Blat to Classics on the Common Car Show, Harpenden (and back!)

Classics on the Common in Harpenden is a rapidly growing classic car (and bike) show held on the Harpenden commons.  It was this evening, my sister and her other half Derek (who helped with the build) were attending, so I decided to take a blat there to see what it was all about.

I was extremely surprised at the massive turn out of cars, all sorts of things there from Escort RS Turbo's to Ferrari F40 and F50's.  Very impressive, and I'll definitely go there again next year providing the weather is good - I may even exhibit my own car there too.

Here is a video of the blat there, a wander through one of the commons showing some of the thousands of cars on display - including the amazing Ferrari F40 (one of my favourite cars of all time) and the blat back.

As you can see from the video - even having already done a thousand miles, I'm still having an absolute blast, loving every second of driving it... and... I'd clearly got myself a job to do tightening my mirrors!  I found it difficult to set the mirrors up properly and get them tightened when I first fitted the aero screen as the tightening bolt is on the underside of the mount.  Another Caterham owner suggested it was best to drill a central hole through the aero screen and to tighten the mirror that way.  This solution was perfect.

Central hole drilled in aero screen to allow proper adjustment and tightening of the mirrors.

On the blat there I'd noticed that my off side repeater had stopped working. As they are the new LED variants I'm not entirely sure what the problem is, but it seems like they are blown to me and I didn't think LED's could blow...?  I've checked all the wiring and everything seems in order...  Video comparison below, but I'll be sure to get a replacement ordered from Caterham tomorrow.

I'd also noticed my rear tyres were getting a touch on the low side, and with a track day at Snetterton coming up I thought the rear's would be well and truly finished after that, so in preparation of abused rears... I ordered two new Avon CR500's from the Caterhamparts online site yesterday.  The ordering process was no hassle, they sent an order confirmation and dispatch email and the tyres were delivered next day, so was as you'd expect in this day and age, but I'll definitely use them again.

Fresh 13 inch Avon CR500 rear tyres delivered next day by TNT.

With the Snetteron track day coming up next week I'll be doing some other modifications to the car over the next few days, to ensure I get through the noise test.  I've ordered a Titanium Raceco exhaust which has already been manufactured and I've also found a company who is prepared to polish it, I've written this in such a way as it was extremely difficult to find a company prepared to polish titanium as apparently it's quite a volatile material due to the dust and minor flakes that are removed in the polishing process.  Anyway... I've had a sneak picture of the work done on the exhaust so far and it looks really good - this will be delivered to me hopefully on friday allowing me to test the various decibel outputs with the two exhausts and air box configurations over the coming weekend.

Getting the car back and also in trouble!

After a very nice couple of weeks Scuba diving in Egypt, I was very much looking forward to getting my car back from it's first service.

Dean Francis told me on Friday last week that everything was done on the checklist I'd supplied and that he'd arranged for the car to be delivered back to me on Monday afternoon - which was great timing as this was the first opportunity they could've delivered.  The car turned up in the early evening and was promptly unloaded off the transporter.

My Caterham R500 being unloaded after it's first service.

Some of the things I wanted changing and looking at included:-
• There was a nick out of the stone chip protection film on nearside rear wing which was agreed to be replaced when Dean initially delivered the car to me.  I'd also managed to mess up the stone chip film on the nosecone with a Gopro suction mount - so that got replaced too.

• When Dean delivered the car Caterham had provided me with a previous customers steering wheel, rather than holding up my car for a couple of switch parts.  So I've now got my nice new steering wheel.

Finally - MY steering wheel now fitted.

• The Stack Dash required a lead that was out of stock (at the time of initially delivering the car to me).  This lead is to stop the gear appearing on the dash (as my car is a H pattern manual not sequential).  So this has now been fitted which disables the static gear display on the dash which was set to 5.

• The engine started to run quite lumpy at low revs once warm (after about 700 miles), it would occasionally stall when idling.  I think this was an issue with the throttle position sensor, and this has now been rectified.

• The shift lights were set to come on at the running in red line of 5000 RPM, and these have now been re-programmed to the 8750 RPM limit.

• A washer needed to be fitted to the reverse light selector in gearbox, and as I'd carpeted the transmission tunnel this made it extremely difficult to do without a ramp.  I've not checked this has been done, but I guess it has... Best check that tonight!

• The initial cat bypass pipe I was supplied had a different bore at the collector end to the manifold pipes I had, so a correctly sized polished cat bypass pipe has now been supplied.  It looks visibly larger, and has a collar where the four pipes join into the single pipe.

The correctly sized polished cat bypass pipe for my R500 Duratec

• There was a very slight squeak on the front offside, this didn't get done, so I'll have to try and work this out as it's irritating me.  I'll be taking the front anti roll bar off tonight or tomorrow evening to start the carbon headlight fitting, so I'll give everything a good grease whilst it's unbolted.

• The offside front wheel brake pad makes a clunking noise in the calliper, and this was not fixed, but when I asked why apparently this will go once the pads are properly bedded in which can take quite a while.  I've done 1,000 miles now, and it seems to be getting louder, so I'll keep my ear on this...

• I received a throttle recall check document in the post and asked for this to be done. 

My service book and other paperwork wasn't on the transporter with the car, so this has been posted to me, so I hope to have the completed service and PBC stamps plus the throttle recall document signed off and delivered to me tomorrow morning.

So it was time for a blat. 
I decided to try a point of view angle for the GoPro this evening, which started off as a really good video, but I ended up 'accidentally' going sideways round a local roundabout with a police car just out of sight up the road... So I got the blue lights, and got pulled over... see the video below... After my chat with the officers, I decided it best not to publish the rest of evenings 'antics'.

As I was putting the car in the garage I found there were some oil drips on my drive...!  Not good..! 

Oil drips on my drive

I jacked the car up, and it appears the dry sump raceline hoses were weeping very slightly at the connector... I checked the connector bolts and they were extremely tight, so didn't think it was a major issue, but wasn't sure... So this morning I called Simon at Caterham midlands (who done the service) and he said due to the coarse thread of the connector nuts, there can be some oil weep out of them as that would've been residing in the thread when they were tightened.  I'll dry the area tonight, start the car and re-check.

So with any luck and the good weather set to continue, I should be at Snetterton Track on Wednesday 6th of August, and then the weekend after that off to Wales.

Bring it on!

Collection for First Service, Westermann Carbon Headlights and some other updates

With the first service interval of 1,000 miles nearing rapidly and a holiday on the horizon I decided to tie both things together... A couple of weeks back I called Dean Francis (CC midlands dealer principal) and we arranged to have the car collected today with the aim of the first service being completed whilst I'm away and the car being returned to me (hopefully) soon after I get back.

In the meantime after removing the wipers and windscreen at the weekend I thought it'd be a good idea to get some caps for the wiper spindles.


Caterham Wiper Spindle

Caterham Wiper Spindle with Cap

 So the car got collected today by Cockerills Recovery who'd been organised by Caterham.


Car being loaded onto transporter.

My R500 and Caterham's demonstrator on car transporter

Those of you who have been following my blog in detail may remember I had a bit of another 'saga' with Westermann Motorsport and a pair of carbon fibre headlights I purchased from them.  If you don't remember, then a touch of enlightenment will follow:-

I ordered the pair of carbon headlight bowls that took about six weeks to manufacture (twice as long as the quoted three weeks).  The arrival date came and I was very excited, but upon opening the box I was extremely disappointed with the quality - the manufacture and weave laying was very good, however, they were poorly finished, were scratched and the lacquer looked like it had pooled and run - not good at all, especially as they were about £600 for the pair!


Carbon Headlights from Westermann Motorsport - arrived scratched and poorly finished.

Naturally, I complained and the contact there agreed that they were of sub standard finish, (reluctantly) agreed to collect them, courier them back to Germany, have them finished to a good standard and then shipped back to me.  I tried to argue the point that it'd be better for them to give me a slight refund and I'd organise the finishing of the lights to a suitable standard myself using a local body shop, but they refused that idea.

Anyway, the lights got collected, were returned to me in around 10 days, and I have to say they were better - but still not what you'd expect for the money I paid for them.  I offered them up to the car and they were still visibly duller than the front cycle wings, and had extremely dull patches on them - which I just couldn't stomach to see fitted to my pride and joy!

Caterham carbon headlight bowls now better, but not excellent.

So I found a local body shop who were prepared to help and luckily enough they'd recently done some work to finish off a nice piece of carbon for a Ducati...  We agreed a price and I left the lights with them for about four weeks, which was a little longer than expected as David (the owner) who was doing the work had a two week holiday.

He ended up having to put eighteen coats of lacquer on them, which were applied in three coat intervals, then allowed to dry,  sanded with 800 grit sandpaper to cut them back to about 1.5 coats, so in total the lights have had about 9 coats of lacquer.  I collected them today, and they now look absolutely amazing as you can see from the picture:-


Caterham carbon fibre headlight bowls, freshly lacquered and looking amazing.

David from Daytona Coachworx done a superb job and I would highly recommend them... A link to their website is here: http://www.daytonacoachworx.co.uk/
They mainly specialise in Porsche work and accident repairs, but will take on smaller 'interesting' work too.

So hopefully by the time I'm writing this post the car has safely arrived a Caterham Midlands and will be worked on over the next few days / couple of weeks.  I, in the meantime will be off to Egypt for a two week diving holiday - happy days.

The Last Ever Caterham R500 Duratec

A press release by Caterham Cars today states that number 174 rolled off the production line yesterday and that is the end of the R500 Duratec.  The 620R is now the replacement model and at close to £10,000 more than the R500 I (like most) find it quite an expensive jump in the range.

A link to their press release is here.

As many of you may know I like to 'challenge' and here is the plaque of my car which is in actual fact number 175!  So by reckoning (and Caterham's numbering system) I actually have the last ever R500... I think they need to update their press release! :-)


Caterham R500 Duratec number 175 - the last R500 ever?

A clean and a carbon aeroscreen

With the weather looking great for a blat today, and 900 miles on the clock I thought it'd be a good idea to give the car a pre-blat clean, and to have a go at sticking the aeroscreen on.

I'd ordered myself a new jack as I wanted one with a rubberised pad, so that I wouldn't scratch the chassis tubes when jacking the car.  Done a fair bit of research, and decided on an Arcan 2 tonne trolley jack, that I got off ebay link here if you want to get yourself one.

So I got to get the car jacked up and got ready to work...

Ready for cleaning and an aero screen

Firstly off with the wheels.

Arcan 2 tonne trolley jack in action

With the wheels off I took a picture so you could see how grubby they were.  Lots of brake dust.

Caterham R500 13 inch wheel

I rinsed the wheels down with a hose and then applied the wheel cleaner I use for my daily driver - it's called 'bilberry' which is a pink colour and smells like berries (very nice) but, aside from the aesthetics it's absolutely superb stuff.  I usually use it neat, however, it can be diluted up to 10 times, and is available to buy from cleanyourcar.co.uk by clicking this link.

Bilberry wheel cleaner getting to work.

After leaving the bilberry cleaner to get to work (about 5 minutes) I used these 'wheel woolies' which are like a very soft foam / bristle, and are really good at getting into the wheel nut holes and into any crevices in your alloys.  They are expensive, but make cleaning up your alloys a real joy.  You can get them from theultimatefinish.co.uk by following this link.

Wheel woolies great for cleaning your wheels.

The wheels were then dried using a micro fibre cloth, and I decided to apply some Gtechniq C5 Wheel armour - which is a product that bonds to your wheels to stop brake dust and dirt sticking to them.  One application lasts about a year, but the product is quite expensive for something you don't really see any immediate difference with after application.  However, I've used it on the wheels of my daily driver and they are much easier to clean now, and don't get anywhere near as dirty, so in my opinion the product is money well spent.  Available from cleanyourcar.co.uk by clicking this link.

Gtechniq C5 wheel armour.

With the wheel armour applied I cleaned up the inside of the arches, wishbones, and body work bits, then refitted the wheel.  As you can see from the picture below the wheels came out like new - I guess that's to be expected considering I've only done 900 miles!

Caterham R500 13 inch wheel refitted to car after cleaning and Gtechniq C5 wheel armour being applied.

Next job - carbon aeroscreen fitting.  Needless to say I'd been bugged by quite a few 'aeroscreen warriors' about why I'm still running a windscreen and so on, so decided to bite the bullet and get the aeroscreen on to see what it was like.  I was really interested to see what (if any) difference there was in acceleration and braking, and at least I'd get my mates off my case!

Windscreen allen bolts removed.

During the build I'd fitted (with the help of my friend Andy) some bullet connectors for the heated windscreen, which made the removal process much faster.  It was literally a case of pulling off the windscreen wipers, disconnecting the heated windscreen, removing all four allen bolts and then simply (and carefully) lifting the screen off the car.

Windscreen and 12v master switch removed.

Fitting the aeroscreen was dead easy too.  Simply put it in place, and refit the allen bolts.  The 12v master switch shroud isn't a great fit, so I'll double check I've done it right, but it seems correct to me.

Carbon Aeroscreen and 12v master switch refitted.

Next up, and slightly more tricky was finding the right drilling holes for the mirrors.  I'd noticed that I hadn't had any bolts for the centre mirror, so elected to continue and just fit the side mirrors.  I thought it best to put a piece of masking tape on the aeroscreen, the faff around for a bit deciding on what the best location was.

Masking tape on aeroscreen marked ready for drilling.

Once I'd decided the best location, I marked the tape up with a paint marker, checked and checked again before I drilled through the screen and took to the drill.  Using a metal drill bit (as these are quite blunt they don't seem to crack or stress the carbon fibre) I drilled through the screen and fitted the first mirror.  I think the supplied bolts are a little too long for my liking, so I'll see if there are some shorter ones around.

Drivers side mirror fitted to aeroscreen.

I repeated the process for the passenger side mirror, making sure it lined up with the drivers side mirror.

Passenger side mirror fitted to aeroscreen.

With the aeroscreen and mirrors fitted it was onto the removal of tar, flies and other road grime on the car.  Having used a clay bar on my daily driver, I thought this was the best solution to remove the grime without having to use a solvent based tar remover.  It worked perfect, removed all the flies, tar and grime without a snag.

Autoglym clay bar and rapid detailer lubricant spray.

The car was then rinsed and I checked for any stone chips. With the car being very well protected by the stone chip protection film, the paint work is pretty much in perfect order.  However (shock horror)  I found a chip!!

My first stone chip!

Having preempted numerous stone chips, the last time I was at my local porsche centre I picked up a touch up stick (as the car has been painted in Porsche Riviera Blue 39e).

Porsche Riviera Blue 39e touch up stick.

A quick dab of the touch up paint and the mark was gone.

Chip covered with touch up stick paint.

With the stone chip covered, the car was finished and ready for blatting.

Freshly cleaned Caterham R500 with newly fitted carbon aeroscreen.

So went out for a quick blat, that turned into  a three hour blat!  The aeroscreen makes such a difference to the acceleration it is unbelievable.  As I have an R500 I thought the difference wouldn't be that great, but it's massive.  I can now see what everyone was saying about the aeroscreen - I genuinely can't see the 'old windscreen' ever going back on the car.

Got back quite late, watched Hamilton win the F1 - an altogether awesome 'car' day.