Superlight no. 53

[james S]

Morning all
There is a 1998 superlight for sale in the classifieds ( number 53 ) which interests me. It's a cat d, which would bother me with most cars but as many if the caterhams I am looking at have a racing history, I'm less concerned so long as the repair is good . It's done 53,000 miles so I have enquired about service history / rebuilds. Does this car sound familiar to anyone?

Sorry for the lack of a link, I'm struggling a bit with my iPhone

[rubystone]

james S said:

Morning all
There is a 1998 superlight for sale in the classifieds ( number 53 ) which interests me. It's a cat d, which would bother me with most cars but as many if the caterhams I am looking at have a racing history, I'm less concerned so long as the repair is good . It's done 53,000 miles so I have enquired about service history / rebuilds. Does this car sound familiar to anyone?

Sorry for the lack of a link, I'm struggling a bit with my iPhone

Generally, a reasonably hard frontal requires a long front. I'm estimating £6k all-in for one of these if Arch/Caterham did the work, so find out when in its life it had the shunt and what repair it had. These cars have been £14k for years, so if the shunt happened when it was nearly new, chances are the damage was more extensive in order for it to have been written off.

Also against it are the cosmetics and mileage. The latter is huge and you need to find out whether it has had any engine work to reassure you it isn't going to go bang in a big way.

[forest07]

I drove this car a while ago and it was better than my 1.6 2002 Suoerlight. It was more torquey, had a better gear change and less noise from gearbox and diff.

The main damage was at the rear, and has been repaired at Arch Motors. Not sure of engine spec, I think it may have forged pistons. You would have to ask the current owner

[rubystone]

forest07 said:

I drove this car a while ago and it was better than my 1.6 2002 Suoerlight. It was more torquey, had a better gear change and less noise from gearbox and diff.

The main damage was at the rear, and has been repaired at Arch Motors. Not sure of engine spec, I think it may have forged pistons. You would have to ask the current owner

And the owner happens to be a friend of yours, Tony, correct?

If it's an 1800 it will have more torque than a 1600. And chances are that noise on your car is a CRB...does it disappear if you put your foot on the clutch?

[forest07]

My Superlight from new had both a noisy diff and box. Having driven quite a few K Series Caterhams I found quite a variation in how similar spec engines felt both in both power & harshness.
I do know the owner of Superlight 53.

[james S]

Thanks chaps . What would you budget for a pre-emptive rebuild on an engine like this ?

[rubystone]

james S said:

Thanks chaps . What would you budget for a pre-emptive rebuild on an engine like this ?

£3k if you have a full rebuild and don't so any of the work yourself.

[james S]

So it all depends on if he has had any engine work done I guess. Hopefully I'll get an update soon. I guess at these miles diff and shocks and possibly even the gearbox are likely to need attention unless they are already been done. It also seems to wearing different tyres at the front , which seems odd. Still like it though!