Advice Buying my first Caterham

[Jumpingjackflash]

I have just started doing my homework on Caterham's. I hope you do not mind me hijacking the post. Can anyone give me a genral overview of the Seven range please?

What is difference between standard and wide body?

what gearboxes and engines do they use?

What is best chassis and suspension for road use (Scotland)

cheers

[Kenty in Weardale]

SV chassis gives a little more width, bit bigger petrol tank but, most importantly for me, a bigger pedal box. I have size 10 wide feet and could not safely drive a S3 car. Others with more tech knowledge than me are better placed to give an overview re engines/gearboxes etc but your perfect fit IMHO is going to depend on what type of use you are aiming for.

I have a 270S SV with a 6 speed box, don't do trackdays and live in the North Pennines. I've never felt I needed more power but at 59 I'm probably beyond the "racer" profile who seek loads of speed

[Murph7355]

Jumpingjackflash said:

I have just started doing my homework on Caterham's. I hope you do not mind me hijacking the post. Can anyone give me a genral overview of the Seven range please?

What is difference between standard and wide body?

what gearboxes and engines do they use?

What is best chassis and suspension for road use (Scotland)

cheers

Spend a ton of time reading through the pages on here. These questions gets asked a lot and there's masses of info (at least three threads on here the last week or so). When you exhaust here, go and look at Blatchat and do the same

I'm not suggesting this out of laziness - you will get a much, much more comprehensive view than by asking a wide question on one thread. On a single thread you may not get "everyone" listening in/responding, so will get skewed views.

For example, the SV didn't exist when I bought mine. I'm 6'4", have pushed 19st at my heaviest (sub 16st now) and have size 11/wide feet. I fit comfortably in an S3 chassis. And having driven SVs felt they were too big. A 7 is a different beast to any other car. You shouldn't assess them by the same standards. That is not to say the view on the SV above is "wrong", it's just different. Which also makes trying different cars vital. These are frivolous purchases at the best of times. You want to get it right

Do plenty of reading, then post specific threads on detail specifics you're still not clear on

[gashead1105]

Well, you can do the sensible thing of setting a budget; carefully browsing the market, selecting a low mileage, low owner garage queen...

Or you can do what I did 3 weeks ago, which was take a quick look at what was available for c18k and then buy a many owner, 54k mile, 20 year old 1.8 Superlight. I wanted the K-series engine, it suits lightweight sportscars so well; coupled with the 6 speed gearbox its totally mental even in the c145hp form that I have. It also came with tillet seats, LSD, full weather gear, spare set of wheels, aeroscreen and windscreen; and plenty of stonechips. The clutch failed 3 miles from home and it's been in pieces in a mate's barn since then but I'm putting it back together in better shape than I bought it, the gearbox has been inspected and refreshed, new removable steering wheel, shift lights and some other bits and bobs. Hopefully get it back on the road by the end of the week, and then it's off to Snetterton or Bedford to test it out properly...

[ghibbett]

Best advise IMO: get yourself to one of the Caterham dealerships, sit in a bunch of different cars to understand what feels best (S3 vs SV, Tillets vs Leather seats etc, Std floors vs Lowered floors etc).

Then hire one for the day/weekend.

[Lewboy95]

Would recommend hiring one also, we hired One for half a day from a company called 7ecosse In Crieff. Would highly recommend them, they gave us plenty of
Information to help our search for a caterham

[PiersR]

First thing is to buy the book “ The Magnificent Seven”. If you get the latest publication, it will have a review of every model virtually to date. Then read and absorb and decide what you think may be suitable. Then visit some specialist 7 dealers and sit is as many as you can, plus drive a few. By then, you should know what you want.

[andy97]

ash73 said:

A modern design abandoned:
- CSR with IRS, supple and refined, expensive and rare, SV size only
- If you want the best road going Caterham, this is it.

Why was the CSR abandoned?

[Murph7355]

ash73 said:

andy97 said:

Why was the CSR abandoned?

I think it was a combination of factors.

They optimised the suspension for the road, and it ended up very supple. Inevitably some people didn't like it on track.

Most people prefer the narrowbody S3 and weren't interested in the new dash and wings, they just wanted a pretend Lotus 7.

It was expensive, so probably didn't sell. Second hand values show it's still highly regarded, though.

It's a shame, the return to de dion cars is a step backwards in terms of road driving, imho.

Agreed.

Fundamentally the increase in cost/complexity didn't provide enough advantage for the money.

I also think it must have increased production costs, running two totally different base products for what benefit? I suspect they needed to switch to one or the other.

[mic]

CSR is still sold in Europe with a 2.0l L engine

[dhutch]

As a live axle narrowbody westfield owner, my understand is that while fully independent rear suspension is technically superior and can nominally give you more scope to adjust certain aspects. In practice for these cars a fixed axle provide a very good platform nonetheless, and with the de-dion the diff is no longer un-sprung mass.

[upsidedownmark]

On the cage - you wouldn't swap in/out for track work, but don't discount a car with a cage. It's entirely feasible to swap it for a bar and sell the cage without vast expense.

[dhutch]

upsidedownmark said:

On the cage - you wouldn't swap in/out for track work, but don't discount a car with a cage. It's entirely feasible to swap it for a bar and sell the cage without vast expense.

Presumably you then have to do something with the forward mount points to disguise the removed cage?

[Murph7355]

dhutch said:

upsidedownmark said:

On the cage - you wouldn't swap in/out for track work, but don't discount a car with a cage. It's entirely feasible to swap it for a bar and sell the cage without vast expense.

Presumably you then have to do something with the forward mount points to disguise the removed cage?

You do if you don't want it to look like you had a cage fitted

I suspect there are more non-race cars without cages, so personally I wouldn't bother with the hassle. Roll cages are great for stiffness and safety, but they ruin any semblance of practicality (I know, it's a 7. But you can use them for touring quite comfortably with a FIA bar and weather gear).

[upsidedownmark]

I guess yes, there's a blanked front mount point, but gee.. what a big deal! There are plenty of cars out there, but the spec is variable, and if you find something that ticks all the boxes, but happens to have a cage, it would seem a bit fatuous to reject it for the sake of a swap and a couple of blanked off bolt holes. But if you want to polish rather than drive, maybe that matters more to you than an LSD for instance. YMMV

I'd also suggest that the downsides of a cage are rather overstated - I was adamant I didn't want one, but it took a while to get the bar and swap out my cage.. by the time it actually went I was almost disappointed to see it go. For me the killer was that I wasn't happy having a cage and no helmet, and didn't want a helmet on the road. Otherwise I'd have been sorely tempted to keep it.

[Murph7355]

upsidedownmark said:

....

I'd also suggest that the downsides of a cage are rather overstated - I was adamant I didn't want one, but it took a while to get the bar and swap out my cage.. by the time it actually went I was almost disappointed to see it go. For me the killer was that I wasn't happy having a cage and no helmet, and didn't want a helmet on the road. Otherwise I'd have been sorely tempted to keep it.

"Overstated" but you were only "almost" tempted not to swap and didn't feel right wearing it without a helmet

Yanking your chain to an extent. I know what you mean about helmets. tbh I wouldn't drive an aeroscreened car without one - my helmet has been smacked too many times with grit and other road detritus that the thought of getting clocked in the teeth, eye or anywhere else on the face is enough for me to say 'no chance'.

The cage also makes getting in and out a ball ache. I'm a larger athlete so there is no chance of climbing in through the side. Over the top is the only way in. This is fun when in the mood. Less so otherwise.

If the car is mainly for high days and holidays etc...no cage is the 100% recommendation (though get a FIA bar and petty strut).

[upsidedownmark]

Maybe I should have said the stated issues - i.e. getting in and out were (IMO) overstated. Basically I found it far less trouble than I expected for getting in/out and general convenience. It also makes a great anchor for a roof rack Basically I quite liked having it, but really didn't feel comfortable about the helmet factor, and I'm not about to wear a helmet for sunday runs to the pub (whenever they start again!) I completely agree wrt the aeroscreen too, I do swap that and the windscreen...