part number 1 729 854 An alternative to the K&N is the P950366  from Green, a Ford Fiesta item (thanks, Guillaume).

  TL;DR don't scratch the bonnet   There was not a single picture where those protective strips could be shown, so here's my best effort to highlight a transparent strip on the side of the bonnet. Placed on each side, they prevent the small rubber feet on the doors from grinding into the paint. Repeated 180° opening of the sidescreens already gave me some signs of wear.   I got this kit of bicycle frame protection film from Amazon for about 8€. I've used the longest "band-aid"-looking ones. The smaller rectangular ones would have been more than enough.   Most PPF kits include protection for that specific area.    My friend Christophe -who was the one to raise my awareness about that paint damage risk- opted for a custom design cut in the same color as the bonnet stripes on his own 170S. The main contour is a mirror of the bonnet side intakes, with a prominent "7" and the Light is right motto written below.  

  The south of Limburg was a known quantity dating back to the moped years. Going around those areas was clearly an early ownership activity. I have since lost any appetite for 70km/h straight lines on very flat roads. So after a bit less than two hours of haphazard driving, I came to a dead-end near the Meuse river. It happened to be the access for the Veerpont Meeswijk ferry-crossing.  It was clear I would go through Netherlands at some point, but I didn't expect it to be on a boat. I didn't even know there was such a service. The crossing is a 5 minutes affair, with maybe 2 minutes actively crossing the river. It is free for pedestrians and cyclists, and did cost 1.90 € for the car. After some more random driving to and through Maastricht, it was time to rush back home on the motorway, on time for some scheduled family activities. The weather was nice and sunny, all good fun.

  TL;DR if you don't do it for the looks, do it for the sound I don't like the factory exhaust. It's just too big, and hides the Caterham lettering on the left side of the car. Even the assembly guide shows a slimmer option fitted to the 170.  For 550€, Inoxline Performance provide you with a bespoke exhaust system with a 10cm diameter silencer that is 2kg lighter than the original 15cm nonsense. I took a day off and went to have it fitted right at their workshop. Damien is actually working alone and the stainless pipes are bent properly and not an horrible job of welding small pieces for the curves. All his work is pure craftmanship, real pieces of art. https://inoxlineperformance.com/caterham/1494-echappement-caterham-170r.html Installation is a 30 minutes job once the original exhaust is cold -ish . Just a bit of WD40 at the junction with the catalytic converter, a jubilee clip and 2 nuts to remove from the bobbins. Where the original exhaust system lacks in character...

When I bought the car, House of Speed did include me in their mailing list, so I wouldn't miss any Caterham or Lotus event. It was also very clear something special was planned on April 7th. On that date was the season opening of the Club Team Lotus Belgium  tours. It would happen around Liège, with House of Speed as the meetup point. There a nice breakfast was offered, combined with an art exhibition by Olivier Bayard that involved a freshly decorated red Caterham (that was sold in the next week I've heard). We had little interest in following a road-book, and couldn't care less about lunch and dinner at a restaurant. Having a cup of tea or coffee was actually more then enough for us. But we were really keen in having a look on nice Lotuses and Sevens, meet other customers and members of the club, show off the 170S and its winter tyres. It was quite cold but we did remove the sidescreens anyway. We met nice people, talked about becoming members of the club. In ...

  TL;DR a cheap way to drive without the side screens legally EDIT : I'm dumb enough to cover the subject twice, here's the 2025 version . .. Part of the fun with a Seven is that the sidescreens can be removed in a matter of seconds. The downside is that the rearview mirrors are fitted just below the windows and are removed too. Fitting the mirrors on the stanchions permanently is impractical as it prevents the doors from fully opening and leaning on the bonnet. Which is really convenient as it adds some ease of access to the cabin, even more so with the roof up. Looking for some cheap "F1-style" mirrors, I found super cheap motorcycle kits on Aliexpress, around 8€ a pair pp incl. cheap. As their base is designed to fit into the end of a handle bar, some adapter would be required. I ended quickly designing a slim handlebar-shaped adapter with a flat square base. The fitting is done with a long-ish M5 screw that replaced the central windscreen screw. Havin...