# Ok Well Here Is My Toy...



## Snapper Seven (Jun 26, 2007)

After having a quick chat with JonW on another thread I thought I should pop my head up and show mine ooh er.

It's a Caterham 7 HPC, this is my third year with her and loving every minute, although I'm not getting too many drives in this year due to the dire weather and busy with my wedding photography but hey, it's good to blow the cobwebs off...

Got into them back in the early nineties and always wanted one, just sitting here knowing it's in the garage for me still excites, it's just that sort of car. I haven't tracked it (...yet), I bought her mainly for fast road and touring as you will see below.

Fitted with a vauxhall 2.0 16V engine it produces approx 175bhp and weighs 600kg so it's plenty quick enough, almost too quick as a first Caterham but I took it steady to start









Anyway here are a few snaps...














































Snapper


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## Snapper Seven (Jun 26, 2007)

With regards to the touring I always try and do a big trip each year. This year I went to Le Mans (for the first time) with the club and had a great time but the two years before that I attended the International Lotus Seven meeting in Switzerland which is just the most amazing experience. 2000 miles in 7 days of awesome roads and driving through France and over the Alps to St. Moritz with 150 other Sevens. It was so good the first year I had to do it again the next. Exhausting but breath-taking.

My favourite pics below - me on the Susten Pass in Switzerland, often voted one of the best driving roads in Europe, on our way to Interlaken. Utterly intense scenery and the car was in her elements with all the twists, turns, tunnels....and terrifying drops! I will return...oh yes I will return.

Thank you for reading.



















The road beckons...

Snapper


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## Guest (Aug 24, 2007)

Snapper Seven said:


> With regards to the touring I always try and do a big trip each year. This year I went to Le Mans (for the first time) with the club and had a great time but the two years before that I attended the International Lotus Seven meeting in Switzerland which is just the most amazing experience. 2000 miles in 7 days of awesome roads and driving through France and over the Alps to St. Moritz with 150 other Sevens. It was so good the first year I had to do it again the next. Exhausting but breath-taking.
> 
> My favourite pics below - me on the Susten Pass in Switzerland, often voted one of the best driving roads in Europe, on our way to Interlaken. Utterly intense scenery and the car was in her elements with all the twists, turns, tunnels....and terrifying drops! I will return...oh yes I will return.
> 
> ...


 Worth waiting for mate wicked


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## thunderbolt (May 19, 2007)

Great car and great pics.


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## pg tips (May 16, 2003)

fantastic, I wish I had done something like that in my life!

Had a yellow one pass me on the A1 yesterday.


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## colinryan (Jul 8, 2007)

They are stunning, I love them. I've driven one or two, but not been fortunate enough to own one (yet).

Last one I was in had a 3.9 V8 in it. It was _terrifyingly_ fast.


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## r1ch (Feb 2, 2004)

Lovely car and the pics aren't too shabby either









I'm toying with the idea of selling my (much loved), MGB GT and getting a Westie Megabusa. Am currently having issues getting the idea "signed off" by my "manager", but I'm confident theres a way forward on that front, (and its Golf GTI shaped







).

I'd welcome any thoughts or advice as I'm not convinced I understand all the issues surrounding going for a Busa engined version as opposed to a Red Top or Zetec unit










Rich


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## A Williams (Apr 13, 2007)

O yes, now that is nice, very bloody nice. I had a westfield a few years back, great fun.


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## Snapper Seven (Jun 26, 2007)

Rich,

Don't know how much investigation you have done so far, but at a high level your engine choice depends on what you want to do with the car really. BEC's (Bike Engined Cars) by nature are much lighter and therefore quicker despite not necessarily having more power than a big car engine. The lightweight advantage means they are much more suited and focussed for track work which is where you will find most of them. That's not to say they don't work well on the road, I have been passenger in a couple of Caterham Fireblades and was surprised how compliant they are but on long journeys they are far more tiresome being much more buzzy as the car sits at 8000rpm rather than 3500rpm when touring along. I drove down to Le Mans with a guy who had a Caterham Blackbird, awesome machine but he said he would have much preferred to do the journey in his old k-series R300 given the choice, he certainly looked more weary than the rest of us!

I only ever wanted the vx2.0 for a number of reasons. Firstly it was the daddy, the one to have when I got into them so has always left an impressionon me, secondly these engines are bullet proof whereas the K series is a little more stressed and known to have more problems such as head gasket failures if not looked after and thirdly I have far too much mechanical sympathy and with all the low end power and torque that the 2.0 produces I can despatch most things on the road without having to rev the nuts off it plus it is far better suited to my use which is touring and fast road.

I don't have any knowledge of the 'busa Westfields but this would be a good place to start though you have probably already worked this out.

http://boardroom.wscc.co.uk/cgi-bin/ikonboard.cgi

I think the 'busa is the biggest and most powerful bike engine variantand also quite expensive if things wrong, certainly compared to a Fireblade engined car.

To sum up, if you want total hardcore and track then go BEC otherwise get yourself a 'normal' one.

The best thing to do it talk to people and search the forums for advice. They are all a friendly bunch...mad but friendly


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## r1ch (Feb 2, 2004)

Snapper.. thanks for that run down.. an interesting read









In all honestly, it'll get used on the road most of the time, with maybe the odd track day here and there. I think I'm leaning towards a Westie with a Red Top powerplant - coupled with a 5 speed box. The bike engine sounds quite a laugh for track work, but never having been a biker I'm a little wary of the engine maintenance and I've heard of issues with the 'boxes incorporating the reverse gear. As fundamentally a "car" person, I suppose I'm happier with the prospect of mechanicals I broadly understand and that are in common useage, (in their unmodified form), in a host of other applications. The reality is that a 170/180bhp Red Top installation is still going to give a pretty serious power/weight ratio for "Sunday/Sunny Day" runs out.

Thanks again

Rich.


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## TikTok (Mar 26, 2006)

Lovely car

Isn't that the model that you had to take a driving course before they would sell you one?


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## Snapper Seven (Jun 26, 2007)

Yep that is right. HPC stands for High Performance Course and you took this course when you bought this model. John Lyons was the chief instructor and very good too by all accounts!

It's odd that Caterham don't insist on these courses for their new top performance models such as the CSR which are quicker than mine is. Maybe it was more marketing than safety?!?

Mine can still give me a scare every now and again when I'm not on the ball!


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## Snapper Seven (Jun 26, 2007)

Rich,

You'd more than happy with a VX for road use. A neighbour of mine has a wide bodied Westfield with a VX2.0 but sold it a year ago to get a BEC Westie as he started to just do track days.

If you do plan on doing a few track days then it would be a good idea to go dry sumped, especially if you get some decent sticky rubber, to counter oil surge. Also it would be a good idea to get the SBD cam cover mod to prevent oil in the top of the engine being pushed over into the inlet breather on extreme cornering, this occurs as the C20XE is mounted longitudinally in the Seven-esque cars buttranversely in their vauxhall road cars and was originally designed as some sort of eco friendly measure - but it's just a pain sometimes for us sorts! With my super sticky Yoko 048R tyres on the road I have managed on a couple of occasions to to do this and it results in the oil going through the engine creating the most spectacular smoke screen.









Sorry this is all probably too much (useless) info right now as to be honest these VX's are tough as old boots and can take a lot of abuse, plus a lot more power if you have the Â£Â£Â£

SS


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## JonW (Mar 23, 2005)

SS, sorry for my non respose in the other thread... ive been away... im JonW on Blatchat natch  but I dont post much, Im a bit busy with the watches really...







Plus my car has been very relaible and also being down here in Aus there isnt really much 7 activity here... Lots of South African and local copies of 7's on the road but a real 7 is very rare. We even have a Westfield factory here but they make something different to the UK 7's it seems, not that I would get one. Haveing compared the caterham and westfield products, there really is only one I would buy.

IMHO, all 7's should have 140+bhp... any less and you will soon be bored (I know R1ch would be). I love the ferocity of mine, but its still very drivable and one of the instructors at Eastern Creek has driven mine and proclaimed it prefect for track days and sprints as well as the road, he drives a tuned Elise and is a very fast guy on EC, so his thumbs up meant a lot.

I think if you want to get a feeling for one of these cars you might want to go to Jackals forge and view some of his videos, superb!

SS - lovely mota mate, i love it... looks top notch condition too and very envious of your big trips.


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## pinkwindmill (Aug 17, 2006)

Top car!

Living in Caterham myself, I really should get one I suppose...well, maybe one day!

Cheers,

Guy


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## Snapper Seven (Jun 26, 2007)

JonW said:


> SS - lovely mota mate, i love it... looks top notch condition too and very envious of your big trips.


Thanks Jon. It does show a couple of signs of age close up but it's not bad for a 1994 car is it! I spent months looking for the right HPC and as soon as I saw this one I knew it was 'the one'. It's a one owner (club member who built it himself) and you could tell just from the bloke's garage that the car has always been meticulously well looked after, so much so that I even bought it without driving it, sadly it was raining when I went to view (which was a 4 hour drive from my house) but I got so much confidence and reassurance I had no probs snapping it up, knowing that it would only drive perfectly.

Yeah jackal's site is very good, love some of his footage. Did you see his Spa accident - that was pretty hair raising!

Guy- if I lived in Caterham I wouldn't have ben able to resist and would have bought many years ago









SS


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