RE: Caterham Announces Official Performance Arm

[Gad-Westy]

To me, the appeal of a Seven has always been a chuckable chassis and punching well beyond its weight performance wise but as soon as you get to this price level and power its starting to compete with some very serious cars. Somebody mentioned the ring record, I can't see it happening with those aerodynamics. This engine in a Radical chassis would be much more interesting.

All that aside, for the lucky few that can afford it, its going to be mental fun and slightly bonkers.

[Fatbloke]

RobM77 said:

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.

had a factory built R300

i stand by my comment

shed........old shed

[darth_pies]

lord summerisle said:

RobM77 said:

There's at least one RST V8 Caterham knocking around isn't there? If I remember rightly that was in the smaller traditional chassis as well

Yip - it was a supercharged RST v8 on display at the caterham stand at the Autosport show

Yes there was. It's pictured in the photos above!

[RobM77]

Fatbloke said:

RobM77 said:

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.

had a factory built R300

i stand by my comment

shed........old shed

Crumbs. The Caterham R300 is one of the finest road and track cars ever built, for any money.. ever! That's not just my opinion, it's EVO magazine's, Autocar's, and everyone I've ever spoken to who's ridden in or driven one. I can only assume that you get your pleasures in cars from totally different areas to people like myself. I guess not everyone's the same!

That said, did you not test drive the car before you bought it?

[LathamJohnP]

The problem with big engined Sevens has always been the weight, which buggers the handling. But this has huge power AND is lighter than a K-Series FFS!

Who cares if it costs six figures? It's the ultimate Caterham. Yes, you could buy an R300 and a 911 for that money, but neither would be the "ultimate" incarnation of anything.

I think it's fantastic. I wonder what gearbox they'll be using...?

John

[R400]

RobM77 said:

Fatbloke said:

RobM77 said:

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.

had a factory built R300

i stand by my comment

shed........old shed

Crumbs. The Caterham R300 is one of the finest road and track cars ever built, for any money.. ever! That's not just my opinion, it's EVO magazine's, Autocar's, and everyone I've ever spoken to who's ridden in or driven one. I can only assume that you get your pleasures in cars from totally different areas to people like myself. I guess not everyone's the same!

That said, did you not test drive the car before you bought it?

[R400]

I want those headlights for my car. Anyone know a good place to start looking.

[ewenm]

lord summerisle said:

RobM77 said:

There's at least one RST V8 Caterham knocking around isn't there? If I remember rightly that was in the smaller traditional chassis as well

Yip - it was a supercharged RST v8 on display at the caterham stand at the Autosport show

I've had a poke around a wide-chassis RST-V8 car in 2005 and it's a lovely install. I think the price for this one is a bit high but it's an interesting direction of rCaterham.

[hirsty27]

R400 said:

I want those headlights for my car. Anyone know a good place to start looking.

Umm....internet...

[Mars]

LathamJohnP said:

The problem with big engined Sevens has always been the weight, which buggers the handling. But this has huge power AND is lighter than a K-Series FFS!

Who cares if it costs six figures? It's the ultimate Caterham. Yes, you could buy an R300 and a 911 for that money, but neither would be the "ultimate" incarnation of anything.

I think it's fantastic. I wonder what gearbox they'll be using...?

John

Quite likely to be a Drenth I'd have thought. Not much else can handle the torque.

[Fatbloke]

RobM77 said:

Fatbloke said:

RobM77 said:

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.

had a factory built R300

i stand by my comment

shed........old shed

Crumbs. The Caterham R300 is one of the finest road and track cars ever built, for any money.. ever! That's not just my opinion, it's EVO magazine's, Autocar's, and everyone I've ever spoken to who's ridden in or driven one. I can only assume that you get your pleasures in cars from totally different areas to people like myself. I guess not everyone's the same!

That said, did you not test drive the car before you bought it?

we are not all the same.....i'm special :-)

yes i test drove it

"my" experience is not a good one, there are many that have had different experiences.

I stand by my comment, i stand by my experience and i stand by my opinion.

Caterhams are still basically old, regardless of how much extra metal you put in them.
They can be fast, they can be fun but they can also be sheds.

Edited by Fatbloke on Tuesday 26th February 13:16

[rubystone]

jfp said:

I just hope they have sorted the "issues" the engine has already had. It's performance to date in race cars has been questionable, putting it in a road car such as the Caterham (didn't work in the T1) might mean it's so understressed (can't imagine holding it at full throttle for long in a 7) that it may just work...!!??

?????

Clearly you haven't driven the original car that formed the basis for this car - that engine is still knocking about with more than 40,000 miles on the clock.

The T1 - there were a lot more issues than the engine, trust me.

To my knowledge, aside from some sprint outings, the RST V8 hasn't actually appeared in competition. A friend sprinted the car and sprinted it hard. Nothing fell off, it was as docile as they come...and very fast...

You are right about one thing though - the road is not the place to hold it on full throttle - I've tried and on anything less than smooth tarmac it's crazy.

There's one S3 chassised car about - Mike Biddle's. The car at Autosport was indeed this car.

[J111]

Mars said:

Quite likely to be a Drenth I'd have thought. Not much else can handle the torque.

What torque ?

[rubystone]

mk1fan said:

Caterham have a specialist performance division???

Nope - but a nice bit of free publicity eh?...

[rubystone]

SpeedYellow said:

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

But when they originally contacted Russell, it was going to priced at £100,000......

[rubystone]

paolow said:

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.

Someone has - that's a customer's car...

[rubystone]

Mars said:

LathamJohnP said:

The problem with big engined Sevens has always been the weight, which buggers the handling. But this has huge power AND is lighter than a K-Series FFS!

Who cares if it costs six figures? It's the ultimate Caterham. Yes, you could buy an R300 and a 911 for that money, but neither would be the "ultimate" incarnation of anything.

I think it's fantastic. I wonder what gearbox they'll be using...?

John

Quite likely to be a Drenth I'd have thought. Not much else can handle the torque.

Nope Quaife

[rhinochopig]

Just can't see how the figures hold up.

RST V8 is 40k (figures from evo) so where does the extra 75k come from???????

A full carbon shell can't be more than 20k max.

Looks lovely, and you've got to applaud the craziness of it, but Caterham are ripping off it's customers IMHO.

I had some work done on My westy at Holeshot and there was a 700bhp Westy there. Now that's a quick seven.

[rubystone]

Fatbloke said:

They can be fast, they can be fun but they can also be sheds.

You'd have to say that the CSR on 5th Gear seemed a little bit lacking in the quality department. That's why I'm interested to read Evo's running report on their Roadsport. I guess that if it isn't behaving properly, or bits are falnig off it, we'll read more....I hope Caterham wash it after its first trip back to the factory....

[rubystone]

rhinochopig said:

Looks lovely, and you've got to applaud the craziness of it, but Caterham are ripping off it's customers IMHO.

I

Let's be clear about one thing - the car isn't really anything to do with Caterham. They didn't conceive it, design it, have the parts made, develop the engine, ensure the supercharger would function properly, build it, and all the other things that go to make up the £115k cost of the car...