Introduction

(with apologies to Jon Anderson.... Song of Seven is a great album, and I thoroughly recommend it!)
This blog is intended to be a more-or-less accurate diary of the builiding of a Caterham 7 Roadsport 175 SV, taking place in north Hampshire in early 2011.

For many years I have contemplated getting a Caterham kit, but always rejected the idea due to lack of time, family commitments, resources etc. However, on my (ahem) 50th birthday I was reminded that the clock is ticking, and if I don't have a go at it now I may not be physically willing or capable in the near future...

Before I begin on the actual nuts and bolts of the build, here is a quick precis of my background. I am only including this in order to demonstrate that you don't need any professional qualifications or experience to build a 7: Only a love of cars, infinite patience, and a lot of determination is required!

Like most young boys I loved toy cars, and my favorite as a ten-year-old was the Matchbox Lotus Europa. Lotus seemed to represent everything that was cool and sexy about British automotive engineering in the 60s and 70s, a fantastic mixture of great styling and great engineering. And infinitely preferable to anything the Germans or Italians could throw at us...

Skip forward to 1982 and I finally saved up enough to buy a Europa - a beautiful JPS black-and-gold S2 (the one with the Renault engine). What a great car - almost. It actually spent more that 50% of time off the road, and I have to say (from bitter experience!) that the acronym Lotus: "Lots Of Trouble, Usually Serious"
is not very wide of the mark. The paradox for any Lotus owner is that when the car is working, you never want to get rid of it - then it breaks down, and you say "why didn't I sell?".

(Please note: This photo is 30 years old and I wish I still had both the hair and the physique!!!)

After the Europa I had a variey of more-or-less interesting cars, including a superb Talbot Sunbeam Lotus and a brilliant Chevrolet Camaro Z28 (I lived in the States for 6 years in the early 90s, and shipped one of these over the the UK). I'm still trying to decide whether the Sunbeam or the Chevy had the best-sounding engine: The four bell-mouths of the Dell'Orto carbs at 6500rpm in the Sunbeam, versus the full-on brass band of the "small-block" 5.7 litre V8 in the Chevy at 4000rpm....

For the past 10 years I have been driving the Subaru Forester, a car about which I can only say good things. In fact, I'm on my second one now - I did 120k miles in an X-plate S-Turbo without a single problem, then I traded it in for a 2007 XTE 2.5 turbo. I have 50k on the clock and (no surprise) not a single problem.

So that about brings us up-to-date: Here I am waiting for the delivery of a car that I have to assemble myself, having not really raised a spanner in anger for the last 10 years... We'll see how it goes!