V6 Caterham??

[Gingerbread Man]

Pdelamare said:

Silent1 said:

100bhp loss through the gearbox sounds massive in such a light car, is that normal as its about 20% loss

Gearbox didn't have any oil in it at the time, unbeknown to us..... Sore subject.. it seized shortly afterwards.

Ouch.

[Pdelamare]

Gingerbread Man said:

Ouch.

Ouch to the tune of £4,500 to rebuild it.

[Toaster]

Why V6 when you can have a V8

http://www.pistonheads.com/classifieds/used-cars/c...

Part 1 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Zxdc1JsBgY
Part 2 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NTWi1-LnANY

[Toaster]

Pdelamare said:

Ha, amusing quote.

Thats a heck of a project as well and looking good

[Pdelamare]

Toaster said:

Why V6 when you can have a V8

http://www.pistonheads.com/classifieds/used-cars/c...

Part 1 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Zxdc1JsBgY
Part 2 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NTWi1-LnANY

Thank you.

The V8 is heavier and not as powerful, the V6 motor came later. I had a choice of ones to buy, including the white one in your post and another.

Edited by Pdelamare on Friday 21st August 12:49

[rubystone]

Pdelamare said:

Thank you.

The V8 is heavier and not as powerful, the V6 motor came later. I had a choice of ones to buy, including the white one in your post and another.

Edited by Pdelamare on Friday 21st August 12:49

One black, one white plus RiF car...those were the 3 I had the option to buy. White one could well still be for sale...not sure whether Sevens and Classics have it sorted or not...

[Pdelamare]

In an attempt to get my Levante quiet enough Raceco (Mike) kindly lent me a standard silencer to try. It reduced the noise by 8db!! So I've ordered two custom long silencers which Mike will install on the modified shortened secondary/collector pipes.

I'm hoping for a 10db overall reduction which would be epic as it avoids the requirement for a heavy and clumsy looking rear silencer.

The Raceco cans are a very handy 3.5kg lighter as as I need two of them this means a 7kg loss !

If this is still not quite enough then he is supplying end caps with a spigot type attachment so I can extend under the car into a mini-TVR style motorcycle can system.

I can only conclude that the very expensive BTB system on it at the moment isn't that good.

[k20erham]

I too did not want to go to a rear silencer, My K20 Honda was way too noisy for most track days and that's with a full BTB ex, so I had an in can cat fitted "should have one anyway" !!! and that sorted the ex but running Jenvey's the induction was very very loud just with a foam filter, but I've now fitted a supercharger so that has hopefully sorted that out.

[DCL]

Pdelamare said:

I can only conclude that the very expensive BTB system on it at the moment isn't that good.

Did BTB not give you a long tubes to replace the cats - i got one with mine? Not sure how much difference it makes, but for £20 worth of wadding it's worth a try.

[Pdelamare]

k20erham said:

I too did not want to go to a rear silencer, My K20 Honda was way too noisy for most track days and that's with a full BTB ex, so I had an in can cat fitted "should have one anyway" !!! and that sorted the ex but running Jenvey's the induction was very very loud just with a foam filter, but I've now fitted a supercharger so that has hopefully sorted that out.

The BTB cans have cats in them already so I'm out of options there, plus I've never heard of a supercharger being added to reduce noise, in fact mine makes 102db by itself so we added a layer of insulation under the bonnet to help mask it.

[Pdelamare]

DCL said:

Pdelamare said:

I can only conclude that the very expensive BTB system on it at the moment isn't that good.

Did BTB not give you a long tubes to replace the cats - i got one with mine? Not sure how much difference it makes, but for £20 worth of wadding it's worth a try.

No. I've had a couple of conversations with Jim and that never came up. The wadding in the cans is fresh so he says the only alternative is the rear silencer or reworking the existing cans, either option is more than I want to spend.

The two Raceco cans are a bit more expensive than reworking the current cans, but at least the noise reduction is somewhat proven and of course much lighter.

[k20erham]

What you have never heard jenvey's with just a foam filter? Plus my K20 revs to 9800 RPM, I did the cat in can conversion which sorted my Ex but the inlet noise was very loud, the supercharger bolts to the inlet manifold and on the engine dyno induction noise from "open" Jenvey's has gone.

[Pdelamare]

I meant it is amusing if the supercharger was added just to reduce noise.

[mickrick]

It certainly looks a lot more tractable, and less hectic than the V8 It sounds like you are out for a Sunday pootle, but everything is getting reeled in rather quickly!

[Pdelamare]

mickrick said:

It certainly looks a lot more tractable, and less hectic than the V8 It sounds like you are out for a Sunday pootle, but everything is getting reeled in rather quickly!

It's immensely tractable and linear, the HP curve on the dyno sheet looks like someone drew it in with a ruler, no humps or dips.

Also, I'm embarrassed to admit that neither I or Steve were giving it full throttle or going anywhere near the redline, 8k was as mental as we wanted, seeing as it was getting a bit of air over some of the bumps that aren't apparent in the R400.

[ExpatKiwi]

First off - awesome work getting it on the road, bl--dy impressive!!!

Secondly what's all this talk of silencing exhausts... ?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RdCrdIjIIno&fe...

Honda K20A (JDM 11.5:1)
Rotrex C30-94
4 into 1 exhaust. 2" Primaries into 3" pipe, no cat...

[Pdelamare]

Ha! You obviously have the luxury of circuits without noise limits, something we are sadly lacking here.


Anyway, Raceco exhausts are on, very nice 10db reduction in noise at Snetterton earlier this week. 100db at 7,000 and 97db with the Decibel Devils inserts. Hopefully this'll be the end of the black flags for noise.

Snetterton was rained off so as we only had slicks we didn't bother going out.

[Justin767]

Great car Pete..
I've read through with interest as I almost bought the yellow V6 from S&C in 2014 (Wonder where it is now?? - hopefully not just squirrelled away in a collection..) I don't fancy the white V8 they currently have :-(

It sounds like you've had a lot of 'challenges' getting the engineering right.. So I'm glad to see that you're out enjoying the car now..
Spring is on the way (according to our snowdrops!) - have you booked another trackday yet?

[Pdelamare]

Thanks Justin.

The yellow car is in a private collection of a rich dude in France sadly. The white one would've a good car again with a few minor tweaks, like lights, paint etc. It has a rear exit exhaust which I'm a bit jealous of as I'm still struggling with noise.

Here's a recent outing at Silverstone. It's was -1 all day so never got the front tyres in, and went straight into the gravel trap causing a red flag period in the first season. So I coasted into and around most of the bends. Fast forward to the 13 min area to see a easy run up to 158mph halfway down hanger straight.

http://youtu.be/UiHZrm9_Y9w

[mickrick]

Rocket ship!