RE: Caterham gets Suzuki power
Discussion
RYH64E said:
I would have thought that the younger, insurance sensitive end of the market would have bought second hand rather than new, and if you're young insurance is never cheap!
When I went from an Elise to a Caterham 7 my insurance cost dropped by more than 75%. Caterhams are very cheap to insureDonkeyApple said:
True, but when I was around 18 plenty of kids were buying the kits to build with their father and then run as their car. I just wondered if the ever faster Cats and ever higher insurance had meant that this early entry to the brand had been lost to the cheaper kit segment and this product was a way of fighting back?
As an aside, my son's school has a scheme where they buy a kit from Caterham, the kids build it at school, then it goes back to Caterham to be checked and sold. I'd have loved to be part of something like that when I was his age (13), so I put his name down. He wasn't happy, didn't want to build a car and made such a fuss that I had to withdraw his application. Kids today...RYH64E said:
DonkeyApple said:
True, but when I was around 18 plenty of kids were buying the kits to build with their father and then run as their car. I just wondered if the ever faster Cats and ever higher insurance had meant that this early entry to the brand had been lost to the cheaper kit segment and this product was a way of fighting back?
As an aside, my son's school has a scheme where they buy a kit from Caterham, the kids build it at school, then it goes back to Caterham to be checked and sold. I'd have loved to be part of something like that when I was his age (13), so I put his name down. He wasn't happy, didn't want to build a car and made such a fuss that I had to withdraw his application. Kids today...
I'm all for this kind of Caterham as it is the kind of thing I can see myself buying. Doesn't need to be hugely fast to be enormous fun at semi-sensible speeds.
MiseryStreak said:
A Seven is a toy, a fun weekend car designed purely to deliver thrills, owners do not care about having incredible fuel economy. I think this will harm their sales considerably.
Riiiiiiight.So you're saying that
a) the ability to sell cars all the way across Europe will not bring them a single sale, and
b) they won't sell any of these in the UK either, and
c) sales of all the higher powered models will plummet because there's a cheap modestly powered entry level model.
Brave stuff.
Lowtimer said:
MiseryStreak said:
A Seven is a toy, a fun weekend car designed purely to deliver thrills, owners do not care about having incredible fuel economy. I think this will harm their sales considerably.
Riiiiiiight.So you're saying that
a) the ability to sell cars all the way across Europe will not bring them a single sale, and
b) they won't sell any of these in the UK either, and
c) sales of all the higher powered models will plummet because there's a cheap modestly powered entry level model.
Brave stuff.
By which I meant sales of this car. The engine has easy 100bhp potential, which would have been enough. There are some clever people at Caterham though and I think they are doing this knowing that most owners will liberate an extra 20-30bhp straight away, I wouldn't be surprised if they offered it as a factory approved upgrade.
MiseryStreak said:
Nope. You said all that. I'm saying "I think this will harm their sales considerably".
By which I meant sales of this car. The engine has easy 100bhp potential, which would have been enough. There are some clever people at Caterham though and I think they are doing this knowing that most owners will liberate an extra 20-30bhp straight away, I wouldn't be surprised if they offered it as a factory approved upgrade.
Quite.By which I meant sales of this car. The engine has easy 100bhp potential, which would have been enough. There are some clever people at Caterham though and I think they are doing this knowing that most owners will liberate an extra 20-30bhp straight away, I wouldn't be surprised if they offered it as a factory approved upgrade.
RYH64E said:
As an aside, my son's school has a scheme where they buy a kit from Caterham, the kids build it at school, then it goes back to Caterham to be checked and sold. I'd have loved to be part of something like that when I was his age (13), so I put his name down. He wasn't happy, didn't want to build a car and made such a fuss that I had to withdraw his application. Kids today...
Thats just horrible for youDon't worry
3 years and you can throw him out of the house
RYH64E said:
DonkeyApple said:
True, but when I was around 18 plenty of kids were buying the kits to build with their father and then run as their car. I just wondered if the ever faster Cats and ever higher insurance had meant that this early entry to the brand had been lost to the cheaper kit segment and this product was a way of fighting back?
As an aside, my son's school has a scheme where they buy a kit from Caterham, the kids build it at school, then it goes back to Caterham to be checked and sold. I'd have loved to be part of something like that when I was his age (13), so I put his name down. He wasn't happy, didn't want to build a car and made such a fuss that I had to withdraw his application. Kids today...Almost certainly in 20 years he'll be giving you an earful over a Sunday lunch about how you stopped him from building a Carerham having long forgotten the kid he didn't like or the girl he wanted to impress.
DonkeyApple said:
Don't panic. Chances are he either didn't like the other kids who had signed up or wanted some other activity because of a girl. At that age they are like women as they'll never tell you the real reason for any of their random thought processes.
Almost certainly in 20 years he'll be giving you an earful over a Sunday lunch about how you stopped him from building a Carerham having long forgotten the kid he didn't like or the girl he wanted to impress.
I think that he didn't want to do it because he knew that I wanted him to do it, it's a shame because I wouldn't have needed much persuading to get a kit for him (me really) to build at home.Almost certainly in 20 years he'll be giving you an earful over a Sunday lunch about how you stopped him from building a Carerham having long forgotten the kid he didn't like or the girl he wanted to impress.
RYH64E said:
DonkeyApple said:
Don't panic. Chances are he either didn't like the other kids who had signed up or wanted some other activity because of a girl. At that age they are like women as they'll never tell you the real reason for any of their random thought processes.
Almost certainly in 20 years he'll be giving you an earful over a Sunday lunch about how you stopped him from building a Carerham having long forgotten the kid he didn't like or the girl he wanted to impress.
I think that he didn't want to do it because he knew that I wanted him to do it, it's a shame because I wouldn't have needed much persuading to get a kit for him (me really) to build at home.Almost certainly in 20 years he'll be giving you an earful over a Sunday lunch about how you stopped him from building a Carerham having long forgotten the kid he didn't like or the girl he wanted to impress.
RYH64E said:
DonkeyApple said:
Don't panic. Chances are he either didn't like the other kids who had signed up or wanted some other activity because of a girl. At that age they are like women as they'll never tell you the real reason for any of their random thought processes.
Almost certainly in 20 years he'll be giving you an earful over a Sunday lunch about how you stopped him from building a Carerham having long forgotten the kid he didn't like or the girl he wanted to impress.
I think that he didn't want to do it because he knew that I wanted him to do it, it's a shame because I wouldn't have needed much persuading to get a kit for him (me really) to build at home.Almost certainly in 20 years he'll be giving you an earful over a Sunday lunch about how you stopped him from building a Carerham having long forgotten the kid he didn't like or the girl he wanted to impress.
JDMODIFIED in basingstoke released 120hp from my suzuki cappuccino with the same engine and gearbox. With 80hp it was a riot 120 it was downright lunicidal. I think if caterham don't offer the package there are plenty of other tuners who will. 120 works out at 240hp per ton the gearbox and revvy engine is a joy. I will be getting one as long as my 6ft5 frame fits.
nigelpugh7 said:
In these pictures it looks like it has smaller rear arches too!
I presume to allow for the different width Suzuki axle!
Well they say a picture tells a thousand words. It seems pretty clear from that picture that this has been designed specifically to conform to Kei car regs. A shrewd move.I presume to allow for the different width Suzuki axle!
Wheels look to have come off the Suzuki Super Carry van which also donated its axle and gearbox, which will mean super cheap tyres and should also help massively with emmissions. My money is firmly on sub 100g/KM CO2 with an outside bet that this could be the lowest emmission non-hybrid car available when it goes on sale in the UK.
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