Thursday 29 January 2015

Fresh Rubber and New Wheel Update

Thanks to everyone who has voted for what colour wheel option I should be going with.  I'd appreciate any further votes by visiting this link but at the time of writing this post, the poll results are as follows:-

Poll results at time of writing this post.
Poll results at time of writing this post.
The results to date indicates the favourite option to be the full gloss orange, with the matt black/anthracite and orange rim second then the standard full anthracite finish the least favourite option. 

Wanting a full on loud wheel paint job, I am tempted to go with the majority vote, but something is drawing me to the orange wheel rim option.  The look I'm trying to achieve is something like these two images below, but with an orange rim instead of yellow:-

Caterham with 8 spoke anthracite wheels with yellow rim.
Caterham with 8 spoke anthracite wheels with yellow rim.
Another view of the development R600 with anthracite wheels with yellow rim.
Another view of the development R600 with anthracite wheels with yellow rim.

Like I said above, I'll appreciate any further votes by visiting this link
 
Yesterday (Wednesday 28th Jan) I got an email from Stef on the lotus 7 forum in response to a 'wanted' advert I placed about some 8 spoke wheels.  He has a full set of 6x13's which will be fine for the front, but I need 8x13's for the wider rears.  He should be meeting me next week to drop off a couple of 6x13" front wheels for me - which sorts out the front, all I needed to do is get some rears.
 
With the lack of response on the rears, I decided to bite the bullet and get the 8x13's ordered directly from Caterham along with a full set of brand new ZZR rubber too.  Caterham seem to excel in the speed of delivery for parts ordered online, as they arrived this morning to my delight.
New 8x13" 8 spoke alloys with full set of new ZZR's
New 8x13" 8 spoke alloys with full set of new ZZR's
All I need to do now is find a company who can paint the rim orange, and if I can't find a company to do that I'll get them finished in gloss orange.

Friday 9 January 2015

New Track Day Wheels and Tyres - your votes are required..!

As I'm not a big fan of new years resolutions, I thought long and hard about ten things I wanted to try and do in (or for) my Caterham in 2015...

One of the things that came to mind was to get onto some ZZR tyres for extra grip on track days... I'd spoken to some of my friends who have tried the ZZR's and after taking their advice, I'm considering staying with the CR500's for the road and having a spare set of wheels with ZZR's fitted for track day use... I don't have a trailer (or a car where I can fit a tow-bar to either) so I need to be able to drive my car to track days, so the rubber needs to be road legal!

So... onto what wheels to get... As I've got 13" wheels, and want to stick with the smaller wheel size, the only real options to consider are:-
  • The New Caterham Apollo wheels
  • A set of Team Dynamics Pro Race 1.2's
  • or another set of the Caterham Superlight 8 spoke wheels that I already have. 
I don't like the styling of the Apollo wheels, I think the Team Dynamics wheels don't look that good either, so I think I'm going to stick with another set of the Superlight 8 spoke wheels... If anyone out there has a set that they're looking to sell please get in contact!

I'm thinking as they're only going to be for occasional use, I may add a bit of colour to them to make them stand out a bit more, so I'm reaching out to the readers of my blog with a poll to see what the general consensus of what wheel colour I should go for...  Here are the options:-

Option 1 - Standard Anthracite

Option 1 - Standard Anthracite 8 spoke wheels
Option 1 - Standard Anthracite 8 spoke wheels
Option 2 - Gloss Orange wheels (please forgive my poor photoshop skills!)
(they should look more like the colour of the inset OZ racing wheels)

Option 2 - Gloss Orange Wheels
Option 2 - Gloss Orange Wheels
Option 3 - A bit of both... Matt black spokes, with orange rim and to give it a more 'racing' look... white AVON and ZZR wording on the tyrewall
(tyrewall wording like inset picture)
Option 3 - Matt black spokes with orange rim and white tyrewall wording
So it's over to you to give me your feedback...
How to vote
Using the poll below, simply click the radio button of the wheel colour option you like most, and click the 'Vote' button...

POLL... What colour wheels shall I get?



 
pollcode.com free polls

Although I know which option I like best, I'm really keen to see what the general consensus is! And any other comments/ideas are welcome too!

Saturday 3 January 2015

My First Blat of 2015

Sitting here typing right now, with the rain spilling down outside makes me extremely glad I took yesterday's glorious weather as a good opportunity to get my first blat of the year in.

So it was on with three fleeces, some gloves, my new blatting hat, my blatting shades and I was pretty much ready to go...  The car had been sitting in the garage for a couple of months, so I wasn't sure it was going to start... 

As you can tell it did, and what a great day for it... The roads were (fairly) empty and dry, but wow it was cold... Note to self - an additional fleece needed and I'll need to research a better blat hat - as the one I was wearing kept blowing off!
First blat of 2015 done.
First blat of 2015 done.
So that was that - I wonder how long it'll be until I get another chance to go out again... This weekend looks like a total washout, and with work on Monday my next 'chance' will be next weekend, but I already know I've other stuff going on... So it could be a while - best get researching some new bits to buy instead!

Thursday 1 January 2015

Lego Caterham

It's 9pm and I'm still mildly hungover from a fairly large session last night - so what better to do than  research something to build...?

I started off on Lego's and then thought... What about a Caterham Lego?  Is there one already out there...?  A quick Google search later gave this result...

A Lego Caterham 620R in the same colours as my R500... I want it!  Made by a chap called Carl Greatrix and with support we could get Lego to actually produce this kit (details below)

Here are some pictures:-
Lego Caterham 620R
Lego Caterham 620R
Lego Caterham 620R
Lego Caterham 620R
Here is a link to Carls flickr album with all the pictures for the 620R variant:-

He has also made an R500 version in the familiar white with red stripe colour scheme:-
A Lego Caterham R500!
A Lego Caterham R500!
Here is a link to Carls flickr album with all the pictures for the R500 variant:-
https://www.flickr.com/photos/bricktrix/sets/72157649494604928/

You must read this:-
The really good thing is... with support, and enough votes Lego will put these kits into production...!  So you all need to show your support for this kit by clicking on the Lego link below and then clicking the blue support button on the right hand side of the Lego page:-

Let's give him plenty of support and make this happen.

New Year Resolutions Caterham Style

Happy New Year to everyone who reads my blog...
...So with a new year there's always a load of boring resolutions that you never end up sticking to, so I thought I'd make a list of some things I want to do this year - Caterham style.

In no particular order:-

  1. Try and do a bit more blogging
  2. Attend the North herts meet more than twice
  3. Do at least two trips to Wales
  4. Go to Folembray (mid May I think)
  5. Get to Ledenon circuit at some point
  6. Get the car flat floored
  7. Get a set of Nitron shocks (or similar)
  8. Have a rolling road tune to max out the bhp
  9. Blitz through my new rear CR500's and get onto ZZR's
  10. Fit the carbon headlights I desperately NEEDED... six months ago!

I think ten things is a good starting point.  Let's see if I can get that lot done - I'll give it a darn good try.
Oh yeah and do more of this:-
Me driving my Caterham R500
Me driving my Caterham R500
Well not on the motorway!  So 2015 it is, a year of driving heaven (hopefully!)