At Long Last.....

[Colin Grundy]

So its finally happened, after years of aching for a Seven and a cancelled order due to redundancy I've finally ordered one.Destined to be a 1.8 Roadsport I went to Caterham South last week and placed an order for the De Dion starter kit and five additional packages.Anyway, enough of my euphoria, can I pick your brains please.

1) I intend to build the car with all new parts, but if I purchased the engine from, say James Whiting, would it a) be cheaper and b) would it then have to go on a Q plate. The same goes for the wheels and tyres.

2) I thought I read somewhere that Caterham would cut the hole for the intended exhaust system prior to delivery, is this true and would you suggest a 421 system.

3) Has the dubious build manual been updated yet, does anyone know. From the comments I have read it could be better.

Incidentally, Mike at Caterham is a top bloke,thanks for your patience. ( now can you get me delivery before August please!!)

And finally if there is anyone out there in the Bedfordshire area that I could contact and who would give some useful pointers I would be most obliged.

 

[Richard Price]

Colin,

I assembled my 1.6K Roadsport from all new parts in complete kit form from Caterham, earlier this year. I looked at the starter kit route, but decided that whatever you save in cost may be out weighed in frustration in trying to obtain the correct parts to fit!

I understand that you can obtain a current registration as long as you only have one "reconditioned to as new" component. If you obtain your parts from various sources you will need to provide all the receipts at registration.

I can't help with the exhaust question.

The "Assembly Guide" should not be taken to be a definitive document! There are many areas that are not as accurate as they might be! I read the "Assembly Guide" through several times before my kit arrived, and built up a mental picture of what I would be doing, however, when the parts that come are not the same as the manual, you have to rethink some parts!

In my case there was a list of shortages that Caterham knew about, and some that they didn't! I spoke to caterham several times during assembly and all the information and parts that I required were easily obtained.

I enjoyed the assembly process and 65 hours over 10 days later my car was finished. SVA and registration were easy and DG02VKW has now done 1300 miles.