Caterham build Here’s one we made earlier

HERE’S ONE WE MADE EARLIER 796 PARTS,

100 MAN HOURS, 9 PACKS OF BISCUITS, 1 COLIN GOODWIN

his is the second Caterham that I’ve

Tbuilt. The first was almost 20 years ago, and the excitement of when all of the boxes arrived, the fun of the build and the sense of satisfaction when I fired it up and drove it out of the garage is as clear as if it were yesterday.

That car was the simplest model that Caterham offered at the time: live axle, 1600cc Ford crossflow engine with single carb, Escort four-speed gearbox and Marina back axle. Skinny tyres, no more than 100bhp and only a mild excess of power over grip. In other words, the forebear of the Caterham Seven 160 that is sitting before us in Haymarket’s large photographic studio.

We’re not trying to break any records for build time, not least because when it’s finished, we (crucially, I) will be running it for the next few months or until it starts snowing. Or Caterham asks for it back.

I have assembled a crack team of spanner jockeys. Road test editor Matt Prior is here, along with his engine hoist. In theory, we could lift in the diminutive three-cylinder Suzuki engine into the chassis by sheer manpower, but with the gorgeous orange paintwork vulnerable to damage, that would be foolhardy.

Then we have deputy digital editor Lewis Kingston, who, like Matt, has an engineering background. A pal of mine called Alex Jackson is also to hand and, like the other two, has a long history of spannering old bangers. Finally, we have young photographer Adam Warner, who isn’t experienced but will turn out to be an invaluable member of the team.

Where to start? With five pairs of hands, we could easily trip over ourselves, so I’ve put Alex on to the rear suspension and Lewis and Adam on the front suspension and steering, while Matt and I connect the donkey to its five-speed gearbox and prepare the powertrain for fitting into the chassis.

Caterham, we have a problem. We could be wrong, but it seems to us that many of the illustrations in the assembly manual supplied with the kit are missing, because the text will mention a ‘fig 27’ (for example) and when we look for it there’s just a white space. An emergency phone call to Caterham has a new manual emailed over to us in PDF form, which we then print out on paper nicked from Autocar’s stationery cupboard.

By lunchtime we have the engine and gearbox in the chassis. The gearbox is an incredibly tight fit in the tunnel, or at least it is on the offside. It transpires that this is because the engine has to be biased towards that side so that the steering column can get past the turbocharger and all of its gubbins on left-hand-drive cars.

Saturday ends with virtually complete front and rear ends, leaving Sunday to kick off with a reduced team but with the addition of my pal Philip Whiteman, who has a lifetime of fettling recalcitrant British cars behind him.

By now, we’ve concluded that the instructions are pretty poor. The photographs aren’t very good quality and what you really need are drawings and diagrams, if not actual engineering drawings. Also, while we’re having a whinge, the boxes that everything comes in are not that well labelled. We’ve got a bag of bolts with the words ‘probably not needed’ written on it in felt pen, which would be more helpful if it said where the bolts might not be needed.

There’s nothing wrong with the quality of the components, though, and by lunchtime Philip has the steering column and wheel fitted and Adam has fitted the heater and is now working on the exhaust system while I’m beavering away with Alex on the radiator, intercooler and all the hoses and vacuum lines.

Actually, plumbing in the engine is not that complicated. It’s really looking like a car now and even more so by mid-afternoon, when Philip and Alex have the rear wings fitted. But as usual with any construction project, it’s the finishing off that takes the time. During the week, a few of us spend another day on the car fitting the front wings, which is a fiddly job, and I wish that we’d bonded them on with glassfibre as they do at the factory, instead of bolting them on.

Coolant, oils added, brakes bled and five litres of go-juice in the tank. Time to turn the key. Not a pop or a cough. I must have left a wire off or perhaps some sensor. The little triple turns over readily enough but refuses to fire. As a coil and points man, I’m never going to be able to find the fault, so we’ll just leave it until the car is inspected by Caterham before it goes for its IVA test.

Interestingly, I’ve not driven a 160 yet. I’m fully confident that I’m going to absolutely love it. We’ll all find out in a few weeks’ time. L

Suspension and brakes are on; it’s starting to take shape

By lunchtime we have the engine and gearbox in the chassis. The gearbox is an incredibly tight fit