first got into Lotus/Caterham 7s back in the late Eighties after a work friend took him out for a ride in his Lotus 7 S2. From then on he was hooked, and his first 7 arrived a few years later in 1992 with an adequate 1600 X-Flow motor, a long cockpit, and a live axle. It was fun, but in 2006 he decided to move up to this Caterham 7 Sigma Roadsport 150, which he chose to build himself.
PH Carpooler - Ivan Church
'I had the odd difficult moment during the build with one or two bits not being that easy to fit. This was due to it being one of the early SteelFab chassis with the new Sigma engine so things were slightly different. The engine had to be re-mapped and set-up a couple of times by Caterham while it was being developed but now that has been sorted I'm really pleased with the result - plenty of power to be able to enjoy the roads with, although I don't know how long it will be before I start wanting more! It certainly feels a lot more eager and free revving than my old 7 and I recently had it on the rolling road for a power run and it produced 142BHP which I'm happy with - for now.'
Other than his previous 7, Ivan has owned only what he describes as 'bog standard tin-tops'. 'It's mad by comparison, but a very easy car to live with. It's been utterly reliable so far and any fettling has been done out of choice, not necessity. That it takes three times longer to get in and out of than most other cars is the only real drawback, but the driving experience more than makes up for that.'
One of the main reasons for the change from the old 7 was that he wanted to do a bit of touring, and in 2010 he took it over to France and down to the LeMans Classic. 'I had a great run down - making sure I found a few tunnels on the way of course - with so many other like-minded people. There were lots of other 7 owners and plenty of PHers there as well. It's certainly something I plan to do next year, hopefully with others from the Oxford area too. This year I did the Isle of Man trip that is run by a number of club members on the island just before the TT race fortnight. Again, another fantastic long weekend and despite the slightly stormy weather at times we found what is for me the best bit of tarmac I have ever driven on over the mountain section from Ramsey to Douglas. I think this might just become another annual event!'
Surely there must be the odd track day on the cards too? 'I haven't done any in this one yet but I did do Goodwood and Castle Combe in the old one. It's something that I want to do even if it's just to see how different it is to the old car.'
It's usual in Carpool to find out what other cars PHers aspire to, but Ivan's answer to this question was a bit different to the norm. 'Maybe this sounds boring or unimaginative but I can't think of any other cars I'd rather have. There are a lot of other really nice high performance cars around, just nothing I would swap this for at the moment - perhaps I need to find a house with a bigger garage or better still a large garage with a small house attached!