RE: Caterham Announces Official Performance Arm

[jonathannealeuk]

In my experience extra power in a Caterham is an ever diminshing return in fun terms - the first 200bhp are a hoot - anything over that is just gilding the lilly.

But if you positively have to be the fastest car at a track-day then this is for you...until a properly driven radical steams past you that is.

Jonathan

[Dr S]

Insane. I love it

[Bahnstormer]

Why not just buy an R500 and a GT3 !

[RobM77]

Jonty355 said:

How is this going to be any better than a well built dax rush?

Without opening a can of worms, probably for the same reason an ordinary Caterham is better than a Dax Rush, Westfield etc. Have a look at Mark Hales' "attack of the clones" article in Circuit Driver from a few years ago. He compared about a dozen 7 replicas with a Caterham 7 R300. He started off cynical about Caterhams, but ended up admitting that the Caterham was 2 seconds a lap faster, despite being the least powerful car there, and it was also massively more predictable on the limit and better to drive.

[SpeedYellow]

The RST V8 was what was going in the Caparo T1 orginally? And that is over £200k!

[SS HSV]

Ultima or Datum for that money, although the Datum will be very limited production but will be around that money.

[chippie]

I would suspect 400bhp is not very usable even in a modern Caterham chassis. And £115,000 is a lot of money for this car, enough to buy abrand new SR8 (with enough downforce to stick it to the ceiling) and put the coppers away until next year for a R35 Nissan GT-R.

[Andy_sx]

its one hell of alot of money, which cant be good for sales can it?

but the sheer insanity and stupidity behind it is simply superb! if i could get my hands on one in a few years time at a fraction of the cost, i would be one happy person

[dinkel]

That engine in a . . . Lotus!

[900T-R]

Andy_sx said:

if i could get my hands on one in a few years time at a fraction of the cost

Indeed this may be one instance of a Caterham with serious depreciation potential... never thought I'd see the day...

[paolow]

surely no one will pay that much! I know its not quite the same but there was a dutton phaeton v8 that was beatifully finished on here for just 2k not so long ago.

[RobM77]

dinkel said:

That engine in a . . . Lotus!

Andy Walsh has put one in an Elise I believe

I'm sure that the Elise/Exige chassis can handle the power, and of course we've yet to have anything from Lotus that outguns even the slowest Caterham in a straight line, which is a great shame.

[dinkel]

You'd need some aerodynamics to haul that engine to 200mph right?

C'ham hasn't . . .

[RobM77]

dinkel said:

You'd need some aerodynamics to haul that engine to 200mph right?

C'ham hasn't . . .

The CSR went through a wind tunnel and has had subtle but significant tweaks to its aero. I'm sure this car has had aero tweaks too. Don't forget most supercars are aero tweaked to just give zero lift at 200mph; very few have any downforce to speak of. This is changing now, but that was certainly the case in the past.

[900T-R]

dinkel said:

You'd need some aerodynamics to haul that engine to 200mph right?

C'ham hasn't . . .

What circuit commonly available for track days has a straight long enough to get much past 150 in any four-wheeled vehicle? Not many that I know of... (and no, Bruntingthorpe Proving Ground doesn't count ).

[hirsty27]

Dr S said:

Insane. I love it

What more is there to say?........

[ATG]

Huge price tag, but these are one-offs so they're not looking to sell many. All they need is a few deep-pocketted, enthusiastic loons and I imagine they'll find a few. Good luck to them. Glorious madness.

[racecardoctor]

its the drag at high speed (rather than gaining downforce through aerodynamic changes) that will be a problem, once you get to 140mph in a seven you need a huge amount of power to punch a hole in the air - which is why slipstreaming is used so much in their racing series to such effect

[Fatbloke]

400 bhp
1958 modified chasis
lack of spring rates
shed

[RobM77]

Fatbloke said:

400 bhp
1958 modified chasis
lack of spring rates
shed

I wouldn't mind betting this new V8 is based on the all new CSR chassis. Besides, even the narrow bodied 7s don't share any components with the 1958 original. I suggest you have a drive of a decent well set up narrow bodied Caterham and then reconsider your comment regarding a shed!! I've driven an awful lot of cars on road and track and still choose to race a Caterham above all others.