Bought myself an R400
Discussion
Just had to share it with everyone, I'm so chuffed! Test drove it yesterday and I have to say that even having previously owned 4 Sevens this car absolutely blew my socks off - and I thought my R300 was fast! As for the noise, well, I've heard quieter WWII aircraft which could cause a few problems on trackdays but hell it's worth the aggrovation!
Hi Jeremy,
The pics will follow shortly but the spec is as follows:
2002 R400 in Monte Carlo Blue
std R400 spec plus;
interchangeable aeroscreen (full carbon)
Cat by-pass pipe
13" mag wheels
FIA rollbar
currently having the '7' on the grill painted orange as I thought would contrast nicely with the dark blue paint finish. The bars across the grill will be painted black (as apposed to the normal silver) to give the '7' the appearence of 'floating'in the nosecone. I dis a similar thing with one of my old Superlights and it looked very good, albeit in yellow. What do you think, will orange look okay?
The pics will follow shortly but the spec is as follows:
2002 R400 in Monte Carlo Blue
std R400 spec plus;
interchangeable aeroscreen (full carbon)
Cat by-pass pipe
13" mag wheels
FIA rollbar
currently having the '7' on the grill painted orange as I thought would contrast nicely with the dark blue paint finish. The bars across the grill will be painted black (as apposed to the normal silver) to give the '7' the appearence of 'floating'in the nosecone. I dis a similar thing with one of my old Superlights and it looked very good, albeit in yellow. What do you think, will orange look okay?
I must admit I wasn't too sure what colour to do it, one of the reasons for the orange was to mimic the colour schemes of the 60's GP teams ie. BRM et al. I saw an R500 not long ago in a very dark green with an orange noseband and that looked very cool in a retro kind of way, but I suppose if I don't like the orange '7' it's no great pain to change it.
The reason I went for 13" mags was for the simple reason that the tyre choice is pretty much endless withh this size. I really want to invest in some slicks to use for trackdays so 13" was the logical choice. My previous R300 had the 15" wheels and handled superbly but for me they seemed to take away some of the urgency and directness from the steering which could be seen as either a good thing or a bad thing I guess. And no it didn't come from Scotland, but down sarrf!
Thanks Mungo, I pick the car up first thing Tuesday morning and I can't wait! I've been too long without a Caterham to 'play' with and after driving the R400 I just had to have it and having test driven many weapons this was the only car to have that effect (T350,111S etc included). I'm not sure if I'll sleep much between now and Tuesday!!
It will be a pleasure to keep you updated on the R400, and I have to agree with Mr Tomalin that the performance really is quite unreal under full throttle. Having driven it in dry conditions and experienced wheelspin in 4th gear I can only imagine what driving it in the wet will be like as my R300 was bad (good?) enough!!! I can't wait to get it on a track and there's an EvoActive day coming up soon at Snetterton although may do Brands Indy first as I have greater experience there.
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