Team 160!

My boys sitting in the 160 demonstrator at Caterham South

A 160 Build video

Here's a bit of fun provided by the Top Gear team at the BBC. They built a 160 in their office - well, actually, they finished it off in a somewhat more suitable location!

Preparations

I'm stuck into the Assembly Guide nowadays, trying to visualise how it all goes together. To get a copy, register here on the Caterham website and you can get your own.

Plus, there are loads of blogs out there, and build diaries etc. But so far only one other blog on the 160. Given that the engine and drive train are totally different on the 160, there will no doubt be some trial and plenty of error when it comes to finding out the little wriggles for ourselves.

Here's a photo I took of the car on display at Caterham South. I will probably go back and take a lot of photos at some point, as they will be clearer than the postage stamps in the AG! As long as Caterham is happy, I'll post the lot on here, if anyone's interested.

March seems a long time away...

Ordered

Ordered

The car is now ordered - a painless process with the Caterham South very helpful.

Options

The options I've chosen are:

Lowered floor - I'm just short of 6ft. I tried a non-lowered car when I went for the test drive, and the view is definitely better in the lowered version. You feel you're looking straight through the windscreen

Roof/doors/windscreen - it seems fairly obvious to choose this one. Although it seems like a lot of money, at £1100, you do get various other bits and pieces such as windscreen wipers, washer bottle, heating in the windscreen etc

Heater - it will make those winter rides more of an option with the top off, I'm hoping

Carpets - a nod to civilisation!

Colour

I'm still agonising about this. A thousand quid for a painted car does seem steep, but then again the classic green/yellow with the bonnet stripe is very appealing. I shall make my decision later - again, Caterham are very flexible and helpful about this kind of thing.
UPDATE: I caved in and went for green with yellow bonnet stripe and noseband. It's the classic Lotus colours and I love them

Pre-start

Introductions

I'm going to build a Caterham Seven 160, the newest and cheapest of the Caterham component/kit cars. This blog will try and keep up with the whole process, and hopefully help out others doing the same.

The components don't arrive until March 2015, but there is plenty of preparation to do in the meantime.

Inspiration

Here are some of the links that helped me make the decision:

Autocar review gets 4/5 stars
Richard Hammond enthusing in the Daily Record
Chris Evans (not usually a fan) raves about the 160 in the Daily Mail (ditto)

And here are some YouTube videos of the car in action