You've probably heard of Best Of The Best. They're the guys who offer supercars in prize draws at airports and on the internet. You've probably also bought a ticket and cursed them when you haven't won. Guilty as charged.
Car still a way off; colour's great though
Anyway, it turns out founder Will Hindmarch is a rather big Caterham fan and had always wanted to build his own. With no prior experience of building cars. And who better to assist him than another Caterham fan with no prior experience of building cars?
Will's car will be a Supersport R so it comes with proper tyres (Avon CR500s rather than the fuel saving CR322s on 'my' Academy car) and a 2.0-litre engine. Even just as a shell the Gulf colour scheme looks ace. In fact the only improvement I can think of for it is a PH smiley.
With only a couple of hours spare on a weekday evening we didn't complete an awful lot. However, I did assist with adding the front anti-roll bar so Will at least knows where to apportion blame when that fails... A few other suspension bits required tinkering but I was of course wary of attempting too much given my inability to construct a desk, let alone a car.
It will be a car eventually...
But there was something really satisfying about putting a car together. Of course it's a lengthy endeavour (Will is contemplating a week's holiday to actually make some proper progress with his) but must be so rewarding to watch a car come together piece by piece. My respect for those Academy competitors who have built their own cars rose even further after this little taste of DIY; the commitment is laudable.
Assuming that ARB doesn't collapse, I have been invited to help with Will's Caterham again. It will be great to have a better idea of what comprises the PH Caterham so I'll hope to head along soon. Best of all (no pun intended), we're hoping to get both PH and BoTB Caterhams together as soon as possible. Can I have a go please Will?