Mike Biddle Posted January 9, 2006 Share Posted January 9, 2006 Original car was standard chassis, left drive, 1996 VX 2.0L injection. Where reference is made to right or left this is viewed from front of car. Chassis stripped and sent to Arch; New long front fitted to allow Freestyle inboard front suspension. New, stronger diagonal stiffeners at bottom of engine bay New, stronger diagonal stiffeners at top of engine bay, mounted and triangulated to transmission tunnel top. Diagonals are removable to allow engine removal. New engine mounts including torque brace at rear right of engine. Engine mounts and upper diagonal stiffeners share mounting points at the front. Diff mounting strengthened including vertical stiffeners between top and bottom mounts (first time Arch have done this) Spare wheel carrier removed. Chassis blasted and powder coated. Re skin except cockpit interior panels At 7 workshop/RST Chassis. Rear suspension/brakes. Complete new rear suspension including SV de-dion tube. Radius arms, Springs and shocks (AVO) from Freestyle. Currently no rear ARB New rear wheel bearings and standard calipers. I was going to use the Caterham big rear brake kit but was advised against it, and the car is currently at the 7 workshop to have the new Hi Spec two pot “handbrake” calipers fitted over 250 MM dia vented discs. (from Caterham’s front big brake kit) Front suspension/brakes/steering “Supa wide” front suspension from Freestyle. AVO shocks. Currently no front ARB New, later type stub axles Existing front brakes refitted. Hi Spec ultralite 4 racing calipers over 280MM solid discs, aluminium “Big “brake master cylinder The V8 is too wide to allow the standard steering layout, so a 90 degree bevel gearbox was made, and mounted in the right side (left drive) of X formed by the chassis just in front of the engine and directly above the rack. The steering rod comes forward from the pedal box horizontally to the bevel gear, and then down vertically to the rack. This works well, but has to be changed later to allow fitting of the freestyle inboard suspension, which it obstructs in its current position Body Rear diffuser from Freestyle Transmission tunnel minor mod to accommodate larger dia prop, and lined internally with heat barrier. Carbon interior panels including tunnel top from RIF Front and rear (extra wide) carbon wings from MOG. Aluminium spacers were manufactured to take the rear wings out 2” more to cover the tyres. 51/4” chrome headlights Bonnet mounted air scoop by Reverie. Cooling louvers in three panels let into bonnet behind air scoop. Arch could not press out the louvres because of the required proximity to the sides. Mesh front grill New custom wiring loom using lightweight Raychem wire, by DC Electronics. LED rear lights. Colour is aqua blue metallic from Chromepaint, expertly applied by TSK. Anybody looking for unusual colours/fancy paint, look at www.chromepaint.com Wheels/tyres Two new sets of wheels from Image Wheels, one for road, the other for track. All fronts 8” X 13”, road rears 9.5” X 13”, track rears 10.5” X 13” Road tyres: Avon CR500 205/55 R13 fronts, 245/50 R13 rears Track tyres will be Avon slicks . Cockpit Q/R steering colum with Momo suede wheel, RIF carbon dash panel with custom switch/gauge arrangement. Stack ST700SR combined rev counter/speedometer with shift lights + few other bells/whistles. Racelogic traction control Autocom wired in Gauges; Fuel level, water temp, and combined oil pressure/temp. Water temp and oil gauges are capillary tube, I don’t like/entirely trust electronic gauges. Big warning light for low oil press. Battery isolator switch, toggle ignition switch, starter button. Tillet carbon/Kevlar seats. RIF carbon aeroscreen Fire extinguisher. Power outlet. Engine/fuel system/exhausts/transmission 2.4 litre RST V8, 380HP @ 10,000 RPM 190FtLlbs torque @ 7000 RPM. 205 @ 9000 RPM. Rev limiter (sequential fuel) @10,200 RPM. RTD ECU. 400HP is available at higher RPM, but I can’t run that because of gearbox RPM restrictions. All figures are as stated by RST, I do not have any RR or dyno results as yet, but will post when I do. 10 Gallon fuel cell from Advanced fuel Systems. Bosch fuel pump located in tank with integral relief valve. (single fuel line to fuel rail, no return line to tank) Exhaust system by BTB, headers and collectors ceramic coated internally and externally, followed by “turbo blue” external coating. Silencers received the same treatment externally only. Coating by Ceramcoat. Turbo blue is a new coating rated at 1200C 2.5 KG flywheel, Superclutch 7.25” twin organic plate clutch, hydraulic central slave cylinder. A smaller than standard clutch master cylinder was fitted, (15MM bore) in order to reduce pedal effort, and increase travel and control. It works very well, very easy to drive in traffic. Quaife 6 speed sequential box with helical gears Custom larger diameter prop. (The standard one was considered not strong enough.) 3.92 Diff with Quaife ATB. Quaife assure me the ATB can take the power/torque. Custom radiator is actually two radiators in one, separated in the centre. Water exits the right hand cylinder head into the right side radiator element, exits right side and feeds to left cylinder block, then exits left head into left radiator element, and exits left side feeding into right side block. So the coolant runs in a “figure of eight” Monster cooling fan, 1100 cubic ft/min. Weight approx 500 KG’s. (with all fluids + 2.5 Imperial gallons of fuel, tonneau cover and a big box of spares including a spare radiator) This based on the fact that it was airfreighted to Houston for USA 2005, and the airwaybill showed an all up weight of 650 KG’s, but the BA guys in Houston told me that the standard pallet it was shipped on weighed 150KG. I will post an accurate weight when I get one. Performance? You gotta be in it to believe it! Cost? Don’t ask. Delivery? allow at least six months if you want one built, more if you do it yourself, which I would not recommend unless you are VERY knowledgeable, and highly skilled. I have not listed all parts used because there are just too many. Suffice it to say that tapart from the chassis,he only existing parts re used were the front brakes, front uprights, footwell air scoops and rear hubs. Many thanks to Chris and Russell for working so hard on the project. There were so many custom mods that I can’t remember them all, and it’s still not quite finished. Thanks also to excellent sub suppliers; Arch, Freestyle, Quaife, RIF, MOG, Image Wheels, Avon Tyres, Hi Spec, Advanced Fuel systems, Stack, Racelogic, Autocom, TSK, Chromepaint, Superclutch, Ceramcoat, and DC Electronics. Newsflash. The car will be on display at the Autosport show. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bozz Posted January 9, 2006 Share Posted January 9, 2006 Wow Where at the Autosport show? Bozz It's not MANGO it's TANGO and it's grounded Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Graham Perry Posted January 9, 2006 Share Posted January 9, 2006 Draws breath and thinks this may be the most expensive Caterham rebuild ever done 😳 Spec looks fantastic. I wonder what Colin Chapman would have made of it ? Edited by - Graham Perry on 9 Jan 2006 11:25:14 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robmar Posted January 9, 2006 Share Posted January 9, 2006 is there a reason why you have not got any front or rear ARB's rob - very jealous My MSN Space and Blog - Syndicate Using RSS Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DSL Posted January 9, 2006 Share Posted January 9, 2006 Blimey, & there was me thinking I spend alot of money on Caterham's 😬 Shall it be partaking in the Seven sprint championship this year 🤔 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Durrant Posted January 9, 2006 Share Posted January 9, 2006 A superb spec and I'll shall hopefully take a look on Friday. As Darren has mentioned it would be good to see this enter the clubs Speed championship Mark D Comp Sec Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony Abbatiello Posted January 9, 2006 Share Posted January 9, 2006 Very nice spec indeed, I would love to see it go at a sprint like Curborough etc. I have the vertical diff mounts in my car, they were fitted by Arch around 11 years ago along with many other diff mounting stiffining that included plates that ran down part of the tunnel tubing. I beleive Bruce decided that the extra diff stiffening wasn't really necesary but with your power, you definately need all the chassis stiffening you can get. Make us all jealous and bring it to a meeting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neil.cavanagh Posted January 9, 2006 Share Posted January 9, 2006 The Texas Highway patrol might have some performance plots they did whilst you were inside talking to that nice helpful 'Justic of the Peace' Mike! 😬 😬 😬 😬 Top car... goes like pooh of a stick, and sounds LOVELY! (below 8000') *eek* 😬 😬 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Myles Posted January 9, 2006 Share Posted January 9, 2006 is there a reason why you have not got any front or rear ARB's My understanding was that they aren't regarded as being necessary on the front of a freestyle-inboard car - dunno about the rears though. Project Scope-Creep is live... Alcester Racing 7's Equipe - 🙆🏻™ Alcester-Racing-Sevens.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jason Plato Posted January 9, 2006 Share Posted January 9, 2006 Yes - you should bring it to a sprint - but not Curborough as you wont be able to use any of the power ( been there done that ) Llandow , Aintree, Longcross or mira woudl be ideal no arb as freetyle didnt develop one C7 TOP Powered by Hellier Performance 😬 South Wales AO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
I.Mupferit Posted January 9, 2006 Share Posted January 9, 2006 Actually, they did develop one for the inboard suspension. Gary told me he has fitted it to Brodies car but says it is really only necessary on circuits with looooooooong corners. Gary is adamant you don't need one for the road but he is happy to supply one if you were to insist. Brent 2.3 DURATEC SV Reassuringly Expensive R 417.39 😬 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alexander Gurr Posted January 9, 2006 Share Posted January 9, 2006 Mike, I saw your car in it's final stages of development, when Chris was near the end. I have to say it looked spectacular. That v8 is such a tight fit, I was really impressed with the workmanship. You are a very lucky guy 😬 Superlight no 46 12,000 areroscreen'd miles in 18 months Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Biddle Posted January 9, 2006 Author Share Posted January 9, 2006 Re sprints, it will be back in the summer, and I will do some sprints, have to see what matches my calendar, but advice noted, thanks Dave. Whether my piloting skills are up to getting the best out of it is another matter. Myles, it doesn't have the inboard setup yet. No ARB' s because thats what Gary advised, try it first, and I'm not about to ignore expert advice. Wasn't tha bad neil, only 91 in a 70, just cruising really. Lucky it wasn't too much faster though, thats jail time! Graham, I'll concede that point, and it's almost certainly my Caterham rebuild swansong. Nowhere else to go except the supercharged version due soon, and that would be just ridiculous in a seven. Alex, I have to say that both Chris and Russell set very high standards for themselves, and stick to them. There were a lot of occassions when even the smallest detail was reworked because they were not happy with it. I will post the stand at autosport tomorrow. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeE Posted January 9, 2006 Share Posted January 9, 2006 Mike - do you have any pictures? R400 Duratec Build and Modification Pictures here Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Biddle Posted January 9, 2006 Author Share Posted January 9, 2006 Pictures? Only about 500, unfortunately I don't know one end of a website from the back of the car so unable to do it myself. I do have an IT guy though, and when he gets back from his Christmass hols I'll get him to set something up. There are a lot of pictures on RST's site, www.rst-v8.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DSL Posted January 9, 2006 Share Posted January 9, 2006 Just checked out RST-v8 website, what a fantastic looking car / job *thumbup* I've got to say they have really improved the look of that motor, it's the absolute nuts now, very F1 *thumbup* It will be very interesting to get a few of them on the road racking up a bit of mileage in the hands of thier customers & see how reliable they prove to be in the real world. Here's hoping they stand up to it, nice piece of kit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
STEVE GILBERT Posted January 9, 2006 Share Posted January 9, 2006 Absoluely stunning Mike, I really hope you enjoy driving it. Steve See My Caterham Fireblade Here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jason Plato Posted January 10, 2006 Share Posted January 10, 2006 DSL - the factory car has done more than 20,000 miles and Mike B has just driven his 3000 miles across the US Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pete east Posted January 10, 2006 Share Posted January 10, 2006 Mike - are you going to the show, or will it just be your car? Des and I will be going on saturday 14th and kind of hoped to see some other USA2005 Seveners up there. Whatever happens hope you are well, and look forward to having a look at your (NEW) car. Regards - Pete. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DSL Posted January 10, 2006 Share Posted January 10, 2006 Looking pretty good then *thumbup* Impressive USA mileage, owner must had had a good bit of faith in it 😬 😬 Dave, as nominated factory test driver do you enjoy a large staff discount off the purchase price 😬 😬 How much is it fully dressed with ecu 🤔 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rgrigsby Posted January 10, 2006 Share Posted January 10, 2006 Mike's a brave man flying it straight over to the US but tbh it was pretty much fine bar a few teething troubles. I suspect you really don't want to know how much it all costs though. Rob G www.SpeedySeven.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Biddle Posted January 10, 2006 Author Share Posted January 10, 2006 The car will be on the Proshift stand. Pete, I will be there on Saturday, and you can reach me on my UK mobile No 0785866567. Look forward to meeting up again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pete east Posted January 11, 2006 Share Posted January 11, 2006 Great Mike - look forward to seeing you there I or Des will give you a call on the mobile to determine relative positions 😬 Regards Pete. P.s any other USA2005 ers going on the Saturday? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Biddle Posted January 11, 2006 Author Share Posted January 11, 2006 Pete, the phone No I posted is wrong. The correct No is 07875866567. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gambo Posted January 13, 2006 Share Posted January 13, 2006 Mike, would you give me the inner /outter rim sizes for you wheels front and rear. Thanks Richard RED 2.0 HPC now on throttle bodies Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now