RE: Caterham Seven Levante V8 | Spotted
Discussion
RoverP6B said:
Why on earth did they bother boosting it? Surely keeping it N/A at somewhere around 360bhp would have made it a lot more usable while still being as quick on-track in the hands of any mere mortal?
I imagine to give it some torque down at the sensible part of the rev range. A 2.4 V8 based on two common cranked Hayabusa engines is going to be peaky I would expect, even only having 550 kg to propel.I have a similar car myself, a little more basically engineered with an LS2 6.0 V8, and I definitely use the 400lb-ft torque far more often than I use the 400bhp - even on track.
Long live the ridiculously powerful Lotus 7 type cars. They are surprisingly usable, hilariously grin inducing, and I am glad there continue to be people (and companies) mad enough to keep building them.
Martin.
My memory might not serve me quite right here but...I’m sure I attended an Andy Walsh driver training day and he was talking about testing this beast before it got released.
He said something about it being able to lift the front wheels - effectively doing a wheelie down the straight at the airfield... I think he even mentioned buyers of the Levante received a free lesson at purchase so they were aware of its "characteristics" before going out on the road/track.
He said something about it being able to lift the front wheels - effectively doing a wheelie down the straight at the airfield... I think he even mentioned buyers of the Levante received a free lesson at purchase so they were aware of its "characteristics" before going out on the road/track.
fur53y said:
My memory might not serve me quite right here but...I’m sure I attended an Andy Walsh driver training day and he was talking about testing this beast before it got released.
I think your memory is fine, since I have exactly the same one, plus I spoke to him at the Autosport show where he and it were on the Caterham stand.Martin30 said:
I imagine to give it some torque down at the sensible part of the rev range. A 2.4 V8 based on two common cranked Hayabusa engines is going to be peaky I would expect, even only having 550 kg to propel.
I have a similar car myself, a little more basically engineered with an LS2 6.0 V8, and I definitely use the 400lb-ft torque far more often than I use the 400bhp - even on track.
Long live the ridiculously powerful Lotus 7 type cars. They are surprisingly usable, hilariously grin inducing, and I am glad there continue to be people (and companies) mad enough to keep building them.
Martin.
Centrifugal blowers only exacerbate the peaky power delivery. Peak torque not until 8500rpm. An LS would actually make more sense IMO.I have a similar car myself, a little more basically engineered with an LS2 6.0 V8, and I definitely use the 400lb-ft torque far more often than I use the 400bhp - even on track.
Long live the ridiculously powerful Lotus 7 type cars. They are surprisingly usable, hilariously grin inducing, and I am glad there continue to be people (and companies) mad enough to keep building them.
Martin.
Zumbruk said:
fur53y said:
My memory might not serve me quite right here but...I’m sure I attended an Andy Walsh driver training day and he was talking about testing this beast before it got released.
I think your memory is fine, since I have exactly the same one, plus I spoke to him at the Autosport show where he and it were on the Caterham stand.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_rrMZzrsv1Y
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PlNgtheOfzQ
kambites said:
Monsieur Du Lard said:
I know this car and have had a very close look. I know all about pushing the envelope on Caterham development, Done it for 25 years.
So in what way is it complex? I'm not trying to be combative, I'm genuinely interested in how this differs from any other Caterham in terms of complexity. Obviously there's more bits in the engine than in a straight-four and tolerances will be finer and components stronger to deal with that sort of power and revs, but in terms of mechanical complexity what makes this different than any other QOHC supercharged V8? Does it have some kind of complex variable valve timing system or something?
ETA; I guess the gearbox is pretty complicated.
Edited by kambites on Monday 5th August 09:40
The gearbox is thev same as that in a 620R and 420R race car, albeit with paddleshift.
thegreenhell said:
This looks like Walshy in the original unsupercharged version
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_rrMZzrsv1Y
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PlNgtheOfzQ
It was that engine that ended up in an Elise/Exige, wasn't it. Believe he was involved with that project, too. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_rrMZzrsv1Y
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PlNgtheOfzQ
Looks even faster than this!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kvZtFUJHFV0
Although it wound up to 500bhp would be similar!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kvZtFUJHFV0
Although it wound up to 500bhp would be similar!
RoverP6B said:
Centrifugal blowers only exacerbate the peaky power delivery. Peak torque not until 8500rpm. An LS would actually make more sense IMO.
An LS and associated gearbox and plumbing would add nearly 200kg to the car. So you'd then need to run a 750bhp LS, which again would require a charger, then you'd run into all sorts of heat management issues.
Waitey said:
The MPH reading is from the speedo drive.
The KPH gauge is from a 1hz GPS feed, hence the lag on accel and decel.
No, the MPH reading is accurate and from the VBox 10hz GPS. The circular graphic is an incorrectly calibrated kph reading I messed up when playing with the scene layout. The KPH gauge is from a 1hz GPS feed, hence the lag on accel and decel.
loudlashadjuster said:
There's a video of one of these at Silverstone. Despite being driven quite cautiously, the way it dispatches stuff like Ultimas and Radicals is terrifying.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UiHZrm9_Y9w
This is my car and I’m driving it. If you read the description you’ll see why I was being so cautious. It was in winter, frost was on the track surface and I’d already buried it in the gravel at Vale. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UiHZrm9_Y9w
not mine, just came across this add, a lotus 7 with LS3/485 engine... that must be scary fast, I like.
in california 40k US around 29k gbp
https://www.hemmings.com/classifieds/cars-for-sale...
in california 40k US around 29k gbp
https://www.hemmings.com/classifieds/cars-for-sale...
Some years back Russell Savory came to one of the Essex 7 meets, with his development car, and was giving people there passenger rides.
I was absolutely amazed at how quick it got down the A414, where at one second it was just pulling out onto the road, and in what seemed like just a couple of seconds later, it was a tiny dot in the far distance.
I was talking to Russell about the cars development, and he said one of the main problems he had had, was finding a transmission which could handle the power, without lunching itself after a short time.
I was absolutely amazed at how quick it got down the A414, where at one second it was just pulling out onto the road, and in what seemed like just a couple of seconds later, it was a tiny dot in the far distance.
I was talking to Russell about the cars development, and he said one of the main problems he had had, was finding a transmission which could handle the power, without lunching itself after a short time.
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