Caterham 170 experience

(*) ' biche ' is the french word for doe  Oh deer 🦌  I didn't see that one coming. Literally. The poor thing, a roe deer actually, just teleported in front of my nose. There was no time to react. There was no impact for us either. I've had scarier encounters with birds in the windscreen; except there was no damage. After a busy day getting the car back from MH7 who had to replace a faulty oxygen sensor (an upgraded wideband one that was behaving very erratically) followed by the afternoon at House of Speed for the inauguration of the large showroom and new workshop 🥰, we hopped to Luxembourg to check how the engine management was going.  It was perfect, the car is silky smooth and very gnarly at the same time, thanks again to MH7 for the time spent pinpointing that intermittent issue. And having my car ready for the trip to the Vosges area and Black Forest from May 1st to 4th. So, we were cruising back home with the boot full of liquor, Easter chocolates and a pai...

TL;DR mirrors are required by law for a reason EDIT : I actually already covered the subject last year . .. but I will keep both posts. Driving like Noddy in his little yellow car is certainly part of the appeal of owning such a toy. It didn't take us long to try this on the beach in winter last year. It was cold AF, and we certainly learned that driving without side screens is not very enjoyable because of the massive air turbulence. At any speed over 70 kph, the experience is close to what I imagine breathing with a CPAP must feel like. Some fear they'll lose their sunglasses; I wasn't convinced my beanie was really safe either. You certainly need earplugs. On top of the battering, the lack of side mirrors wasn't optimal. It was barely OK on empty country roads, but they are really missing when driving around town during rush hour. Looking for small "F1" style mirrors similar to the ones I had on my bike back in the day, I found those super cheap models o...

TL;DR Not much fun has been had   First task at hand was just a nice to have : a proper routing of the cable to the rear camera. When I did install the dashcam kit last year , it had been a hurried job one winter evening. Squeezing the cable going to the rear under the side of the tunnel cover was ok, but from there the only way to the boot area was going across the panel behind the passenger seat to reach the post where a seat belt would be attached. As most would happen under the car, I did lift the rear on the ramps, and the front with the hydraulic jack. It's snug but I just fit ok under there.  I'm lucky that the wiring to the rear camera ends with a connector I did attach to the back of the chassis right under the boot cover. The camera didn't need removing and the wiring attached to the roll-bar could remain as it was. So the rear unit was disconnected, the wire pulled back to the cockpit and pulled down from the right side of the tunnel, quick and easy. In the boot...

TL;DR Not by the book That's when checking if all was fine with the tail lights that we discovered that a side repeater was not working anymore. With a silicone blob dangling from under the wing just behind the LED unit, some wiring issue was the most likely culprit, rather than a faulty LED unit - which didn't show any trace of water ingress. That was confirmed by shaking the wiring a bit to get some intermittent contact. The car was jacked-up, the wheel removed, the hub and brake assembly covered with a plastic bag to protect from any crud, and also to limit the exposure to the copper grease applied to the lug studs. It didn't take much effort to cut the silicone adhesive open and spray the area clean with brake cleaner. In there, the wiring was really not what was expected from reading the assembly guide. The positive green lead is supposed to be a single length going from the side repeater to the connector under the hood; the ground just a short length of black wire ...

TL;DR Nürburgring part III Participation to that event was not really planned, and truth be told we were not formally invited 😅 This meeting was the "Season Opener" organised by Caterham Car Club (of Germany) with Caterham Nürburgring (aka Caterham Deutschland). The club itself is an independent organisation acting as the national branch of the Caterham & Lotus Seven Club . Their philosophy is to welcome all like-minded friends of the Caterham Seven. Their Facebook Group has a huge international following with close to 13 000 members. It is a really nice, polite and open space to discuss anything Caterham; and part of the few groups I'm still a member of, the others being the niche Caterham Suzuki Owners and Lotus7_BW . So there I was just two days before the event seeing the announcement from Caterham Nürburgring and subsequent share on the group. It was clearly stated that it was an exclusive event for members of the club. The day would consist in meeting at C...