Badger Time 🦡

TL;DR : 🦡💥🏎️💨⚰️😭

"Will you kill all animals in the forest with your Seven?" - I've been asked. Maybe one of each is fair game.

Really eager to confirm my over-heating issues (in cold weather only) were solved for good, I went for a short evening drive around the Ardenne. Temperature was around 13°C and the rain just stopped for a bit.

The good news is that yes, after 6 months of wondering how to solve my cooling issue, the actual culprit was the expansion bottle cap. As House of Speed were closed for the Summer holidays, I got a replacement cap from Land Rover instead. The part number is PCD500030. The expansion tank and cap used by Caterham come from an old Freelander. Shoutout to Spirlet Liège for their gentle help.  It cost me 23.53€ for an OEM part. 

As a reminder, I tried a 12€ one from Aliexpress first. Sold with an identical part number, it was advertised as "Factory-grade quality at competitive price ". My arse. The valve looked fake and there was no gasket. I did evaporate a good portion of my coolant in just a few days (read more here).

Anyway, back to our subject. Which tonight is a small furry bandit with a black mask. 

Happy with the recovered reliability of the cooling system in any weather, I got properly showered on the way back. I had no choice but to stop and fit the half hood once there was as much rain on the inside face of the windscreen as the outside. The night stroll turned into a battle against the elements. But that's still a lot of fun.

There were dead leaves on the road, a bit of mist and fog, heavy showers in some places. I just got new Uniroyal Rainexpert 5 fitted on the front, with original Avon ZT7 on the rear. Do yourself a service by putting your ZT7 and ZT5 in the bin without delay. They are properly dangerous on damp roads. 

So yes, here I was doing what I do best : keeping the Caterham on the road despite the weather and the ghastly Avons. Which circles back to the lusory attitude I mentioned back in February (in short, the voluntary attempt to overcome unnecessary obstacles can be the definition of a game).

Truth be told, I should have read the signs when I saw a rat then a mouse crossing the road from the left side. They were clear signals I should leave the B-roads and jump on the highway STAT.

The next animal was a badger, which got my wheel arch flying. This time the footage shows I've had time to touch the brakes, but we're talking a tenth of a second at most before the impact.

Two years ago, I told you about the nylon sacrificial bolts. Those did their job wonderfully, letting the arch pop out with no damage to the riv-nuts or the skin of the car. The issue is that I hadn't removed the boot floor to access one metal bolt on each side yet. This one is still on the damaged wheel arch. It ripped open the skin of the car like a tin can, washer and all came though the slit.

Luckily the damage can be patched cleanly, and won't be seen at all, hidden under the wheel arch in any case. There is also a bump just under the boot cover, it looks like it could be pushed back from the inside with no trace.

The wheel arch, carbon stone guard, LED tail light and all the wiring are to be replaced.

Only the rear light gasket is salvageable, all the rest has to be replaced.

Fun stuff...