LEAVENWORTH — Bill Barker has been fascinated with sports cars since he was a kid and he has owned quite a few. His latest ride, a Caterham Super Seven, holds a spot close to his heart. That’s because he assembled much of it himself, but it’s also because it reminds him of his close relationship to his dad, George, who died in 1980.

 Barker, now a Chinook helicopter pilot at Fort Leavenworth, grew up in Mayfield, N.Y. His dad was “a wonderful man and very much the father, but still my best friend,” he said. Their interest in sports cars really blossomed in 1967 when they went to the United States Grand Prix at Watkins Glen, N.Y. Jim Clark and Graham Hill, both driving a Lotus 49, were first and second. At that race, Barker spotted a Lotus Super Seven. “I saw this tiny, ever-so-British sports car, sitting in a parking lot, and I was hooked,” he said. His love for the Super Seven was cemented on that day.

 Today’s Caterham is essentially a continuation of the Lotus Super Seven. Caterham took over production when Lotus ceased production in 1973. Naturally, Caterham made a number of changes and improvements in the intervening 30 years, but the Seven remains true to its original concept. It is basically a two-seat racecar with rudimentary fenders and few creature comforts. Because of federal regulations, the Caterham can be sold in this country only as a “component” car without an engine and transmission. The buyer has to do a certain amount of assembly, not to mention installing an engine and transmission.

 Barker took delivery of his car in June of 2002 when he was stationed at Fort Rucker in Alabama. His wife, Karen, encouraged him to buy it and fulfill his dream. Completing the assembly took about a year. Barker’s Caterham weighs a scant 1,300 pounds. The engine, a 1972 four-cylinder Ford, produces 135 horsepower. Because the car is so light, it can hit 60 miles an hour in 5.8 seconds. Barker said that driving with the top down is like flying an open-cockpit biplane.

 Last year he was transferred to Leavenworth, and he decided to drive the Seven from Alabama. One day he drove 500 miles in the rain. The Seven doesn’t have a defroster, but it does have a heated windshield. The windshield got so warm it began to melt the rubber on the wiper blades, so he drove on without using it. After a trip like that, he said, you’ll either love your car or hate it. He loved it.

 Barker dedicated this car to his dad. A plaque from the 1967 Watkins Glen race is mounted on the dash.

 “When I sit in the Seven and take it all in, seeing the dash plaque takes me back to that time with my dad. It always makes me appreciate what I have, and how blessed I was to have a dad like that and the wife I've loved all these years.”