K-series Caterham for sub 11k... possible??
Discussion
Don't know any details, but a friend of a friend dailys a 220 and loves it. They are still fairly raw, but also have a roof and doors rather than a couple of flaps of cloth.
As said, if you're getting to tub/clam damage then for a road car it's the insurance companies problem not your, as would chassis damage on a Caterfield. Unless you are also planning trackdays, but if it's your daily the risk also already significant there.
Don't know what insurance is like on a 220 compared to a Caterfield. Might be a sticking point. As might the fact that is fails to tick the 'wanted a seven sine I was 6yo' box.
Daniel
As said, if you're getting to tub/clam damage then for a road car it's the insurance companies problem not your, as would chassis damage on a Caterfield. Unless you are also planning trackdays, but if it's your daily the risk also already significant there.
Don't know what insurance is like on a 220 compared to a Caterfield. Might be a sticking point. As might the fact that is fails to tick the 'wanted a seven sine I was 6yo' box.
Daniel
DoubleD said:
Im not the OP, just interested in the thread.
That's me! 
Paul the Painter said:
I was doing the same about 6 years ago. Ended up finding a de Dion Crossflow that had been fitted with a 2.0 Zetec with around 200bhp.
Personally, after trying the half-hood it came with, I unbolted all the normal hood stuff and stored it in the garage, never to see the light of day again. Only ever got a slightly damp right shoulder in really heavy rain. The soft bits for send half good is really good, and I can get it on at a set of traffic lights.
Drove it daily for 3 years, my partner is a locum, so I was often driving 2-3 hours on a Friday night and Monday morning to see her, and never had a problem, generally arriving in better shape than before. Sort of keeps you awake driving open top in the winter!
Now we are talking! I assume your zetec was fuel injected? Personally, after trying the half-hood it came with, I unbolted all the normal hood stuff and stored it in the garage, never to see the light of day again. Only ever got a slightly damp right shoulder in really heavy rain. The soft bits for send half good is really good, and I can get it on at a set of traffic lights.
Drove it daily for 3 years, my partner is a locum, so I was often driving 2-3 hours on a Friday night and Monday morning to see her, and never had a problem, generally arriving in better shape than before. Sort of keeps you awake driving open top in the winter!
coldel said:
A left field idea, maybe a halfway house solution of getting an NA VX220? £10k would get you a good example with mid to low mileage, no rust issues to worry about, more livable day to day than a Caterham but still a more epic experience than an MX5 to drive (with no offence meant to the MX5 owners on here). Appreciate your dream since a young 'un has been a caterham but the VX would be a good stop gap until you have the proper funds and you are unlikely to lose any money on it.
You raise some very good points. Both the VX and elise S1 are contenders and always have been. The only issues I have with them is that they are much harder to work on and parts are expensive and much harder to come by. Plus prices seem to be peaking I think, at least for the elise. Pretty much zero corrosion though which is always a plus!Edited by coldel on Wednesday 12th June 08:58
I'd be very happy with any of the three but experiencing a Caterham is a bit of a must!
IamTupperware
>
I've done the daily driver thing for 5 years with a New Lotus 7 [yep I built it from the kit too] , after 56K miles the chassis would have needed replacing before the next MOT I sold it and bought a 'horrible- but supposedly cool & fast' Tintop Oh well - my first mistake
A few years later I bought another 7 [to compliment the essential shopping trolley] - I only used this 7 in summer months, This car lasted 24 years,[during this period after dumping lodsa Blonde Bimbo's who didnt like/wouldn't travel in the 7] I met my wife who loved the car too! [since my experience with females and 7's I've noticed most other 7 owners never have the wife with em' whilst in the 7 - maybe you may consider this to be a postive too - if so stick with a TV advertised tintop she'll certainly prefer it] - I hankered after another real 7 so sold the 2nd car and bought a similar car to my first Lotus7. I've had this [my current] car for 16 years travelling 45K miles in it
NOTHING, NOTHING at all compares to a 7 - I've driven all of the fastest tintops on the planet - they're all f
king crap [a very very poor compromise if like me you appreciate driving the most dynamic of cars] in comparison the tintops are all fat overweight boats - the aforementioned horrible VX220 included.
The 7 comes alive when driven on the right roads NOTHING else on 4 wheels gives the driver this thrill, if you think your Maclaren, porsche, nissanGTR,M3,M5 audi RS4 are awesome, they're not [they may do 200mph in a striaght line though -YAWN yawn YAWN] it's just you believing the Crappy TV ad's which tell you they are the Ultimate vorsprung Dork tecknic overpriced/overated/ overweight/ piece of crap designed solely for use as a shopping trolley. HOWEVER - a shopping trolley the 7 isn't, of course if you never drive one properly you'll never appreciate the difference between a 7 and a crappy tintop, however much power the flabby tintop has, IMO a 150BHP 7 is all you'll ever need.
Another factor to consider are todays busy roads, unless you live somewhere very rural you'll never be able to drive your 7 properly, if this is the case and you're a serious about being a 7 owner then you need to buy a house in a nice rural area and only then think about getting yourself a 7. If you live in most of the UK any 7 is wasted on todays dangerously overcrowded roads, don't think that the occasional trackday will satisfy you, any 7 is wasted on trackdays IMO - you need to drive it extensively on proper 'B' roads to experience its virtues sadly 99.9% of 7 owners never manage this experience, again this is IMO.
By all means use a 7 everyday if you can overcome all the previously mentioned problems, ask yourself are you the type of person who can take the jibes from your mates and continual rejection by the Tarted up & false Bimbo's [who are no good for you anyway
] which you'll certainly get, for sure you'll definitely stand out from all the other boring sheep who drive their tintops believing all the TV ad's bullst.
If you're still reading this post, you only live once give it a try, maybe like me you'll meet a girl who also likes 7's and you both live happily ever after with the 7 an essential part of both your lives, just like us - good luck
>
I've done the daily driver thing for 5 years with a New Lotus 7 [yep I built it from the kit too] , after 56K miles the chassis would have needed replacing before the next MOT I sold it and bought a 'horrible- but supposedly cool & fast' Tintop Oh well - my first mistake
A few years later I bought another 7 [to compliment the essential shopping trolley] - I only used this 7 in summer months, This car lasted 24 years,[during this period after dumping lodsa Blonde Bimbo's who didnt like/wouldn't travel in the 7] I met my wife who loved the car too! [since my experience with females and 7's I've noticed most other 7 owners never have the wife with em' whilst in the 7 - maybe you may consider this to be a postive too - if so stick with a TV advertised tintop she'll certainly prefer it] - I hankered after another real 7 so sold the 2nd car and bought a similar car to my first Lotus7. I've had this [my current] car for 16 years travelling 45K miles in it
NOTHING, NOTHING at all compares to a 7 - I've driven all of the fastest tintops on the planet - they're all f
king crap [a very very poor compromise if like me you appreciate driving the most dynamic of cars] in comparison the tintops are all fat overweight boats - the aforementioned horrible VX220 included. The 7 comes alive when driven on the right roads NOTHING else on 4 wheels gives the driver this thrill, if you think your Maclaren, porsche, nissanGTR,M3,M5 audi RS4 are awesome, they're not [they may do 200mph in a striaght line though -YAWN yawn YAWN] it's just you believing the Crappy TV ad's which tell you they are the Ultimate vorsprung Dork tecknic overpriced/overated/ overweight/ piece of crap designed solely for use as a shopping trolley. HOWEVER - a shopping trolley the 7 isn't, of course if you never drive one properly you'll never appreciate the difference between a 7 and a crappy tintop, however much power the flabby tintop has, IMO a 150BHP 7 is all you'll ever need.
Another factor to consider are todays busy roads, unless you live somewhere very rural you'll never be able to drive your 7 properly, if this is the case and you're a serious about being a 7 owner then you need to buy a house in a nice rural area and only then think about getting yourself a 7. If you live in most of the UK any 7 is wasted on todays dangerously overcrowded roads, don't think that the occasional trackday will satisfy you, any 7 is wasted on trackdays IMO - you need to drive it extensively on proper 'B' roads to experience its virtues sadly 99.9% of 7 owners never manage this experience, again this is IMO.
By all means use a 7 everyday if you can overcome all the previously mentioned problems, ask yourself are you the type of person who can take the jibes from your mates and continual rejection by the Tarted up & false Bimbo's [who are no good for you anyway
] which you'll certainly get, for sure you'll definitely stand out from all the other boring sheep who drive their tintops believing all the TV ad's bullst.If you're still reading this post, you only live once give it a try, maybe like me you'll meet a girl who also likes 7's and you both live happily ever after with the 7 an essential part of both your lives, just like us - good luck
Edited by rene7 on Wednesday 12th June 19:45
rene7 said:
IamTupperware
>
NOTHING, NOTHING at all compares to a 7 - I've driven all of the fastest tintops on the planet - they're all fking crap [a very very poor compromise if like me you appreciate driving the most dynamic of cars] in comparison the tintops are all fat overweight boats - the aforementioned horrible VX220 included.
This post was rather tricky to read, so I may have missed it, but what is horrible about the VX220?>
NOTHING, NOTHING at all compares to a 7 - I've driven all of the fastest tintops on the planet - they're all f
king crap [a very very poor compromise if like me you appreciate driving the most dynamic of cars] in comparison the tintops are all fat overweight boats - the aforementioned horrible VX220 included. Edited by rene7 on Wednesday 12th June 19:45
DoubleD said:
This post was rather tricky to read, so I may have missed it, but what is horrible about the VX220?
Believe the wheels are too big, but otherwise it's a reasonable car.There is certainly a big difference between a seven type and other cars, I've had a lot of fun in a reasonably warm pug 306, E36 compact which stepped out nicely, currently daily a E45 330ci which is fine. Certainly I've had the Westfield ten years now and don't plan to sell it.
Daniel
Yep the Zetec is fuel injected, on throttle bodies, cams and ECU. Was made/installed by Raceline, I bought the car for £11k - receipts for the engine and other required modifications were around £8k. .
Warning that I forgot for daily driving, DO NOT drive in the snow if the cambelt etc is exposed - ask me how I know - expensive error that one.
Thinking further, now my partner is back working near home, and has a "normal" car, might ditch the Lexus that is costing a fortune in tax and fuel and go back to daily driving the 7. At one stage our "fleet" was the Caterham and her MX5. Caterham had to do garden centre duties.
Warning that I forgot for daily driving, DO NOT drive in the snow if the cambelt etc is exposed - ask me how I know - expensive error that one.
Thinking further, now my partner is back working near home, and has a "normal" car, might ditch the Lexus that is costing a fortune in tax and fuel and go back to daily driving the 7. At one stage our "fleet" was the Caterham and her MX5. Caterham had to do garden centre duties.
Edited by Paul the Painter on Wednesday 12th June 23:34
rene7 said:
IamTupperware
>
I've done the daily driver thing for 5 years with a New Lotus 7 [yep I built it from the kit too] , after 56K miles the chassis would have needed replacing before the next MOT I sold it and bought a 'horrible- but supposedly cool & fast' Tintop Oh well - my first mistake
A few years later I bought another 7 [to compliment the essential shopping trolley] - I only used this 7 in summer months, This car lasted 24 years,[during this period after dumping lodsa Blonde Bimbo's who didnt like/wouldn't travel in the 7] I met my wife who loved the car too! [since my experience with females and 7's I've noticed most other 7 owners never have the wife with em' whilst in the 7 - maybe you may consider this to be a postive too - if so stick with a TV advertised tintop she'll certainly prefer it] - I hankered after another real 7 so sold the 2nd car and bought a similar car to my first Lotus7. I've had this [my current] car for 16 years travelling 45K miles in it
NOTHING, NOTHING at all compares to a 7 - I've driven all of the fastest tintops on the planet - they're all fking crap [a very very poor compromise if like me you appreciate driving the most dynamic of cars] in comparison the tintops are all fat overweight boats - the aforementioned horrible VX220 included.
The 7 comes alive when driven on the right roads NOTHING else on 4 wheels gives the driver this thrill, if you think your Maclaren, porsche, nissanGTR,M3,M5 audi RS4 are awesome, they're not [they may do 200mph in a striaght line though -YAWN yawn YAWN] it's just you believing the Crappy TV ad's which tell you they are the Ultimate vorsprung Dork tecknic overpriced/overated/ overweight/ piece of crap designed solely for use as a shopping trolley. HOWEVER - a shopping trolley the 7 isn't, of course if you never drive one properly you'll never appreciate the difference between a 7 and a crappy tintop, however much power the flabby tintop has, IMO a 150BHP 7 is all you'll ever need.
Another factor to consider are todays busy roads, unless you live somewhere very rural you'll never be able to drive your 7 properly, if this is the case and you're a serious about being a 7 owner then you need to buy a house in a nice rural area and only then think about getting yourself a 7. If you live in most of the UK any 7 is wasted on todays dangerously overcrowded roads, don't think that the occasional trackday will satisfy you, any 7 is wasted on trackdays IMO - you need to drive it extensively on proper 'B' roads to experience its virtues sadly 99.9% of 7 owners never manage this experience, again this is IMO.
By all means use a 7 everyday if you can overcome all the previously mentioned problems, ask yourself are you the type of person who can take the jibes from your mates and continual rejection by the Tarted up & false Bimbo's [who are no good for you anyway] which you'll certainly get, for sure you'll definitely stand out from all the other boring sheep who drive their tintops believing all the TV ad's bullst.
If you're still reading this post, you only live once give it a try, maybe like me you'll meet a girl who also likes 7's and you both live happily ever after with the 7 an essential part of both your lives, just like us - good luck
Wow, just wow >
I've done the daily driver thing for 5 years with a New Lotus 7 [yep I built it from the kit too] , after 56K miles the chassis would have needed replacing before the next MOT I sold it and bought a 'horrible- but supposedly cool & fast' Tintop Oh well - my first mistake
A few years later I bought another 7 [to compliment the essential shopping trolley] - I only used this 7 in summer months, This car lasted 24 years,[during this period after dumping lodsa Blonde Bimbo's who didnt like/wouldn't travel in the 7] I met my wife who loved the car too! [since my experience with females and 7's I've noticed most other 7 owners never have the wife with em' whilst in the 7 - maybe you may consider this to be a postive too - if so stick with a TV advertised tintop she'll certainly prefer it] - I hankered after another real 7 so sold the 2nd car and bought a similar car to my first Lotus7. I've had this [my current] car for 16 years travelling 45K miles in it
NOTHING, NOTHING at all compares to a 7 - I've driven all of the fastest tintops on the planet - they're all f
king crap [a very very poor compromise if like me you appreciate driving the most dynamic of cars] in comparison the tintops are all fat overweight boats - the aforementioned horrible VX220 included. The 7 comes alive when driven on the right roads NOTHING else on 4 wheels gives the driver this thrill, if you think your Maclaren, porsche, nissanGTR,M3,M5 audi RS4 are awesome, they're not [they may do 200mph in a striaght line though -YAWN yawn YAWN] it's just you believing the Crappy TV ad's which tell you they are the Ultimate vorsprung Dork tecknic overpriced/overated/ overweight/ piece of crap designed solely for use as a shopping trolley. HOWEVER - a shopping trolley the 7 isn't, of course if you never drive one properly you'll never appreciate the difference between a 7 and a crappy tintop, however much power the flabby tintop has, IMO a 150BHP 7 is all you'll ever need.
Another factor to consider are todays busy roads, unless you live somewhere very rural you'll never be able to drive your 7 properly, if this is the case and you're a serious about being a 7 owner then you need to buy a house in a nice rural area and only then think about getting yourself a 7. If you live in most of the UK any 7 is wasted on todays dangerously overcrowded roads, don't think that the occasional trackday will satisfy you, any 7 is wasted on trackdays IMO - you need to drive it extensively on proper 'B' roads to experience its virtues sadly 99.9% of 7 owners never manage this experience, again this is IMO.
By all means use a 7 everyday if you can overcome all the previously mentioned problems, ask yourself are you the type of person who can take the jibes from your mates and continual rejection by the Tarted up & false Bimbo's [who are no good for you anyway
] which you'll certainly get, for sure you'll definitely stand out from all the other boring sheep who drive their tintops believing all the TV ad's bullst.If you're still reading this post, you only live once give it a try, maybe like me you'll meet a girl who also likes 7's and you both live happily ever after with the 7 an essential part of both your lives, just like us - good luck
Edited by rene7 on Wednesday 12th June 19:45
GetCarter said:
DickyC said:
IAmTupperware said:
I'd be very happy with any of the three but experiencing a Caterham is a bit of a must!
Hire one from Caterham. That's a good day out. 
DickyC said:
Secret: you didn't hear this from me. When we returned the cars unblemished we were told we now qualified to hire a Lightweight. Hiring a Lightweight isn't mentioned on their website. Haven't done it yet but, y'know, nice to have the facility.
?? What’s a lightweight?Or more to the point what do you think it is and what did you hire in the first place?
As far as I know they haven’t built a truly (in 7 terms) lightweight car for years and certainly haven't any on their stock list.
My 2015 R400D was one of the last cars designated ‘Superlight’ but in all honesty it isn’t really.
REALIST123 said:
?? What’s a lightweight?
Or more to the point what do you think it is and what did you hire in the first place?
As far as I know they haven’t built a truly (in 7 terms) lightweight car for years and certainly haven't any on their stock list.
My 2015 R400D was one of the last cars designated ‘Superlight’ but in all honesty it isn’t really.
Don't spoil it. I was so chuffed when they said. Or more to the point what do you think it is and what did you hire in the first place?
As far as I know they haven’t built a truly (in 7 terms) lightweight car for years and certainly haven't any on their stock list.
My 2015 R400D was one of the last cars designated ‘Superlight’ but in all honesty it isn’t really.
I wonder if I've changed it in the telling. Maybe it was Superlight. The point is they offered us the opportunity to hire a much faster version than we did that wasn't available to hire on their website. The ones you hire in the first instance are as standard as they get. All three we had were cooking 1.6 IIRC. They seemed pretty quick to us.
After 3 years of owning a 270S SV, and driving in all weathers (on all types of road) I would advise any potential road driver not to focus BHP at all. I have never felt I needed more power, have 90% of the time had a really stupid grin on my face (exceptions being any motorways in rain) and been able to use it for everything including a weekly shop. Yes, you will have to deal with daft comments and boy racers at the lights but the number of smiles, envy based questions and waves from all types of people will outway these by 10-1 anytime. If you want to daily it, great; it's your car, and any depreciation will be better than ANY other car you could drive.
LIfe is too short for regrets and missed opportunities, go for it
LIfe is too short for regrets and missed opportunities, go for it
dhutch said:
Superlight. On one level it's just a model name, but equally at a 1/3 of the weight of modern car with the same power still fairly light.
Oh, I agree, that’s why I said “in 7 terms”. I was just puzzled about the term ‘lightweight’ being used as it, as far as I know, refers to a few historical, focussed models that haven’t been around for some time.
Gassing Station | Caterham | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff