Passenger Ride, Blatting and Cat Bypass Pipe

I went for my first blat with another Caterham yesterday - Richard Malley, (aristocat on blatchat).  Had a good drive around the local area, and ended up stopping off for a pint at the Herts Classic Car Club meet at the Lordship Arms in Bennington, Hertfordshire.

Was a good turn out of cars there, and the Caterham's certainly drew plenty of attention and quite a few questions from the public too.

Here's a couple of pictures from the meet below:-

My Caterham R500 WOT at the Herts Classic Car Meet - Richard Malley's car in the background, Richard and his son James having a light refreshment.

Aristocat's (aka Richard Malley) Caterham Sigma 175.

Here's a video of a passenger ride of Lee a friend of mine, and then the best bits of the journey to the meet whilst following Richard.

On Monday I decided it was time to get to grips with my upgrades, and decided the first thing to do was to put the cat bypass pipe on.  As the exhaust has been polished, the cat bypass pipe was still in the 'normal' brushed stainless steel finish, so I sent the pipe off to custom chrome (the guys who polished the exhaust).  They polished the cat bypass pipe on the day they received it and then sent it straight back to me, and I received the polished pipe this morning - looks great, and will match the rest of the exhaust.

The Polished Caterham Cat Bypass Pipe

After loosening the manifold bolts, removing the exhaust and cat I then tried to fit the cat bypass pipe.  Unfortunately it doesn't fit!  As you can see in the picture below this must be for a different variant, as the pipe diameters are totally different.  So it all went back together, and I went for an impromptu, but totally hilarious blast around Stevenage... Was an absolute hoot! Shame I didn't have the camera's on as there were 'plenty' of good bits...

Cat Bypass pipe offered up against Cat - as you can see the pipe diameter is different.

I even started to make a comparison video of the two exhaust notes, so for now it's just a 'startup' video:

Anyway... Dean (CC Midlands) will have an email from me in the morning, and we'll need to work out what happens now as I've already shelled out for the polishing work.

Video Overview, First Drives and Initial Thoughts

It's three days since the R500 finally came back from Caterham Midlands.  I took a video before I went out in it on the Friday, as I wanted to video it in it's delivery state...  It's taken a little while before I've had some spare time to redo the voice over (as my first one was rubbish!) so... here's my Caterham R500 video 'tour':-

If there's anything else you want me to video in detail - perhaps the engine bay, or something else, just let me know.

After taking the video above, it was time to go out in it...  As I'm running it in, I can only really do 'around' 5,000rpm... After 500 miles it'll be run in and ready for the full beans with the red line at 8,750rpm!  Here's a few snippets of my blats to date (all with passengers I'm afraid!)...

In all fairness to taking passengers out... Everyone who's been in it has absolutely loved the experience... Myself included (obviously)..!  Some of the comments have been "I don't get cars, but that is absolutely amazing", "holy fcuk that's fast", "it's like a massive go-kart", "it's really good fun" and so on.

My initial thoughts were on my last post, but to re-iterate to anyone out there waiting for their Caterham to arrive - it is GENUINELY worth the wait... The handling, power, braking, feelings, experience, analogue connection with the car and road are all absolutely fantastic - and I can't wait to go out in it again.

Two Months and Two Weeks Later

Caterham collected my 99% completed car way back in March - the 24th to be exact.  A long story with a number of very low points, followed by a gradually ramped up performance of good news and updates later... It's arrived..!

Dean personally turned up about 4pm today to deliver my car with one of the vans he collected from the Silverstone location earlier today.  Some pics:

My Caterham R500 on the delivery van ready for unloading..!

Side view of the R500 on the transporter 

Dean talking me through some bits

Dean probably feeling the same as me right now... "I never thought this day would happen"

The first drive - not worth videoing as it was over in about 18 yards.

Here's a quick time lapse video of the unloading and very first drive:

The R500 engine bay with carbon air box and carbon rocker cover.

The 620R seats and harnesses - they really look amazing.

I'll be spending a lot of time in here

I decided to crack on with a few changes before I took it out.  First was to put the front number plate on.  Second was to remove the carbon track day air box and to fit the piper cross air filter.  I also put some foam strip on the body panels to protect where the bonnet sits.  Third was to put the carbon tax disc holder in place, but I couldn't be bothered to waste any unnecessary time so slung it in the boot... for now, and went for my first blat..!

R500 carbon fibre track day air box with k&n air filter.

R500 with piper cross air filter

So as I write this blog it's about 1:25am and I've been out in it all evening.  Went for a few bevvies at a friends house afterwards, and even now I'm still buzzing.  A lot of the positive guys on blatchat have always said the experience is worth waiting for, and genuinely, it is.

Why it's taken me so long to get a Caterham (no pun intended) really beats me - it's amazing to drive, handling superb, power brilliant (I'm only running it in right now) brakes amazing, and what really surprised me is the reception the general public give you - lots of looks, smiles, waves and plenty of nod's of appreciation.

First drive videos and so on to follow.
Well impressed.

It's Ready

So it's ready.... Dean is on his way with this:


It's Ready! My Caterham R500 front view

Caterham R500 Rear View

24 hours to go

Having spoken to the DVLA yesterday, they informed me the car was registered on Tuesday 3rd June, and the paperwork was in the post with an approximate arrival of early next week as they'd sent the documentation by 2nd class mail.  I asked if I could drive the car in the meantime, and the agent there placed me on hold for a couple of minutes to check, then came back to me to say no I couldn't drive the car without the docs....  Which could've thrown a real spanner in the works, as the car is due to arrive tomorrow. 

Thankfully in the post this morning was a couple of brown envelopes... Inside was the V5 and my tax disc...  So all pressure now on Dean and the team:-

V5 and Tax Disc - all I need is the car!

A couple of emails and a call from Dean today - and we're definitely on for tomorrow.  The carbon engine cover has been fitted:-


Duratec Carbon Engine Cover

And... The 620R seats have been fitted and I think they look very smart indeed:-


620R seats finally fitted to my Caterham R500

One of their (CC's) sprinter vans has broken down, so I'd probably have had the car tomorrow morning had that not happened.... best laid plans and all that, BUT... Dean said he's going to Silverstone on the way in, to pick up another van and he'll aim to personally deliver the car to me between 16:00 and 17:00 tomorrow.

Three Days To Go

Had a few more progress pictures from Dean today, so have decided to post them.

For comparison purposes only, the first picture is of the original supplied 620R harnesses.  I specifically wanted these as I really liked the buckle, and also wanted the font of the Caterham wording to be the same as that on the side of the car (some people call this OCD - I prefer to think of it as attention to detail :-)).  The reason I've asked for new ones to be supplied is the original ones had issues with the colours as you can see from the picture below:

Old 620R harnesses looking mostly blue in colour

The new harnesses have now been fitted, and from the picture below you can see they look completely black and match perfectly.  The colour of the paint looks different in the two pictures, but that is because the initial picture was taken with a flash.

New 620R harnesses fitted and looking perfect.

Next is of one of the main issues I've had - the infamous 620R seats.  Caterham say these are to be kept as a special for 620R customers, and they (CC) didn't want to supply them to me - the long and short of it is, unless you have a 620R you wont be able to get these seats even as aftermarket accessories.   This attitude does strike me as a little odd, as I run a business and if a customer wants to buy something and pay for it, we'll sell it to them and make additional revenue... I thought that was what business was all about? 

Anyway... I've been fortunate enough to capitalise on communication difficulties and get what I wanted, so I'm very happy indeed.  Picture below of the 620R seats in their protective packaging ready for fitting.

The Caterham 620R seats for my Caterham R500 - confusing or what?!?

As I wrote on my last post - the 620R seats also have different seat runners with different mounting holes which means some additional drill holes will be made in the lowered floor to accommodate the  runners.  To fix this Dean's suggested they'll try and put a correctly sized grommet in the existing holes.

I'd been considering the 12v master switch at the time of original order (way back in November 2013!) but decided against it... For some reason I managed to convince myself that I now 'needed' a 12v master switch, so last Wednesday I asked Dean and he said they had time to do it during the rebuild of the car, so the holes for that have been drilled into the scuttle today as can be seen on the picture below:

Drilled holes ready for 12v master switch fitting.

And finally... A picture of the car right now - not much left to do by the looks of it and I'm beginning to get the excitement feelings once again.

Caterham R500 nearing it's second completion.

Friday is the day

So we've managed to agree a delivery date (major drama's aside) of friday this week - yay!  Finally..!

Which means the car is literally coming together right now...  It should be registered by the DVLA tomorrow with the car having it's final rebuild by Simon at CC midlands over the next couple of days... The seats and harnesses are being collected from Dartford tomorrow and should be fitted Wednesday.  Interestingly with the 620R seat runners CC have a slightly different mounting point than the standard Tillets, which means there'll be an extra set of drill holes, but this is ok - out of sight out of mind and all that... Similarly to where the lowered floor meets the body panels, I'll ask to get the now unused holes filled with a touch of black silicone.

A couple of the exhaust primaries were scuffed - again right out of the box, but Dean agreed to get the scuffs polished out and these have now been fitted:-

Caterham R500 exhaust primaries now sparkling!

Caterham R500 exhaust primaries

With the upcoming delivery in mind I had a quick check of some of the bits I need to change on delivery / over the coming weekend and evenings:-

• Swap windscreen for aero screen and fit mirrors
• Remove cat and put cat bypass pipe in place
• Remove any IVA trim I don't need
• Exchange rear light units for carbon light blocks
• Replace indicator bulbs and lenses for clear versions
• Fit carbon headlights (now back from manufacturer looking very nice indeed)
• Fit carbon tax disc holder
• Fit carbon handbrake handle (not too sure I want to do this right now, may leave it for a week or so)
• And finally - inspect every minor detail with a magnifying glass and moan to Dean about any issues (joking) :-)

Caterham carbon accessories including headlights, rear light blocks, handbrake lever and tax disc holder