2 Eleven or Caterham or Atom

[stuart1969]

Guys,
Having run the S2 111S for a few years and the Cup 240 for the same the time has come to change to something I wont have to use every day, thus the opportunity to buy something LESS practical rears its head. My quandry is this, should I stay in the Lotus lounge and go with a 2 Eleven or try a Caterham or an Atom for a change? Any input from those who have been there gladly accepted.

Cheers

[Boggy]

stuart1969 said:

Guys,
Having run the S2 111S for a few years and the Cup 240 for the same the time has come to change to something I wont have to use every day, thus the opportunity to buy something LESS practical rears its head. My quandry is this, should I stay in the Lotus lounge and go with a 2 Eleven or try a Caterham or an Atom for a change? Any input from those who have been there gladly accepted.

Cheers

2 11 I think it's the best all round package

Boggy

[kevin ritson]

That's a difficult question. And it depends on use - in this company a Caterham is almost practical!

My advice would be to test drive all three and see what you like. Personally I'd be very tempted by the Caterham, there's little to match it on track although a 2-Eleven hits a lot of the right buttons. But then for the same price you'll get a CSR 260 that weighs quite a bit less...

[Lotus Lewis]

Not to sure about the waiting list but what about a KTM X-BOW

[EvoJay]

Atom

[S Works]

Atom's seem to handle like soap and are full-on, all the time.

For me it would be a toss-up between a 2-11 or an R300. Be careful with the Caterhams and noise levels for track use. Many of the more powerful ones appear to be too noisy for many tracks.

[Ultrasound]

S Works said:

Atom's seem to handle like soap and are full-on, all the time.

For me it would be a toss-up between a 2-11 or an R300. Be careful with the Caterhams and noise levels for track use. Many of the more powerful ones appear to be too noisy for many tracks.

Got to disagree with you there Works S, Atoms have had a bit of a reputation historically but there isn't much wrong with them now, check out the Atom 3. Do love the 2-11 though.

[Mrs Fish]

Having driven both the Caterham andhaving owned 2 Atoms I would go for a toss up between an Atom and the 211 if there is road use. If pure tack so safty not an issue I would include the Caterham.

Atom is alot of fun, Lotus has downforce I would imagine the driving experience is different between the two.

[TIPPER]

I know this is the wrong reason but Id have a 2-11 simply 'cos it reminds me of some of the old Can-Am cars. I'd also like the assurance of the tub around me when I run out of talent.

[Phil-CH]

Boggy said:

stuart1969 said:

Guys,
Having run the S2 111S for a few years and the Cup 240 for the same the time has come to change to something I wont have to use every day, thus the opportunity to buy something LESS practical rears its head. My quandry is this, should I stay in the Lotus lounge and go with a 2 Eleven or try a Caterham or an Atom for a change? Any input from those who have been there gladly accepted.

Cheers

2 11 I think it's the best all round package

Boggy

How can it be the best all round package if it's less practical than a Caterham, more expensive, heavier and slower?

[Boggy]

Phil-CH said:

Boggy said:

stuart1969 said:

Guys,
Having run the S2 111S for a few years and the Cup 240 for the same the time has come to change to something I wont have to use every day, thus the opportunity to buy something LESS practical rears its head. My quandry is this, should I stay in the Lotus lounge and go with a 2 Eleven or try a Caterham or an Atom for a change? Any input from those who have been there gladly accepted.

Cheers

2 11 I think it's the best all round package

Boggy

How can it be the best all round package if it's less practical than a Caterham, more expensive, heavier and slower?

Not sure how it's less practical, you can't really call the caterham or the Atom pratical? For me it's by far the best choice

Boggy

Edited by Boggy on Thursday 22 November 09:19

[cej]

2-11

[matc]

I think the Atom would have the best re-sale value, if that makes any difference to your buying decision.

All three cars would be an amazing experience to drive on road/track so I guess you need to try and make your decision based on other factors.

For me it would be the Atom; Caterhams are a bit common (probably a good thing as it means you would have a wide re-sale audience) and the 2-11 looks a bit odd IMO, and I wouldn't be abl to justify the extra cost over an Exige S, as it's effectively the same car but with less equipment!!

All of the above is IMO, and I don't mean to offend anyone

Mat

[kambites]

I would have thought that you'd get something better buying second hand which kind of rules out the 2-11. Just go and drive them all and see which you prefer.

[RobM77]

definitely try them all first. The 2-11 is going to feel more modern and planted to the road, whereas the Caterham will be more lively and playful. The Caterham's also going to be much cheaper to insure (mine was a laughable £300 a year when I was in my 20s!), and its light weight will mean it'll wear things out less. The other thing to consider is performance. The power to weight ratio of the 2-11 is about equal to a Caterham R300. Caterham also make an R400, and if you buy secondhand, an R500.

Personally, I think I'd choose the 2-11, but that's probably only a desire to try something new as I'm on my second Caterham now.

[L100NYY]

RobM77 said:

Personally, I think I'd choose the 2-11, but that's probably only a desire to try something new as I'm on my second Caterham now.

It is a tough call though isn't it!?!?

Having had 5 Caterhams and driven the 2-11 on road and track I think that I would go with the latter. The Caterham's are still the purest and perhaps most visceral driving experience that I've had the pleasure of enjoying but the 2-11 had a real Can Am racer feel to it and I've yet to experience anything that felt quite so special on the road as the 2-11.

I dearly loved my R400 and miss it greatly but I think that I would have to go 2-11 just for that extra specialness and to try something different.

[RobM77]

L100NYY said:

RobM77 said:

Personally, I think I'd choose the 2-11, but that's probably only a desire to try something new as I'm on my second Caterham now.

It is a tough call though isn't it!?!?

Having had 5 Caterhams and driven the 2-11 on road and track I think that I would go with the latter. The Caterham's are still the purest and perhaps most visceral driving experience that I've had the pleasure of enjoying but the 2-11 had a real Can Am racer feel to it and I've yet to experience anything that felt quite so special on the road as the 2-11.

I dearly loved my R400 and miss it greatly but I think that I would have to go 2-11 just for that extra specialness and to try something different.

I should add that I've never driven a 2-11, and am going purely on my experiences of the Elise and Exige plus the magazine reviews I've seen (and I think I've read all of the UK ones!). I'm guessing it to be more refined when it comes to ride and handling, with more grip on offer making better use of the power (generally speaking you need a lot more power/weight in a 7 to equal the lap times of an Elise/Exige), but less of a playful intimate nature that the tiny Caterham gives. Caterhams don't look that small, but the garage I built for my racing Metro with inches to spare all round fits the Caterham with feet to spare!

[L100NYY]

RobM77 said:

but less of a playful intimate nature that the tiny Caterham gives.

I think that you would be as pleasently suprised as I was when I first drove the 2-11, it carried over everything that I loved about my 7's with the playful, predictable and infintley adjustable on-the-limit handling but also seemed to move the performance and grip levels up a few etchelons at the same time.

After just a couple of laps in the 2-11 I was absolutely smitten with the wee beastie.

[RobM77]

L100NYY said:

RobM77 said:

but less of a playful intimate nature that the tiny Caterham gives.

I think that you would be as pleasently suprised as I was when I first drove the 2-11, it carried over everything that I loved about my 7's with the playful, predictable and infintley adjustable on-the-limit handling but also seemed to move the performance and grip levels up a few etchelons at the same time.

After just a couple of laps in the 2-11 I was absolutely smitten with the wee beastie.

Something that did surprise me is that EVO said in their "Car of the Year" article that the 2-11 is more forgiving on the limit. That was always the Caterhams forte of course - the ability to give a full on experience that punishes mistakes, but clings on when things go pear shaped and is reluctant to spin. I've got some hilarious in car footage of me hitting oil etc in my racing Caterham, when the back end just slams out as far as possible but then just stays there for what seems like ages!

I doubt I'll ever have £40k to spend on a weekend toy, but if I do I'd love a drive in a 2-11!

[Phil-CH]

Boggy said:

Not sure how it's less practical, you can't really call the caterham or the Atom pratical? For me it's by far the best choice

It's less practical on many levels - a Caterham has a windscreen, can be bought with a heater (and is still lighter than a 2-eleven btw), has a roof with enough room to store a soft top and on top of that even has some spare room left after it. It gets over speed bumps without any trouble, opposed to a 2-eleven that just can't (have you looked at one?). On top of that, it's easily as quick (if not quicker depending on the variant) and probably ends up being cheaper too. Being a NA car, it's more pure as well.