Specification

The car was ordered on 9th August 1999 as sales order number 22779. The model I ordered was a 1.8K injection K series 16V De Dion. (At the time they weren't called Roadsport or anything like that).

After quite a bit of discussion on the list and at the showroom with the salesman I ordered a number of extras listed below. I have also listed the specification of a 1.8K series at the time. I have also included prices so that people get an idea of what things cost. Obviously specifications and prices have changed a bit since then but it may be useful for comparitive purposes.

Standard Items

Item

Standard front brakes

14" Alloy wheels with Avon ZV1 186/60-14 road tyres

Steering rack 8% quick wide track RHD

Cycle front wings

Standard interior trim

Heater

Full windscreen & wipers

Weather equipment

Immobiliser

Options

Item	Price
First Deposit	-940.00
Second Deposit	-1527.50
Refund of one day's Caterham 7 hire	-100.00
Component Build Level	15250.00
1.8 Injection (128 ps) Engine	1000.00
Lightweight Flywheel	180.00
Six speed gearbox	1500.00
Supersports Suspension	300.00
Adjustable spring seats	175.00
Standard colour paint (Caterham Yellow)	695.00
Seven grille	30.00
Leather adjustable seats	160.00
Steering wheel quick release kit	145.00
Momo steering wheel	90.00
Tonneau	95.00
Hoodbag	35.00
FIA roll bar (painted)	200.00
Black 4 point harnesses (pair)	150.00
Battery master switch (fitted)	100.00
Aero type fuel filler (fitted)	76.50
Blue silicone hose set	59.02
Delivery	120.00

Total Price	20260.52

In the end I didn't get charged the 30 pounds for the Seven grille.

Negative figures are deducted from the total price.

Reasons for choosing what I did

Standard front brakes

I was told that the standard front brakes would be good enough and that I didn't need the uprated brake kit which costs 580.00.

This was to prove a big mistake. I had endless trouble with brake balance. The rear of the car would always lock up and swing round inder heavy braking. This particularly unsettled the car on trackdays and caused a lot of spins. The car ended up having a new brake master cyclinder and the front pads replaced with Pagid RS14 pads before the brakes were right. The brakes still aren't good enough and at some point in the future I may go for the James Whiting 4 pot callipers as these retain the standard discs and are a lot cheaper that the Caterham AP upreated front brakes as a post build fit.

14" Wheels with Avon ZV1 185/60-14 road tyres

My favourite wheels from an aesthetic point of view were the 16" 5 spoke HPC wheels. However I'd been told that the ride and handling on these wheels was poor, so they were ruled out. I didn't like the look of the Prisoner 15" wheels so they were ruled out. I didn't want to go for the 13" minator wheels because of reduced ground clearance although I did like the look of the polished alloy and black ones which is in fact what Rob Margel has gone for. In the end the 14" minators with the standard road tyres were what I got since there was no other tyre option on 14" rims and Caterham wouldn't supply me rims without tyres or fit my tyres to a set of rims. The Avon ZV1 tyre is almost as rock hard as the Michelins which it replaced. Mine have done 5 trackdays and 9,000 miles of road use and still have 5mm of tread on them. At that wear rate they'll outlast the car. I have since bought another set of 14" wheels and put some Yokohama A032R tyres on them which are much more sticky, but won't last nearly as long.

Steering rack 8% quick wide track RHD

At the time of ordering my car there were ratios of steering rack available; the standard rack, the 8% quick rack and the 22% quick rack. The 'quickness' percentages are the percentage reduction in number of turns lock to lock compared with the standard rack. I went for the 8% quick rack to give sharper handling without the dartiness which some people find with the 22% quick rack and which is normally used on the race cars. Together withthe wide track suspension the rack was colour coded green for identification purposes. Since then Caterham have changed suppliers and all racks are now painted black.

Cycle front wings

Having driven Caterham hire cars with both cycle wings and flared wings I found that I preferred the look of the cycle wings. This was partly due to the fact that I found positioning the nearside of the car accurately was harder with flared wings compared to cycle wings because they block quite a bit of the view on the near side. Flared wings do reduce spray coming off the front tyres so I made a slight compromise in the specification by specifying the long cycle wings which are normally fitted to 15" or 16" wheels and tyres. These long cycle wings look better in my mind and do reduce spray somewhat.

Standard interior trim

This means that you get a vinyl tunnel cover instead of a leather one and also that the dash is the mottle black metal finish instead of leather. Neither of these things were desirable from my point of view.

Heater

Since I'm a wuss I like to have warm feet when I drive the Seven in winter. For those of you that will never drive your car in the winter leave the heater off and save weight. The heater on a Caterham is very efficient and can only be tolerated for a certain amount of time before your feet start to melt. the passenger has this problem all the time, since the exhaust on K series and Vauxhall engined cars runs infront of the passenger footwell. Leaving the heater off also makes bleeding the radiator a bit easier since the heater is the highest point in the system and is where the air locks migrate to unless you have the front of the car higher than the heater during bleeding.

Full windscreen and wipers

Being a total wuss and valuing my facial features somewhat I stuck with the standard windscreen to give me some protection from flying debris and also to have somewhere to connect the hood to. the wipers on a Caterham are a joke. In heavy rain you get as much water on the inside of the screen as you do on the outside. In light rain the wipers are

Weather equipment

Also known as a hood or roof, this is the fun part of a seven. If anyone has watched Driven when they tried putting the roof on a Caterham and failed miserably you'll know why. Once you've mastered the art of putting the roof on it can be done in a couple of minutes and is relatively watertight. The main source of water ingress is along the top of the windscreen and in the bottom of the doors.

Immobiliser

In my opinion a pain is the arse, but it comes as standard and the insurance companies like you to have one. The fact that it arms itself after you;ve turned off the ignition and then you find that the plipper is in your trouser pocket when you've strapped yourself in make it a total pain. It may form some sort of deterrant if a thief gets power from the battery to the rest of the car, but with a battery master switch and removable steering wheel I think the car is safe enough. I never use the immobiliser.

Component Build Level

I had decide from the start that part of the enjoyment of owning a Seven would be building it. I had ordered the kit early so that I could be guaranteed a delivery date when it suited me so that the car could be on the road for the spring. I really enjoyed building the car, it was just a shame it was over so quickly.

1.8 Injection (128ps) Engine

I chose the standard 1.8K over the 1.6 Supersport because I intend to upgrade the engine in the future and would have had to throw away the supersport kit. I really like the 1.8K, it's got bags of torque yet is really economical. All it needs now is more power.

Lightweight Flywheel

I picked the lightened flywheel option because I imagined a higher revving tuned engine would not want a large lump of rotating steel hanging off the end of the crank. The car revs very freely with the lightened flywheel and has good throttle response.

Six Speed Gearbox

When I hired the Caterhams from the showroom they both had five speed gearboxes, which is OK in a tin top but the ratios are totally unsuited to the drving style of a Seven. I've never regretted buying the six speed box, it's a dream to use. I recently drive an Elise witha five speed box, it was not an experience I want to repeat in a hurry, the clutch and the box conspired to prevent me doing quick smooth gearchanges, which are standard in the Caterham.

Supersports Suspension

I had been told that the wide track front suspension, referred to as 'Supersports Suspension' in the brochure would improve turn in. This, coupled with the fact that I wanted adjustable spring seats made a sensible choice for a car which was going to be used for trackdays.

Adjustable Spring Seats

As I mentioned above these go with the Supersport suspension quite nicely and allow for accurate and quick corner weighting of the car to be performed. They also give the ability to set the ride height to a sensible level even if you use 13" wheels and tyres. In fact Caterham won't sell you a car with 13" wheels unless you have adjustable spring seats as the suspension just sits too low and you'd be bashing the sump all the time.

Standard Colour Paint (Caterham Yellow)

I wanted a colour which was bright because I wanted other motorist to be able to see me while I was driving along for safet reasons. The number of people who can't spot a Caterham coming along the road before they pull out it amazing. It's a good job the cars have good brakes because you'll need tem with the number of times you get cut up by motorists who 'didn't see you'.

Seven Grille

A caterham just doesn't look right without a Seven grille. It sets a Caterham apart from the othe Sevens and looks really smart. Some people paint their grilles the same colour as the car but I decided to leave mine in its normal silver colour. I have put some fine gold aluminium mesh (from B & Q) behind it to stop stones hitting the raiator since the holes in the Seven grille would let half a housebrick through.

Leather Adjustable Seats

This was a real no brainer, I'd driven cars with cloth seats and leather seats and the cloth ones looked really shabby. Added to the fact that if the leather ones get wet you just wipe them dry whereas with the cloth ones you've got a wet bum all the way home.

Steering Wheel Quick Release Kit

The hire cars I drove didn't have this feature and because of my short legs I had the seat quite far forward and found getting in and out very hard without sliding the seat backwards and forwards each time. This was something I didn't want to do in my own car. It's also a good security feature since it's very hard to move a seven with no steering wheel.

Momo Steering Wheel

I don't think any of the other steering wheels really look the part on a Caterham. They look somehow cheap and nasty whereas the leather Momo looks and feels brilliant.

Tonneau

This is far quicker to fit than the hood and takes up less space. I keep mine behind the driver's seat. It will keep out light rain and dew, but not heavy downpours overnight. The only downside of the tonneau is that you have to remove the headrests to fit it. I'm looking at getting it modified to allow it to go on over the headrests.

Hoodbag

It does what it says on the tin, it's a bag for keeping your hood in when it's not in use. It fits neatly through the FIA bar but does reduce rearwards visibility a bit. It can also be used for touring to hold a race suit or waterproofs if you put the hood in the boot or take two hoodbags as Nigel Marston did on Scandi2000.

FIA Roll Bar (Painted)

I had driven Daren Balls orange superlight before I ordered my car and liked the painted roll bar he had on his car, so I ordered one for mine. You can get them in any of the paint colours. The only down side is that the paint seems to chip easier than the black paint or poweder coating on a standard FIA bar.

Black 4 Point Harnesses (pair)

I didn't feel very secure driving the hire cars with just a 3 point seat belt and since I wanted to do trackdays felt that 4 point harnesses were definately called for. I have since uprated these to six point with the addition of crotch straps which help stop you submarining under the harness on track.

Battery Master Switch (fitted)

I ordered this both for safety reasons on trackdays so that in the event of an accident the engine can be stopped easily. The also provide added security in conjunction with the removable steering wheel.

Aero Type fuel Filler (fitted)

The standard Caterham filler cap was OK but I thought that an Aero type filler would make the car look better. However, the one that Caterham fit to the normal injected cars (Carb cars and SLRs have a different one) is a bit naff and is not a very good one. With hindsight I wouldn't have gone for this option if I'd known what they looked like.

Blue Silicone Hose Set

These are quite expensive but they are a lot easier to fit than normal rubber hoses and don't harden with age. They come in red or blue, but they don't replace every hose on the car which is a shame.

Things I didn't choose but should have

3.62 differential ratio instead of the 3.92 standard diff

The standard diff on a non-supersport Caterham is a 3.92 ratio. This is fine with the 5 speed gearbox but withe the 6 speed box makes the engine very revvy when touring. It does however give you good accelaration. this is one of the options the factory don't tell you about so if you don't know about it then you'll get the standard 3.92 diff whether you want it or not. I'm still undecided about the diff but at the moment I'll stick with what I've got because I do a lot more short blasts than long tours at the moment.