{"id":126,"date":"2017-03-09T12:00:21","date_gmt":"2017-03-09T12:00:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.purplemeanie.co.uk\/?p=126"},"modified":"2026-05-28T00:58:51","modified_gmt":"2026-05-27T23:58:51","slug":"introduction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/index.php\/2017\/03\/09\/introduction\/","title":{"rendered":"Introduction"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I’ve always wanted to build a Caterham, for as long as I can remember. It was one of those bucket list things but I just never had the time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Recently we had a couple of those life events that everyone goes through. They focused my mind on the fact that I’m not getting any younger and if I wanted to enjoy some of my bucket list then I’d better get on with them before the bucket sprang a leak.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I can probably blame my wife and a friend Darrell for the final push. We were just chatting on the touchline of one of the kids football games when I thought, bugger it, I’m going to stop just talking about it and get on with it. Darrell was relaying a story where a bunch of dads had had one of those beery evenings where they’d all signed up to build a car together. However, over the following few days they had all bailed and nothing had come of it. I knew I was going to build something at some time and bailing was not going to be an option for much longer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Time to investigate more seriously.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having done some research it was clear that delivery times were going to be a problem. Estimates were in the 8+ month range and that was going to put a build into the winter of 2017\/18. Disappointing, but not a deal breaker. If it was going to take that long then no time like the present to start the discussion. Some more Googling and I realised that Williams Automotives<\/a> were not too far away and I might as well have a chat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That week I called Williams and set up a couple of test drives and a informal chat with Lindon. See First Test Drives<\/a> for more detail on that experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once the test drives were over there was no doubt about it, I needed to scratch the itch and get on with it. Lindon checked the online Caterham build system and looked just as shocked as I was when he told me that above all expectations they had a build slot available for a kit car in June of 2017. He double checked with Caterham on the phone and told me that the slot was mine until someone else ponied up a deposit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That weekend I got the finance committee together, discussed it with the rest of the team and I called Lindon to get the ball rolling and to put the deposit down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The rest, as they say, is history… or at least it will be if you’re following along as we embark on this adventure.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Introductory post for the Caterham 420R build archive, setting out the car, build blog, and early context for the kit-build project.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[3,51],"tags":[66,76,11],"class_list":["post-126","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-caterham-420r-build","category-caterham-blog","tag-caterham","tag-caterham-420r-build","tag-prebulid"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8yl38-22","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":322,"url":"https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/index.php\/2017\/07\/10\/pre-build-update-6-delays-but-now-in-build\/","url_meta":{"origin":126,"position":0},"title":"Pre-build 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