You are not alone John, I too am a one man one device bloke, maybe old fashioned but I don't care.... I have a separate camera, phone, computer, music player, video player....the list is endless, you can get devices that do all that in one, and are cheaper than my items collectively, but I think items designed to do one job alone are more entertaining in my book..

Back in the 70's Caterham Cars used to have a full page advert in Motorsport every month, think it was the first page you saw on opening the mag. Loved the idea of owning one but at the time I could only afford rubbish cars but eventually got my first open sports car, a Triumph Spitfire in 1978. Marriage came eventually but the desire for a Caterham remained. Went to Kit Car show at Stoneleigh in 1987, wife said no to Caterham but gave me permission to have a Westy, they had just brought out the SE model (which was soon stopped by Caterham). Won 2nd prize in a magazine competition soon after, 1st prize was a complete Westy starter kit, 2nd prize was 50% (I think) off the basic starter kit, started to empty garage ready. Then me and the Mrs split up and so ended my kit car dreams.

Move on 12 months, back to reasonable financial health and an insurance policy due to come out. What better investment than a Caterham, no one to tell me I could not have one now.

And 25 years later I still have a Caterham (and a wife).

Nice story Zetec, yes the original Westy is now known as the Pre-lit model for the reasons you mention, changes to the bodywork design on later ones being the only difference to the layman. Glad you finally found the right car, and right wife, cool...

In 2008 I was getting frustrated with having nothing but the family car to drive.

I found myself just going for a drive with no destination in mind - just enjoying the country B roads around Hants/ Berks. Around this time I started longing for a bit more performance....

Fast forward to a track day event where I was working at the time. In what I can describe as my ONLY positive exposure to Caterham employees, I went out in the demo R500 as a passenger....

Decision made.

A year later, a friend decided to sell his ex-academy 1600Vx. Mates rates - £8000. So the saga began!

Since then, I've looked at Seven ownership in the same way as the property ladder! The major appeal, beyond the obvious raw driving thrill, is the ease of maintenance. It's big boys meccano; so enjoyable when it comes to tinkering. Everything appears to be 'do-able'!

Love the car, not married to the brand.