AR7E - Alcester Racing 7's Equipe
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Tools, dontchajustlovem... Seriously though, having the right tool for the job can make all the difference and new members of the 7 club frequently ask the same questions... ...so we are going to pull together our favourites here... Now, before we start - we'll make a couple of general recommendations. First of all, we like both Halfords Professional range of tools and also many of the Clarke range of tools available at Machine Mart (stick to their pro range too, if you have a choice). Now - if you are a paid-up member of the Lotus 7 Club of GB (£35 quid at the last count), you can get Halfords vouchers at a 10% discount to face-value (phone/mail order via the head office). On top of this, Halfords quite often have big discounts on their large toolsets (e.g. their luvverly 150 piece socket and spanner set for £130 instead of £180) - and to get a 10% discount on top of this is just fantastic... On to the specific recommendations... Trolley JackYou're going to need a trolley jack... ...but the 7 (especially on 13" wheels) has incredibly low ground clearance at the jacking points - and most commonly available jacks just won't cut the mustard. Some people recommend rolling the car onto a couple of planks of wood to get the necessary clearance - but why not buy the proper tool for the job... Expensive? How does £30 inc. VAT sound??? The Clarke CTJ2LR 2-tonne 'semi-pro' jack has an incredibly low 110mm entry-height - most other jacks will commonly be closer to 140mm - and even at 110mm, you need to take care on our cars. Clarke Tools are available from Machine Mart - they do mail order, but at approximately 15kgs + packaging, you'll not be wanting to pay the postage if you can help it. Axle StandsTake your pick. Usually we'd recommend Clarke tools available from Machine Mart - but in this particular case, we believe that the basic Halfords versions are better value at only £10 per pair... They are well made and cheap. What more can you ask for...? It's just a shame you have to shop around so much to collect all the bits and pieces... Torque WrenchHalfords again - their Pro range are not the cheapest, but come with the all-important certificate of accuracy (what good is a t-wrench if you can't trust the settings...?) and have an easy-to-read setting scale. If we remember correctly (doh!), they come in three sizes - and it is the middle one (40-200Nm / 30-150lbft) that you will use most often. Socket SetThere is a wide choice here - and it depends if you are starting from scratch, or building up an existing set. If you are a socket-set-virgin, we'd recommend Halfords (again!). They have a wide range from approximately 50 pieces right up to the big-daddy with 150 pieces. The big sets also include things like ratchet and conventional spanners - the only point to note is that the spanners are always in metric - you will need to buy the imperial spanners as well. If you've already got some sockets, the Clarke professional ranges from Machine Mart are a good, cheap way of filling in the gaps.
More tools later...
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