2020 Mint green Caterham 420R
Discussion
The weather hasn’t been conducive for Caterham driving as of late, so not much to report. I did decide to put the car back into “winter mode” by removing the Aeroscreen and refitting the windscreen and roof, as well
As fitting the silver wheels with the ZZS road tyres.
I actually always quite look forward to the change over. As fantastic as the Aeroscreen is, you feel like you are driving a four wheeled motorbike rather than a car, and every drive feels pretty manic! so with the windscreen back on the car feels a bit more comfortable and usable. Plus no earplugs required, so you are able to enjoy the sounds a bit more. Although it seems after every Aeroscreen “season” there are a whole host of new rattles and creaks to be addressed!
Once the work on the Alfa has finished, hopefully I can get the Caterham back in the garage and carry out its full service as well as fit the Race suspension I have sitting on the shelf.
As fitting the silver wheels with the ZZS road tyres.
I actually always quite look forward to the change over. As fantastic as the Aeroscreen is, you feel like you are driving a four wheeled motorbike rather than a car, and every drive feels pretty manic! so with the windscreen back on the car feels a bit more comfortable and usable. Plus no earplugs required, so you are able to enjoy the sounds a bit more. Although it seems after every Aeroscreen “season” there are a whole host of new rattles and creaks to be addressed!
Once the work on the Alfa has finished, hopefully I can get the Caterham back in the garage and carry out its full service as well as fit the Race suspension I have sitting on the shelf.
Managed to get some time back in the garage this week, after a couple of months of looking after the baby full time before he started nursery.
Desperate to take advantage of the spring weather and get the car back out and do some trackdays etc.
First up was the yearly full service, changed the oil, filter, coolant and put a new set of plugs in.
All done and fluids filled back up.
With that all done next up are the rear discs and pads.
As I’ve mentioned before on this thread I have always had issues with the rear pads wearing quickly, first time around the discs got hammered by the metal pad backing plate, the second time around I think the pads wore faster because the discs were scored and rough.
At my last pad change I decided to try some cheap mintex pads in the rear which were £20 for a set rather than £160 for the Ferrodo ds2500, with the rate the rear pads wear I thought it might be a good idea. Unfortunately they didn’t work well at all, the brakes were woefully out of balance and the fronts locked up easily and eventually the rear pads glazed over and felt terrible. So I decided to bite the bullet and get a new set of discs and ds2500 pads back on.
Unfortunately it’s not a super simple job removing the rear disc, it requires removing the 270nm hub nut and removing the hub itself etc etc. But I had a few hours and a new “ugga dugga” impact gun! So I thought I would get stuck in.
First up was removing the hub nut, which the impact gun made short work of!
Next up was removing the upper caliper and cable tieing it up out of the way, then removing the lower caliper mount.
With that done the disc and hub slide off the spline of the driveshaft.
Next up was swapping over the hub from the old disc to the new disc.
Fitted the disc and hub back onto the drive shaft.
Then fitted up the new pads, wound back the pistions and fitted the calipers up.
Last thing was to re tighten the hub nut to 271nm and that’s the job done.
The only bits left to do now are, fit a new set of ZZS tyres I have in the shed, change the brake and clutch fluid, MOT and have a little clean of the underside. Then it we’ll be ready for the season and I can get out in it!
Desperate to take advantage of the spring weather and get the car back out and do some trackdays etc.
First up was the yearly full service, changed the oil, filter, coolant and put a new set of plugs in.
All done and fluids filled back up.
With that all done next up are the rear discs and pads.
As I’ve mentioned before on this thread I have always had issues with the rear pads wearing quickly, first time around the discs got hammered by the metal pad backing plate, the second time around I think the pads wore faster because the discs were scored and rough.
At my last pad change I decided to try some cheap mintex pads in the rear which were £20 for a set rather than £160 for the Ferrodo ds2500, with the rate the rear pads wear I thought it might be a good idea. Unfortunately they didn’t work well at all, the brakes were woefully out of balance and the fronts locked up easily and eventually the rear pads glazed over and felt terrible. So I decided to bite the bullet and get a new set of discs and ds2500 pads back on.
Unfortunately it’s not a super simple job removing the rear disc, it requires removing the 270nm hub nut and removing the hub itself etc etc. But I had a few hours and a new “ugga dugga” impact gun! So I thought I would get stuck in.
First up was removing the hub nut, which the impact gun made short work of!
Next up was removing the upper caliper and cable tieing it up out of the way, then removing the lower caliper mount.
With that done the disc and hub slide off the spline of the driveshaft.
Next up was swapping over the hub from the old disc to the new disc.
Fitted the disc and hub back onto the drive shaft.
Then fitted up the new pads, wound back the pistions and fitted the calipers up.
Last thing was to re tighten the hub nut to 271nm and that’s the job done.
The only bits left to do now are, fit a new set of ZZS tyres I have in the shed, change the brake and clutch fluid, MOT and have a little clean of the underside. Then it we’ll be ready for the season and I can get out in it!
My final bits of prep for the track season were completed this week. My first Trackday of the year is at Bedford on Monday the 20th, with that in mind I thought I would book the car in at Team Leo’s for a flat floor geo setup whilst it was there for its MOT. I have never had the geo or corner weights checked in my ownership so it was long overdue.
The day before it was due at Team Leo’s I thought I lt would be a shame to get the setup done on the stock dampers when i still had a set of 420R race dampers sitting on the shelf in the garage. I had been putting off fitting them as I thought it would be a massive job and I just wanted to get the car back on the road. But after bit of research it appeared it wasn’t such a huge job after all, so with an afternoon spare I decided to get cracking and get them fitted before heading to Team Leo’s the following day.
I decided I would use the springs I already had on the car, which are part of the “track” suspension option that the car currently has. The springs are actually identical to the race springs which usually come on the 420R race suspension anyhow, so it’s how they would come from the factory if the Race suspension option was ticked. I do have some new springs that came with the race shocks but they are softer at the rear, which is meant to be good for lap times, but not so much for fun!
First up was removing the old dampers, which was a fairly simple procedure, as everything is pretty much exposed.
With the front dampers removed I changed the springs over to the new race dampers.
The new dampers went back on the car nice and easy, I just eyeballed the heights, and tried to match the length of the old dampers as best I could.
Next up were the rears, only slightly more difficult, but pretty painless. I did try and fit the shocks upside down as per the fronts, but ran into clearance issues, so ran the rear shock the right way up. I’ve since found out that’s how they are meant to be on the rear, so all good!
all done! They certainly look the part.
Next up was the setup at Team Leo’s.
Final total weight and corner weights (full tank of fuel and 85kg of weights in the drivers seat)
Then before and after for the geo.
As you can see by the sheet, the geo was all over the place, toe in one side, toe out on the other side etc, so the improvement was pretty substantial! The car felt fantastic on the way home, much more direct and better feel in the steering, Much more confidence inspiring! The dampers feel fantastic too, the car feels much more settled and keyed into the road, a huge difference in how the car handles bumps too. I’m very happy.
Really looking forward to Bedford on Monday, I know the track fairly well, so it will be a great place to feel the difference the dampers make!
The day before it was due at Team Leo’s I thought I lt would be a shame to get the setup done on the stock dampers when i still had a set of 420R race dampers sitting on the shelf in the garage. I had been putting off fitting them as I thought it would be a massive job and I just wanted to get the car back on the road. But after bit of research it appeared it wasn’t such a huge job after all, so with an afternoon spare I decided to get cracking and get them fitted before heading to Team Leo’s the following day.
I decided I would use the springs I already had on the car, which are part of the “track” suspension option that the car currently has. The springs are actually identical to the race springs which usually come on the 420R race suspension anyhow, so it’s how they would come from the factory if the Race suspension option was ticked. I do have some new springs that came with the race shocks but they are softer at the rear, which is meant to be good for lap times, but not so much for fun!
First up was removing the old dampers, which was a fairly simple procedure, as everything is pretty much exposed.
With the front dampers removed I changed the springs over to the new race dampers.
The new dampers went back on the car nice and easy, I just eyeballed the heights, and tried to match the length of the old dampers as best I could.
Next up were the rears, only slightly more difficult, but pretty painless. I did try and fit the shocks upside down as per the fronts, but ran into clearance issues, so ran the rear shock the right way up. I’ve since found out that’s how they are meant to be on the rear, so all good!
all done! They certainly look the part.
Next up was the setup at Team Leo’s.
Final total weight and corner weights (full tank of fuel and 85kg of weights in the drivers seat)
Then before and after for the geo.
As you can see by the sheet, the geo was all over the place, toe in one side, toe out on the other side etc, so the improvement was pretty substantial! The car felt fantastic on the way home, much more direct and better feel in the steering, Much more confidence inspiring! The dampers feel fantastic too, the car feels much more settled and keyed into the road, a huge difference in how the car handles bumps too. I’m very happy.
Really looking forward to Bedford on Monday, I know the track fairly well, so it will be a great place to feel the difference the dampers make!
Fest track day of the year went well, perfect weather and a nice quiet day at bedford Autodrome.
The new suspension changes didn’t disappoint! All the little weird things the car used to do are gone, and the car generally just feels completely balanced and much sharper and more precise. It feels like these dampers are much more dynamic and provide much better grip, compared to the old units that seemed to make the car skip along and bumps and undulations.
Overall, really happy with the new setup. I managed a best lap of 2mins 45secs, which is 4 seconds faster than my last time at Bedford in October! So I’m glad leased with that! I managed to get a video of the lap bellow. (I will be trying to work out a new camera angle for when I’m using windscreen!)
The new suspension changes didn’t disappoint! All the little weird things the car used to do are gone, and the car generally just feels completely balanced and much sharper and more precise. It feels like these dampers are much more dynamic and provide much better grip, compared to the old units that seemed to make the car skip along and bumps and undulations.
Overall, really happy with the new setup. I managed a best lap of 2mins 45secs, which is 4 seconds faster than my last time at Bedford in October! So I’m glad leased with that! I managed to get a video of the lap bellow. (I will be trying to work out a new camera angle for when I’m using windscreen!)
Nice mate, good to see the new shocks working for you. Lucked out on the weather too. Get that aeroscreen back on!
I've only been to Bedford once, and in my standard 420 with aero I was topping out at 120 on the back straight - do you have any data for what you hit down there? I know these cars aren't about top speed but I expected a bit more progress up that end with the aero screen and wondered whether me or the car had a problem
I can see myself going with RBTB and new shocks next year, or going 620 but doubt the budget will stretch to that
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I'm back at Bedford in June
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I've only been to Bedford once, and in my standard 420 with aero I was topping out at 120 on the back straight - do you have any data for what you hit down there? I know these cars aren't about top speed but I expected a bit more progress up that end with the aero screen and wondered whether me or the car had a problem
I can see myself going with RBTB and new shocks next year, or going 620 but doubt the budget will stretch to that
.I'm back at Bedford in June
.number2 said:
Nice mate, good to see the new shocks working for you. Lucked out on the weather too. Get that aeroscreen back on!
I've only been to Bedford once, and in my standard 420 with aero I was topping out at 120 on the back straight - do you have any data for what you hit down there? I know these cars aren't about top speed but I expected a bit more progress up that end with the aero screen and wondered whether me or the car had a problem : or hehe:
I can see myself going with RBTB and new shocks next year, or going 620 but doubt the budget will stretch to that.
I'm back at Bedford in June.
Cheers dude! Yea super lucky with the weather! Ah tbh I’m quite enjoying the screen at the moment! I’ve decided to try and make the thing more “car like” this summer, and use it a bit more on the road!I've only been to Bedford once, and in my standard 420 with aero I was topping out at 120 on the back straight - do you have any data for what you hit down there? I know these cars aren't about top speed but I expected a bit more progress up that end with the aero screen and wondered whether me or the car had a problem : or hehe:
I can see myself going with RBTB and new shocks next year, or going 620 but doubt the budget will stretch to that
.I'm back at Bedford in June
.Ah no data I’m afraid, according to the speedo I’m hitting 130mph at the top of 4th with the screen on. When I change to 5th it drops about 5mph and just stalls. With the aero I think it gets to almost 135. But I have been to Bedford about 7-8 times no so no doubt I’m carrying more speed out of the hairpin before the straight than I was before!
Ah can’t beat RBTB in my eyes, it made the car for me!
Ah nice, I do love Bedford, It’s the only track you can really push the car with not massive consequences, touch wood!
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