Advice on C7 selection

[SimonC]

Dear All

I'm thinking of rejoining the club

I've had a succession of elises, DVA has fettled, been supercharged and chargecooled and even bought a big italian v8.

My only caterham has been a VVC roadsport 5 speed which was great as a road car but a bit tame on track.

I'm going to look at this car tomorrow http://www.pistonheads.com/classifieds/used-cars/c...

And wondered if anyone had any advice about this particular car. It looks like one of the early R400 Duratec cars, but does have the dry sump. The silencer looks an old model and I'm a bit concerned about noise regs having struggled with my elises in the past both on induction and exhaust dBs.

Anyone recognise it? I'm not on Blatchat as I'm not a member (yet), and don't want to pay to ask the question!

I'm also going to drop into Caterham south to see what they have on offer, there's a nice R400 with rollerbarrels, but its quite a bit more expensive.

Cheers

Simon

[DCL]

I've got an early 2008 R400D and this one looks a fairly standard road orientated spec apart from 13 inch wheels and dry sump. The exhaust is the original Duratec but mine seems to work OK and gave 98db at the SVA - it's just a bit heavy. No CAT fitted and it's not on the list so check that one comes with it as it'll need it for the MOT. The dry sump may be the Titan CSR type if it was fitted early in its life. Nothing wrong with that but worth knowing about before you make an offer. Roller barrels are nice to have and transform the engine response so the standard plenum is less attractive. Cost is probably not far away from what was paid when new, so maybe a little high for a 18,000 mile car. But the R400's do sell well and are popular.

Edited by DCL on Wednesday 19th June 18:29

[SimonC]

Many thanks for that

Its due an MOT and so a cat will have to be fitted

I don't plan on paying asking, the used prices seem very high but there may be no way round it

The other car I like the look of is a an academy 125bhp in Sussex, thought it may be worth buying and then a trip to premier just up the road fromme for a bit more power.

Wallet vs heart dilemma

[cyderbelly]

Seems a tad expensive 9 months ago I picked up an R 300 only 6 months old with 3000 miles on the clock, top specked 13 inch wheels 8 inch rears 6 inch fronts, with a spare new set of avons.

The mileage is high. For that price IMO.

Take your time looking is my advice my search was 9 months.

Forgot to say for less than the price on the r400

Edited by cyderbelly on Wednesday 19th June 23:05

[SimonC]

You may well be right

I can be impulsive

I'm conscious that prices will drop for the winter but then I'll have missed a summers blatting and trackdays

[coppice]

My R400 is 2007 - and shock horror it has over 10k more miles than the car advertised. My last Seven had 60 k plus when I sold it- I don't even think about it. If the car is well looked after- such as being driven regularly- mileage should not be a concern.

[framerateuk]

coppice said:

My R400 is 2007 - and shock horror it has over 10k more miles than the car advertised. My last Seven had 60 k plus when I sold it- I don't even think about it. If the car is well looked after- such as being driven regularly- mileage should not be a concern.

The mileage wouldn't bother me as far as the engine goes. The Duratecs and Sigmas are solid engines and would probably outlast much of the components on the rest of the car!

[jasgti]

i think there is a strange obsession that caterhams should have ultra low miles , the engines arent really working as they are not pulling any weight and the engines were originally built to do 200K plus pulling a tonne and a quarter so i dont really get it . I noticed a car being talked about yesterday withh 600 miles in 7 years

[DCL]

I don't think anyone suggested 18,000 miles was a problem (WRT engine or not), just that a car that has done that mileage is likely to have a degree patina which should reflect in the value.