Why a Caterham ?
A lot of people ask 'Why did you build a caterham ?', well to be perfectly honest I pinched the idea from a friend. We were visitng friends one day and he said that he wanted a Caterham 7, he showed me a model and I was instantly hooked, I had to have one.
I'd owned a sports car before, a red TVR S2 which I used for commuting to work on contracts around the country. I did 65,000 miles in it in three years including a memorable week's touring in Scotland where the sun shone all week. It was one of the most unreliable cars I've ever owned. I was sad to see it go, but I never thought then that I'd own a sports car which would put the TVR in the shade.
Back in February 1998 I started working on a contract in the City. At the time we had a Ford Galaxy People Carrier and an Audi 80 Estate which Linda drove. My car sat on the drive doing nothing all week and Linda used to take it in turns to use each car. This was obviously a waste of money and since I didn't need a practical car any more I thought again about the Caterham. For my Birthday present in July 1998 Linda hired me a Caterham from Caterham Cars which we went away in for the weekend and had a great time in. By the end of the weekend we were both hooked and decided that if I could save the money I could have one.
The months wore on and the bank balance got healthier and eventually I had enough to be able to put down a deposit and be a fair way towards paying for the car. Just to keep my interest up we hired another Caterham the following July and had another fabulous weekend away in it. This proved that it was in some ways practical in as much as we could go away for weekends in it.
In August 1999 the car was ordered after a lot of deliberation and questions on the Se7ens List about what spec I should get and a tentative delivery data of mid february 2000 was set. They were the longest 7 months of my life, it brought back memories of Linda's pregnancy back in 94-95 before Caroline was born. I'd spend endless lunch breaks reading every scrap of information I could find over and over again.
The question I asked at the start of this page was 'Why a Caterham ?', why not a Westfield or a Robin Hood or any other Lotus 7 lookalike, the answer was at the time I thought the Caterham was the best made and best looking Seven around. I must admit my consideration of the other makes was fairly cursory, but I've never regretted my decision, if I had my time over again I'd still buy a Caterham. I'm not saying they're perfect, just like anything there's scope for improvement but I'm happy with My Caterham, just like others are happy with their Westfields or whatever.
The important thing to remember about a Seven is to enjoy it. No matter how humble or expensive it is, if you enjoy it every time you take it out the garage, then that's what Sevening is all about.
