R400 - buyer question

[RobM77]

sfaulds said:

RobM77 said:

Rosco said:

Our lap times were generally within a second of theirs. That's how capable the cars are, when you consider around Rockingham they were getting up to near 160, and we were only managing 130 ish. Braking and cornering speeds are so much higher than bigger,heavier cars

As for your times vs GT; that's very impressive!!

You'd be right to be impressed! I think Steve's memory's letting him down - a C400 is nowhere near a frontline GT3 car.

R400 has a cable operated throttle - I'd love to know where the drive by wire rumour came from, it's not the first time I've heard it.

Thanks for clearing that up Stuart.

I guess the DBW throttle rumour came about because virtually all cars have it now (even Elises). Thankfully Caterhams aren't affected by this yet, and let's hope it stays that way. Having said that, Caterhams are particularly prone to having sticky throttle cables (the cable does a pretty sharp double backing on itself to get up to the throttle from the pedal box), so in theory a DBW would be helpful. Sadly, I've yet to drive a DBW car that's any good, so as long as that's the case long live the throttle cable in Caterhams!

[mic]

Eu4 Sigma Caterhams are FBW.

[RobM77]

mic said:

Eu4 Sigma Caterhams are FBW.

aha. That's probably where the rumour came from then.

What's it like? I race in Roadsport A with a 1.6 K series engine and in a year or two I presume we'll be changing over to the Sigma engine.

[Stickshifter]

Yes long accelerator cable that does a big arc under the bonnet...sitting on top of the rocker cover...and yes with the R400 nothing with a reg number will get close to you...I go to Oulton Park....a circuit for a caterham...lots of twists...perfect...Radical will pass me as will young men (boys) in race spec'd caterhams...

[Rosco]

sfaulds said:

You'd be right to be impressed! I think Steve's memory's letting him down - a C400 is nowhere near a frontline GT3 car.

I stand corrected. Just had a look at the old time sheets and we were about 3 seconds behind their front runners on a couple of circuits I looked at. We were faster than some of them though

Don't know why I was thinking that!

[BertBert]

RobM77 said:

Caterhams are very simple cars, so there's no much to go wrong

unless you have an engine made out of cheese! ah yes, they mostly do!

Seriously, I would agree with the comments here, but would acknowldge that the k does have a nasty headgasket habbit!

Bert