Say Hello to Scarlet, my new Caterham 620R

[nigelpugh7]

Car Mad Dave said:

Great car and thanks for sharing.

Also timely as I have a 620R for the day at BaT shortly and test driving the BaT Donington Edition. Decision time will be do I want to scratch the Caterham itch and if so, is it the 420R DE or the 620R. Should be a fun!

The boys at Bat will look after you, have a great day out!

[nigelpugh7]

Vocht said:

Absolutely love these! They got a hugely impressive time up the hill at FOS this summer. They must be mental on the road!

Thanks! Yes Jon Barnes drove the Lego Cat Caterham 620R up the FoS hill in second quickest time, only just beaten by the BAC mono i think.

Despite being massively quick, my car is quite easy to drive on the road at normal speeds too!

[nigelpugh7]

tonys said:

Great thread, thanks for sharing

Your welcome. I'm back in the uk this week now, so will be easier to post some more updates.

[nigelpugh7]

So as June was moving on, it was time for another track day at Curborough.

This time I did not have time to change back to the Avon ZZRs so used the ZZS instead.

They got quite sticky on the day as you can see!

[nigelpugh7]

Had time at the next weekend to finally fit the Carbon Fibre pedal box cover.

A bit fiddly as I had to drill it to mount the oil catch tank.

Looks good now it's all done though.

[nigelpugh7]

Almost the end of June now, and we had one more outing to Curborough.

Thanks to Faith, another member on the track day for these photos.

[nigelpugh7]

Some more of Faiths photos from Curborough.

[nigelpugh7]

You might have noticed I had my Nikon 360 Camera mounted on the windscreen in the last set of photos.

Here's one of the 360 videos from that day out.

https://youtu.be/Scil2t9ZWFg

You will need to view it directly from YouTube to get the 360 effect.

[nigelpugh7]

I had Recently noticed that alloy oil caps had got very dirty and lost all their shine.

So despite not really having the time to be a polisher, a quick wipe with autosol, got them looking shiny again.

[nigelpugh7]

More oil cap shinyness!

[nigelpugh7]

Whilst I had the polish out, decided to give the exhaust headers a polish too!

[Gorbyrev]

Really enjoyed that, thanks for a great thread. Having never driven a 7 with more than 150hp, could you give us some idea of the difference in power delivery between the R500 and the 620R. It sounds like the supercharger smooths things out whilst being equally terrifying!

[nigelpugh7]

Gorbyrev said:

Really enjoyed that, thanks for a great thread. Having never driven a 7 with more than 150hp, could you give us some idea of the difference in power delivery between the R500 and the 620R. It sounds like the supercharger smooths things out whilst being equally terrifying!

Glad you enjoyed it!

To be honest the R500 I used to own is a very different beast to a 620R.

Despite sharing the same 2.0 Duratec, the engine charactersics could not be more different.

The throttle bodies on the R500 made a much deeper visceral roar, and seemed to have a faster throttle response too.

What the 620R engine has though is torque in spades, meaning it will pull from very low down, all,the way up to the rev limiter.

Also suprisingly the super charger does not whine at all, and there is very little intake noise, as it has to pass thorough all that pipework, and breaths through a very small intake at the side of the bonnet on th passenger side.

In truth the 620R does not feel that much quicker than the R500, partly down to the extra weight of the 620R.

It's still hilarious to drive though,and I love every miniuite of driving it on track or road!

[nigelpugh7]

Moving into July,,and on the 1st of the month we had another car show to go to, this time the local classic car day at Hampton in Arden.

A great mix of cars, from old classics to modern and expensive McClarens and Rolls Royces.

Many many people were interested in my car though,,and most of the other owners of classics were amazed to find out in had 310 BHP.

[nigelpugh7]

The next day we had another track day at Donington Park, so it was time to swap the ZZS tyres back to the ZZRs for more grip.

[nigelpugh7]

A really great day out for the track session at Donington Park,,but sadly as a seat Leon cup race car went off into the kitty litter, and then drove all the way around the circuit the wrong way, thus depositing stones all over the circuit before out session, we did suffer quite a few stone chips.

However here at some great photos taken by my friend Jordan Cooper whilst at Donny!

[nigelpugh7]

A sunny evening during the week, gave me the excuse for a blat and a stop for a pint at the pub too!

[nigelpugh7]

Our next event outing was a big one, the 60th celebrations for the Lotus Seven Club back at Donington Park, for the weekend of 7/7/17.

This was to be a full weekend event, starting on Friday night, so I had booked to stay in the Jury's inn hotel on Friday and Saturday, so I could leave my 620R there each night and not worry about having a few beers.

We set off Friday afternoon, together with Pat the Plumber in his R400, for what should have been a good cross county blat, but Friday traffic put pay to that, and it took nearly 2.5 hours to get there, which for a 50 mile trip it ridiculous!

I had been contacted by one of the Lotus Seven club organisers and asked to be part of the Display on Friday night, with my car being part of the best sevens over the 60 years for each diffent era.

As you can see I was lined up next door to Peter De la Meres fantastic Carbon Levante, as well as some lovely examples of classics too.

[nigelpugh7]

The next day we joined some of the other members for a cross country run from Donington to the Lower Peaks of Derbyshire.

A nice cross country run, followed by lunch and a great run back to Donny via some superb roads too.



Got some shots from my drone as we parked up for the lunch stop too.

[casesensitive]

nigelpugh7 said:

Now the longer runs have started to show up a slightly problematic issue.

It seems the fuel gauge is poorly calibrated, as I can only get about 80-90 miles from indicated full to red on the last quadrant of the gauge.

I know the fuel tank should have an empty to full capacity of close to 30 litres, but despite showing that the tank is empty on the gauge, I can only get about 15 litres of fuel in before the tank overflows from being full.

I got a Spyda fuel gauge wizard for my build; it's pretty clever. My extended Focus sender reads low resistance (19ohms) at empty to about 500 at full, but my Koso gauges are the other way.
On one side you set up your fuel gauge; set a value fuel gauge reads 0, 1/4 full, 1/2, 3/4 and full, plus what to set warning at. Then in a different 'menu' you set how much fuel is in the tank; same deal, 0, 1/4, 1/2, 3/4, full. So if your fuel tank is irregularly shaped (as mine is) it doesn't matter. I got mine for £30 at Stoneleigh, but they're £44 from his website.
https://www.spiyda.com/magento/index.php/vehicle-e...

This is it installed, cover off, at the front of my Rocket.
https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4495/36560057734_bd2...