Caterham Superlight R #29
Discussion
Nice read. Enjoyed that!!!
We have similarish cars, and we're not a million miles apart either (I'm in South Surrey) . I have a K-series Superlight (non R) in Roulette green.
I made a little video of it a couple of years back, more as an exercise of video editing rather than showing the car off though. It was my first attempt at trying different camera angles etc.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bllmkQ22-Eg&t=...
It is also the car that features on PGMs website a fair amount. Although this was before I bought her...
I know the weather is challenging at the moment but wait until the summer months and the car will be a totally different experience.
We have similarish cars, and we're not a million miles apart either (I'm in South Surrey) . I have a K-series Superlight (non R) in Roulette green.
I made a little video of it a couple of years back, more as an exercise of video editing rather than showing the car off though. It was my first attempt at trying different camera angles etc.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bllmkQ22-Eg&t=...
It is also the car that features on PGMs website a fair amount. Although this was before I bought her...
I know the weather is challenging at the moment but wait until the summer months and the car will be a totally different experience.
I just went to PGM to collect the SLR with its new lowered floors fitted. It's such a big improvement. I now feel more connected to the car and can get comfortable in the seat. Before it felt like I was perched up high and felt quite exposed. I'm now hunkered down inside the cockpit more and feel more connected, very pleased.
To celebrate I took it for a thrash over the hills.
To celebrate I took it for a thrash over the hills.
Great read.... and looking forward to more.
I've had a couple of Elises before having a break from 2 seater lightweight cars.
I've got an old school VX powered 7 and looking at the print out for the vehicle weight is 513KG complete with full cage and drivers bar, windscreen wipers, lights, etc. The car had half a tank of fuel, side screens ( 2kg ) tonneau (1.8kg) bootcover 1.5kg and a passenger 4 point seat belt 2kg BUT NO passenger seat ( 3kg for GRP 7kg for cloth, 8kg for leather ) I've now removed the cage, a heavy bit of tubing and added a FIA roll bar, so it's probably a bit lighter now. It hasn't a Mag sump & Bellhousing, carbon aerosreen, or tillets, and it hasn't mats or a heater or paint .
I've also got a Superlight, #007, and if I wanted could save quite a bit of weight in one go ( 20kg ? ) by removing the spare wheel and carrier, it's also got carpets and leather seats but no paint, no heater, no doors and now has a RIF aero screen .
Caterham Cars are having an Easter gathering and BBQ, always a good turnout. A nice JPE turned up last year.
I've had a couple of Elises before having a break from 2 seater lightweight cars.
I've got an old school VX powered 7 and looking at the print out for the vehicle weight is 513KG complete with full cage and drivers bar, windscreen wipers, lights, etc. The car had half a tank of fuel, side screens ( 2kg ) tonneau (1.8kg) bootcover 1.5kg and a passenger 4 point seat belt 2kg BUT NO passenger seat ( 3kg for GRP 7kg for cloth, 8kg for leather ) I've now removed the cage, a heavy bit of tubing and added a FIA roll bar, so it's probably a bit lighter now. It hasn't a Mag sump & Bellhousing, carbon aerosreen, or tillets, and it hasn't mats or a heater or paint .
I've also got a Superlight, #007, and if I wanted could save quite a bit of weight in one go ( 20kg ? ) by removing the spare wheel and carrier, it's also got carpets and leather seats but no paint, no heater, no doors and now has a RIF aero screen .
Caterham Cars are having an Easter gathering and BBQ, always a good turnout. A nice JPE turned up last year.
Yep, as per the description higher up. It goes to Arch for a new rear panel on Wednesday and then straight into TSK for a respray. It'll be taken back to bare metal first and the thinnest of coats applied. The flouro paint has faded over its 20 years though and needs bringing back to full levels of offensiveness. Plus, obviously the new rear panel will need painting anyway.
Brilliant thread, first time i've read it from start to finish. Was never really a Caterham fan a few years ago, just never really "got" them but as the years have passed i've began to appreciate them a lot more. Love the simplicity to them and some of your pics set the scene for such an inviting and entertaining drive. I imagine there's not much more of a thrill than pointing the SLR on a fantastic piece of road in the Scottish highlands or Welsh mountains.
stew-STR160 said:
My friend told me your car is in the workshop now. He's drooling over it.
Yeah I saw him yesterday and had a chat. I'll update on that shortly, have a few things to bring this up to date first though...I thought I'd put up a picture of the lowered floors. Before I got them I was concerned as to how they would work as I couldn't picture the increased gap between the footwell and the pedals being workable. Turns out the floors slope from the seat area back to the pedal box, so I had no need to worry. Turns out whoever designed them wasn't an imbecile after all.
With Saturday being sunny I took middle child out for a quick run. We ended up getting carried away and were out driving for about for an hour and a half. He loved it though.
When we got back I started the strip down ready for paint.
The challenge will be not spending too much and changing everything when I build it back up. Those naff blue silicone hoses have driven me mad since I first set eyes on them though so they'll be getting replaced for black ones in the rebuild.
The garage soon started to look like a jumblesale.
Around about this point, I realised that the rollbar was also held in place by a bolt from underneath which meant the dampers had to be dropped too.
...and by this point with the tank dropped I started to realise that to do this properly wasn't going to be the work of a moment.
The strip gave me a great opportunity to get to know the car better and to understand how it works and where it can be improved. I was impressed by the AP 4-pots on the front, they're quite serious callipers for such a small car. At some point in the future I'll rebuild them and probably add some 2-pots to the rear. I think they'd look good colour-coded in fluoro yellow too.
The magnesium MB Racing wheels blew me away with how light they are. I'll get these back to Mike at some point for crack-testing and a refurb, although they're actually in fairly good condition. I'm glad they're the anodised dishes rather than the polished too, they look really purposeful.
I fitted the Caterham 8 spokes to take it to paint on and will get these old 888s removed and some ZZRs put on ready for when the car comes back. I've never been a fan of 888s anyway, but the medium compound seem unnecessary on such a light car. They're also the wrong sizes. Added to all that, they've aged and gone hard too.
The challenge will be not spending too much and changing everything when I build it back up. Those naff blue silicone hoses have driven me mad since I first set eyes on them though so they'll be getting replaced for black ones in the rebuild.
The garage soon started to look like a jumblesale.
Around about this point, I realised that the rollbar was also held in place by a bolt from underneath which meant the dampers had to be dropped too.
...and by this point with the tank dropped I started to realise that to do this properly wasn't going to be the work of a moment.
The strip gave me a great opportunity to get to know the car better and to understand how it works and where it can be improved. I was impressed by the AP 4-pots on the front, they're quite serious callipers for such a small car. At some point in the future I'll rebuild them and probably add some 2-pots to the rear. I think they'd look good colour-coded in fluoro yellow too.
The magnesium MB Racing wheels blew me away with how light they are. I'll get these back to Mike at some point for crack-testing and a refurb, although they're actually in fairly good condition. I'm glad they're the anodised dishes rather than the polished too, they look really purposeful.
I fitted the Caterham 8 spokes to take it to paint on and will get these old 888s removed and some ZZRs put on ready for when the car comes back. I've never been a fan of 888s anyway, but the medium compound seem unnecessary on such a light car. They're also the wrong sizes. Added to all that, they've aged and gone hard too.
Stripped as far as possible but still leaving it easy to roll, I loaded it on the trailer and headed North up to Cambridgeshire.
I'd heard lots about Arch and was really intrigued to see the place for myself. I arrived, unloaded the trailer and even before going inside, could see loads of interesting stuff just outside in and around the scrap bins.
The staff really couldn't have been nicer. They have a real pride in their history, their craftmanship and some of the fantastic projects that they've worked on. In the foyer is a list of some of them, but it looks to stop about 20 years ago. It contained a few surprises though, I hadn't realised that they'd built the RS200 for instance or that they'd done so much F1 stuff back in the '50s and '60s.
I was given 'the tour' which was fascinating. Main Caterham chassis construction ended years ago, when Caterham was bought out by investors that looked to increase margin. A few companies including Caged tried to make the new metric chassis for the price Caterham demanded and they went bust trying, before it passed to the current manufacturer.
This is a CSR chassis, which are still made by Arch:
This is a rack of dies and jigs for Caterham panels:
...and this is Caterham imperial chassis jig no. 2. The exact place where my car's chassis would have been made over 20 years ago.
Things are still done the same way, often by exactly the same people that have been at the company since its inception. I was told that at least 2 of the employees are well into their mid-80s.
The quality of the craftsmanship is world-class. There were a few things that i was asked not to photograph and I imagine there are so many projects here that are done for other suppliers to reap the glory from. For instance, I was told Guy Martin's TT frames are made here.
This room had a Jaguar D-Type and a Mclaren chassis in mid-production.
Just look at the quality of the bronze welding.
An Aeriel Atom chassis on the jig, mid-production.
They still do lots of repairs to Caterhams, including metric chassis cars as well as imperial. This R400 racer had been fitted with a new rear skin...
...which conveniently leads back into the reason I was here in the first place.
I'd heard lots about Arch and was really intrigued to see the place for myself. I arrived, unloaded the trailer and even before going inside, could see loads of interesting stuff just outside in and around the scrap bins.
The staff really couldn't have been nicer. They have a real pride in their history, their craftmanship and some of the fantastic projects that they've worked on. In the foyer is a list of some of them, but it looks to stop about 20 years ago. It contained a few surprises though, I hadn't realised that they'd built the RS200 for instance or that they'd done so much F1 stuff back in the '50s and '60s.
I was given 'the tour' which was fascinating. Main Caterham chassis construction ended years ago, when Caterham was bought out by investors that looked to increase margin. A few companies including Caged tried to make the new metric chassis for the price Caterham demanded and they went bust trying, before it passed to the current manufacturer.
This is a CSR chassis, which are still made by Arch:
This is a rack of dies and jigs for Caterham panels:
...and this is Caterham imperial chassis jig no. 2. The exact place where my car's chassis would have been made over 20 years ago.
Things are still done the same way, often by exactly the same people that have been at the company since its inception. I was told that at least 2 of the employees are well into their mid-80s.
The quality of the craftsmanship is world-class. There were a few things that i was asked not to photograph and I imagine there are so many projects here that are done for other suppliers to reap the glory from. For instance, I was told Guy Martin's TT frames are made here.
This room had a Jaguar D-Type and a Mclaren chassis in mid-production.
Just look at the quality of the bronze welding.
An Aeriel Atom chassis on the jig, mid-production.
They still do lots of repairs to Caterhams, including metric chassis cars as well as imperial. This R400 racer had been fitted with a new rear skin...
...which conveniently leads back into the reason I was here in the first place.
L100NYY said:
I would yes and please do 
I test drove a Duratec R400 with a view too replacing my K R400 but it just didn't have the character that I wanted.
Wish I had kept my old bare ali/carbon Superlight tbh. Doh....hindsight.
Are you going to the Caterham open day?
What number was yours ?I test drove a Duratec R400 with a view too replacing my K R400 but it just didn't have the character that I wanted.
Wish I had kept my old bare ali/carbon Superlight tbh. Doh....hindsight.
Are you going to the Caterham open day?
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