kimknapp Offline Upload & Sell: On
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I had two Caterham 7s.
The first one was for the road, but I eventually put a Cosworth BDP engine in it (bolts right up, just like the famous BDA engine). The BDP was an all aluminum 2.0L alcohol injected engine that Cosworth sold to midget racers here, in the US. I converted it to gasoline fuel injection (little over 200hp, with good torque and broad power range all the way to 10,000rpm!), stripped out the seats, made a foam driver's seat, removed the fuel tank and used a 2.5 gallon plastic tank for a gas tank, all to compete in Solo II (autocross) in SCCA (Sports Car Club of America). I even made special aluminum mounts for aftermarket aluminum front brake calipers (the OEM calipers were heavy), getting the weight down to 1040 lb. Won the National SCCA Solo II championships first time out, against a 9 time previous champion.
The second one was imported as a SCCA road racing car kit. At the time SCCA had a plan to create a spec class with identical Caterham 7s, but that fell apart, so it was put in the fastest "production" class at the time, E-Production. The production class allowed quite a bit of modification for most of the cars in the class, but for the 7, I had to run a stock 4 cylinder Ford engine that came with the car. I qualified on the pole the first time I took it to the National SCCA Runoffs (big, end of year championship races at Mid-Ohio track). Went off the track on the last lap while attempting to pass the first place car for the win.
Then, in 2005, I managed to win.
Great car to drive on the track, but a little intimidating when racing against Miatas, Mazda RX7s, Nissan Z-cars and other sports cars that weighed over 50% more than the 7. (roughly 1350lb for the 7 with driver vs. 2200+ for the other cars.
Lot's of fun and great memories, those 7s!! Thanks for the photos.
Kim
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