Caterham Super Seven 1600

Last weekend was the first major drive of the season, the WightBlat 2024. This is an annual event organised by Alex and Simon on the Isle of Wight. This year it was based at the excellent Luccombe Hall hotel in Shanklin. I was in France for the week before, but keeping a close eye on the Met Office forecasts for the weekend! With a high pressure system moving in I booked the last remaining room at the hotel and the ferry crossing from Portsmouth to Fishbourne. Having got back home from Lyon at 10pm the night before, it was an early start on the Friday to prep the car and meet up with Essex legend Debbie at the M25 Brentwood junction. It was pretty cold at 9am so I had the half hood on and heater going. Debbie turns up with no roof and leather hat, fair play! Her Xflow only has a 4-speed box, but we're heading round the M25 and then down to Gatwick before A-roads to Portsmouth, managing to avoid the rain. Despite being booked on the 2pm ferry we both managed to get on the one before...

One little upgrade I've wanted to do for a while is fit a battery isolator switch. The immobiliser system can drain the small Banner battery over a number of weeks, so previously I've been removing the negative lead when the car isn't used for a week or so. An isolator switch is a much more convenient solution. I didn't want the full FIA isolator that sits on the outside of the car, so I decided to get this one from Jack Webb Motorsports . It is a simple break switch that sits on the negative side of the battery. This was originally designed for cars which don't have a heater, and when I initially received the unit it was clear that there wasn't space around the heater hoses to fit it to the earth point on the scuttle. Thankfully Jack was able to produce a new version with the orientation of the earth connecting bolt eye and jump lead reversed, and this fitted fine. Now I can isolate the battery by just turning the red switch by 90 degrees..