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| Bruce Everiss Caterham, side view |
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| Bruce Everiss Caterham, front view |
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| Bruce Everiss Caterham, cockpit |
The story behind this fantastic car is very simple. Towards the end of 2002 I had sold my TVR Griffith and bought a TVR Cerbera, prompted mainly by fears of the lack of side impact protection in the Griffith but also to enjoy the beast that is a Cerbera. But once I had made the swap I realised that I was missing open air motoring. A bit of thought and analysis showed that the Caterham 7 was the only viable solution to the problem.
The Caterham was originally a Lotus, designed by the legendary Colin Chapman and his aim was very simple, take a racing car and make the minimum adaption necessary to make it road legal. He was so successful that the resulting car was banned from sports car racing because nothing else stood a chance!
Before buying my Caterham I did a lot of research about the various options and models, especially the engine choices. I visited Caterham club meets, read the club magazine and pored over their website, till I felt that I could write a book about the various alternatives. Then I chose the Ford crossflow engine because it was light, torquey and reliable. The alternative Vauxhall and Rover engines had characteristics I didn't want.
After a while searching I found the ideal car. It had a very low mileage and was owned by a spy, a real one. It was a 1987 factory built (many are owner assembled from kits) purple Super Sprint with two twin choke Webbers and 135 bhp. This may not sound a lot, but the Caterham is about half the weight of a TVR and about one third the weight of a Ferrari. Suddenly you can see that it is rather a lot of power. The spy had cherished the car and had fitted uprated front shock absorbers to it, put in a high ratio steering rack and had the cylinder head removed for adaptation to unleaded petrol and for gas flowing at the same time. So maybe the car has more than 135 bhp.
Regular readers here will know that I am a keen driver and the Caterham is like coming home. Like finding perfection at last and seeing the imperfection of everything else in a new light. It fits like a glove. In fact I need to wear race boots to drive it because the pedals are so close together. Every driver input is instantly obeyed and with precision. The small steering wheel and titchy gear stick are just perfect and allow a level of control that drivers of lesser machines can only dream of.
My car is fitted with Yokohama 021R tyres. These are basically competition tyres intended for rally cars on wet tarmac stages. They work on the Caterham because its very light weight stop them wearing away too quickly. But being racing rubber they are very sticky. When you park up the car after a spirited drive they pick up leaves and gravel, a bit like an F1 tyre.
No matter how fast and hard I drove this car it never came close to getting me into trouble. Go too fast and the back edges out, but instinctively you have exactly the right steering correction before you realise it. Almost telepathic. And the handling and roadholding superiority means that following a Porsche 911 round a roundabout is like following a barge. You feel like you could drive round either side of it.
Like the spy I gradually upgraded the car, replacing the factory roll over hoop with an FIA race spec hoop to make the car even safer. The front suspension used the anti roll bar as part of the upper wishbone, I replaced this with the later specification suspension with a separate anti roll bar and wishbone that vastly improved matters, especially under braking. The factory steering wheel was replaced with a higher quality item and I bought a Soft Bits For Sevens half hood in bright yellow.
And now we have a disaster. With my four prolapsed lumbar disks I just can't drive the Caterham any more and must sell it. So I have put it into McMillan Motorsport (top Caterham experts) to be made perfect and they have done the following:
- full service; oil & filter, spark plugs, coolant and brake fluid change, etc.
- precautionary alternator belt replacement
- replacement gearbox mounting rubber
- rear brake cylinders replaced
- track rod ends replaced
- exhaust manifold gaskets replaced
- wheel bearings re-greased
- front suspension bushes replaced
- carb balancing
If you are interested the here are the details, it still has only done 23,511 miles!