2020 Mint green Caterham 420R
Discussion
Lovely looking Caterham & I really enjoy reading your updates!
I have one of Graearea’s throttle pedal extensions on my car & although I found it made heel & toe easier, I found the plastic extension gripped the tread on the bottom of my driving boot & resulted in a slightly jerky throttle action, particularly at low speed in traffic. I sorted the problem by covering it in aluminium tape, so it’s interesting to see you’ve gone the other way & fitted grip tape! Perhaps my boots are the problem?
I’m with you though. I find the tinkering & tweaking is one of the great joys of Seven ownership. Small tweaks can often be far more than the sum of their parts & really add to the pleasure of driving the car.
I have one of Graearea’s throttle pedal extensions on my car & although I found it made heel & toe easier, I found the plastic extension gripped the tread on the bottom of my driving boot & resulted in a slightly jerky throttle action, particularly at low speed in traffic. I sorted the problem by covering it in aluminium tape, so it’s interesting to see you’ve gone the other way & fitted grip tape! Perhaps my boots are the problem?
I’m with you though. I find the tinkering & tweaking is one of the great joys of Seven ownership. Small tweaks can often be far more than the sum of their parts & really add to the pleasure of driving the car.
Blue 7 said:
Lovely looking Caterham & I really enjoy reading your updates!
I have one of Graearea’s throttle pedal extensions on my car & although I found it made heel & toe easier, I found the plastic extension gripped the tread on the bottom of my driving boot & resulted in a slightly jerky throttle action, particularly at low speed in traffic. I sorted the problem by covering it in aluminium tape, so it’s interesting to see you’ve gone the other way & fitted grip tape! Perhaps my boots are the problem?
I’m with you though. I find the tinkering & tweaking is one of the great joys of Seven ownership. Small tweaks can often be far more than the sum of their parts & really add to the pleasure of driving the car.
Ah thanks much appreciated! Ah yes very strange I never had a problem like that with the Extention, yes might be down toI have one of Graearea’s throttle pedal extensions on my car & although I found it made heel & toe easier, I found the plastic extension gripped the tread on the bottom of my driving boot & resulted in a slightly jerky throttle action, particularly at low speed in traffic. I sorted the problem by covering it in aluminium tape, so it’s interesting to see you’ve gone the other way & fitted grip tape! Perhaps my boots are the problem?
I’m with you though. I find the tinkering & tweaking is one of the great joys of Seven ownership. Small tweaks can often be far more than the sum of their parts & really add to the pleasure of driving the car.
Shoes!
Yes for sure, it’s a part of the ownership experience I never even considered, I never really worked on my own car before. But yes it’s almost just as enjoyable as driving the car!
Got a couple of little bits off the list this afternoon, I am partial to posh bolt or two, so I replaced the top seatbelt harness bolts with some nice looking Allen bolts and tapered washers.
Before
After
Also on the chopping block were the stock rocket cover bolts, for these things!
Much better!
Before
After
Also on the chopping block were the stock rocket cover bolts, for these things!
Much better!
Got a couple more bits done Today. the front drivers
Seat has always been on an adjustable sliding runner and the passenger seat on fixed rails. I never use the sliding rails, I just have the seat as far back as it can go permanently so I thought I would buy another set to of “passengers” side runners and rub the drivers seat fixed, it would save weight and also I could try and get the seat mounted lower and further back then before.
I used tillet spacers to try and tilt the seat back and get it as low as I can before the middle of the seat would touch the floor. (The old rails had 10mm spacers all round.
Old rails are surprisingly heavy!
Managed to get it as low as possible before it would hit the floor.
While the seat was out I decided to fit the crotch strap that would turn the current harnesses into 6 point, this required drilling a few mounts but it was pretty painless!
All finished
In this photo you can see the difference between the drivers and passenger seat, they were the same height before.
I’m glad I have managed to get the driving position even further optimised. I’m looking forward to having a run out in it soon to test!
Seat has always been on an adjustable sliding runner and the passenger seat on fixed rails. I never use the sliding rails, I just have the seat as far back as it can go permanently so I thought I would buy another set to of “passengers” side runners and rub the drivers seat fixed, it would save weight and also I could try and get the seat mounted lower and further back then before.
I used tillet spacers to try and tilt the seat back and get it as low as I can before the middle of the seat would touch the floor. (The old rails had 10mm spacers all round.
Old rails are surprisingly heavy!
Managed to get it as low as possible before it would hit the floor.
While the seat was out I decided to fit the crotch strap that would turn the current harnesses into 6 point, this required drilling a few mounts but it was pretty painless!
All finished
In this photo you can see the difference between the drivers and passenger seat, they were the same height before.
I’m glad I have managed to get the driving position even further optimised. I’m looking forward to having a run out in it soon to test!
Another little job wiped off the white board today. It’s well known on the Duratec Caterhams that due to the exhaust being on the drivers side, the pedal box can become warm (read toe burning HOT) with extended drives.
I did previously try to seal the lid of the pedal box with foam strips which did help slightly, but I have seen a few race cars with gold reflective tape covering the pedal box, so I thought I would give it a try to see if it does anything for toe temperatures going forward! Plus it looks pretty cool.
Pretty fiddly job! And not a perfect finish, but it looks the part! Hopefully it will make a bit of a difference
I did previously try to seal the lid of the pedal box with foam strips which did help slightly, but I have seen a few race cars with gold reflective tape covering the pedal box, so I thought I would give it a try to see if it does anything for toe temperatures going forward! Plus it looks pretty cool.
Pretty fiddly job! And not a perfect finish, but it looks the part! Hopefully it will make a bit of a difference
Picked up the first piece of the puzzle for the next winter/post track season project, Caterham roller barrels!
I had planned to go the jenvey ITB's route, but these were offered to me out of the blue for a bargain price, so I had to do it!
the plan now is to strip them down, have them vapour blasted then find as many new parts as I can like springs and grub screws etc, then refurbish and rebuild them whilst accruing all the other bits I need, like injectors and air filter etc over the next few months.
then towards the end of the summer, get them fitted and ship the car off to Team Leo's for mapping, I'm looking forward to the challenge!
I had planned to go the jenvey ITB's route, but these were offered to me out of the blue for a bargain price, so I had to do it!
the plan now is to strip them down, have them vapour blasted then find as many new parts as I can like springs and grub screws etc, then refurbish and rebuild them whilst accruing all the other bits I need, like injectors and air filter etc over the next few months.
then towards the end of the summer, get them fitted and ship the car off to Team Leo's for mapping, I'm looking forward to the challenge!
Managed to get the last couple of winter maintenance jobs done yesterday before the first track day of the year at bedford this Saturday.
Replaced the brake fluid with Castrol SRF. The old brake fluid didn’t look too bad but I’m not sure what was used prior to my ownership so I’m glad to get in changed.
The clutch fluid however was pretty bad, almost completely black! I’m pretty certain this is the first time the clutch fluid has been changed in the cars life, so I’m hoping it’s just black from the initial residue in the system and rubber from breaking in, but I will keep an eye on it, I have changed it for Castrol react Performance DOT4.
Overall was a pretty painless process for my first time doing it, the Sealey pressure bleeder is a great bit of kit, I had read mixed reviews, but for me it worked well.
Replaced the brake fluid with Castrol SRF. The old brake fluid didn’t look too bad but I’m not sure what was used prior to my ownership so I’m glad to get in changed.
The clutch fluid however was pretty bad, almost completely black! I’m pretty certain this is the first time the clutch fluid has been changed in the cars life, so I’m hoping it’s just black from the initial residue in the system and rubber from breaking in, but I will keep an eye on it, I have changed it for Castrol react Performance DOT4.
Overall was a pretty painless process for my first time doing it, the Sealey pressure bleeder is a great bit of kit, I had read mixed reviews, but for me it worked well.
Great stuff.
I don't know what it is about clutch fluid circuits but IME they always get black, really quickly. I tend to do mine at the same time as the brakes on the Lotus, it comes from the same MC but is in two different circuits from there. The Clutch stuff always comes out absolutely manky next time around,
I don't know what it is about clutch fluid circuits but IME they always get black, really quickly. I tend to do mine at the same time as the brakes on the Lotus, it comes from the same MC but is in two different circuits from there. The Clutch stuff always comes out absolutely manky next time around,
M1C said:
I haven't read through all the blurb, sorry. I just wanted to say the car looks BLOODY GORGEOUS.
Ah ha ha, cheers!Fonzey said:
Great stuff.
I don't know what it is about clutch fluid circuits but IME they always get black, really quickly. I tend to do mine at the same time as the brakes on the Lotus, it comes from the same MC but is in two different circuits from there. The Clutch stuff always comes out absolutely manky next time around,
Ah good to hear! Glad to hear it’s pretty normal!I don't know what it is about clutch fluid circuits but IME they always get black, really quickly. I tend to do mine at the same time as the brakes on the Lotus, it comes from the same MC but is in two different circuits from there. The Clutch stuff always comes out absolutely manky next time around,
bumskins said:
Love the colour and that set of roller-barrels is pornographic!
Was wondering given the issues of heatsoak mentioned, has anyone tried ceramic coating (or similar) on the exhaust manifold?
Cheers! Yes I have seen people have the exhaust primary’s heat wrapped, it’s on my list of things to do, although I think if I were to do it I would have them ceramic coated white.Was wondering given the issues of heatsoak mentioned, has anyone tried ceramic coating (or similar) on the exhaust manifold?
MTW said:
Cheers! Yes I have seen people have the exhaust primary’s heat wrapped, it’s on my list of things to do, although I think if I were to do it I would have them ceramic coated white.
Yeah that would look cool, hopefully help keep the toes a bit cooler too! I'm hoping for some video once the weather gets drier so I can hear it, I imagine with that intake setup and the side pipe she'll be sounding naughty!bumskins said:
Yeah that would look cool, hopefully help keep the toes a bit cooler too! I'm hoping for some video once the weather gets drier so I can hear it, I imagine with that intake setup and the side pipe she'll be sounding naughty!
Yea for sure, yes deffo I will try and get some videos soon! I need to get a good video/go pro set up for track day recording Took the car for a little run out last night to make sure everything was ok with the clutch and brakes post bleeding.
Pleased to say the results are fantastic! The clutch now feels much sharper (not sure how else to describe it!) and pedal feels a bit firmer and more consistent.
Massive improvement with the brake pedal also, feels much much firmer which is great. I previously was struggling to adjust the Brake pedal high enough relative ti the throttle pedal for heel and toe, now the brake pedal is so much firmer I think I’m going to have to adjust the pedal back down an inch! (Or maybe just remove the rubber pedal cover and put some grip tape on it)
Unfortunately the test drive didn’t go completely smoothly, I noticed at idle the car was making a strange rattle like a sawing sort of sound, then when driving the battery light was coming on and off and the voltmeter in the cabin was showing volts at 11.9 and not going up with revs, when I got home and the car was idling again it started to charge again, so I’m hoping it might be a loose connection or tensioner pulley issue, as I won’t have time to change the alternator before the Trackday booked for Saturday!
In positive news a bit of engine bay bling turned up in the way of a Caterham carbon cam cover! I love the look, plus it’s slightly lighter than the plastic one!
Pleased to say the results are fantastic! The clutch now feels much sharper (not sure how else to describe it!) and pedal feels a bit firmer and more consistent.
Massive improvement with the brake pedal also, feels much much firmer which is great. I previously was struggling to adjust the Brake pedal high enough relative ti the throttle pedal for heel and toe, now the brake pedal is so much firmer I think I’m going to have to adjust the pedal back down an inch! (Or maybe just remove the rubber pedal cover and put some grip tape on it)
Unfortunately the test drive didn’t go completely smoothly, I noticed at idle the car was making a strange rattle like a sawing sort of sound, then when driving the battery light was coming on and off and the voltmeter in the cabin was showing volts at 11.9 and not going up with revs, when I got home and the car was idling again it started to charge again, so I’m hoping it might be a loose connection or tensioner pulley issue, as I won’t have time to change the alternator before the Trackday booked for Saturday!
In positive news a bit of engine bay bling turned up in the way of a Caterham carbon cam cover! I love the look, plus it’s slightly lighter than the plastic one!
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