Caterham Superlight # 007 - not so super 'light'.
Discussion
Been reading 'Readers Cars' for sometime, and thought I'd share my experiences with my Superlight .
A quick intro and how I got in owning a Caterham Superlight.
I guess it all started when I was asked by Autosport magazine to photograph a Caterham experience day down at Brooklands twenty
five years ago. I got to drive a Roadsport and a Redtop 220BHP racer complete with slicks. Loved it !
Fast forward twenty years and after owning a couple of tuned Elises, a 944, MG Metro, Audi TT I decided I wanted to try the 7 experience again. I brought an ex Academy race car that was converted for road from Ian Paine at PT Sportscars.
Didn't like the yellow nose cone so had it resprayed green but I did like the yellow field.
I then missed the yellow and added some Caterham F1 stripes.
As well as adding stripes I also added a bit of carpet and a carbon aeroscreen and 15" Prisoner wheels and before people mock me from changing from 13" to 15" there was a good reason. The 13's that were fitted to the car had CR500 tyres, classed as MSA 'B' and I wanted to do a bit of motorsport that required 'A' tyres. By chance I picked up a set of new tyres on Prisoner wheels for £75 for a set of wheels and tyres.
So I did a bit of Autotesting
The other cars in the class had a bit more power, and all had a LSD fitted which got me thinking.....
A lot of Caterhams get upgraded by owners wanting more power and a LSD and I did my maths and thought it would be cheaper to sell and buy one that had the upgrades. So I sold mine and started to look around for a 7 with more power and a LSD.
One or two cars came up in the classifieds and I was even contacted by a guy who had a R500 with 230 BHP who wanted £20k - bit of a bargain but I declined.
I saw the Superlight #007 on Pistonheads for sale, contacted the seller but heard nothing back. A month or so later it appeared on Ebay ( for a lot less then it was advertised on PH ) and I put a bid in and won.
So my new 7 is a bit of a 'heavy' Caterham Superlight #007. I say heavy as the original Superlight weighed in at 470kg. This one has a spare wheel, windscreen, wipers, wiper motors, carpets, doors, etc etc . So after reading MWStewart and the weight reduction of his gorgeous F430 Spider I'd thought I'll see what I can do to the Superlight.
This is all going to wait as it's being worked on at the moment by PTSportscars - more info later.
20 KG added
A quick intro and how I got in owning a Caterham Superlight.
I guess it all started when I was asked by Autosport magazine to photograph a Caterham experience day down at Brooklands twenty
five years ago. I got to drive a Roadsport and a Redtop 220BHP racer complete with slicks. Loved it !
Fast forward twenty years and after owning a couple of tuned Elises, a 944, MG Metro, Audi TT I decided I wanted to try the 7 experience again. I brought an ex Academy race car that was converted for road from Ian Paine at PT Sportscars.
Didn't like the yellow nose cone so had it resprayed green but I did like the yellow field.
I then missed the yellow and added some Caterham F1 stripes.
As well as adding stripes I also added a bit of carpet and a carbon aeroscreen and 15" Prisoner wheels and before people mock me from changing from 13" to 15" there was a good reason. The 13's that were fitted to the car had CR500 tyres, classed as MSA 'B' and I wanted to do a bit of motorsport that required 'A' tyres. By chance I picked up a set of new tyres on Prisoner wheels for £75 for a set of wheels and tyres.
So I did a bit of Autotesting
The other cars in the class had a bit more power, and all had a LSD fitted which got me thinking.....
A lot of Caterhams get upgraded by owners wanting more power and a LSD and I did my maths and thought it would be cheaper to sell and buy one that had the upgrades. So I sold mine and started to look around for a 7 with more power and a LSD.
One or two cars came up in the classifieds and I was even contacted by a guy who had a R500 with 230 BHP who wanted £20k - bit of a bargain but I declined.
I saw the Superlight #007 on Pistonheads for sale, contacted the seller but heard nothing back. A month or so later it appeared on Ebay ( for a lot less then it was advertised on PH ) and I put a bid in and won.
So my new 7 is a bit of a 'heavy' Caterham Superlight #007. I say heavy as the original Superlight weighed in at 470kg. This one has a spare wheel, windscreen, wipers, wiper motors, carpets, doors, etc etc . So after reading MWStewart and the weight reduction of his gorgeous F430 Spider I'd thought I'll see what I can do to the Superlight.
This is all going to wait as it's being worked on at the moment by PTSportscars - more info later.
20 KG added
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