78Brougham
"Chump"
A few of the regulars had mentioned that I should post a thread of my building my Caterham 7, so what better time than when its cold and crappy outside.
The Caterham 7 has been building cars since 1974 after the purchase of the rights to the Lotus 7. The Lotus 7 was produced from 1957-1973 in various series' (1-4) as a kit in order to dodge the heavy sales taxes levied by the government. Lotus founder Colin Chapman found that there was a loophole in the taxes if you built the car yourself. The cost was almost half of a fully built car. You could get them either way, but most were in kit form. In 1973 the laws were changed closing the tax loophole and it was a way for Lotus to bow out of the "kit car" business as he wanted to move upscale with production of the Esprit due any time. The founder of Caterham Cars, who were the number one seller of the Lotus 7, approached Colin Chapman and he struck a deal to purchase the rights to keep on building them and Caterham Cars was born. They've been building them ever since.
I ordered the kit from a local friend and dealer in Buffalo NY back in November of 2017 expecting delivery in June or July of 2018.... Well, that never happened. A few things delayed the delivery. The factory is in England and being part of the EU, they were being forced to re-certify the engines for all the cars that were being delivered to the EU countries causing a huge delay. Along with that, they decided to move the paint shop "In house" also causing a delay while they set up a new paint shop in the factory.
I finally got the car in on Feb. 9th 2019. 95 hours later it was finally ready for the road!
All of the space frame chassis and aluminum body work is completed at the factory. The date on the pics are in euro dating method, day/month/year.
Delivery 2/9/2019
Couple of hours and a few beers later here it is in the shop.
Almost all of the wiring harness and dash were installed at the factory
I opted for the uprated AP Racing 4 pot calipers, vented rotors and HP master cylinder.
The Caterham 7 has been building cars since 1974 after the purchase of the rights to the Lotus 7. The Lotus 7 was produced from 1957-1973 in various series' (1-4) as a kit in order to dodge the heavy sales taxes levied by the government. Lotus founder Colin Chapman found that there was a loophole in the taxes if you built the car yourself. The cost was almost half of a fully built car. You could get them either way, but most were in kit form. In 1973 the laws were changed closing the tax loophole and it was a way for Lotus to bow out of the "kit car" business as he wanted to move upscale with production of the Esprit due any time. The founder of Caterham Cars, who were the number one seller of the Lotus 7, approached Colin Chapman and he struck a deal to purchase the rights to keep on building them and Caterham Cars was born. They've been building them ever since.
I ordered the kit from a local friend and dealer in Buffalo NY back in November of 2017 expecting delivery in June or July of 2018.... Well, that never happened. A few things delayed the delivery. The factory is in England and being part of the EU, they were being forced to re-certify the engines for all the cars that were being delivered to the EU countries causing a huge delay. Along with that, they decided to move the paint shop "In house" also causing a delay while they set up a new paint shop in the factory.
I finally got the car in on Feb. 9th 2019. 95 hours later it was finally ready for the road!
All of the space frame chassis and aluminum body work is completed at the factory. The date on the pics are in euro dating method, day/month/year.
Delivery 2/9/2019
Couple of hours and a few beers later here it is in the shop.
Almost all of the wiring harness and dash were installed at the factory
I opted for the uprated AP Racing 4 pot calipers, vented rotors and HP master cylinder.