2020 Mint green Caterham 420R
Discussion
number2 said:
They look good. Body colour definitely works.
Do they attach via existing fixings, or a new studs or other required?
I guess ingress/egress is by stepping over them?!
Thanks, yes I fitted them using some straps and poppers and used the existing full door mounting points, then the front edge is held in place by a tucking into the scuttle. I did use a bit of Velcro to hold the front in place.Do they attach via existing fixings, or a new studs or other required?
I guess ingress/egress is by stepping over them?!
Yea I just step over them, the car is already a faff to fold yourself into so it doesn’t actually add that much more inconvenience!
Fonzey said:
Good collection of updates, love the half doors - never ever seen those before, are they a new invention?!
Got my first ever drive of a Caterham last week, at Bedford too as part of a Palmersport day (best day of my life).
Thoroughly enjoyed the Caterhams, only relatively low speed/gymkhana type stuff but was steering the rear axle from about 10 seconds in. They are so intuitive, and wasn't as claustrophobic as I feared in the cabin.
Thanks mate, I don’t think they are that new, but they usually are vinyl or fabric rather than plastic and painted so don’t really look like part of the car.Got my first ever drive of a Caterham last week, at Bedford too as part of a Palmersport day (best day of my life).
Thoroughly enjoyed the Caterhams, only relatively low speed/gymkhana type stuff but was steering the rear axle from about 10 seconds in. They are so intuitive, and wasn't as claustrophobic as I feared in the cabin.
Ah yes one of those Palmersport days is high on my list of things to do! Everyone i know who has been on one say it’s incredible. Glad to hear you enjoyed the 7, I can imagine it’s an entirely different feeling to the 2 eleven!
Off to snetterton tomorrow, quick wipe down and a fluid check and she is good to go! Last time at snet was with windscreen and ZZS so will be great to feel the difference with the aero screen and ZZR extreme tyres. Oh and also I didn’t have the roller barrels! So should be a fairly substantial difference! Fingers crossed I get away with running with the open filter.
The track day at snetterton on Tuesday was fantastic, great weather and good turnout. Also, as mentioned in my last post, this was the first time at snetterton with the ZZR extreme tyres, Aeroscreen and roller barrel throttle bodies, so it felt like I was driving a different car! The noise from the roller barrels with the open filter combined with the Aeroscreen is really quite something!
The car performed faultlessly all day, and took the 3 hour round trip to get there and back in its stride! Here are a few nice shots from the day.
I did manage to get a few good sessions recorded on the go pro, the video bellow is a bit of a highlight of one of the earlier sessions.
And this video is of my fasted lap
Of the day, which also happened to be the very last lap I did! I managed 2mins 13secs, which I’m very happy with. My previous best at snetterton was 2mins 19secs.
The ZZR Extreme tyres really are something else! The levels of grip mid corner is mind bending. I was actually having neck ache and upper back ache around some corners towards the end of the day from the lateral G’s which is a feeling you don’t usually get with a road tyre.
I’m still nowhere near the limit on these tyres so there is much more left in the car! on the old ZZS road tyres I could feel the front washing out or the rear stepping out on a lot of corners as my confidence grew with the car. But at the moment with the ZZR tyres the car is just planted! I definitely think I need to reset my brain on how fast corners can be entered with this car, there is so much grip. I think the next step for me would be to get some tuition by one of the Caterham pro drivers. Definitely something for the future.
I’m all in all a great day, nice weather and a good turnout. Here are some pics bellow of the pre drive home check over!
The car performed faultlessly all day, and took the 3 hour round trip to get there and back in its stride! Here are a few nice shots from the day.
I did manage to get a few good sessions recorded on the go pro, the video bellow is a bit of a highlight of one of the earlier sessions.
And this video is of my fasted lap
Of the day, which also happened to be the very last lap I did! I managed 2mins 13secs, which I’m very happy with. My previous best at snetterton was 2mins 19secs.
The ZZR Extreme tyres really are something else! The levels of grip mid corner is mind bending. I was actually having neck ache and upper back ache around some corners towards the end of the day from the lateral G’s which is a feeling you don’t usually get with a road tyre.
I’m still nowhere near the limit on these tyres so there is much more left in the car! on the old ZZS road tyres I could feel the front washing out or the rear stepping out on a lot of corners as my confidence grew with the car. But at the moment with the ZZR tyres the car is just planted! I definitely think I need to reset my brain on how fast corners can be entered with this car, there is so much grip. I think the next step for me would be to get some tuition by one of the Caterham pro drivers. Definitely something for the future.
I’m all in all a great day, nice weather and a good turnout. Here are some pics bellow of the pre drive home check over!
Had a great evening Trackday on Monday at brands hatch. Although when I started the car in the morning it wasn’t running right, the idle was quite low and rough and the car would backfire through the throttle bodies until it was fully warmed up. so I had to spend a good few hours trying to chase the problem.
What I found was when I pulled the coil pack leads of cylinder 3 & 4 the idle barely dropped, it seemed somehow the throttle bodies might be out of balance. I checked all the balancing screws and they have not moved so I adjusted the individual air bled screws to balance them as best I could and it seemed to work, and the car runs fine, but it definitely needs further investigation. It could be due to fouled plugs, bad wiring loom etc etc so I will investigate further.
But the main thing was the car was now idling properly and seemed to be running correctly so I would keep a close eye (and ear) on it and head to brands.
The Track evening was great, and we had a good crew there also which was good fun.
Brands itself didn’t disappoint, what a fun little track! But super technical. It doesn’t take very long to learn where the track goes but I can tell it would take a long time to master the lines, every corner is super challenging. It was the first time for me experiencing a track with such huge undulations and it definitely made for a more exciting experience, paddock hill especially was great fun at full speed.
Overall the car ran great which was a relief, and the Caterham feels like it was made for brands hatch. By the end of the 3 hours I was getting to grips with the track a little and was starting to press on which was great. I definitely would like to do a full day there. I did manage to go out on a passenger lap with a friend of mine who is a Caterham racer in his sequential gearbox equipped “road” Caterham and it really opened my eyes to how capable these cars are and how late you can brake etc, really mind blowing!
Here are a few photos bellow, I did manage to get some video so I will stick that up soon too.
What I found was when I pulled the coil pack leads of cylinder 3 & 4 the idle barely dropped, it seemed somehow the throttle bodies might be out of balance. I checked all the balancing screws and they have not moved so I adjusted the individual air bled screws to balance them as best I could and it seemed to work, and the car runs fine, but it definitely needs further investigation. It could be due to fouled plugs, bad wiring loom etc etc so I will investigate further.
But the main thing was the car was now idling properly and seemed to be running correctly so I would keep a close eye (and ear) on it and head to brands.
The Track evening was great, and we had a good crew there also which was good fun.
Brands itself didn’t disappoint, what a fun little track! But super technical. It doesn’t take very long to learn where the track goes but I can tell it would take a long time to master the lines, every corner is super challenging. It was the first time for me experiencing a track with such huge undulations and it definitely made for a more exciting experience, paddock hill especially was great fun at full speed.
Overall the car ran great which was a relief, and the Caterham feels like it was made for brands hatch. By the end of the 3 hours I was getting to grips with the track a little and was starting to press on which was great. I definitely would like to do a full day there. I did manage to go out on a passenger lap with a friend of mine who is a Caterham racer in his sequential gearbox equipped “road” Caterham and it really opened my eyes to how capable these cars are and how late you can brake etc, really mind blowing!
Here are a few photos bellow, I did manage to get some video so I will stick that up soon too.
MDifficult said:
Fantastic! Glad you enjoyed Brands.. nothing quite like the first time you take Paddock Hill Bend at speed to put your heart in your mouth eh?
The undulations also make for amazing photographs!
Yes for sure! What an amazing corner! one thing you never realise until you get there is the braking zone is blind, really odd feeling! But yea such a fun trackThe undulations also make for amazing photographs!
Finally got round to checking the GoPro from brands hatch last month. These are the final laps of the evening when I sort of started to know which direction the track was going! I was lapping around 55 seconds, but with it being my first time out on track at brands there is still a lot to learn!
Quite an eventful few days with the Caterham this weekend. I booked a last minute track day at Bedford for Monday, the weather looked good so I thought it would be nice to squeeze one more day in before the end of the season.
The Friday before, I got the car out of the garage for a quick spin to blow the cobwebs off, and after about 15 mins driving I heard the rear pads go.
After nursing the car home and getting it up in the air it was confirmed the rear pads were down to the metal again! These ones lasted about 5 trackdays, which I think is pretty standard for a Caterham with heavy track use. The rear of the car is underbraked and uses an old Sierra rear caliper and solid disc, versus the 4 pot AP calipers and vented discs on the front. So the rear brakes are working overtime to try and keep up with the fronts. The front pads look like they are barely worn in!
But anyway, I ordered some new pads for Saturday delivery and when the arrived got cracking with changing them over.
With the new pads fitted I took the car out to bed them in, and it felt great. Pedal felt solid and all seemed well.
The next morning, Sunday, is when the strangeness began. I was taking the car out to Duke of London on the morning and as soon as I touched the brakes the pedal felt very soft, it would almost travel half way with no resistance at all then begin to slow the car when it was almost at the floor. I carried out a couple of semi hard stops to test and the fronts would immediately lock up. The back brakes were not functioning at all.
After getting the car home, I was trying to figure out what the issue might be, air in the system? A leak? The strange part was the day before the brakes were perfect and now overnight they had changed. One thing I noticed is if you pumped the brakes once before applying the brakes fully the pedal would come back and the rear brakes would work again. Which pointed towards air in the system. Maybe lifting the calipers and moving them around when changing the pads dislodged some air in the system and overnight it had gone back into the caliper?
I was unsure, but decided to re bleed the system anyway to rule that out. When bleeding a fair amount of air made it’s alway out of the rear calipers. After bleeding the pedal once again felt really solid and I hoped that would be the end of the issue.
The next morning was the Trackday at Bedford, I was obviously very tentative on the brakes at first, but it all felt great and it was a fantastic day. And I bumped into a few other Caterham guys there which is always good!
No photos on track unfortunately, but I did get some go pro footage for a bit of a highlight video, with a nice run chasing another 420R which was really fun!
A slightly manic few days, but good fun in the end. I’m still not 100% happy with how the brake pedal feels. So I think a rear caliper rebuild and some new discs will be added to the ever growing winter jobs list!
The Friday before, I got the car out of the garage for a quick spin to blow the cobwebs off, and after about 15 mins driving I heard the rear pads go.
After nursing the car home and getting it up in the air it was confirmed the rear pads were down to the metal again! These ones lasted about 5 trackdays, which I think is pretty standard for a Caterham with heavy track use. The rear of the car is underbraked and uses an old Sierra rear caliper and solid disc, versus the 4 pot AP calipers and vented discs on the front. So the rear brakes are working overtime to try and keep up with the fronts. The front pads look like they are barely worn in!
But anyway, I ordered some new pads for Saturday delivery and when the arrived got cracking with changing them over.
With the new pads fitted I took the car out to bed them in, and it felt great. Pedal felt solid and all seemed well.
The next morning, Sunday, is when the strangeness began. I was taking the car out to Duke of London on the morning and as soon as I touched the brakes the pedal felt very soft, it would almost travel half way with no resistance at all then begin to slow the car when it was almost at the floor. I carried out a couple of semi hard stops to test and the fronts would immediately lock up. The back brakes were not functioning at all.
After getting the car home, I was trying to figure out what the issue might be, air in the system? A leak? The strange part was the day before the brakes were perfect and now overnight they had changed. One thing I noticed is if you pumped the brakes once before applying the brakes fully the pedal would come back and the rear brakes would work again. Which pointed towards air in the system. Maybe lifting the calipers and moving them around when changing the pads dislodged some air in the system and overnight it had gone back into the caliper?
I was unsure, but decided to re bleed the system anyway to rule that out. When bleeding a fair amount of air made it’s alway out of the rear calipers. After bleeding the pedal once again felt really solid and I hoped that would be the end of the issue.
The next morning was the Trackday at Bedford, I was obviously very tentative on the brakes at first, but it all felt great and it was a fantastic day. And I bumped into a few other Caterham guys there which is always good!
No photos on track unfortunately, but I did get some go pro footage for a bit of a highlight video, with a nice run chasing another 420R which was really fun!
A slightly manic few days, but good fun in the end. I’m still not 100% happy with how the brake pedal feels. So I think a rear caliper rebuild and some new discs will be added to the ever growing winter jobs list!
Edited by MTW on Wednesday 18th October 09:40
Thanks for the update!
Interesting the rears wore so quickly. In over a year of racing, and dozens of track days and test days I only changed my rear pads once and that was precautionary.
Was a mix of academy tyres and cr500s, but I wouldn't have thought tyre differences would make up such a gulf in wear.
Interesting the rears wore so quickly. In over a year of racing, and dozens of track days and test days I only changed my rear pads once and that was precautionary.
Was a mix of academy tyres and cr500s, but I wouldn't have thought tyre differences would make up such a gulf in wear.
keo said:
Strange how you got air in the system but hopefully the bleed has sorted it. I put callipers on the front of a car a few months ago and ended up bleeding the rears as well for it to be right.
Yea really strange! Yes I might do a full bleed again soon to see if can’t be improved.number2 said:
Thanks for the update!
Interesting the rears wore so quickly. In over a year of racing, and dozens of track days and test days I only changed my rear pads once and that was precautionary.
Was a mix of academy tyres and cr500s, but I wouldn't have thought tyre differences would make up such a gulf in wear.
Interesting, in that case, I think there might be a rear caliper issue in my car, maybe it’s always been there so I haven’t noticed a difference. One thing that was strange was when I wound back the pistons one caliper took barely any effort at all to push back and the other was fairly difficult, maybe the one that was easy has a blown seal?Interesting the rears wore so quickly. In over a year of racing, and dozens of track days and test days I only changed my rear pads once and that was precautionary.
Was a mix of academy tyres and cr500s, but I wouldn't have thought tyre differences would make up such a gulf in wear.
Definitely needs more investigation, the brake pedal has never felt that great on my car despite fitting a high effort brake pedal and multiple bleeds. The strange thing is, after that bleed on Sunday the pedal actually felt better than ever, super solid, then the next day it was back to fairly soft with not much feel. Quite strange.
jeremyc said:
It could be that sticky piston(s) have been causing the excess wear on your pads.
Have you noticed either rear wheel being hotter than the other?
Yes that’s what I’m thinking too, I haven’t noticed either being particularly hotter than the other, but on the drive on Sunday i did notice the rears were very hot even though it felt like they weren’t working.Have you noticed either rear wheel being hotter than the other?
Seeing as the weather today seemed very ‘non December’. I managed to get the car out for a well overdue rip.
I’m glad to get it back out for a drive as last week I did decided to put it up for sale. It was a moment of madness fueled by another car I had seen up for sale. But that particular car, and the moment has passed.
It’s around this point in the year, when the car has to be tucked away. the gloomy “I should sell it” feeling sets in. So it’s always nice quashing that feeling with a good winter drive!
In terms of what’s next for this car. Hopefully once the work is all finished with the Alfa Romeo, the Caterham can come back to the home garage and have a full service, plus hopefully fit the 420R race dampers that are sitting on the shelf.
I’m glad to get it back out for a drive as last week I did decided to put it up for sale. It was a moment of madness fueled by another car I had seen up for sale. But that particular car, and the moment has passed.
It’s around this point in the year, when the car has to be tucked away. the gloomy “I should sell it” feeling sets in. So it’s always nice quashing that feeling with a good winter drive!
In terms of what’s next for this car. Hopefully once the work is all finished with the Alfa Romeo, the Caterham can come back to the home garage and have a full service, plus hopefully fit the 420R race dampers that are sitting on the shelf.
Edited by MTW on Sunday 17th December 19:31
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