RE: Caterham gets Suzuki power

[gofasterrosssco]

CraigyMc said:

Tophatron said:

How much does the engine weigh? I thought the Ecoboost 3 cyl would have been a great shout for this type of car..

The ecoboost triple is apparently 97kg dressed.
The indie reporter said the Suzuki K6A triple is just over half the ecoboost engine's weight.

I'll have to stick a "citation needed!" sign on my own post as I don't believe the K6A will weigh 50kg dressed.

C

I do know the Suzuki engine is an aluminium alloy block, vs. the iron block of the Ford unit.

It's also substantially lower in capacity, so is possibly also dimensionally smaller.

The Suzuki also has a 5-speed RWD gearbox available, and also potentially a LSD rear diff from the Cappuccino. I guess all these aspects help reduce engineering time and cost for a smaller manufacturer like Caterham, hence allow a lower sale price.. They can buy the lot and package it easy enough

[DonkeyApple]

CraigyMc said:

DonkeyApple said:

The original 7 was about the same BHP and in the right hands will still run rings around most things.

There is room in the market for something which is just for *fun*.

I get the impression that loads of people on here want every car to be a Nissan GTR.

You know which is more fun, and it doesn't have 4wd.

C

When I was a child a Lotus 7 twin cam in JPS colours was in my father's collection. It was always my favourite car. Nothing else felt like it and while there was nothing above 100mph my god was it amusing.

[nta16]

smart51 said:

Suzuki turbo Kei cars make 64 BHP at the rear wheels.

I'm not sure that's so for my UK Cap or my wife's Daihatsu Copen my understanding was for the UK spec cars at least it was 63/64hp at engine, well that's how I remember it when both were officially UK imported and released

Carver had the Daihatsu engine too

[soad]

Hayabusa engine should slot in easily?

[V8 Fettler]

A triple! There'll be howling and wailing, although I suppose the turbocharger will interfere with the aural pleasure.

[CraigyMc]

soad said:

Hayabusa engine should slot in easily?

They can't do it because apparently there's no way to figure out how to make the car reverse if you fit a 'bike engine.

Apparently.

[Andy Cappo]

CraigyMc said:

Is that a dressed weight?

I wonder what sort of turbo they'll be using.

Aluminium is about 1/3rd as dense as iron, but the castings won't be the same shape unless someone insane made them.

C

Yep that's dressed weight.

Standard turbos were IHI RHB31 standard boost 0.9bar but can comfortable run 1.0bar. There was also an uprated version of this turbo that ran 1.2bar. HT07-4A turbos have been used and can run upto around 1.5bar

[McWigglebum4th]

CraigyMc said:

soad said:

Hayabusa engine should slot in easily?

They can't do it because apparently there's no way to figure out how to make the car reverse if you fit a 'bike engine.

Apparently.

No easy way

You are an electric reverse or a reverser box

And they still don't like cars due to the higher G-loading

[Andy Cappo]

nta16 said:

I'm not sure that's so for my UK Cap or my wife's Daihatsu Copen my understanding was for the UK spec cars at least it was 63/64hp at engine, well that's how I remember it when both were officially UK imported and released

Carver had the Daihatsu engine too

Smart51 is correct. Suzuki 'lied' and were the only ones to do it. Honda, Daihatsu etc all stuck to the 63bhp at the fly.

Edited by Andy Cappo on Monday 5th August 18:16

[CraigyMc]

Andy Cappo said:

CraigyMc said:

Is that a dressed weight?

I wonder what sort of turbo they'll be using.

Aluminium is about 1/3rd as dense as iron, but the castings won't be the same shape unless someone insane made them.

C

Yep that's dressed weight.

Standard turbos were IHI RHB31 standard boost 0.9bar but can comfortable run 1.0bar. There was also an uprated version of this turbo that ran 1.2bar. HT07-4A turbos have been used and can run upto around 1.5bar

Wow!

Am I right in thinking the iron engine is stronger? (it'd seem logical for higher boost levels).

C

[Andy Cappo]

Not an awful lot of info on the K6A tuning wise so hard to say but I think they are pretty much on a par. Arctic Cat used a K6A-B engine which is 120bhp out of the box and around 180hp with a few simple mods.

[Woody]

Can't understand the 'It'll be crap on track' comments.
This is clearly aimed at a different market - more of a sunday/nice weather car for a blast along the twisties. Thinking more aimed at classic car enthusiasts.

[schmokin1]

nta16 said:

suffolk009 said:

I hope they go for really unfashionable narrow steel wheels and perhaps even some skinny rear arches. Here's a picture I found of a Lotus 7 Series 2, I think they look great. The series 1 had even narrower arches.

modern drivers with the fashion for wide wheels and low profile tyres and powerful engines have no idea of the fun of thinner wheels and tyres and smaller less powerful engines in lighter cars (or perhaps some Caterham owners the origins of the Lotus 7s) and that fun can be had below the legal speed limits instead of needing to be well above for the fun to start

uhhhhm, 660cc turbo charged engines, why does this sound familiar - but how on earth would that type of engine be able to pull the skin off a rice pudding let alone be fun, narh, it's not possible (is it?) and how on earth in the past did they have sports cars with 328cc n/a engines, must be a myth, mind a lot of people weren't as lardy-arsed as many of us are now

nope, one litre turbo with 100hp and minimum speed of 110mph is absolutely the barest requirement for a car to be fun and really you need a lot more

I was totally wrong buying those cars without those minimum requirements and they were fun and even with my limited driving skills I couldn't on certain types of road keep up with and pass proper powered cars - it was just a dream

not all drivers today have forgotten the fun of narrow tyres - we're to be found on the Westfield Eleven register

the slippery bodywork of the eleven takes care of the lack of top end too!

[Andy Cappo]

Woody said:

Can't understand the 'It'll be crap on track' comments.
This is clearly aimed at a different market - more of a sunday/nice weather car for a blast along the twisties. Thinking more aimed at classic car enthusiasts.

Ding!

Exactly!

[My Evil Twin]

http://www.cappuccinosport.com/section/faqs/action...

upto 230 Hp at the above.. but at a price..
I would guess that something like the 72Hp upgrade comes as std from caterham +/- other bits maybe to get to 85-90Hp...

[Andy Cappo]

My Evil Twin said:

http://www.cappuccinosport.com/section/faqs/action...

upto 230 Hp at the above.. but at a price..
I would guess that something like the 72Hp upgrade comes as std from caterham +/- other bits maybe to get to 85-90Hp...

Just for anyone that contemplates purchasing anything from the above website - don't! A lot of people have been left out of pocket when the owner disappeared! How the website is still live is anyone's guess!

[suffolk009]

CraigyMc said:

suffolk009 said:

40bhp? Only if you had a tuned version! Otherwise it was a standard Ford sidevalve quoted as 28bhp.

Apologies. I wasn't around at the time

C

Me neither - lifted it off the Lotus seven owners site.

[My Evil Twin]

Andy Cappo said:

Just for anyone that contemplates purchasing anything from the above website - don't! A lot of people have been left out of pocket when the owner disappeared! How the website is still live is anyone's guess!

OK.. thanks for stating this... only found it via google.
so aviod them then. but the engine could turn out to be a peach of revvy goodness

[Andy Cappo]

My Evil Twin said:

OK.. thanks for stating this... only found it via google.
so aviod them then. but the engine could turn out to be a peach of revvy goodness

Yep, without a doubt. To both points!

[Vilhelm]

This might end up being my first sports car in a few years time, I love how simple it is, especially the unpainted panels and steel wheels. If it revs to ridiculous RPM like the Cappuccino too, I'm sold.