Options Options Options

[Nampahc Niloc]

I am currently looking into entering the 2019 Academy season and am looking through the Options lists and I would appreciate some advice on the following.

1. Paint, vinyl wrap or leave it bare aluminium?

2. I am under the impression that you need some form of forward and backward facing cameras. If so, do you have to go for the Vbox cameras Caterham offer? Is the Vbox pro worth all the extra money? Are there any good alternatives?

3. Is the black pack worth it? I hear without it that you can get some glare off the back of the chrome headlamps from the sun. Is there any truth to this?

Thanks in advance for all your help.

[coppice]

I managed to do 100k miles in Sevens without being blinded by the sun, death rays, headlights or anything else in the reverse of the headlight bowls. It's a fashion thing- I like them , some prefer the weapons grade look .

Back in the 70s it was cool to have matt black bonnets on rally cars - oddly enough current rally drivers struggle by with bonnets of many colours now ....

[m4tty2000]

Hi,

I've been doing the Academy this year. If you signup you won't regret it.

Nampahc Niloc said:

1. Paint, vinyl wrap or leave it bare aluminium?

My car was vinyl wrap over bare aluminium.

There was a mix on the grid this year.
Aluminium = No cost. Total nightmare to keep clean after you first wet track day over winter it will never look the same again.
Paint = Expensive.
Vinyl = Cheaper than paint, gives you more options in terms of design and colour schemes.

Wings are consumables so we were told go for black unpainted wings since when you lose one on a race weekend Caterham will fit a black one. A lot of people went for coloured wings which mostly survived.

If you go for the vinyl option it's easier to get car wrapped before you start assembly if you are building it yourself.

Nampahc Niloc said:

2. I am under the impression that you need some form of forward and backward facing cameras. If so, do you have to go for the Vbox cameras Caterham offer? Is the Vbox pro worth all the extra money? Are there any good alternatives?

Yep you will need cameras pointing both ways as it's in the regs so if you have a moment on track with someone else everyone submits their footage to work out what happened. Caterham only put the VBox on the option list this year probably because most people buy them anyway.
The only different between the 2 versions is the picture quality. The data logging which is the bit you will be more interested in is exactly the same. I had a GoPro already so just got the Vbox lite for car and used my existing GoPro for anything I wanted to put on YouTube or show mates.

Nampahc Niloc said:

3. Is the black pack worth it? I hear without it that you can get some glare off the back of the chrome headlamps from the sun. Is there any truth to this?

I went black pack only because I prefer black to chrome. A lot of people went for the black pack but I can't remember anyone with chrome complained about glare. Even if you did a tinted visor would soon fix that.

Edited by m4tty2000 on Tuesday 31st October 21:02

[JUPE777]

m4tty2000 said:

I went black pack only because I prefer black to chrome. A lot of people went for the black pack but I can't remember anyone with chrome complained about glare. Even if you did a tinted visor would soon fix that.

Edited by m4tty2000 on Tuesday 31st October 21:02

I started in the academy the year before Matt and everything he says is spot on. Be on the look out for a used vbox lite although they do seem to hold their money well. In the first year everyone is precious about how their car looks but that soon changes after a few scrapes, my advice is to be practical and view it as a tool, I wouldn’t spend unnecessary money if starting again.

[Nampahc Niloc]

Thanks so much for your detailed answers. That really answers a few things for me. I won’t bother with the black pack then and I’ll keep an eye out on eBay for a well priced Vbox.

[pmason74]

There’s a Vbox for sale on the Lotus Club site that may be worth a look per the following (apols but I’m not technically competent enough to paste a link!)

The kit comes with:

-VBOX Lite Caterham specific kit
- Front and rear cameras
- OLED lap timer
- ODB2 Cable for plugging into ECU for throttle position & revs (requires ecu tweak)
- ODB2 Cable for hard wiring (as above)
- Softbits Tunnel Strap
- 12v hardwire cable
- 12v cig cable
- Cable trunking for in car routing