Oh my, the G7 260 didn't last long in the hands of the evo team. Within a few days of temporary ownership it stalled a handful of times on Sheikh Zayed road in rush hour traffic. It also adopted a knack of running itself dry of battery charge, overnight.

But I for one was content to live with these teething problems, as the good days were very good indeed! Charging around Dubai with 260bhp, the Cosworth engine slung a daring 5-inches from the tarmac is enough to ward off any moody blues I can tell you. Even forced to wear a crash helmet the G7 260 is a crack-a-kilometre.

But all good things must come to an end. And our fun came to a wet ending, charging down the pitlane straight braking hard for turn 1 when, whoosh both occupants are covered from head to toe in coolant. Luckily it was stone cold. For one reason or another the water was not circulating the engine.

Limping back to the pits we then removed the thin wrapping of metal that acts as a bonnet and pocked around the bay, as the remaining fluid trickled out onto the floor. Game over. Actually no.

We decided to top up the fluid, start the Caterham up and go for it again. We could only manage a lap and a bit before the same happened, but we were getting quicker by the lap. In the end we had to bow out of the challenge we set ourselves to nail the Dubai Autodrome Club Circuit in 1min 11seconds. And this is the car to do it in, too. But not this month.

The best time, with every mechanical failure known to man was 1:14 and few tenths so you just known it's going to blow the socks off the competition when fighting fit. Even the Audi R8 couldn't worry the Caterham...

In the end Middle East Motorsport kindly ferried over a mechanic or two, familiar face Rob McEwen - even roping in Keith from Motorworks. With the kind permission of the Dubai Autodrome pit garage 10 was used for Caterham surgery; replacing a main water pipe, topping up the fluids, and doing some jiggery pockery with the exhaust, which was removed in various pieces and reassembled.

The G7 was then delivered to Motorworks, off Sheikh Zayed road, where a set of racing pads were fitting to the rear, replacing the previous pads seemingly made up of wood pulp and papier-mache. Keith also fixed the frazzled electrics, which had killed the indicators, making commuting fun!

Back up and running I have since traded my red Caterham for the yellow nutter for a month's commuting. Yes I have to wear a helmet, even for the smallest errand, but hell it's worth it.

It is also coping a little better with the heat since it's refresh. It is still a little grumbly in rush hour traffic, requiring repeated jabs of the accelerator to keep it from stalling, but aside from that all is well. It's getting through fuel quite insistently though, but there again I am getting through the gears quite insistently too. The roller barrel throttlebodies seem to be better than the horn, I must say, to warn traffic that you are closing in on them. Just about used to the constant flash photography, too. But only just.