Using a Seven every day

Are you mad?!

Somebody posted on BlatChat about the possibility of using a Seven every day. I'd been meaning to write something up about that, and I just let it all splurge out. Here's a slightly edited version with a couple of extra things I forgot about first time round.

Are you mad? I'm not trying to be rude, but you have to be in order to drive a Seven every day.

I've done it for most of the last 8 years ;-) and in a bizarre kind of way the most stripped out Seven is even more practical than a plush one with a hood. Now I've got an aeroscreen I don't have to faff about with the hood, and the driving experience is much more intense. Here's my advice. Of course it you're anything like me then you will ignore it and learn the time-consuming and expensive way through personal experience over the years.

Go for 13" wheels with good Sevening tyres, the handling really is so much better and the tyres are cheaper. Avon CR500s and Yoko A021Rs are great for the road. Yoko A032Rs are good too, and I've heard good things about 48s. Don't fit "ordinary" road tyres, even if you think you can't afford the wear of stickies - you won't get the full experience even though it'll be much better than you have experienced before.
Cycle wings rather than flared.
Aeroscreen rather than windscreen.
Forget the heater (it's ineffectual without the screen anyway).
No interior trim. It adds weight and will only get soaked anyway.
Tillet seats. For me (6' and not too fat) they are more comfortable than leather and they don't mind getting soaked.
At least an FIA bar (not the crappy standard one).
6-speed gearbox if you can. I've got a 5-speed and didn't realise how bad it was until I got the ratios changed by BGH.
Leather steering wheel. My left knee always rubs against my suede one and any trousers I wear whilst driving have a black patch half way down the leg.
You need a tonneau. Drive with the passenger side on all the time then it's quick and simple to put the driver's side on when you park.
Get some kind of extra cover (I use a cheap Halford job) for when you expect it to chuck it down.
Get a biker's waterproof outfit for those same occasions.
Don't worry about parking it anywhere. I've had two bad experiences in those 8 years. Once I came back to the car and the tonneau was undone; someone had been nosing around. Another time I had a rear wing cracked in a car park; could have happened to any car.
Go for a standard Caterham colour then if you do have a prang it's quick and easy to replace the fibreglass bits.
Take it on track, you'll have no idea of its true capabilities otherwise.
Modern engine; you'll be lucky if a tuned crossflow will last a couple of years of daily use.

Basically you want something like the original Superlight. I echo the comments about a 1.6 SuperSport being good enough - I had one for 5 years (just upgraded the engine about a month ago). It'll beat just about anything (other than some Sevens), including on track.

Oh, and the Club is great. You've already found BlatChat, so get yourself down to your local meeting and chat to others who will probably contradict everything I've said. And if you're not elitist about Caterhams then join the Sevens mailing list too.

This page is http://www.strangely.org/diary/200403/daily.html. It was first published on Friday 12 March, 2004 and last updated on Friday 12 March, 2004.