Say Hello to Scarlet, my new Caterham 620R
Discussion
chuntington101 said:
I was kidding really! You could extract more than enough power out of the 2.0 with the blower than you could ever need! I think the largest Rotex supercharger supports about 650bhp and the 2.0 duratec and be built to handle that much. 
Agreed, it would be mental with more power.I know the 2.0 Duratec can easily handle more power, but I think the restrictions are on the compact nature of the S3 chassis, and the lack of physical space to fit a larger intercooler.
Even with keeping my car under 4000 rpm whilst bedding it in, it's bonkers quick, and 80moh is achieved it what seems like a few seconds!
I suspect anything over 350bhp without too much increase in weight would be a phenomenal amount of power in the S3 chassis.
Smitters said:
Nigel - as you've had a wide variety of Sevens, where do you see the upper limit of power and torque in a Seven is? My measly 135 bhp k series is quick enough in the grand scheme of things, i.e. clearly not a slow car, but as all the power comes at 5000+, you can drive in the lower reaches and potted about if needs be. There must come a point when touring type driving becomes quite hard (gearbox notwithstanding) in the really high power stuff, or is it truly all in the flex and graceful touch of the right foot?
As an aside, are you at Silverstone at the end of the month? Be grand to have a look round in person.
Hi Smitters, it's the age old question, i.e. What is justbthe best power in a caterham.As an aside, are you at Silverstone at the end of the month? Be grand to have a look round in person.
As you know my previous Superlight Twenty was a very sweet and light car to drive, but for me cominnf from my previous R500 with 265bhp, 135 Bhp was always going to seem a bit lacking in usueslble power despite the lightweight nature of the car.
I also think that the Sigma engine needs a bit more torque to be useable, but tuning it to reasonable levels seems to cost a lot, and your still restricted by the fact it's only a 1.6l engine.
My green R500 with the std six speed box, and the newer style BMW diff with lsd, as actually a very capable tourer, never seemed like it had too much power.
I suspect if I was going to,buy another caterham just for touring it most likely be a 420 model, perhaps with the new Mazda 5 speed box, I'm sure 210 Bhp is more than enough and still plenty quick too!
I thought it was time for an update on this thread as I haven't posted here since I collected my car back in march.
Since then we have covered over 2600 miles and attended lots of events.
I'm currently up dating my pictures on google photos, but as there are over 1000, and we are currently on holiday with a very limited wifi, it's taking some time, so this is more of a placeholder update for the rest to come.
Here's some more recent photos.
Since then we have covered over 2600 miles and attended lots of events.
I'm currently up dating my pictures on google photos, but as there are over 1000, and we are currently on holiday with a very limited wifi, it's taking some time, so this is more of a placeholder update for the rest to come.
Here's some more recent photos.
Terribly slow to post updates and pictures here at our holiday apartment, so will have to do them in small batches of posts.
As I have time here whilst we are chilling and relaxing, I will try to go back in time chronologically to update the thread.
So one of the first mods I did was to fit a Ctek Battery Sense. A great little tool available from Amazon for about £40 that gives you status updates on the battery condition to an app.
I already have the Ctek AGM battery conditioner and charger, but to have a quick view of the battery state, or a warning when it's low is great.
The first challenge was where to fit it, as the battery for my car is installed on the passenger footwell floor.
As you can see I decided to mount it there, inside the battery box lid, as it were!
As I have time here whilst we are chilling and relaxing, I will try to go back in time chronologically to update the thread.
So one of the first mods I did was to fit a Ctek Battery Sense. A great little tool available from Amazon for about £40 that gives you status updates on the battery condition to an app.
I already have the Ctek AGM battery conditioner and charger, but to have a quick view of the battery state, or a warning when it's low is great.
The first challenge was where to fit it, as the battery for my car is installed on the passenger footwell floor.
As you can see I decided to mount it there, inside the battery box lid, as it were!
Next job was to remove the horrible heavy steel runners for the drivers seat.
I had these alloy box section mounts from my previous caterham, they are the ones used on the race cars.
At the same time I also fitted some tillet spacing washers to the front to raise the edge up under the back of my knees for more comfort on longer drives.
As you can see loosing the steel runners saved a few kilos too!
I had these alloy box section mounts from my previous caterham, they are the ones used on the race cars.
At the same time I also fitted some tillet spacing washers to the front to raise the edge up under the back of my knees for more comfort on longer drives.
As you can see loosing the steel runners saved a few kilos too!
Also as I had the seats out it was a good time to mount the six point harness to the drivers seat, and easy job that just required some holes drilling in the floor to mount the larger bolts.
I only tend to use the six point lower harness point when on track days, as it seems to help when braking really hard and hanging off the belts!
I only tend to use the six point lower harness point when on track days, as it seems to help when braking really hard and hanging off the belts!
Now the longer runs have started to show up a slightly problematic issue.
It seems the fuel gauge is poorly calibrated, as I can only get about 80-90 miles from indicated full to red on the last quadrant of the gauge.
I know the fuel tank should have an empty to full capacity of close to 30 litres, but despite showing that the tank is empty on the gauge, I can only get about 15 litres of fuel in before the tank overflows from being full.
It seems the fuel gauge is poorly calibrated, as I can only get about 80-90 miles from indicated full to red on the last quadrant of the gauge.
I know the fuel tank should have an empty to full capacity of close to 30 litres, but despite showing that the tank is empty on the gauge, I can only get about 15 litres of fuel in before the tank overflows from being full.
Next little job was to fit some Carbon Upgrades. I had recently acquired these from Daniel French, as he had not fitted them to his R500 and had recently sold the car too.
Therefore, I now have a carbon fuel filler pipe cover, Carbon knee trims, a carbon pedal box cover and a carbon 12v socket cover to fit.
First job was the fuel filler in the boot space which proved trickier than it first seemed!
Therefore, I now have a carbon fuel filler pipe cover, Carbon knee trims, a carbon pedal box cover and a carbon 12v socket cover to fit.
First job was the fuel filler in the boot space which proved trickier than it first seemed!
charltjr said:
Following with interest, just seems odd to post to say it these days as practically every other forum has a “like” or “thanks” button you hit on a post so have got out of the habit!
That's a fair point, I suppose the way to like my posts is to just give a thumbs up, but as you say it's not something you can easily do as on other social media platforms! 
Next part of the carbon upgrades the knee trims.
This also highlighted another issue, as my car was not originally specced with the interchangable carbon aero, but I do have one to fit, I would need to fit the screen retaining brackets, so now seemed a good time to do that too.
Upon removing the drivers side alloy knee trim, I had to have a little smile to,myself. These are notoriously tricky to fit, as I know from many of my own builds, but as my car was a factory build, it seemed even the CC engineer who assembled my car also had issues!
As you can see it had been drilled three different times tomget it to fit, so looked like a piece of Swiss cheese.
This of course made me take extra extra care with my lovely new Carbon versions, which I managed to fit carefully first time, with just one set of holes drilled! Phew!
This also highlighted another issue, as my car was not originally specced with the interchangable carbon aero, but I do have one to fit, I would need to fit the screen retaining brackets, so now seemed a good time to do that too.
Upon removing the drivers side alloy knee trim, I had to have a little smile to,myself. These are notoriously tricky to fit, as I know from many of my own builds, but as my car was a factory build, it seemed even the CC engineer who assembled my car also had issues!
As you can see it had been drilled three different times tomget it to fit, so looked like a piece of Swiss cheese.
This of course made me take extra extra care with my lovely new Carbon versions, which I managed to fit carefully first time, with just one set of holes drilled! Phew!
MDL111 said:
Great thread and a lovely looking car
What belts does it come with and why did you have to drill-out holes to fit 6-point harnesses - would have thought that is catered for on this type of car?
Enjoy in good health
Thanks for the comment!What belts does it come with and why did you have to drill-out holes to fit 6-point harnesses - would have thought that is catered for on this type of car?
Enjoy in good health
There are mounts for the bolts as you can see, but with lowered floors as fitted To my car, you just need to drill the floor to make sure the bolts mount through to clear the base of the tillet seat.
Time for another upgrade, I had HID headlight bulbs in my previous caterham, so had those left over to use again.
However, I was always a bit worried about those ones shorting out on the metal body, as the ballast pack was quite exposed.
So over to good old Amazon again for some full LED headlight bulbs at £49 for a pair. These ones also had a very nice tiny compact ballast too.
Very very bright, and a good spread of a beam pattern, plus the fact the bulb is rotatable to adjust the beam.
However, I was always a bit worried about those ones shorting out on the metal body, as the ballast pack was quite exposed.
So over to good old Amazon again for some full LED headlight bulbs at £49 for a pair. These ones also had a very nice tiny compact ballast too.
Very very bright, and a good spread of a beam pattern, plus the fact the bulb is rotatable to adjust the beam.
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