Welcome. To me. And to you.
I bought my car in March 2011, so I'm really going to get the chance to record my thoughts from the off.
I may as well give a little intro to the car as an object, in case you're interested. Instead of reproduce or condense the history in a lengthy blurb, who better to give the detail but Caterham themselves, here. As you can see, it's quite a car with quite a heritage.
As a car they have a very loyal following and even in the five days of ownership and a test drive, I've had more road-going goodwill than in the last year of motoring in a Subaru. Children wave and call "nice car mister". People smile as you go past and you get let out of junctions. Lovely stuff.
Anyway, to be specific, I've bought a 1994 1400 Roadsport. It's Post Office Red, with clamshell wings. It runs a Rover K-Series engine and a five speed gearbox. As creature comforts go, it's pretty well equipped. It has a heated windscreen and in-car heater, roof and quick cover (or tonneau), adjustable seats and a removable steering wheel. It's entirely standard and has been well maintained and has some useful extras, by way of a spare wheel and an FIA approved rollbar which offers more safety should the unthinkable happen and the car goes over.
Being a 1994 version, it also has some odd features. The stand-out is the handbrake, which instead of being under your left elbow as normal, is on the left hand side of the car and under the dash. This means with the harnesses done up you can't reach it to pull it on, so hill starts are somewhat improvised as you leap from foot-brake to accelerator and pop the clutch, hoping you don't stall, roll back or spin the wheels and depart in a cloud of smoke. The dash is also fairly basic, and some of the switches or looking distinctly fragile, but in general it's just different to other cars, not better or worse.
Anyway, I'll leave it at that for now, but I'll be back soon. I have in mind to cover the following:
- My experiences of living with it day to day
- How I adapt it to make it more liveable without impacting on the 'adding lightness' ethos of Colin Chapman
- How my wife gets on with it
- Tips and tricks I read and learn
- Modifications I make
- A running tally of costs
- Interesting drives (check out the B4407 for an idea of a 'drive')
- Random gubbins on other things. Like as not F1, Sniffpetrol and so on
