Wednesday 17th August 2016

Buy a dozen Caterhams!

12 ex-race Sevens, 100,000 euros, probably quite a lot of fun

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Caterham racing is jolly good fun. We're jammy enough at PH to have dabbled in Seven motorsport here and there, having a hugely enjoyable time in the process. Evenly matched cars, easily replaceable panels and not a lot of grip make for extremely entertaining racing.

One, two, three, fou... hang on a second

Moreover, you tend to make some really good friends as well. Sad, but you do. So how's this for an idea: buy Caterhams for you and your existing mates, then introduce them to how good Sevens are? Now you can, with 12 Sevens currently for sale at Agackakan Motorsport in Istanbul. Sounds like a good way to kick off the best stag do ever...

They're an odd spec - Weber carb'd Fiat 1.6s, five-speed gearboxes, some very strange wheels - but opportunities like this don't ever come up, so we're happy to overlook that for now. Plus the engines, gearboxes and diffs are 'rebuilded', so they should be good for a few rounds of dirty dozen racing. And if someone does get a bit overenthusiastic, there are some spares included in the sale. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, they all come with lap timers to settle any arguments.

We wouldn't like to imagine the logistics of getting 12 cars back from Istanbul and then to whichever circuit you want to play around at, but we can imagine it would be a huge amount of fun. Plus, if you think about it, less than 10,000 euros per Caterham is damn good value. So what are you waiting for? You'll be the favourite rich person your friends know. We'll take lucky number seven...

See the advert here.

[Source: Road&Track]

[ZesPak]

That's brilliant and indeed, sub 9k per caterham is damn good value.

Too bad about the location or I would find 10 more people to do a group buy .

[13m]

I am tempted to buy them just to park them in the correct numerical order.

[Matt UK]

That's cheap per car.

But Fiat engines? I like to think I know my caterhsms a bit, but I've never heard of these.

Factory builds for export?

[ikarl]

In a car like this, if used on the road, you'll spend a lot of time wanting to overtake other road users... Not sure I'd want to be doing that in a LHD Caterham

[seefarr]

It's a pity they're not road registered as this has the makings of the greatest road trip of all time getting them back here.

[pidsy]

id be interested in the origins of these.

dont know a lot about the factory cars but they wouldn't put Fiat engines in them would they?

[cybersimon]

There are three missing.

Perhaps they are the spare parts?

[PTF]

Overpriced IMO.

Ex-race cars have been available for sub-£10k for years. Nothing new there. £10k-£14k buys you a decent car with a K series or Sigma engine.

Odd spec, odd location. I wouldn't want to pay more than £4k each for them.

[PTF]

...and they're left hand drive!!

[R500MATT]

Caterham currently use Ford 2.0L Duratecs, Ford 1.6L Sigmas and Suzuki 1.0L Turbo engines.

[NNH]

seefarr said:

It's a pity they're not road registered as this has the makings of the greatest road trip of all time getting them back here.

This. You just need 11 mates, some walkie-talkies, and Self Preservation Society playing all the way home.

[Vitorio]

NNH said:

This. You just need 11 mates, some walkie-talkies, and Self Preservation Society playing all the way home.

Twelve mates, one to drive the support truck!

Even with just one man in the car, im not sure how much camping gear, supplies, spare fuel and tools you can bring along.

[williamp]

NNH said:

seefarr said:

It's a pity they're not road registered as this has the makings of the greatest road trip of all time getting them back here.

This. You just need 11 mates, some walkie-talkies, and Self Preservation Society playing all the way home.

do Caterham owners have that many mates???

[13m]

It would make a good Top Gear special going and fetching, then racing them.

[jaybarts]

13m said:

It would make a good Top Gear special going and fetching, then racing them.

They nearly have enough presenters to do this.

[13m]

jaybarts said:

13m said:

It would make a good Top Gear special going and fetching, then racing them.

They nearly have enough presenters to do this.

Hah, I was trying to work out how many gusts they'd need to make a full complement of drivers

[SpudLink]

Perhaps the cars were exported to Turkey as kits without the engines, and Fiat engines were more readily available? I don't know anything about legislation in Turkey, but some countries do have peculiar rules.

[Kolbenkopp]

FIAT have a fairly big presence in Turkey's auto world by ways of Tofas [1]. Joint venture that builds stuff like the current Tipo. Assume they just had easy and cheaper access to new engines / drive train from a local manufacturer.

Should work well enough, but no way to get them road legal anywhere in central EU. Emissions .


[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tofa%C5%9F#Current_p...

[edo]

Ex race track non road registered Caterham with a Fiat engine, dubious wheels, and the steering wheel on the wrong side. Pass.

Nearly £9k before shipping, duty, getting up together.

[Rindergulasch]

cybersimon said:

There are three missing.

Perhaps they are the spare parts?

Exactly.

@Original poster: who says 12?