1st Caterham - Roadsport vs Superlight

[dparry]

selling my impreza for upgrade to either a roadsport or superlight. have been on the websites and done some research but was hoping for some advice. i dont want to buy a roadsport then want to upgrade in a years time. what are the main differecnes or worth? will be mainly used for short journeys, as many track days as i can afford, and the odd week in spain. lucky enough to hopefully have around £15K. are there big diff on insurance?

are you better off going to a dealer or private? i would assume most privates are looked after pretty well.

any tips appreciated and hopefully see you on some tracks soon

[menostig]

Hi

I run an impreze too, great car. I bought a roadsport supersport (more power, different cams, ECU) a few months back. Mine was pretty close to a superlight in having the must-have track-day upgrades: 6 spd box, LSD, wide-track front suspension, FIA rollbar, composite seats and Apollo air/oil seperator tank. Insurance is about 1/3 of my Impreza, allbeit on 1/3 of the mileage. For 15k you'll have a lot of choice. For a car being used on frequent short journeys, I recommend the Laminova oil/water heat exchanger, as it means the oil-temp rises that much earlier, on mine the water is 80C after two miles, another two after that and the oil is 60C which means I can start to enjoy the full rev range.

regards
Roger

[Shaun_E]

Standard kit on a Superlight over and above a standard Roadsport includes:
Supersport engine (135bhp)
Six speed gearbox
Widetrack front suspension
Adjustable spring platforms
LSD
AP 4 pot front brakes with vented discs
Carbon nosecone, dash and front wings (and rears on some)
Lowback fibreglass race seats - few were fitted with these though and you are more likely to see leather or later Tillett composite seats
No carpets
Aeroscreen in lieu of windscreen and therefore no wipers or other weather gear but many have windscreen/weather gear as an option
No heater (some fitted as an option)

Desirable fittings include:
air/oil separator (Apollo) or preferably a dry sump
track day (FIA) rollbar.

[dparry]

excellent info, thanks guys!!

[Bafty_Crastard]

Dry sump not standard??

Bafty

NB..Just checked it was a £995 option!!

Edited by Bafty_Crastard on Wednesday 19th September 08:52

[Murph7355]

Buy a Superlight.

[rubystone]

Murph7355 said:

Buy a Superlight.

Seconded. It'll hold its value so much better too. They really are a benchmark car in Caterham's history.

[Murph7355]

rubystone said:

Murph7355 said:

Buy a Superlight.

Seconded. It'll hold its value so much better too. They really are a benchmark car in Caterham's history.

And he'll only want to add all the bits the SL has later (probably not much later) too.

Next - which colour.

Make it bright. Can't be too bright!

[dparry]

thanks for the advice, hopefully Subaru sells today so can get shopping. have seen some academy cars for sale, are they worth following up on? e.g. pick a nice specced one up and spend a bit on engine mods to upgrade past the 120 mark? or still hold out for superlight? if anybody knows one for sale, i'm looking at 13-14K mark.