Friday 13th January 2012

Caterham to move into karting

All-new 'one-make' Caterham karting championship set for 2013

---

Do a bit of this with Caterham as a young 'un and...

Caterham is planning to take its motorsport activities into the karting arena, with a new Caterham Motorsport-run karting championship for 2013 (insert your own 'kart-like handling' cliches here).

The move, announced at the Autosport show, will involve karts designed and developed by Caterham themselves and a low-cost, all-inclusive philosophy similar to the Caterham Academy one-make series for the Seven.

...you could end up like Riggers. Only better

The championship, which will be aimed at 11-14 year-olds, will provide a first rung on the Caterham motorsport ladder. This means that aspiring racers could now in theory race a Caterham all the way from karting, via the various one-make Seven-based championships, all the way up to the SP/300.R sports prototype, GP2 single-seaters and even the firm's F1 team.

"We've built a strong reputation for providing terrific value for money in motorsport through great cars and a playing field so even you could put a spirit level on it," says Caterham motorsport manager Simon Lambert.

"Now we'd like to use this wealth of knowledge and expertise in karting by establishing a cost-effective series that will combine fun, technology and great competition elements that we think are beginning to be overlooked in kart racing."

Plans for the series are still very much embryonic at the moment - with uncertainty even over whether to use two-stroke or four-stroke engines, but these should coalesce into a clear vision for the new series during the course of 2012, before the inaugural championship next year.

[soad]

Good stuff!

[Robmarriott]

Judging by what he said, Simon Lambert has had a stroke?

[Robmarriott]

Judging by what he said, Simon Lambert has had a stroke?

[ctallchris]

Is 11-14 actual or mental age?

[slipstream 1985]

just what karting needs, another "low cost" grid splitting the already suffering grid numbers

[Mafioso]

What's happening in paragraph 4?

[Sicob]

Robmarriott said:

Judging by what he said, Simon Lambert has had a stroke?

PMSL

[onesickpuppy]

Robmarriott said:

Judging by what he said, Simon Lambert has had a stroke?

[morgs_]

Mafioso said:

What's happening in paragraph 4?

Lack of proof reading

Think it should have been:

What it should have said:

"We've built a strong reputation for providing terrific value for money in motorsport through great cars and a playing field so even you could put a spirit level on it," says Caterham motorsport manager Simon Lambert.

Great to see them investing at so many levels of the sport.

[morgs_]

Robmarriott said:

Judging by what he said, Simon Lambert has had a stroke?

Robmarriott said:

Judging by what he said, Simon Lambert has had a stroke?

Judging by Rob's double post he has Alzheimers Love it though

[MrKipling43]

Shame there's not going to be a category for 'people who would have been F1 world champions, but their parents couldn't afford to fund a karting career and now, heading in to their thrities, have a bit of spare cash but not enough for racing proper cars and would like a pre-set championship with regulated karts so they could in fact prove themselves to be nothing more than vaguely competent overweight club racers' like me.

Might need a bit of work on the title. PWWHBFWCBTPCATFAKCANHITTTHABOSCBNEFRPCAWLAPSCWRKSTCPTTBNMTVCOCR er, Championship?

Yeah, that works.

[lockup]

morgs_ said:

Judging by Rob's double post he has Alzheimers Love it though

More like Parkinsons - ol' shakey-submit-click.

[alexpa]

MrKipling43 said:

Shame there's not going to be a category for 'people who would have been F1 world champions, but their parents couldn't afford to fund a karting career and now, heading in to their thrities, have a bit of spare cash but not enough for racing proper cars and would like a pre-set championship with regulated karts so they could in fact prove themselves to be nothing more than vaguely competent overweight club racers' like me.

Might need a bit of work on the title. PWWHBFWCBTPCATFAKCANHITTTHABOSCBNEFRPCAWLAPSCWRKSTCPTTBNMTVCOCR er, Championship?

Yeah, that works.

There's already exactly that.

For arrive and drive: club100, endurance and sprint 2 stroke.
www.club100.co.uk I did this for a few years, great very affordable fun.

For arrive and drive / own your own kart and very very quick:
http://aim-motorsport.co.uk/index.php?option=com_c...

The aim motorsport Aixro XR50 race series. I do this now, this is my third year. SUPER QUICK 50hp 300cc Rotary engined kart. Very friendly bunch of great guys. Everyone helps out if needed. If you want to try it give Richard at Aim a shout, he'll let you have a go to see what you think, but if you dont want to open your wallett dont try as you will not be able to resist! I couldnt, makes 100cc two strokes of club100 feel slow. The Aixro on hard tyres is quicker than the F1 equivalent of karting (KF1), this year we are using medium tyres so will be faster still!

You dont need MSA membership for either

[MrKipling43]

alexpa said:

There's already exactly that.

Magic, cheers!

[woof]

alexpa said:

MrKipling43 said:

Shame there's not going to be a category for 'people who would have been F1 world champions, but their parents couldn't afford to fund a karting career and now, heading in to their thrities, have a bit of spare cash but not enough for racing proper cars and would like a pre-set championship with regulated karts so they could in fact prove themselves to be nothing more than vaguely competent overweight club racers' like me.

Might need a bit of work on the title. PWWHBFWCBTPCATFAKCANHITTTHABOSCBNEFRPCAWLAPSCWRKSTCPTTBNMTVCOCR er, Championship?

Yeah, that works.

There's already exactly that.

For arrive and drive: club100, endurance and sprint 2 stroke.
www.club100.co.uk I did this for a few years, great very affordable fun.

For arrive and drive / own your own kart and very very quick:
http://aim-motorsport.co.uk/index.php?option=com_c...

The aim motorsport Aixro XR50 race series. I do this now, this is my third year. SUPER QUICK 50hp 300cc Rotary engined kart. Very friendly bunch of great guys. Everyone helps out if needed. If you want to try it give Richard at Aim a shout, he'll let you have a go to see what you think, but if you dont want to open your wallett dont try as you will not be able to resist! I couldnt, makes 100cc two strokes of club100 feel slow. The Aixro on hard tyres is quicker than the F1 equivalent of karting (KF1), this year we are using medium tyres so will be faster still!

You dont need MSA membership for either

And don't forget DMAX - which gets better every year. Very healthy grids and good value
http://www.daytonamax.co.uk

[Riggers]

Robmarriott said:

Judging by what he said, Simon Lambert has had a stroke?

More like shaky clicking on the editorial side - somehow part of the text for the caption ended up in the body copy. i blame working with a trackpad rather than a mouse [/badworkman]...

[Stew2000]

Karts need a redesign. maybe Caterham will do something good.

[bigbadbikercats]

Stew2000 said:

Karts need a redesign. maybe Caterham will do something good.

Caterham have an excellent track record for not f*cking around with things which don't need f*cking around with (arguably that's what they've built their business on) and barring the odd tweak to keep the engines current and maintain/improve safety Karts definitely come under the category of things which don't need f*cking around with...

[TonyHetherington]

All good, but should we revisit Caterham's big announcement from last year, and how that's going?

[PhillipM]

I generally find I don't need to put a spirit level on things that are already level....;)