New Caterham

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Discussion

BertBert

18,953 posts

210 months

Sunday 17th January 2021
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It's quite interesting, I owned a Cat D "executive superlight" that I bought from Shiny Andy at BaT back in the day. It had been rebuilt with a new chassis and was as new. It had a photo record of the rebuild and was just fab. Just depends on how this car was repaired. The current signs aren't good but they are only a couple of small things.

It passed an Mot in April 2014, so I assumed it was repaired by then. It's only done 300 miles since. Very intriguing, and you never know, if re-chassied and the dealer is keen to do a deal, it could make sense!

Mind you, it's just failed its MoT, nothing too serious, just signs of neglect...

Rear fog lamp not working (4.5.1 (a) (ii))
Registration plate lamp does not illuminate simultaneously with the position lamps (4.7.2 (a))
Windscreen washer provides insufficient washer liquid (3.5 (a))
Nearside Steering rack gaiter missing or no longer prevents the ingress of dirt (2.1.3 (g) (ii))
Offside Steering rack gaiter missing or no longer prevents the ingress of dirt (2.1.3 (g) (ii))
Nearside Front Wheel bearing rough when rotated (5.1.3 (b) (i))

Bert

DoubleD

Original Poster:

22,154 posts

107 months

Sunday 17th January 2021
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It's strange that they would let it fail an MOT when the dealer seems to service and MOT cars! You would have thought that they would get an MOT guy to check what's likely to fail and fix it before carrying out the MOT?!

dalefawcett90

8 posts

135 months

Sunday 17th January 2021
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Durch said:
I'd spotted this one for sale too. Seemed cheap, but even without knowing the full history it didn't look like a good example. Too much was just a bit off and now we know why.

The pics with the damage are a bit of a comedown after the others! What happened?
Unfortunately I had just put those tyres on and weren’t used to soft cut slicks!! Went too fast round a country bend and touched the verge, this sent the back end round and broad sided across the road and went in and out of a ditch end on end before belly flopping in the middle of the road. Short trip to A&E to get my head glued and my pride restored and that was the end of my fun!

BertBert

18,953 posts

210 months

Sunday 17th January 2021
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dalefawcett90 said:
Unfortunately I had just put those tyres on and weren’t used to soft cut slicks!! Went too fast round a country bend and touched the verge, this sent the back end round and broad sided across the road and went in and out of a ditch end on end before belly flopping in the middle of the road. Short trip to A&E to get my head glued and my pride restored and that was the end of my fun!
Really feel for you, very easy to do in Caterhams, and fortunately all my Caterham misadventures happened on track in wide open spaces or gravel to avoid hard objects. I very nearly lost my first Caterham driving it back home from the showroom at the top of the hill!

Do you know what happened to it after you by any chance? Who bought it and how it was repaired?

Bert

dalefawcett90

8 posts

135 months

Sunday 17th January 2021
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BertBert said:
Really feel for you, very easy to do in Caterhams, and fortunately all my Caterham misadventures happened on track in wide open spaces or gravel to avoid hard objects. I very nearly lost my first Caterham driving it back home from the showroom at the top of the hill!

Do you know what happened to it after you by any chance? Who bought it and how it was repaired?

Bert
Unfortunately not, I went up to the recovery place to get a few items out of it then the next day my insurance recovery company collected it. As soon as I got my private plates transferred back to me I didn’t hear anything else. I really wish I had bought it back from the insurance company though and sat it in my garage as a long term project. They’re great cars!

BertBert

18,953 posts

210 months

Sunday 17th January 2021
quotequote all
DoubleD said:
It's strange that they would let it fail an MOT when the dealer seems to service and MOT cars! You would have thought that they would get an MOT guy to check what's likely to fail and fix it before carrying out the MOT?!
really strange especially now that all that info is public domain. Can't help with the selling of the car!

DoubleD

Original Poster:

22,154 posts

107 months

Sunday 17th January 2021
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Yeah it will put off some buyers when they see it, not a great sales strategy!

Red Seven

156 posts

196 months

Sunday 17th January 2021
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Durch said:
nigelpugh7 said:
It also has the very poor standard brakes,
Are they that bad? What do you think makes the most difference in terms of upgrades?



Standard brakes are quite adequate.
Generally speaking, on the road, you won't stop any better with any other brakes.
On track, with sticky tyres, the big ventilated fronts deal with the heat better and stop from higher speed better, but that then exposes deficiencies in the rear brakes....

upsidedownmark

2,120 posts

134 months

Monday 18th January 2021
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Even on track, with the right pads the standard brakes are fine, perhaps depending on the power level - I'm pretty sure the academy racers use standard brakes. Personally, mine is on standard with DS2500 pads and ~150bhp.. (and zzs tyres). It's bang on on most tracks, and the road.
YMMV obviously, and I've had other pads which I found very uninspiring (in full chat track mode), but to say that the std brakes are poor is a bit of an exaggeration. Will definitely out-stop most cars on the road, once you recalibrate the need to actually push!

nigelpugh7

5,996 posts

189 months

Monday 18th January 2021
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Red Seven said:
Standard brakes are quite adequate.
Generally speaking, on the road, you won't stop any better with any other brakes.
On track, with sticky tyres, the big ventilated fronts deal with the heat better and stop from higher speed better, but that then exposes deficiencies in the rear brakes....
That was my point re the brakes, in that they will most likely have the standard pads, and they don’t have a very good feel for bite when used on track.

It’s easy enough to upgrade the pads to Mintex 1144 of course that give a much better feel.

It normally also means that the car will have the standard brake master cylinder, whereas again the Race Master cylinder is a step up in terms of feel and bite when doing lots of track day work.

However as we all know Caterham brakes are great because the unsprung mass of all caterham models is so low compared to normal tin top style cars.

For me though I have just always got used to the upgraded brakes with the four pot calliper, it’s horses for courses!



BertBert

18,953 posts

210 months

Monday 18th January 2021
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But that's a bit different from "very poor standard brakes"!

nigelpugh7

5,996 posts

189 months

Monday 18th January 2021
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BertBert said:
But that's a bit different from "very poor standard brakes"!
Everything is relative!

My very first Caterham, a std 1800 K series had the standard brakes, I built it 23 years ago.

But the moment we started doing track days, we knew they were not good enough for regular track day work.

As I said each to their own, but if I was looking to buy any Caterham again now, I would choose one with the better brakes.

BertBert

18,953 posts

210 months

Tuesday 19th January 2021
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Interestingly, I found using standard brakes on track with the "high ratio" pedal to actually be ok. I certainly prefer the bigger fronts, but I didn't find them too bad.

Bert

DoubleD

Original Poster:

22,154 posts

107 months

Saturday 23rd January 2021
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It looks like someone bought that car in the end. I hope the buyer is aware of it's history.

BertBert

18,953 posts

210 months

Monday 25th January 2021
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I imagine they will know as the dealer is obliged to disclose its category status. Could have been a good purchase as mine was, you never know!

DoubleD

Original Poster:

22,154 posts

107 months

Monday 25th January 2021
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I guess you shouldn't write off a write off!

BertBert

18,953 posts

210 months

Monday 25th January 2021
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DoubleD said:
I guess you shouldn't write off a write off!
Rather than Cat D it'd be Cat DoubleD

DoubleD

Original Poster:

22,154 posts

107 months

Tuesday 26th January 2021
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BertBert said:
DoubleD said:
I guess you shouldn't write off a write off!
Rather than Cat D it'd be Cat DoubleD
biggrin

peter2704

237 posts

207 months

Sunday 7th February 2021
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phew ,nearly went to see that one.the search contiues