Well, my friend stinks. I've been wanting him to complete his BE so we could have some fun together like the old days.
Sadly the BE (1380 etc) is still a ways away from completion
so the summer funfest was going to be on hold.
Not now. Lookie what he just bought. Caterham. New.
It should be ready to rumble next weekend and we should have the camera stuff sorted by then too.
0-60 in 3.8 seconds.
2 liter twin cam fuel injected 200 hp
6 speed gear box
Poor ol Screamin' Mimi is going to be eating a lot of rubber dust I fear.

Nice!

But yeah, he stinks for making me jealous!

I agree with Nial! I am GREEN with envy!!

The darn thing has been sitting in the crates since 2001.
It was just recently assembled.
He's a really good friend going back to High School circa 1970.
I'm very happy for him. I'll be even happier for him when I get to drive it.
I bet I swore at him for 5 minutes when he sent me a bunch of pics. I could feel his ear to ear grin through the phone.
Kind of like when I got the BE and his had been stuck in a garage for 20 years. I got the earful then.

My "childhood" pal has a Caterham 7. We've had waaay too much fun with it. Great cars!
"Keeps th' natives up onna sidewalks where they BELONG!"

He and his lovely mate drove the thing on the INTERSTATE on a 150+ mile round trip just for a visit a year ago. What a hoot.

Now THAT's a proper 'Tude , Dude!

Looks like lots of fun. Top Gear did a great episode on building one of these. Almost as much fun as an Ariel Atom.
Allan

I keep seein' the outtakes from that episode but never saw it.

I want to drive one when the wife is out of town. hehe.

Hi There Gundy,

A Local friend of mine has one of these little animals in his stable (Amongst Many). His does`nt have the HP that your friends has but what a blast to drive! He has a "Toyota" Hemi-Head engine in his!! He built his own Intake to accept twin SUs coupled to a 5 speed tranny.

I`ll have to take some pics for Y`All to include his "Outrageous" Rat Rod! Y`All Love that one!!

My friend is in the Bus. of "Car Restorations" so; He`s a sheet metal artist, upholstery guru etc etc. The only problem I have found with him; Is he is awfully expensive!! He keeps telling me; "I`m not a Bondo Body Shop" but a "Restoration House"! Does that qualify for a $100.00+ per hr. rate?????????

Have a fun ride,

Russ

Yes.

If that seems out of line, find some other shop to do the work... but don't whine when it isn't up to true restoration standards.

It may not be apparent but it takes years of diligence and skill to gain the knowledge and experience to do the job properly. It's not taught in schools, no university but the one where you spend a lifetime honing those skills. If he's busy, his rate is fine. To my mind it's even a bit low. Benz shops down here are over $100/hr to know which button to push on a computer. Bass-ackwards IMO.

Don't denigrate a man's abilities because YOU think his rates are outrageous. There are likely folks around who'd think what you did for a living for a lifetime is "excess to requirement" too.

I always say there is nobody on earth worth $300 per hour
but they still beat my door down to pay it. It's all about free market. Granny says "Ya get what ya pay for."
I think Russ was just joking around for what it's worth.
Wait till he gets MY bill. j/k Russ.

You pay peanuts, you get monkey's.

Hi Dx,

If I were "Whining" about a "Friend" of mines work; You`d be 100% correct.

Obviously; You can`t take a joke!!

Yes; I was just joking around!

I would recommend my "Friends" shop for "Restoration" work any day of the wk. for "Whatever" rate he charges!

Russ

I have always liked this little Youtube video on one of these...

David, did Sleepy buy the Cat??? good for him, bad for the Bugeye, it will never get done now, so thats why he hasn't bug the living crap out of me this week

OK, so we all got a hot rod now, I thinking Sunday for a mountian run, you wusses up for it

Cat or no Cat, I still have to wait on him at the top of the hill
You mark my word, we'll probably have tough time getting him out in thing, he's so darn obcessive, he'll be afraid of getting stone chip on it.

LOL...I told him we'd do a 276 run next weekend and he wanted to know if there was ANY gravel on the road. I said we'd send
the wife up in her MGB as a pre-runner to check for debris.
I'll have the camera bench tested by next weekend. I'm game but
lame, so please wait when we get to the top. That dang Cat should be a Whooooop ...brake.. Whoop...brake... whooop
I bet you couldn't open the throttle more than a second the whole way up.
BTW...Sleepy has lurked in this thread.
I'm on the phone with him now. He's game! We'll have the wife pack up a picnic lunch so she can use that antique basket of hers.

Man, that music sounds like the good ol boys pickin' n grinnin' just down the road every weekend.
Throw in some "special" spring water and ya got a pardy.
Yeee haa

Hi There Hap & Gundy,

Man; I`m only a few weeks away from joining you folks in all this fun.

"I CAN`T WAIT"!!

See Y`All Soon,

Regards, Russ

PS: Please keep in mind; My B/E is "STOCK' 948 & slower than a snail.