First (secondhand) caterham.. too many questions!
Discussion
I have owned Sevens since '97 and don't regret a second or a pound spent.Every journey is an event and a long journey an adventure . On track they are amazing and on the road nearly everybody loves you - you get a hell of a lot of random conversations if you won a Seven.I'm not sure I have met anybody who regrets buying one either.
They are more different to any other car -other than something as simple and light- than you can imagine . All Sevens are essentially alike so 130 or 200bhp has far more in common than you might imagine . 1.4K is fine as long as you get 6 speed - mine was 5 and suffered from its hopeless ratios . I now have 220 bhp and whilst things happen faster the DNA is identical to one with half the power.
JFDI is my heartfelt advice .
They are more different to any other car -other than something as simple and light- than you can imagine . All Sevens are essentially alike so 130 or 200bhp has far more in common than you might imagine . 1.4K is fine as long as you get 6 speed - mine was 5 and suffered from its hopeless ratios . I now have 220 bhp and whilst things happen faster the DNA is identical to one with half the power.
JFDI is my heartfelt advice .
Just going to leave this here to see what everyone thinks... http://www.pistonheads.com/classifieds/used-cars/c...
Lots to think about there.. thanks.
Orange car: I like Tillets and LSD, those I think would 'enhance' my enjoyment. More power.. maybe, but a couple of seconds a lap faster, is it really going to change the game - probably not. Downsides, I hate the colour, and for me to be happy the scuffs and any dents would need to be storted, replace cage with an FIA bar, respray that isn't orange, cover the tunnel and get rid of all the bare ally inside, plus sort out the faded dash.
Rightly or wrongly, I do care about the overall condition, not just mechanical, and all that sounds like far too much trouble tbh
Red car - very interesting.. although that's more than I want to spend. How robust is a 200hp+ k-series, I'm guessing the occasional rebuild is needed, north of 100bhp/litre for an na engine? Would rather have something relatively bombproof, but otherwise looks great.
Orange car: I like Tillets and LSD, those I think would 'enhance' my enjoyment. More power.. maybe, but a couple of seconds a lap faster, is it really going to change the game - probably not. Downsides, I hate the colour, and for me to be happy the scuffs and any dents would need to be storted, replace cage with an FIA bar, respray that isn't orange, cover the tunnel and get rid of all the bare ally inside, plus sort out the faded dash.
Rightly or wrongly, I do care about the overall condition, not just mechanical, and all that sounds like far too much trouble tbh
Red car - very interesting.. although that's more than I want to spend. How robust is a 200hp+ k-series, I'm guessing the occasional rebuild is needed, north of 100bhp/litre for an na engine? Would rather have something relatively bombproof, but otherwise looks great.
Crept a bit, then crept back. It's the one with the white wheels (which may have to change). Smart enough, but not too perfect to use - the other one was freshly painted and for some reason I'm more inclined towards a k than a sigma (tho it'd be nice if the exhaust was on my side with the k.. hey ho).
Indeed.. the girl loves fast things including the back of a bike, but isn't a particular fan of noise, plus she's a bit disaster prone with anything mechanical, hence having the loud hot bit on my side of the car might have been tactically smarter, but hey ho.. can't wait to actually get my paws on it now 
I cant believe the price of caterhams really. I think oh I can have this new one for £20-odd k but then I look at the spec sheet and essentials end up pricing up to £30k for some of the base spec models. I also cant believe how expensive a 17 year old Caterham is now either, somehow they command the same money as a new one??? I really want a 140hp Supersport but even that will set me back the same price as a new one. Which then gets me looking at westfields.
After 3 months with the car, and my first track day, thought it'd be interesting to close this out with the benefit of hindsight..
First: Love the car. No real regrets, although a couple have since come up that have pinged the 'wish I'd seen that' button, I'm not unhappy - it's great fun, and I think it looks lovely. Yes, I'm contemplating some upgrades, but they'll be drip fed, where I'd have struggled to justify re-painting a car which had the right mechanical spec. Mrs isn’t a car person, but she loves it and asks if we can take it for a run..
I didn't last long before putting an LSD in it. More than any other car I've driven, it was very keen to spin the unloaded wheel. Combination of being light and a de-dion being rather less than independent I guess. Cost me 600 for a second hand, just serviced zf, with installation by Phil. I did the rest (housing out and back in) which wasn't too bad, and a nice way to get to know the car. I've been lucky in that the ZF is no noisier than the old open diff. No clunks etc. Yes I was probably driving like a tw*t… pre-diff a big shove of throttle would move the back, then it would come back in. Post diff it moves on lighter throttle applications, but is pleasingly linear.
I don’t know where I saw someone say sevens intrinsically understeer.. but I seem to have oversteer everywhere. Half thinking I should look at the setup as on track I didn’t feel like the front end was doing much work at all.. but it’s hilarious fun
Glad I have the 5 speed. Yes on the recent trackday I found a few corners were a bit 'in between gears', no doubt the 6 would have fared better.. but I'd struggle with the 6 speed’s shorter gearing on road, and like it or not, there are occasions where motorways to get to blatting places are unavoidable.
No idea why folks say the ‘k’ is torqueless. Mine does have a kmaps ecu, but there’s a ton of midrange and it seems to be running out of puff at about 6500. Anything from 2k up is fine, doesn’t feel at all ‘cammy’. I may be thinking about cams and a decent exhaust (4:1 long or 4-2-1).. but mainly ‘cos I have the urge to fiddle.. I can’t say I’ve felt it to be lacking in go at all. I’d like the exhaust to be a bit quieter (weird I know!). I’m also on the lookout for tillets. The leather seats are fine on road, but I did find I was moving around quite a bit on track. Did I mention that it’s epic on track?
Think that’s about it really.. Also very pleased I bought from Ian / PT. Few niggles that I missed when I did my lookover were addressed without quibble.
First: Love the car. No real regrets, although a couple have since come up that have pinged the 'wish I'd seen that' button, I'm not unhappy - it's great fun, and I think it looks lovely. Yes, I'm contemplating some upgrades, but they'll be drip fed, where I'd have struggled to justify re-painting a car which had the right mechanical spec. Mrs isn’t a car person, but she loves it and asks if we can take it for a run..
I didn't last long before putting an LSD in it. More than any other car I've driven, it was very keen to spin the unloaded wheel. Combination of being light and a de-dion being rather less than independent I guess. Cost me 600 for a second hand, just serviced zf, with installation by Phil. I did the rest (housing out and back in) which wasn't too bad, and a nice way to get to know the car. I've been lucky in that the ZF is no noisier than the old open diff. No clunks etc. Yes I was probably driving like a tw*t… pre-diff a big shove of throttle would move the back, then it would come back in. Post diff it moves on lighter throttle applications, but is pleasingly linear.
I don’t know where I saw someone say sevens intrinsically understeer.. but I seem to have oversteer everywhere. Half thinking I should look at the setup as on track I didn’t feel like the front end was doing much work at all.. but it’s hilarious fun
Glad I have the 5 speed. Yes on the recent trackday I found a few corners were a bit 'in between gears', no doubt the 6 would have fared better.. but I'd struggle with the 6 speed’s shorter gearing on road, and like it or not, there are occasions where motorways to get to blatting places are unavoidable.
No idea why folks say the ‘k’ is torqueless. Mine does have a kmaps ecu, but there’s a ton of midrange and it seems to be running out of puff at about 6500. Anything from 2k up is fine, doesn’t feel at all ‘cammy’. I may be thinking about cams and a decent exhaust (4:1 long or 4-2-1).. but mainly ‘cos I have the urge to fiddle.. I can’t say I’ve felt it to be lacking in go at all. I’d like the exhaust to be a bit quieter (weird I know!). I’m also on the lookout for tillets. The leather seats are fine on road, but I did find I was moving around quite a bit on track. Did I mention that it’s epic on track?
Think that’s about it really.. Also very pleased I bought from Ian / PT. Few niggles that I missed when I did my lookover were addressed without quibble.
Glad to hear it's good fun. Ian's a great guy to deal with too, which makes life much less painless.
If you go tillets, I'd urge you to consider adding the crotch straps to make the harness six point. Much better holding under braking on a slidey tillet surface.
On the noise side, is the silencer re-packable - it may just need some new wadding. Easy to do and not expensive at all. The trick is to tightly wrap the wadding round a bit of stiff paper, like making your own itchy wrapping paper roll, then slide the tube over the perforated pipe. Seat the wadding, pull the inner tube out and voila.
Do pop up with trackdays you're doing and if I'm there I'll wander over. I have Pembrey in early Sept with MSE booked at the mo.
If you go tillets, I'd urge you to consider adding the crotch straps to make the harness six point. Much better holding under braking on a slidey tillet surface.
On the noise side, is the silencer re-packable - it may just need some new wadding. Easy to do and not expensive at all. The trick is to tightly wrap the wadding round a bit of stiff paper, like making your own itchy wrapping paper roll, then slide the tube over the perforated pipe. Seat the wadding, pull the inner tube out and voila.
Do pop up with trackdays you're doing and if I'm there I'll wander over. I have Pembrey in early Sept with MSE booked at the mo.
Pretty sure it's not repackable, nor do I think it's particularly noisy (by caterham standards). 'tis the standard roadsport 4 weedy primaries into a single exit through the sideskin job, with a cat. Lead to believe that it's rather restrictive and that there's not much point in doing much with the engine without solving that. My concern more is if I pick up a 'better' system that it's loud af. Don't really want it too droney on road, nor to be worrying about passing noise tests.
Good to know on the 6 point. No more trackdays planned right now, need to sort that
Good to know on the 6 point. No more trackdays planned right now, need to sort that
I have (or should I say had, having just visited PT to drop the car off to sell) a powerspeed and 421 primaries, plus other engine bits. It doesn't drone, but to preserve hearing, I do use earplugs, cans or in ear headphones. Puts about 92 dB freshly packed, up to 98 dB when it needs repacking.
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