Photos of our new Caterham!

[zed4]

Here's our new Caterham. My brother and I bought it as we plan to launch New Forest Sports Car Hire and it will sit alongside our TVR Chimaera. It's a 2004 Caterham Roadsport SV with the K series 1.8 engine. It's finished in Diablo Red with the silver anniversary stripe and it's in fantastic condition. I'm not sure what's standard, but it has the heated windscreen, heater, full roof, spare wheel and the Minilites.

We spent today cleaning, polishing and waxing with Auto Finnesse products, which seem great. First time we've used them. Also spent a couple of hours polishing the exhaust, which is coming up well, but the heat shield needs more work. Here are a few mobile phone photos, professional photos to follow!!

Only question is so far, how are the brakes on these cars? They don't seem very good!! And what tyre pressures should we be running?

Thanks,

Dan

DSC_0325 by danyeates, on Flickr

DSC_0323 by danyeates, on Flickr

DSC_0322 by danyeates, on Flickr

DSC_0320 by danyeates, on Flickr

DSC_0318 by danyeates, on Flickr

[Grubbster]

Nice! Brakes aren't assisted so they do need a bit of a shove but they should work fine. For general use tyre pressures are typically set around 20-22 psi (depending on size and type).

[Chrisp5782]

For the exhaust shield use Mothers Mag & Aluminium polish, it's amazing stuff.

[Chrisp5782]

For the exhaust shield use Mothers Mag & Aluminium polish, it's amazing stuff.

[john7]

Front brakes - try Mintex M1144 pads. Far better than the standard pads.

[Gingerbread Man]

john7 said:

Front brakes - try Mintex M1144 pads. Far better than the standard pads.

Mintex 1144 up front and leave the rears as standard items. This sorts out the brake bias as in standard guise, the back over brakes the front and tries to step out in a hard braking scenario.

Not sure it if much improves the actual brakes though. They just take some getting use to but are fine once used to. You could upgrade to the 'big brake kit' or other similar brake upgrades.

[Agent Orange]

Chrisp5782 said:

For the exhaust shield use Mothers Mag & Aluminium polish, it's amazing stuff.

...or just buy a new one depending on how bad the existing is. They're only £35.
http://caterhamparts.co.uk/product.php?id_product=...

Brakes are excellent but as already said they aren't assisted so you'll need to use more pressure than a modern car. You'll be amazed just how much you can stand on them.

[Gingerbread Man]

Agent Orange said:

Chrisp5782 said:

For the exhaust shield use Mothers Mag & Aluminium polish, it's amazing stuff.

...or just buy a new one depending on how bad the existing is. They're only £35.
http://caterhamparts.co.uk/product.php?id_product=...

Brakes are excellent but as already said they aren't assisted so you'll need to use more pressure than a modern car. You'll be amazed just how much you can stand on them.

Nah just take it off and upgrade to a bigger can. It's the way forward.

My girlfriend burnt herself quite badly on my old heat shield can. Had like a weird Pacman looking burn where the metal burnt her but the holes in the heat shield didn't. The advantages of a K series car....

[ghibbett]

Agent Orange said:

You'll be amazed just how much you can stand on them.

+1

[RedCat7]

Looks like you are running the unpopular ZV3 tyres on the rear.
I have found that the more I reduce the pressure, the better they are. At 20 psi, as per the handbook, I found the car skittish. Much better at 18, then 17 psi. Now trying 16psi (cold).

[Chrisp5782]

Agent Orange said:

Chrisp5782 said:

For the exhaust shield use Mothers Mag & Aluminium polish, it's amazing stuff.

...or just buy a new one depending on how bad the existing is. They're only £35.
http://caterhamparts.co.uk/product.php?id_product=...

Brakes are excellent but as already said they aren't assisted so you'll need to use more pressure than a modern car. You'll be amazed just how much you can stand on them.

I'd be spending £8 on a tin of Mothers leaving me £27 for petrol to drive it!

[Agent Orange]

Chrisp5782 said:

I'd be spending £8 on a tin of Mothers leaving me £27 for petrol to drive it!

I'd be using £35 for petrol not polishing the damn thing! Mind you I'm not using it for a business.

[zed4]

I was very impressed with how well the exhaust came up, so thought we'd tackle the heat shield too. Weather was terrible today, heavy rain all day, so we took the Golf to the Supercar Showdown at Beaulieu, hope to take the Caterham out tomorrow though

[Gingerbread Man]

If you get a Morgan or Elise before November, I'll rent one for the Father or Bird.

[zed4]

Gingerbread Man said:

If you get a Morgan or Elise before November, I'll rent one for the Father or Bird.

We are considering getting a Morgan actually, but not util next year. We have a VX220 Turbo already, but it's highly modified and we'll struggle to get self drive insurance on it, so we probably won't be renting it.

[Gingerbread Man]

zed4 said:

We are considering getting a Morgan actually, but not util next year. We have a VX220 Turbo already, but it's highly modified and we'll struggle to get self drive insurance on it, so we probably won't be renting it.

My Father has a VX Turbo, but the girlfriend fancies the similar but not the same Elise!

[Right Charlie]

I run "SV05 CAT" on a 2005 1.8K series Caterham SV.

Yours is shinier than mine though!

[scubadude]

Very nice, have dropped you an email- not much in the way of rentals like this in the area or further west and the roads are ideal.

When you're happy with the brakes I'd like to come and play with it please? :-)

[zed4]

Right Charlie said:

I run "SV05 CAT" on a 2005 1.8K series Caterham SV.

Yours is shinier than mine though!

Nice! I saw SV54 CAT the other day too. It's a very cool plate.

Ours is quite shiny, it's only done 18,000 miles and it is in very good condition. We're thrilled with it to be honest.

[zed4]

scubadude said:

Very nice, have dropped you an email- not much in the way of rentals like this in the area or further west and the roads are ideal.

When you're happy with the brakes I'd like to come and play with it please? :-)

Thanks for your mail. I'm sure we'll sort a day out for you soon.

Took it out again the other day, brakes are good, just take some getting used to, having no servo assistance.