Wednesday 29 March 2017

2017 Academy Sponsorship Decals

With the first 'real' on track event coming up this Friday at Castle Combe circuit, the Caterham team have been pretty specific that unless the cars are 100% race ready, we will not be able to go out on track.  

As the race decals are part of the requirement, they have to be fitted for Friday otherwise I won't be able to partake... So time to get a move on, and get the decals applied.

First things first - clean the car (after Spa it was a little grubby) to remove any grit / dirt, tyre debris etc etc.  I found autoglym intensive tar remover to work the best at removing tyre rubber.
Car washed prior to decal fitment
Car washed prior to decal fitment
All the decals were supplied at the handling day and in the decal pack there was a full schematic with positions, sizes and so on...

I mixed up a bit of fairy liquid, and water into a spray bottle, got the decals out and worked out where everything would go before getting stuck in... I decided to start with the front of the car, and found that putting plenty of lubrication on the bodywork and the decal would give plenty of slip, giving more than enough time to line everything up.  With the decals positioned correctly I squeezed out all of the water, and then used a heat gun on a low setting to dry the decals and make the adhesive go off.
2017 Caterham Academy Car nose cone with sponsors decals fitted
2017 Caterham Academy Car nose cone with sponsors decals fitted
Naturally, me being me, I wasn't happy to use the supplied side decals (in white) and wanted them in a similar colour to the yellow the car stripes and cage are painted in...  I had a bit of a 'wobble' a few weeks ago when deciding on the final yellow, as the options were not 100% right, but I decided on the MacTac MacCal 9807-00 Pro Semi Luminescent.
Three different yellows, all not 100% right, but the 9807-00 Pro SL was what I decided on.
Three different yellows, all not 100% right, but the 9807-00 Pro SL was what I decided on.
The side sponsor decals and Caterham logo were cut by SignsUK and here's a picture of them fitted, and I'm pleased with the colour I went with as on the car it's an excellent match, and I think it looks superb:-
Side Decals Fitted
Side Decals Fitted
I also decided to get the rear decal in the blue of the car, and the colour I found was pretty much spot on, so fitted all of the wing decals and then the centre decal too.  I may splice in the smaller parts of the rear centre decal with yellow bits, but I'm still undecided if this is too fussy or not.

And today I took this picture of the car finished and 'race ready':-
My 2017 Caterham Academy Car with Sponsorship Decals fitted and Sprint Race Number
My 2017 Caterham Academy Car with Sponsorship Decals fitted and Sprint Race Number
Next up - Castle Combe test day ☺

Tuesday 28 March 2017

Spa Francorchamps - Track Day Weekend

Charlotte was extremely generous for my 40th birthday, and bought me a Book-a-Track Platinum membership for this year... So rather than waste a 'free' opportunity to go to Spa Francorchamps for two days, I jumped at the chance.

The BaT Platinum membership (whilst very expensive) is very good too, guaranteed free access to every one of their track days for the year, free garage reservations, and pics too!

I headed off on Saturday around 10:30am and some 350 miles later arrived about 7pm at Spa.
Circuit De Spa Francorchamps Paddock Entry Sign
Circuit De Spa Francorchamps Paddock Entry Sign
The first thing (after parking the van up) was to go and check out Eau-Rouge... Wow - for those of you that haven't been there before, it's soooo steep and the TV / video footage simply doesn't do itjustice...  A couple of beers were consumed looking at Eau-Rouge and then it was time to go to sleep.
My first sight of Eau Rouge - much steeper than I thought it would be, oooohhhh exciting!
My first sight of Eau Rouge - much steeper than I thought it would be, oooohhhh exciting!
Naturally; all excited - I woke up pretty early on the Sunday morning☺ got to the paddock, parked up and got the car into the garage.  We were given numbers for the front (and back of our cars) - mine was 31 which lined up pretty well with the new rear boot stripes
Number 31 - lined up nicely with the new boot stripes :-)
Number 31 - lined up nicely with the new boot stripes :-)
I went out for a few laps, and instantly I could tell the bead seat I made recently wasn't quite right... In actual fact it was miles too big, and gave me real bad cramp...  The only option was to take a good 5cm off the back of it, and without a hack-saw in sight - I found a team (Matt Blyth Motorsport) with a saw, and cut two inches off the back of it!  A fellow 'racer' took great pleasure in capturing the moment in it's gruesome reality.  
'Modifying' my bead seat
'Modifying' my bead seat
Matt showed me what a 'professionally finished' beat seat looked like, and I don't think I'll ever be able to achieve something like that... What I will take from this, is... When it comes to making a bead seat - don't try and do it yourself, it's a waste of time and money - end of.

Bead seat "adjusted", I managed to get a reasonably comfortable position, put the visor down and went about trying to get a decent lap time in.
Time for business
Time for business
With Spa being such a long circuit, it took some time to get used to the track, braking points and the massive elevation changes too, but towards the end of the first day I managed to get in a 3.01.27 which I 'think' is pretty respectable...

I met up with another couple 'Chris and Andy'... Chris is racing in this years Supersport championship AND has a camper van, so we had a few beers in the evening talking campers, cars, racing and everything and anything else... It was a good night, and I'm sure we'll be seeing each other more over the course of this year as our race weekends begin to join one another.

Monday morning was a bit of a struggle to get out of bed, but I 'forced' myself ☺and was back in the paddock for 8am.  The day consisted of more of the same, but I intended to leave around 3pm to get home at a reasonable hour, so didn't manage to go any quicker than I did on the Sunday... There were a few laps where I may well have gone quicker, but were ruined due to traffic, but there you go...

I did manage to keep a 620R honest (in the braking / corners) but it was a 'fair bit' quicker down the straights!

Over the weekend there was some amazing machinery at the circuit, from two Caterham Academy cars ☺, all the way up to (what I think was the most expensive there) a Ferrari 458 Speciale... Which although most of which were passing me at pretty high speed, they were very nice to see.
How good is Spa?  Definitely as many thumbs up as possible - it's probably the greatest race track of all
How good is Spa?  Definitely as many thumbs up as possible - it's probably the greatest race track of all
So with a good couple of hundreds of pounds worth of petrol obliterated into the atmosphere, and a massive grin on my face it was sadly time to pack up and head home.
All packed up and ready for the long trip home
All packed up and ready for the long trip home
The weekend was without doubt one of the best of my life... Spa Francorchamps is an utterly amazing circuit to drive, the other drivers were a great bunch, the weather was fabulous and the venue was just awesome... It's just a shame it's such a trek away!  

Next to do is to fit the Academy Sponsorship Decals (which I should be able to fit tonight) as it all needs to be ready for the first 'test day' at Castle Combe this coming Friday...  This year is definitely going to be jam packed full of action and adventure, and I cannot wait...  

Thoughts on the Caterham Academy so far - superb... And we haven't even started 'racing' yet.

Friday 24 March 2017

Painted Rear Triple Stripe

I guess this is a 'go faster stripes' blog post ☺!?

Well... Having seen some R300 race cars (and the R600 test car images on the net) having an enormous triple stripe on the rear of the car - I really wanted to add this to my car as I think it looks awesome!  I was going to do this when I initially had the car painted, but wasn't sure what the regulations would say regarding the rear decal and so on, so waited until I knew 100%... The decals and fitting schematics have now been handed out, so I've ordered some yellow and blue decals match (obviously)!

...So on Tuesday this week it was the cars first drive on the roads - to Daytona Coachworx - my 'favourite' bodyshop!  I just hope the car won't be in there too much throughout this year ☺

Dave and his team removed the rear wheels, wings, rivets, and the rear lights.
Dave and his team removed the rear wheels, wings, rivets, and the rear lights
Dave and his team removed the rear wheels, wings, rivets, and the rear lights.
The car was then fully masked and the blue paint prepped for the stripes to be masked.
The car was then fully masked and the blue paint prepped for the stripes to be masked
The car was then fully masked and the blue paint prepped for the stripes to be masked
These were the initial stripe masking lines Dave laid up, but he wasn't happy with them so asked me to pop down.  
Initial stripes had to be slightly adjusted
Initial stripes had to be slightly adjusted
We ended up deciding on the main centre stripe going to the inside edge of the rear roll cage bars, a blue stripe on both sides of 25mm, then a 50mm yellow stripe, again on both sides.
RAL 1016 sulfur yellow paint on rear of 2017 Caterham Academy Car
RAL 1016 sulfur yellow paint on rear of 2017 Caterham Academy Car
Inital de-mask showing the huge rear triple stripe.
Inital de-mask showing the huge rear triple stripe
Inital de-mask showing the huge rear triple stripe
Car de-masked and the blue lines are perfectly aligned to the roll cage rear bars...  The right stripe looks wonky, but this is just the angle the photo was taken at.
Car de-masked and the blue lines are perfectly aligned to the roll cage rear bars
Car de-masked and the blue lines are perfectly aligned to the roll cage rear bars
The rear was lacquered, flatted and polished... The wings and wheels were re-fitted and then it was ready for collection.
My 2017 Caterham Academy Car with Rear Triple Stripe Painted in RAL 1016
My 2017 Caterham Academy Car with Rear Triple Stripe Painted in RAL 1016
Next stop - Spa Francorchamps this weekend☺and then race decal fitting next week ☺

Wednesday 22 March 2017

Real Essentials DIY Bead Seat

Whilst seats are technically 'free' from a regulation perspective there is a safety regulation in that the top of the crash helmet should be at least 5cm lower than the top of the roll cage... 

There are basically three options for seating yourself in an Academy race car - ensuring you are perfectly positioned, securely seated and below the 5cm regulation are the ultimate goals... Here are the options:-
  1. Use the supplied Tillet seats (filling void behind seat with foam)
  2. Make a two part expanding foam seat - which can be made at home for around £50 / £60 (also known as a bag seat)
  3. Or... Invest in an bead seat (professionally made 'start' at £900!)
As I'm used to the standard Tillet seats from driving in the R500 over the last few years I feel they are an 'ok' fit for me, but I still move around in them a little... Having measured up I'm just under the 5cm height below the top of the roll cage, so I could use the Tillets, but I wanted a more snug fit.... The bag seats (although extremely cheap) are prone to shrinkage, so like a magpie to shiny things - I've decided to go down the bead seat route.

A professionally made bead seat 'starts' from £900 (plus finishing!) but I found that you can buy a Real Essentials DIY bead seat kit for around £300 from Demon Tweeks - you'll also need to buy the £45 hand pump and to spend another £100 for an Engel hot wire foam cutter, but I'm sure a decent hacksaw would suffice if you don't want to buy the cutter...  At the above costs, I worked out I can c0ck it up at least once and still be quids in, but without buying the hot knife cutter (albeit expensive) you technically could c0ck it up twice...

Onto my attempt at making my own bead seat
If using this blog post as a 'guide'... A bit of a disclaimer - it's worth reading everything in this post before you 'have a go' yourself.

Demon Tweeks advised a 90 litre kit would be the right size for a Caterham, as it's always worth having more material than less, so I went with their advice.  (I'm 6ft and around 11 stone 10 - so you can get an idea of my size)... I personally think I could've got away with a 70 litre kit, but have read reports of some 'larger gents' only needing a 50 litre kit...

This is what is supplied in the kit...
  • A 90 litre 'bead bag' with a vacuum attachment
  • Sufficient containers of unmixed resin and hardener - 4 are supplied with the 90 litre kit
  • Two decent sized sheets of covering material (enough to cover the whole seat)
  • Spray adhesive for covering 
  • Instructions ☺
The hand pump (pictured) to vacuum out the air from the bag is sold separately, but required.  Also required is an assistant - Charlotte 'kinda' volunteered for the job in return for a bottle of wine!
90 litre Real Essentials DIY Bead Seat Kit
90 litre Real Essentials DIY Bead Seat Kit
First job is to remove the drivers seat - I got the shoulder belts out of the way, but was undecided about removing the lap and crotch straps, so thinking the fit would be more 'snug' if the seat was moulded around them - I left them in.
Drivers Seat Removed
Drivers Seat Removed
Next step is to prepare the 'bead bag' for a dry fit and to do so you need to lay it out on the floor, ensure the beads are evenly distributed and then using the hand pump vacuum out the air until there is an orange peel effect.
Bead Bag Laid out and Flattened
Bead Bag Laid out and Flattened
Here's a picture of the hand pump attached to the bead bag.  The clear tubing needs a little bit of heating with a heat gun so that it goes around the valve nozzle on the bead bag, but then this gives it a really good fit.  Also when you start to pump the air out the top button on the bag valve needs to be depressed.
Hand pump used to vacuum air out of bead bag prior to dry fitting
Hand pump used to vacuum air out of bead bag prior to dry fitting
With the bead bag removed of it's air, carefully insert the bag into the car ensuring the bag is pushed into all the corners.
Dry fit bead seat inserted into car
Dry fit bead seat inserted into car
Then carefully get into the car - I thought it best to do so with all the gear on for a prefect fit.  Wiggle around until you get your driving position correct and get your 'assistant' to pack the beads behind you properly and to measure that the top of your helmet is lower than 5cm below the top of the roll cage.
Bead Seat dry fit - wearing all the gear...
Bead Seat dry fit - wearing all the gear...
Once you've got your dry fit position correct, you need to (roughly) remember this and carefully remove the bead bag from the car, so that you can add the resin.  As the resin containers looked unusual it was time to get the instructions out - but the instructions are very clear which means the containers are straight forward to use to mix the resin and hardener.
Bead bag removed, time to read the instructions... Again!
Bead bag removed, time to read the instructions... Again!
It's recommended to give each container fifty clockwise pumps to fully mix the resin with the hardener.  It's fairly thick stuff, so you'll probably get a sweat on - I certainly did!
Mixing the four bottles of supplied resin and hardener
Mixing the four bottles of supplied resin and hardener
With all the resin mixed, you remove the valve from the bead bag, and then using the plunger with the resin container squeeze the mixture on top of the beads in the bag - trying not to get any on the edges of the bag or the valve neck.  With all four bottles of resin now in the bead bag, you'll need your 'assistant' to help you knead the bag for around ten to fifteen minutes to thoroughly mix everything.
Kneading the resin mixture and beads takes around ten to fifteen minutes
Kneading the resin mixture and beads takes around ten to fifteen minutes
As the resin mixture is black and the beads are white you'll see when the resin has thoroughly covered all the beads as the bag takes on a grey colour as per the picture below.
Beads and resin now well mixed and vacuumed ready for final fitting
Beads and resin now well mixed and vacuumed ready for final fitting
Now vacuum out the air to give the bag the orange peel effect and then carefully put the bag into the car, again pushing the bag into all the corners.
Now it's time for the final moulding / fitting and the bead bag goes into the car
Now it's time for the final moulding / fitting and the bead bag goes into the car
I thought it best to put all the gear on again (but in hindsight, had the bag ripped and covered my suit this would've been an expensive mistake, so maybe not recommended)  I got my driving position right, Charlotte put plenty of material behind me and packed the lower spine area out which helped get a super snug and very well supported position.  Happy with the driving position, I used the hand pump to ensure there was a good vacuum.
All the gear (again!) and using the hand pump to vaccum out the air
All the gear (again!) and using the hand pump to vaccum out the air
One of the benefits of a DIY bead seat is a beer (light of course - I'm a racing driver! ☺) while you wait half an hour for the resin to go off... 
The benefits of a DIY bead seat - a (light) beer (of course) while you wait half an hour for the resin to go off
The benefits of a DIY bead seat - a (light) beer (of course) while you wait half an hour for the resin to go off
After the required half an hour elapsed, I could feel that the seat was much firmer, but still very carefully removed myself from the car trying not to dislodge any of the beads.  The seat was then left to fully cure overnight.
Half an hour later you can get out and leave it to completely cure overnight
Half an hour later you can get out and leave it to completely cure overnight
Before I left for work the next morning, I had to give the bag a prod - it had definitely cured that's for sure...  When I got home it was time to try and get the seat out...  Using the hot wire foam cutter (which is extremely satisfying to use) I started to cut the excess material off the seat - trying to not cut too much off, then got back in the car, checked how much more I can cut off and so on - this took around three hours.
Trimming the excess off the seat using an Engel Hot Knife
Trimming the excess off the seat using an Engel Hot Knife
Charlotte and I thought enough material was cut off, so tried to get the seat out - but managed to get it wedged, which tool some effort to get back in to the car.
Bead seat got wedged in one of the removal attempts - need to remove more material!
Bead seat got wedged in one of the removal attempts - need to remove more material!
We carried on trimming the edges off the seat, made the holes for the lap and crotch straps and eventually it looked something (half) decent... The main things to consider when cutting the seat are the area behind your shoulders, the front edge (ahead of the chassis cross member) and also if I done it again it'd be worth putting some cardboard (or other stiff material) next to the transmission tunnel to flatten off the 'lip' the tunnel cover makes, but on this occasion I'll just trim off some of the seat material instead.
With a bit more trimming and the belt holes opened up it's beginning to look half decent
With a bit more trimming and the belt holes opened up it's beginning to look half decent
I'm extremely fortunate to be able to go to Spa this weekend for back-to-back track days with Book-a-Track, so I'll use the seat in it's current state and will take some 'adjustment tools' with me (a rubber mallet) and will adjust the seat if any areas are uncomfortable or need modifying.

Granted this isn't a 100% professional job, and there are some things I'd do differently next time given the experience I have now.  It took around six hours in total to get to this stage - three hours for the seat fitting and another three hours for the cutting / trimming, so for the £900 it'd cost to get a 'professional' job it's probably not a bad deal - time is money and all that!

Once I return from Spa and as long as I'm happy with the seat I'll then fit the covering material and the seat will be finished.

Sunday 19 March 2017

Road Legal

Whilst I was at Donington the 'brown envelope' I'd been waiting for arrived - so the car is now road legal... Not that I'll be using it on the roads very often, but that's another regulation to comply with ticked off the list.
The Academy Car is now road legal
The Academy Car is now road legal
Now it's just the race license...

Saturday 18 March 2017

Green Group Handling Day

Today was the first of the 2017 Caterham Academy 'events' in our cars...  We all arrived around 8:30am for the briefing and then got advised of the groups for the day...

The day was split into three events, Mini Slalom around some cones, then followed by plenty of rain and wind and practice starts...  We stopped around mid morning for a break and then the cars went into a scrutineering bay to be checked over to see if there's any outstanding items we need to finish off prior to our sprint races...

It was then time for lunch, and afterwards we headed back out to the car park for more slalom action over two courses.
Enjoying the handling day
Enjoying the handling day
Towards the end of the day the two afternoon slalom courses were joined to make one larger slalom with the final two runs being timed and trophies for the top three...

The top three for the final slalom were:-
1st - David Spare
2nd - Ben Miller
3rd Matthew Creak

So I guess these will be people I'll be keeping an eye on this year - hopefully in my rear view mirror :-)  My final run was timed at a 28:49 which put me in seventh for the day...

All in all a good day out, and it was definitely useful to attend and practice some starts in the wet!  
The 2017 Caterham Academy Green Group
The 2017 Caterham Academy Green Group

Friday 17 March 2017

Donington Park GP Circuit - Track Day

Today was more race preparation and getting used to the car at a Book-a-Track track day at Donington Park GP Circuit.
Coming up to Starkeys Bridge at Donington Park GP Circuit
Coming up to Starkeys Bridge at Donington Park GP Circuit 
The day started off dry, but throughout the day the conditions became mixed, but one thing that was consistent was the gale force winds!  It started to rain mid morning, and it'd clearly got a bit 'less grippy' when I made this mistake, which is my first (of many I'm sure) gravel trap experience of the year:-

Luckily the car wasn't damaged, lunch came and went, and later on in the afternoon the track was fully dry, where I set this 1.54.27 which I think is just a tenth off the lap record (set in 2012)...  I'm pretty happy with that, as looking back at the video I'm sure I can go even quicker :-) 

Tomorrow is the first of this years 'Academy events' in our cars, so I'll look forward to meeting everyone, seeing their cars and just generally enjoying the day.

Thursday 16 March 2017

IVA and Race Prep

I've not been blogging for a while... Firstly as I've been on a holiday, and secondly I'm very busy with work once again, and my spare time is really limited... I'm hoping this will change soon, but there you go!  

Whilst I was away the car passed it's IVA (with no problems as Caterham took care of the presentation and so on - which is highly recommended for other builders as it's well worth the money and hassle saved!)  
My academy car having passed it's IVA waiting at Caterham south for me to come back from my holiday!
My academy car having passed it's IVA waiting at Caterham south for me to come back from my holiday!
The IVA paperwork has also been sent off by Caterham, first registration has been paid for, so I'm just waiting for 'that brown envelope' to arrive through the post... Should be any day now...

Whilst the car was at Caterham, and knowing how limited my spare time would be, I thought I'd kill a couple of birds with one stone and get Caterham to do the race prep bits I didn't want to do...

The first of which was to disable the inertia cut-out switch (this has to be removed by Caterham due to the regulations not allowing any tampering with the wiring loom):-
Inertia cut out switch disabled and removed - oh and I've fitted a 'race' brake reservoir cap
Inertia cut out switch disabled and removed - oh and I've fitted a 'race' brake reservoir cap
Next job was to wire in the fire-extinguisher, and tape the boot... I didn't fancy taping the boot as it looked quite fiddly, otherwise I probably would've done that myself.  I've also removed the tie wrap on the fire extinguisher too.
Fire extinguisher connected and boot foot taped
Fire extinguisher connected and boot foot taped
Part of the 'race prep' requires towing straps to be fitted front and rear, so Caterham fitted these for me...
Front and rear towing straps fitted by Caterham
Front and rear towing straps fitted by Caterham
I also asked Caterham to rivet the front wings into place, using black rivets and washers, and keeping the indicator repeaters 'live' too... Let's see how long these wings stay on!
Rivetted Front Wings
Rivetted Front Wings
The regulations also require a rain light to be fitted, which required a bit of loom fitting (I think) so Caterham fitted this light for me.
FIA Rain light fitted
FIA Rain light fitted
On the R500 I had a 'breakdown' due to fuses, and funnily enough I've blown a dash fuse on this car already (which is quite common) so I've decided to use my 'own advice' and fit some mini LED blade fuses as they illumiate when the blow which makes it easy to identify if this is a problem.
LED Mini Blade Fuses
LED Mini Blade Fuses

A bit of an odd one - but the oil breather tank gets quite pressurised, and sometimes worries owners as if the engine is overfilled with oil this breather tank can fill with quite alot of oil and crud and become emulsified... Anyway, to reduce pressure build up it's recommended to drill four holes in the cap to allow the pressure to vent.
Oil breather tank cap with four holes drilled into the top to reduce pressure build up
Oil breather tank cap with four holes drilled into the top to reduce pressure build up
Tie-wrapping the dipstick down, is also a good idea as this prevents it coming loose and spraying oil all over your engine!
Oil dipstcik secured using a tie wrap to prevent unwanted oil going EVERYWERE in the engine bay
Oil dipstcik secured using a tie wrap to prevent unwanted oil going EVERYWERE in the engine bay 
Again in the regulations, you must use wrist straps which are attached to the six point harness and to stop your wrist straps getting caught in the handbrake, the handbrake lever needs to be taped over.
Handbrake lever taped over
Handbrake lever taped over
I really wasn't a fan of the 'standard' mirrors, and have always like the SPA mirrors I have on the R500, so went for a pair of them on the academy car.  I thought they'd look good in yellow, so dropped them off with Dave @ Daytona Coachworx before I went away, and once again he's done an awesome job:-
RAL 1016 SPA side mirrors on Caterham Academy car
RAL 1016 SPA side mirrors on Caterham Academy car
Fitting the SPA side mirrors was pretty easy too - I used the existing middle mirror mount which goes into the windscreen (with a slightly longer bolt) and the bottom required drilling, and then securing on the other side of the windscreen sanction with a washer nyloc nut.
SPA side mirror fitted to windscreen sanction
SPA side mirror fitted to windscreen sanction
I was torn between which rear mirror to go for, and eventually settled on the SPA mirror (with a DPR mount - which JUST fits)... But the good thing about the SPA mirror is that you don't see 'too much' behind you, so leaves the windscreen nice and clear for good forward visibility.
SPA centre mirror fitted to roll cage using a DPR mirror mount
SPA centre mirror fitted to roll cage using a DPR mirror mount
It's also allowed in the regulations to fit some tape along the top edge of the windscreen to 'limit' the amount of water on the inside of the screen should it rain, so I fitted a strip of black tape, and then went over that with some yellow tape to give it a 'seamless' finish with the screen and roll-cage colours.
Tape fitted to windscreen and roll cage to limit water on the inside of the windscreen
Tape fitted to windscreen and roll cage to limit water on the inside of the windscreen
For those of you who are following my progress on the blog / youtube etc, you'll probably see the nice looking academy video's with data, telemetry and so on... Well the video overlay I created myself over xmas, and the hardware is a VBOX HD2 with three cameras (only two are ever 'live')... One forward facing (which is required for the regulations) and one either on the pedals for training, or facing rearwards when racing :-)

Below is a picture of the VBOX which I've installed in the passenger footwell, and used some corrugated tubing to keep all the wires etc safe and nicely routed.
VBOX HD2 in Caterham passenger footwell with corrugated tubing keeping everything neat and tidy
VBOX HD2 in Caterham passenger footwell with corrugated tubing keeping everything neat and tidy
There's also a dash mounted timer, which I've had fitted for a while, but I found that by enlarging the hole for the heated windscreen in the scuttle you can (with a grommet for protection) feed the cable for the timer through there nicely...
VBOX Timer cable fitted through scuttle
VBOX Timer cable fitted through scuttle
I've 'kinda nearly' finished trimming and fitting the roll cage padding - I'll do the last bit tomorrow night at the circuit!
Roll Cage Padding (partially) fitted - must change the colour of the tape!
Roll Cage Padding (partially) fitted - must change the colour of the tape!


So the car is (aside from a couple of minor bits) ready to race... 
Things I still need to fit are:-

  • Finish roll cage padding
  • Fit decals (to be supplied this weekend by Caterham)
  • Make my 'resin bead' seat.... Given the cost for a resin bead seat is around £900, and the kit plus bits is about £400, I've decided to give this a go myself (with no prior experience) so will be blogging about how easy / hard this is... 

Pretty much race ready Caterham Academy car
Pretty much race ready Caterham Academy car
Well that's about it for now... Tomorrow is a track day at Donington and then Saturday the 'Academy Season' kicks off (albeit not a championship scoring event) but it'll be good to see everyone's cars nonetheless...  Oh and to get a 'free' buffet lunch too :-)