Thursday 15th October 2015

Caterham 270R: PH Fleet

The build begins!

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Caterham says it takes 70 hours to build a car. Easy, right? I've built a kit car before so I had some idea of what to do. I thought. Waiting for delivery of the 270R kit was painful; my eagerness was killing me.

Luckily it arrived on a Friday and I'd booked the following week off work; all was looking good. But there was no engine - not that important, is it? That was partly my fault though, as Caterham was still building Supersports and the 270 wasn't officially being produced yet; I was the guinea pig.

Ah yes, engine. We'll need one of those

I'd asked a friend to help me with the build, and truth be told I really would have struggled without his help. Unless you have four hands or a very good ability to balance car parts on your knee, face or chest, a lot of the build is made easier with a helping hand. We couldn't wait to get stuck in, and were also fortunate enough to be offered a rather nice garage for the build. Delivery day was spent putting the chassis on axle stands, then working through all of the boxes to identify parts and place them around the car in a logical (or not) sequence for fitting.

Although the thought of building your own car may seem quite intimidating, as long as you're fairly logical and patient it isn't actually that difficult. You only really need a small single garage and a handful of tools to get the job done. I'd already bought my tools from my MK Indy R build, but I pretty much made it through with a drill, decent ratchet set, torque wrench and a few other bits and bobs that I'd picked up along the way. An engine hoist is handy, but they can be rented or bought and sold at not much of a loss.

Ben ropes in some support

Lesson one is to heed Caterham's advice and actually read the build manual before you get started. Most won't - I didn't - so it's quite frustrating when you've fitted the steering rack to then read that you shouldn't fit the steering rack until after the engine is in. Handy. Oh, and that differential you've just spent an hour fitting with your fingers bleeding? Make sure you put the prop in first. Great. Again with a bit of logic and prior experience you can avoid calamities such as these as I was able to mostly, but I can see how easy it would be to get something wrong before throwing a spanner across the room in annoyance...

Lesson two is to push a ratchet or wrench away from you where possible instead of pulling it towards you, as it turns out that a torque wrench to the face is actually quite painful and gives you a cracking black eye. At least everyone at PH HQ found it amusing on Monday morning though when I came back to work.

Kit is supplied with 20 hours of work done

Caterham actually provides each kit with around 20 hours worth of work already completed, with the body panels fitted and prepped for wheel arches, fuel tank, fuel and brake lines, and wiring loom in along with the dash and some interior panels. With all of that done, you very quickly see the Seven start to come together as you build up the front end with wishbones, suspension and front brakes going in. As I had to wait a couple of weeks for my engine, we cracked on with everything else, moving from the front end to the back fitting the roll bar, DeDion rear axle, differential, drive shafts, suspension and rear brakes. And this was all after just three days!

We moved onto the engine bay fitting the heater, washer system and various ancillaries in preparation for the engine and 'box to go in. The timing was spot on and it turned up ready to go in, but we hadn't anticipated was how much work it was going to take to manoeuvre into place. Four hours later after much adjustment and blasphemy we got there and it was starting to look like a real car. The wiring loom was plugged in, throttle cable fitted, and we really felt like we were getting there with only the interior and front headlights left to fit. Then it took just as long to rewire and adjust the front headlights as it did to fit the engine and gearbox. The smallest of jobs can take a lot longer than expected and can really drag out the build process.

Easier than it looks, apparently...

At this point, the IVA test was booked so we had to pull out all the stops to get the car finished. Another good friend and ex-Caterham colleague was roped in to get the finishing touches done and to ensure we'd actually done a decent job of bolting my car together. The interior flew in, however the final set up and IVA prep took us into the early hours of the morning before IVA. I shot off home to bed for a few hours sleep before the trip to VOSA for 0900h sharp.

We'd done it. Over the space of five weeks and just over 100 hours of manpower, my car was finished and ready to hit the road. The first Caterham Seven 270R in the world. And by heck was it damn good fun along the way! Would I do it again? Absolutely. Despite any hurdles that you may encounter throughout a build, they will all seem like a distant memory that first time you sit behind the wheel. It's a truly rewarding experience and something you'll never forget. Will it make it through IVA? What's it actually like to drive? I'll let you know!

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FACT SHEET
Car: 2015 Caterham Seven 270R
Run by: Ben Lowden
On fleet since: April 2015
Mileage: 0 (to be addressed shortly)
List price new: TBC
Last month at a glance: It's finally built, time to drive the damn thing!

Previous reports:
To the factory for spec selection

[Photos: Michael Topham]

[g7jhp]

Looks fantastic, was it 5 weeks or 5 days?

'Over the space of five weeks and just over 100 hours of manpower, my car was finished and ready to hit the road.'

Do you have a list of things you'd have done differently?

Certainly looks like you'd be in a much better position to maintain the car yourself going forward.