[Closed] Caterham to use Reynolds tubing

Indeed, only about 60 years behind the E-Type with it's 531 subframe.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reynolds_531

You know, I've never thought to actually Google Reynolds.

Thanks guys, that was an interesting read and one I should have done many years ago.

Cool. I too am surprised they haven't used it before

I work for a place that us fortunate enough to anneal the 753/953 steel in long length for Reynolds Tech. I get to go in there occasionally and am in awe of what is achieved on what looks like ancient pieces of kit. I love the smell of the place and I am always reminded of the four candles sketch by the two Ronnies, a local hardware store has the same smell. Good folk in Reynolds tech.

As the pistonheads link says it no surprise really. The Caterham/Lotus 7 has always been a "cheap" car made from a mile of cheap box section pipes. To do it in butted rounds tubes would require special tubesets not just long lengths as the butting needs to be in the right place. Round pipes would also need a lot more mitreing.

Not the first kit car manufacturer, Westfield has been building suspension arms from 853 and 631 for a long time.

It's odd- I thought Caterham were the best of the kit cars (apart from the Ariel, but that's not the same). I know they are simple in term of driving experience but that's even more of a reason to focus on the tubing.

I'll bet if they made it from 853, the pixie dust in it would make the 7 more vertically compliant...

nemesis - you better believe it

And you'd get people who were adamant it drove differently even if they used exactly the same tube profiles...

Thrust 2 was reynolds tubed wasn't it? That's probably the only thing stopping the average Seven from going at 650mph.

nemesis - Member

And you'd get people who were adamant it drove differently even if they used exactly the same tube profiles...

Pretty pointless, to use the same profiles though- what bikes can you do this test with?

Inbred maybe?

Ariel isn't a kit car company. The car comes ready built. Kit cars are something that you buy and then put together yourself. Many a childhood weekend/evening was spent making fibre glass body parts for an old Jago Jeep and then trying to fit it all into the chassis of an old escort.

There's an old feller down the road from me that's been building a se7en (think it's a westfield, not sure) since the dawn of time, I've helped him out with a couple of things but now the problem is, it's a bit harder to find a good sierra donor than it was when he started 😆 I don't think he'll be swapping to magic tubes but that's a [i]proper[/i] kitcar project.