Treating myself to a Caterham

[jackal]

a half decent specced R400 would have been ~32k new, maybe more

in my mind, if someone is knocking one out for circa 15-19k then ther will be a reason for that

[willdela]

There is one for sale on here for 18k tempting 3000 miles I think?

[Beemer 5]

jackal said:

a half decent specced R400 would have been ~32k new, maybe more in my mind, if someone is knocking one out for circa 15-19k then ther will be a reason for that

So would you say £7000 off for the 3800 miles is about right, jackal?
I ask because everyone i meet, to a man, has told me that i paid too much!

[Beemer 5]

Oh, spec-wise, it just has full weather gear, stack dash and heater, not much else.

[granville]

jackal said:

a half decent specced R400 would have been ~32k new, maybe more

That's what I paid (still ain't walking straight...)

[rubystone]

willdela said:

There is one for sale on here for 18k tempting 3000 miles I think?

But it's a 1998 plate - suggests it didn't start life as an R400...but I could be wrong.

Didn't Llooney sell his R400 for cheapish money?

[jackal]

willdela said:

There is one for sale on here for 18k tempting 3000 miles I think?

errrrrrrrrrr, thats not an R400.... not even close in fact. The advert just means that the engine is R400 spec. Take a closer look, its some custom caterham that looks as if its been raced. Maybe it started life as a simple roadsports and had widetrack and engine upgrades but you can see from the picture of the engine bay alone why its priced at 18k. Apart from anything else, it has leather seats, absolutely zero powder coating, very old HPC dials, no proper mag alloys, no stack dash etc...

[jackal]

Beemer 5 said:

jackal said: a half decent specced R400 would have been ~32k new, maybe more in my mind, if someone is knocking one out for circa 15-19k then ther will be a reason for that So would you say £7000 off for the 3800 miles is about right, jackal? I ask because everyone i meet, to a man, has told me that i paid too much!

depends what spec ..... theres an R400 on this site for 21k but it has the poor seats, no stack dash, a simple FIA bar no cage and/or half doors, the wrong alloys, no dry sump, GRP rear wings. Those specs alone make the car cheaper than it normally would be. Stack dash + doors + mags + CF rear wings + dry sump etc.. and you are already in the realm of something like 3-4k extra. The devil is in the detail with these caterhams !

If its a well specced R400 with DS and stack etc.. and some proper alloys then yes, id say 25k for a private sale is about right. Having said that CC seem to knock them out at 26-28k obviously with a small short term warranty.

Having said all that, i still think yer mad cos you could have had my car for that price. A car that is specced up to the eyeballs with all the top toys (aerofoil wishbones, full carbon, Kevlar seats, MXL with logging, full cage, 1200 quids worth of billet centre rims, 2nd set of minators etc..)and whats more is duratec powered. Way more reliability, tractability and torque and runs so much cooler, faster than an R500 as well. As a bonus you can take it to a 280bhp monster pretty damm cheaply if you're totally power crazy.

[Beemer 5]

I didn't want anything too far from standard though. I couldn't find a good R500, so the R400 filled the vacancy.
It has a medium spec and feels quick enough for me.
As always however, i am looking ahead though and i would love to move up to the new 260 at some stage, another 60 bhp sounds faintly ridiculous, going by how quick this seems.