Blokko

And can be oh so expensive if you get it wrong Steve - Orange and Black ex Academy - my other car is a very smelly Mondeo.

Here... Managed to get a few hours over @ Curbs this afternoon. Real sunshine and showers weather. Good breeze so the track dried quickly. Downpours seemed to coincide with class 5 / 6 going out for their runs . Not really visible from the shots, but quite a lot of over steer out of Fradley. Couldn’t believe that one of the SDCC members was sprinting his brand new Nissan GTR (‘just run in’ with c800 miles on the clock). Didn’t get to see times but heard that he was through the speed trap at just over a ton. Like the M3 that was running last year, the noise of the engine just doesn’t match up to the power output (the Caterham’s sounded much better). Edit: Unexpectedly got back to see you lot paddling your way around track today, so there are a few more photo’s for you to look at here. Some impressive showboating around Fradley. Not sure if Mr Johnson’s grass cutting is trowel award eligible given it happened after the finish line Steve - Orange and Black ex Academy - my other car is a very smelly Mondeo. Edited by - Blokko on 17 May 2009 22:00:26

mycaterham.com -----Steve - Orange and Black ex Academy - my other car is a very smelly Mondeo.

Not having (or wanting in the future) a heater in the 7, I’d like to do what others on here have done and utilise the space where the heater would sit (if fitted) for storage of touring kit. Mainly I’m looking at clutch / throttle cables, bulbs, fuses etc, but maybe also a limited set of tools. Rather than fabricating a container, can anyone suggest a suitable bit of kit that I can just drill holes in and bolt / rivet into place? -----Steve - Orange and Black ex Academy - my other car is a very smelly Mondeo.

That will be members of the Se7ens Mailing List tourers, who are in Northern Ireland for a trip this weekend... -----Steve - Orange and Black ex Academy - my other car is a very smelly Mondeo.

One of the main factors that convinced me that I had to have a Caterham was the Angus & Tessa write up on mycaterham.com about their touring trips to France. SWMBO and I haven’t quite plucked up the courage to venture across the Channel yet, preferring to do our touring mileage in Britain. Finances permitting we hope to get across next year - possibly with a group of seasoned European tourers rather than on our own. We have covered 5k miles p/a in the couple of years that we have had our car. I’m expecting to have to go to 7k miles for the insurance this year if all the planned trips come off. We wouldn’t be without our soft bits for touring - particularly the half hood. The RE bags add a good deal of storage space (we still haven’t mastered the art of travelling light yet). The full tunnel bag is good for holding the phone, wallet, Autocom controller, a couple of bottles of water and some sweeties. I always take the full hood in a hood bag right behind the seats - but only ever use it if / when the car is parked up outside overnight (we do try to book holiday cottages that have a garage). Re your comment on the Autocom, I have to say that I’m fairly pleased with our recently installed system, but it’s not quite as brilliant as I had hoped. We do at least a couple of trips per year where a few hours on a motorway is inevitable. For this the Autocom is a godsend. After playing around with the vox setting we have got it right for motorway and fast ‘A’ road / dual carriageway. The problem we have is that when we get onto quieter roads, the vox is a bit low and conversation can get cut. This is not really a problem as the Autocom is only intended for use on the motorway bits. Once we are at our destination we bin the headsets until it is time to go back home. We have had a few problems with electrical interference from the alternator, but this seems to have been cut by using a ferrite ring and storing the unit in the soft bits tunnel bag (rather than Velcro’d to the bulkhead). The big disappointment for me is the poor audio quality from the headphones. Any level of base becomes woolly and distorted - even at modest volumes. I got a better quality 3.5mm phono lead and that did not improve the sound at all. We only have a basic TomTom (1XL) so no audio output. With the music off we can just about hear the instructions - but for the most part we can get by on the visual display. Used Tyre in the past to organise trips through Wales up to the Evo Triangle - a great piece of software. The plus points from your post make me want to get across to France in our 7 more than ever Steve - Orange and Black ex Academy - my other car is a very smelly Mondeo. Edited by - Blokko on 6 May 2009 21:38:50 Edited by - Blokko on 6 May 2009 22:00:52

Stuart. I'm not too sure that 46's will be suitable for me, so I'll pass on this one thanks. -----Steve - Orange and Black ex Academy - my other car is a very smelly Mondeo.

First dibs on the 11's please. Can you give me the Euro size - I normally go for a 45. -----Steve - Orange and Black ex Academy - my other car is a very smelly Mondeo.

I thought I was, but the top right showed the ‘login’ text next to the date. I logged in and didn’t get an invalid password message, but the text in the top right still just said login and didn’t show my username. I closed and re-opened the browser and this time it worked ok. As I type this it seems more and more like user error. I’ve tried to reproduce the problem without success so it may well be something I was doing wrong. I’ll let you know if I can reproduce the problem after a reboot and avg / Defender having deleted cookies etc (not sure if that will have any effect). Thanks for your prompt response Barry Steve - Orange and Black ex Academy - my other car is a very smelly Mondeo.

Hi Barry I’m getting a browser based problem when using the new my.lotussevenclub.com functionality. Running Firefox v3.0.10 I do not get the Gallery, My work or Add new icons / links from either of the picture subfolders (Event Pictures and myPictures). Not sure if this is a browser setting or site / coding issue. It appears to work fine on the same pc running IE 7.0.5730.11. I realise that multi browser compatibility is a PITA for web designers / admins and as I can get by using IE it’s not really an issue - but I thought I’d mention it in case other people trip up in the same way. -----Steve - Orange and Black ex Academy - my other car is a very smelly Mondeo.

Didn’t see a post for April, but having just got back from hols I wouldn’t have been able to make it anyhow. Did make last month and there were only 7 or 8 Cats in attendance (outnumbered by Westfields ) The Mildands Breakfast Club website shows Sunday 2nd August as the date of the next meet. Will have to see if we can get a good turnout for that one Steve - Orange and Black ex Academy - my other car is a very smelly Mondeo.

Mike 'The Laddie' Burnham on a pre sprint shakedown do doubt... -----Steve - Orange and Black ex Academy - my other car is a very smelly Mondeo.

Hi Paul The plan was to use a 4700µF capacitor in conjunction with the bridge rectifier like this. Would you say that this is not worth bothering with? -----Steve - Orange and Black ex Academy - my other car is a very smelly Mondeo.

Following on from a couple of offline queries, I thought I’d do an update on this post here. When I connected my original Autocom unit to the car battery (by hooking into the supply coming off the ciggy lighter) I was getting all sorts of interference problems. Before the first unit went kaput, RFI / EMI was apparent at all times - in the background (loud enough to be heard above the music) with the pitch being related to the engine revs (as Ian James described - sounds like a distant supercharger). The Autocom unit has since been replaced for a new box and I wanted to make sure that I didn’t get the same RFI / EMI problems. As a starter for 10 I have looped the cable coming off the ciggy lighter around a ferrite ringa couple of times. Rather than fixing the unit to the bulkhead (by the fusebox) as before, I’ve temporarily placed it in the passenger side of the Jill Judd tunnel bag. I can report that at the moment the interference is still there intermittently, but very much suppressed. It is present occasionally on trailing throttle and sometimes on hard acceleration (but only up to about 3k revs). The pitch / noise is reduced to the extent that I can’t really notice it at all with music playing. At this stage I cannot attribute the interference suppression to the ferrite ring - it may be that housing the unit in the saddle bag has made the difference (or that the last unit was a total duffer). When I get back off my touring holiday, the first thing I’m going to try is to fix the unit back to the bulkhead using Velcro to see if the fixing position of it makes any difference. If it does and the interference returns I’ll be onto solution #2 - the bridge rectifier. Now to my question - I think the sound quality from my Autocom headsets is really crappy - the bass in particular is very woolly. To me the sound is not as good as a bog standard set of iPod headphones. Is this something that other Autocom users have found, or have I got duff headsets as well? -----Steve - Orange and Black ex Academy - my other car is a very smelly Mondeo.

The next problem you may come across is electrical interference from the alternator / sparks. I’ve just got a bridge rectifier (and capacitor) and a ferrite ring from Maplins in an attempt to overcome a background noise that I was getting on my Autocom (interference was related to engine revs). Got to be worth a try @ less that a fiver. -----Steve - Orange and Black ex Academy - now looking at things from a slightly different perspective.

Off to Llandow no doubt. Nick needs to get some serious track time in for his upcoming assault on Class 1 this year 😬 Wonder if he's doing some last minute testing on a BrawnGP inspired diffuser Steve - Orange and Black ex Academy - now looking at things from a slightly different perspective.

Spotted by my boss this morning - turning out of Underhill Lane Westcroft / Wolverhampton onto Cannock Road. -----Steve - Orange and Black ex Academy - now looking at things from a slightly different perspective.

Yes Nick, hope to be along this Thursday. Hope the weather holds ... -----Steve - Orange and Black ex Academy - now looking at things from a slightly different perspective.

Nick Chan in his new Sigma possibly 🤔 Steve - Orange and Black ex Academy - now looking at things from a slightly different perspective.

Matthew Was this you spotted in your dad's car on the way home from Curbs? -----Steve - Orange and Black ex Academy - now looking at things from a slightly different perspective.

Here are my photo's of the Curbs test day. -----Steve - Orange and Black ex Academy - now looking at things from a slightly different perspective.

Nice photo's Tim. May trouble you for a high res or two if that is OK? I have a photo of your new car being put through its paces @ Anglesey - will add that to the Curbs images for you... -----Steve - Orange and Black ex Academy - now looking at things from a slightly different perspective.

That's better - will have a good look through now Steve - Orange and Black ex Academy - now looking at things from a slightly different perspective.

Tim Link no worky You need to mark the album for public access. Just working on my pics - they will be in place shortly.... Steve - Orange and Black ex Academy - now looking at things from a slightly different perspective.

Could have been GN53 RCU as driven back to Leics from Curborough today by Matthew Willoughby. -----Steve - Orange and Black ex Academy - now looking at things from a slightly different perspective.