Howard's Seven

Caterham 7 Update

Its been a few months sinec I last posted on the Caterham but we have been out enjoying the car! A few trips including a week in Pembrokeshire and a long weekend in Whitby - doesnt sound much but we have now done just over 5000 miles this year.

Last week, before we headed off to Whitby, I decided I would have a go at putting together a shower cap for the Caterham. A quick search on the Internet found a couple of yards of 4oz waterproof material and 10 yards of bungy chord - it was time to fire up the sewing machine.

I decided to keep it as simple as possible and have been amazed at how useful the cover is now its made. This 'prototype' needs a few improvements and I am already on withe the next version!.

We had an opportunity to do some severe weather testing when I parked next to the sea wall in Sandsend near Whitby and the waves swamped the car - although the shower-cap worked great.

To store the shower cap when not in use I put together a stuff back which velcros onto the roll bar behind the passenger seat.

The second project was to create a 'sun-hat' which would keep the sun off my bald head when we are stuck in traffic - ok so this wont be a problem for many people but being stuck on the M25 in 25c heat was not fun! 

The sun-hat fits to the windscreen as per ordinary hoods and I have used the Soft-Bits for sevens half hood straps at the back to secure it. Testing so far proves that it works OK up to 80mph with no problems - mpre testing and a bit of refinement needed to seal the sun-hat to the windscreen top.  

If anyone wants more details on these or is interested ordering one get in touch.

Anglesey abbey run

A bit of a Marathon this week with Sheffield, Southampton and Cambridge -around 1100 miles in a week. Car still running sweet and returning 39 - 41 mpg on average.

Found a few problems with intercom and interference if I try and plug iPhone into autocom and power it off the car - a visit to Bikestop in Stevenage to talk to their Autocom guy to get an isolator of some description. Apart from that the Bluetooth etc with the Zumo/iPhone works great.

Southampton or bust!

After yesterdays short marathon drive to Sheffield and back I am heading off to Southampton this morning. I was pleasantly surprised that I only needed to fill up twice so I seem to be getting around 39 mpg which considering most of the journey - on the M1 anyway - was around 70 - 80 mph I thought wasn't too bad.

Before I head off this morning I need to adjust the headlights as I was getting flashed a lot last night. I had put new headlight bulbs in a few weeks ago and I assumed that they would be OK without re-alignment, however after last nights journey I was proved wrong. So this morning the first job is to have a go at sorting these out - a quick wash down to get rid of the flys and head for the M25!

I will add a few photos from the day later.

First longish trip of the year

Off on a trip to Sheffield today to catch up with family. The seven seems to running great after problems I had with the MAP sensor a few weeks ago.

It's a beautiful sunny day so even the M1 feels good!

It was a good run and the traffic in the morning flowed really well - until I hit Sheffield and they it seem to grind to a halt. Having reached junction 31 by 10:45 it took 45 minutes to drive the last 12 miles to get to my sons house! 

the run home was great to start with and although the traffic was bad again in Sheffield once on the M1 we were flying again southwards. After a brief stop for fluid rebalancing - me not the car - at Leicester Forest East I headed on to the A5 to have a bot more fun - or so I thought.

The reality of the A5, one of my favourite roads as I used to plough it daily and so know it well, was that it was full of large articulated lorries driving at a steady 50 mph in convoys which meant little opportunity to overtake. This is where I wished I had gone for the Duratec engine rather than the Sigma as I would have had more power to overtake quickly - although I realise that there is a whole debate on the benefits of the heavier Duratec engine the reality is that more power can be liberated with tweaking.

By the time I got home, after a frustrating 4 hour drive, I was chilled to the bone and a little worse for wear! An early night is called for as I am heading for Southampton on Thursday to see some friends for lunch and then Cambridge on Friday - its a hard life! 

Autocom in the Seven

I had a request today for some photos of my Autocom installation so I thought I would put them on the blog if anyone else is interested. I had a 'spare' Autocom Super Pro AVI that I had taken of a motorbike I am going to sell (2005 BMW 1200GS 8000 miles if anyone is interested!) so I didnt really have a decision to make about which intercom to go for. After trawling around the web I found a couple of sites/posts that recommended using Velcro to attach the main intercom unit to the firewall to the right of the steering column as this kept it out of the way - but it was also accessible.

I routed the power cable from the main unit along the wiring behind the dash and found a power connecter just above the passenger footwell - not sure what itis for but it gives me a switched 12v supply and it doesnt seem to have done any damage (yet!).

There are a couple of options for routing the headphone leads and I chose to use 2 metre extension leads which are routed underneath the tunnel cover to appear between the seats. To keep them in control I bought a chrome cable clamp from a Harley dealer which is made for brake pipes on the bike but does the job for me.

I had a few problems with the connection to the iPod/phone as the headphone cable kept getting tangled and shaken so I managed to find a cable on ebay which provides a connection to the big bottom connector on the ipod which gives me a jack socket for the connection to the iphone cable from the Autocom and a USB plug to power the iPod/Iphone.

I am using a Garmin Zumo 660 which allows me to answer the iphone whilst driving *iphones dont have an auto answer option* and to do this I bought the new Autocom Bluetooth unit which connects the GPS to the Autocom so I can get directions and music from that as well - as if the iPhone/Ipod wasnt enough! To power the GPS and the iPhone/iPod I put in a second power socket next to the one I fitted when I built the car.

On this last picture you can also see the footrest I installed as my wife was constantly complaining about not being able to brace herself when I was driving. This is an aluminium unit I bought from Car Builder Solutions and secured using Rivnuts and screws. It seems to be ok although there is a bit of squeaking under hard cornering so I think I may have to revisit the fastenings.

On the headset front I went with the Sensorcom dual ear headphones with Autocom plug and got the Lotus 7 Club special price - I think it was around £120 for the pair. They are extremely comfortable and can be worn for long distances without being annoying! 

Not sure the photo really helps but but hopefully you can see the sort of thing - the unit with the headphone sort of wedges in your ear and is held in with a small rubber knob - several sizes come with the headphones as do various in ear foam and rubber earbuds.

Hope this is of some interest - if you have any questions let me know.

Problem solved

Just heard from Caterham that they have found the problem - a dead MAP sensor. This has now been replaced under warranty but I still have to pay 70 quid labour - oh well the joys of seven ownership.

On the train now down to Dartford to pick the car up - only a couple of hours journey.....

The journey home

The morning started out very wet so after braving the elements for the first 20 minutes I decided it was rime to put the hood - the first time I had used it in anger.

The first thing was that everything steamed up and obese thankful for the heated windscreen! The rain was pretty persistent down to Carlisle where the sun came out donut was a coffee stop atvthe services to de-hood!!!

Still having problems with the engine racing which I hope caterham will fix on Thursday and the speedo is still intermittent.

On route to Windermere for lunch stop.

Back to the sad day bit

I have been having a drive out whenever the weather has been suitable - which hasn't been much really since Christmas. Last week I had a lunch appointment in Bury St Edmunds so it was a great opportunity to stretch it's legs.

Anyway a couple of days later an appointment in Oxford was another opportunity for a run - but the car wouldn't start. Yes - just wouldn't fun for more than 10 seconds.

After spending several hours trying to suss out what the problem was I couldn't find a problem. So I called Mark at Caterham to see if they had an idea of what it could be. There wad a few suggestions - maybe the immobiliser, the impact switch or even the fuel pump. But I checked all these and couldn't find any problem.

This morning I got BlueDot Recovery from Hemel Hempstead to take the car down to Caterham for them to diagnose the problem. I am just waiting now to hear what they have found. Hopefully I will be able to pick kit up tomorrow.

Watch this space.......


- posted from my iPad

A bit of a sad day

It's a while since I did any posting and there is a lot to catch up on. Since I finished the build late last year we have had a few trips out but still only done 3,000 miles.

Of course there is tinkering to do.

First modification was to install a foot rest in the passenger side. My wife found it really hard to brace herself when there was nothing to put her feet on (the bulkhead was about a foot from her feet). Anyway I found a suitable aluminium footwear from Car Builder Solutions which fits the bill - a few RivNuts and we were away. I will post some pictures in the next few days.

The second mod was to install an Autocom intercom which I had spare after I sold one of my motorbikes. I installed this using Velcro and cable ties on the bulkhead just to the right of the steering column. I bought some Sensorcom headsets using the Blatchat discount and have been really impressed with them. To be able to plug the headsets in I ran 2 two metre cables up through the transmission tunnel and secured the cables onto the bulkhead using a brake cable clamp off a chopper bike. This gives me passenger/driver intercom, MP3 music and of course my iPhone and Garmin Zumo 660.

The next one for now was the addition of a second power socket to power the iPhone etc. which I just teed on to the one that came with the car.

Lastly I ordered and finally received a half hood plus from softbitsforsevens. Great hood and I am very pleased with it.


- posted from my iPad

Geneva UniGlobal conference trip

Today sees me set off for a trip to Nyon which is just outside Geneva to speak at a conference of postal unions on the future of the mail. The day set off well with a fast check in and security check at Luton Aijrport thanks to easy jet speedy boarding and a cup of wake up juice at pret. The airport is amazingly busy for 6.30 in the morning but I guess it is the back end of holiday time.

I will be blogging the conference and will post my presentation when I get beck if anybody is interested.




- posted from my iPad

Location:Nyon, Geneva