Later on, at the annual Geneva Car Show, I saw again the mysterious little bolide. That time, there were names around. "Caterham" and "Donkervoort" were sounding pretty barbarian for my French ears, and I failed to write the name down.
Third round: Two years later, while talking to a mechanics, I drew him a sketch of what was in my memory and on which I was still unable to put a name. He was an old guy who knew his stuff, and he said: "ah, that's a Seven!"
Then he went on and on about how great these cars were supposed to be.
When he articulated the prices these little marvels were going for, I decided
to start some serious savings... (I was still a student)
The guy wanted 35,000, but I told him I had 32K in cash, here, in my
pocket. I got a little nervous when he told me he was going to discuss
that with his colleagues, but after 5 minutes he came back, shook my hand
and gave me the keys. I don't think it is possible to explain in words
the exhilaration of that moment and of the drive that followed, to get
back to Geneva. That was just fantastic. The car is amazing. This first
car was a Classic (Live Axle) 1985, with some thousands of kilometers on
the odometer. The engine, an Xflow 1600, was pulling about 85bhp, but in
that 1200 pounds car it was flying!
Fortunately, as soon as I arrived in the San Francisco Bay Area, I managed to buy a Seven again. This time, with more power and a better chassis, and I wanted it to come new, as a kit that I was going to assemble myself. Two years later, after much irritation trying to cope with the delays and trying to cut the red tape, I managed to register it. I realized then that this was probably the first Seven to be registered in California after a long period where they were all denied (for smog reasons, by the way mine is smog check exempted, because the engine block is pre-1974).
Anyway, I am now the proud owner of a Caterham Super Seven 1996, De Dion chassis, xflow 1600 engine uprated by Tom Rust (Sears Point Raceway), 130bhp for 1248 lbs, and I'm happy to have Vipers (like this one), Porsches (like this one), Ferraris and other muscle cars for breakfast. Their owners are very miffed when I smoke them on twisty roads or on the track, and I find this very amusing.
There is a lot more to say about the assembly, the registration process, how it behaves on the track, about the Virginia City Hillclimb, and about all the great friends this car made me meet. Hopefully this will appear sometime on these pages...
Sevens FAQ
(the absolute essential of most that there is to know about the cars, and
also informations about the Sevens mailing-list)
Caterham Cars
(the mother of all, after Lotus of course)
Texas Motor Works
(Caterham dealer in Texas)
