Caterham 170 experience

  (credit for all the pictures in this post : Benoit Mahaux ) On the 29th of September was the second edition of the Distinguished Gentleman’s Drive in Liège. Organised by We Love Curves , with the support of local sponsors.  We met at 13:30 at the Van der Valk Hotel Liège Congrès who graciously provided the parking lot, a conference room and coffee for all participants. We set off around 14:40. The circuit was a nice loop of around 100km around Liège, with 17 classic cars escorted by 13 motorcycles to open us the road.  We reached the Castle of Jehay around 16:15. There we took an hour for a nice drink, the Autumn weather was really fine. We were back at the Van der Valk by 18:00, where a drink and walk-in dinner was organized. I think we were the only ones not to stay for dinner, as we don't care about any of that, and had to get back to the kids anyway. An impressive organisation by Philippe !   All the pictures are shown here .

  The golden foil is already a really good solution and solves the idle instability on the warmest days. But it's really warm to the touch despite the natural cooling of the air blowing through the engine bay. An infrared measurement of the temperature of turbo body read around 200°C. Heat is transferred by radiation more than convection (which is prevented by the air passing around the intake). The best protection is a wall between the intake and turbo. A classical way to achieve this is to fit a stamped aluminium plate to cover the turbo and exhaust manifold. The Suzuki R06A engine used here has the exhaust manifold included in the cylinder head by the way... Inspired by a member of the Sevener.fr forum , I went the other way around and added a 10cm x 30cm piece of stamped aluminium around the intake I'm trying to shield.  The 30x50cm sheet was received neatly rolled. A 10cm piece was cut using metal shears, the edge deburred with a flat file. I've also filed the corners ...

It began with some research on how to best care for the carbon fiber stone guards. Someone on a forum recommended using old-school carnauba wax. I picked up a liquid spray version, which came with a microfiber cloth as part of the kit. At first, only the carbon fiber stone guards were treated, but I applied it to the entire car about two weeks later. With the car squeaky clean and dry , the product is applied with a cloth, left to dry, and then finally buffed with the provided microfiber cloth. The finish is great—the car looks super shiny and is somewhat water-repellent. Folding the long-nose shower cap on the hood highlights just how slippery the surface has become. Resting the elbow on the treated carbon fiber sill protectors also gives a funny slippery sensation. Dirt comes off the stone guards and rear wheel arches more easily. I would 100% buy it again or try the wax in solid form.    

My torque wrench is nearly 15 years old and had never been calibrated since manufacturing. Youtube was a great help in understanding how a simple job it is to do. The maths is easy as well. The idea is to apply a constant known force at the end of the lever. That constant force is provided by a heavy weight that will hang from the handle. I have used 3 counterweights from my telescope, weighing 5.1kg each. That's 15.3kg total. Conversion to Newtons is just a matter of mutiplying the weight by "g", earth's standard gravity of 9.81 m/s².  The counterweights will thus apply a vertical force equal to 15.3 x 9.81 = 150.093 N As the groove in the handle is 39.5 cm (=0.395m) from the center of rotation, the resulting torque will be 150N x 0.395m = 59.29 Nm .  -This when the lever is horizontal.- Here the angle was minimal and no correction was really needed (basic trigonometry would take care of that) and we didn't account for force applied by the wrench weight anyway. ...

We just woke up on a fine sunny Sunday morning and decided we could hop to the Nürburgring and have some feel of the place, just to know what this is really all about. We had a good british-style breakfast and departed just before 10AM. The trip is only 130km long and takes a bit over 2 hours, really not far from my favorite roads around the Eifel and Rurtal area. It's actually when reading the Wikipedia page about the Eifel that I discovered that the famous Nürburgring was so close to us. Living only 35km or so from Spa-Francorchamps somewhat inhibited my interest and curiosity about "the ring" until then. I just used to consider it as some toll motorway, and "ring" is the word of choice for what the British call "orbital". Now I know it's known as "the Green Hell". Even my teenage son knew it, I just didn't care. Our intention was really not to drive the Caterham on the track that day, having little idea about what to ...

TL;DR if not plugged at the factory, do something On the passenger side, a pair of unused threads become a rusty opening to the steel frame.  There is a pair on each side of the chassis but a single pedal box to use them. As the top of the passenger footwell collects rainwater that enters through the bonnet louvers, those holes are also splashed and the bare metal is rusting quietly. We are talking about M8 threads, it did not take much thinking to fill them with a pair of stainless steel grub screws and a healthy layer of grease. In order to better cover the opening, they were soon replaced by a pair of black nylon M8 philips screws with a large flat head. They were greased as well.  Reading what I've just written, it's likely that the water ingress in the passenger footwell comes from that junction between the space frame and the riveted cover. I might need to put some gasket in there too. And we both know it will end up with a carbon fiber lid. After inspection  ...

  TL;DR save 6 kg, get the JWM battery   The standard lead-acid battery weighs 8.2kg.  A LiFePO4 upgrade is the easiest and cheapest way to save weight.   As the JWM PS-12 CATERHAM battery kit couldn't (*) be sent from UK to Belgium due to the "dangerous goods" nature of Lithium batteries, I got a Shido LIX30L-BS Quattro for ~260€ instead.    Shido is a brand of the AFAM-Group, a belgian company (nice), but no country of origin is to be found on the battery or its packaging. Lite Blox of Germany is the place to go if you mean serious business with serious cash.   On paper , the Shido Quattro has the same format as the stock battery, and features 4 posts that let you orient it to get the desired polarity. It weighs only 2.0kg.  As it is a bit narrower and shorter I've had to design and 3D-print some spacers for a perfect fit. You can download the parts on Thingiverse . Regarding the charge , the car provides an ideal regulated 14V with the a...

TL;DR classy AF swag, +5000 street cred' I know, it's a replica and the Caterham lettering is too straight to be honest. The original has something of an official product, featured in the "Caterham Airways" advertisement , and  proudly displayed on the dashboard of the famous LE60-CAT 620R press car. Mine is way smaller and tucked on the fusebox cover. Note that the color of the 'LE60-CAT' 620R at Goodwood is correct for once. See the visit to the Caterham factory for more detail .

" Static Rally " is a bi-monthly meetup of oldtimers that takes place in Wavre. This for a total of 12 times between April and October. It's organized by Nicolas supported by family and friends, as well as a few welcome sponsors. It's completely free. A parking lot and entire street of a business park are privatized for the morning.    Read this newer post for the full retrospective of the year . I'm one of the regulars of the 7 Sevens that usually meet there. The pack comprises 3 Caterham 170S, a very modern looking 1978, a 1992 "Prisoner" edition, as well as a yellow Tiger 6, and a yellow Westfield. Most of us are connected and coordinated through the Lotus7_BW group . It's all good fun, casual chit-chat, having a look at all the other oldtimers, eating french fries and burgers for lunch, then share some beers. In June, Nicolas and the team announced they planned a special edition focused on Lotus and Caterham cars whatever their vintage. With the ...