Caterham Super Seven 1600

As the footwells get proper toasty in the summer, I decided to fit some further insulation to try and reduce the temperatures in the driver side where the exhaust manifold is very close. The lower part of the footwell already has aluminium foil sheeting that extends around the gearbox area, but the pedal box cover is not treated. So I order a 24inch by 12inch sheet of Reflect A Gold from Demon Tweeks . This sheet was £46, it's not cheap ! Fitting was straightforward, with some attention to the edges and cutting out the top name plate. I also put some on the front leading face of the pedal box assembly. Initial test run definitely felt like it was cooler in the footwell, I'll have to do further warm weather tests to confirm.

So we're coming up to 3 years old, so it's time for a service and an MOT ! I decided to check out GP Sevens in Kent as it's closer than going to HWM. From Romford it's just a 45 minute drive (with no traffic). It's very much out in the sticks, so you need to get a lift back and there. Apart from that it was all good. Dropped it off in the morning, and picked it up in the afternoon. It was just an oil change service and checkup, with no issues reported.  On the way home I picked up new spark plugs from Caterham Dartford. The service schedule is to change the plugs every 2 years, but I like to do it every year. I got the Sigma Iridium spark plugs that they use in the race cars. They are a better quality than the standard ones, and are pre-gapped. All running fine and trying to make the most of the fantastic May weather !

Last weekend was the first big trip of the summer, the Wight Blat 2025. This is an annual club trip to the Isle of Wight, organised by Simon and Alex. The plan was to stay at the very nice Luccombe Hall Hotel in Shanklin for a couple of nights and drive around the island to various locations. I started off at 9:30am from Romford, and met up with Essex legend Debbie in her 1985 X-flow at Brentwood. We then headed down to Crawley and stopped at Pease Pottage services, before driving to Portsmouth to get the ferry over to the Island. It's quite fun getting on boat in a Caterham ! The ferry was super quick, just 20 mins to get to Fishbourne. Then it was a half-hour drive to the Luccombe Hall. After unpacking we did a short walk down Shanklin Chime to the beach, before dinner at the hotel. We had a proper itinerary for Saturday. First stop was the Military Museum. Excellent Auto Sport 50th Anniversary model, with factory CD player ! Then I followed another car to the West coast and down...

As my London Super Seven 1600 twin Nic got his car back after its year 4 service, it was time to do a little blat. We met up at St James's Square, in Central London. The original plan was to head South out of London to Chartwell in Kent, the home of Churchill run by the National Trust. It's quite a tortuous route, all 20pmh zones till you get past Croydon. Not a great way of getting out of London, heading East is probably the best option. Arriving at Chartwell it turned out to be rather busy, so we headed off to the White Hart in Sevenoaks. This is a very nice pub with an excellent kitchen.  Then it was a pretty good run from Sevenoaks through country lanes up to Dartford, and then back home. Checking the car after, I noticed that the new Caterham radiator was actually pressing onto the nosecone and leaving a mark in the fibreglass. This is because the new rad has a slightly bigger top edge than the previous one. So today I opened-up the righthand mounting holes to drop that si...