First Impressions
Discussion
Picked up my car yesterday, my first foray into the world of Caterham. My first impressions:
Plenty of power! Taking it easy at the moment, greasy roads yesterday and I will keep the revs down for the first 500 miles or so. Really impressed with the way it pulls, it’s just crying out to be let loose.
Love the gearbox. Short movements, smooth and yet solid. I also like the gear stick position, with your arm resting on the central console its perfect position.
Diff/LSD, what an effing racket. Not so bad when the power is applied but the moment you lift off it whiles and clunks and when you manoeuvre between 1st and reverse it makes such a racket. I was originally in two minds about running with the LSD, I will live with it for now in the hope that it gets quieter.
Brakes, not really put them to the test yet.
Grip, again not really put to the test yet, on the whole not as skitty as I was expecting.
Steering, sharp as I expected. Love it.
Road noise, pretty well what I expected. The merit or otherwise of different road surfaces are very noticeable. Exhaust noise, I suspect the novelty will wear off!
Comfort, OK. Pretty snug, warm air works, seat is good, takes a bit of getting used to being so low down, no more reading the road ahead by looking through the car in front. Seat belts are a bit of a performance, particularly when you get all buckled up only to find the door is not fastened, you would never be away first from a Le Mans start!
Driveability, very good, I had been nervous about how it would behave in stop/start traffic and it’s fine, it will trickle along when you need it too, no dramas at all and of course the moment you do want it to pick up it's toes, well...
Marks out of ten, at the moment I will give it an 8, I will give it another mark when the sun comes out so just the harshness of the diff preventing me from giving it full marks. This is not going to be a weekend seven, I intent to use it whenever I realistically can.
Plenty of power! Taking it easy at the moment, greasy roads yesterday and I will keep the revs down for the first 500 miles or so. Really impressed with the way it pulls, it’s just crying out to be let loose.
Love the gearbox. Short movements, smooth and yet solid. I also like the gear stick position, with your arm resting on the central console its perfect position.
Diff/LSD, what an effing racket. Not so bad when the power is applied but the moment you lift off it whiles and clunks and when you manoeuvre between 1st and reverse it makes such a racket. I was originally in two minds about running with the LSD, I will live with it for now in the hope that it gets quieter.
Brakes, not really put them to the test yet.
Grip, again not really put to the test yet, on the whole not as skitty as I was expecting.
Steering, sharp as I expected. Love it.
Road noise, pretty well what I expected. The merit or otherwise of different road surfaces are very noticeable. Exhaust noise, I suspect the novelty will wear off!
Comfort, OK. Pretty snug, warm air works, seat is good, takes a bit of getting used to being so low down, no more reading the road ahead by looking through the car in front. Seat belts are a bit of a performance, particularly when you get all buckled up only to find the door is not fastened, you would never be away first from a Le Mans start!
Driveability, very good, I had been nervous about how it would behave in stop/start traffic and it’s fine, it will trickle along when you need it too, no dramas at all and of course the moment you do want it to pick up it's toes, well...
Marks out of ten, at the moment I will give it an 8, I will give it another mark when the sun comes out so just the harshness of the diff preventing me from giving it full marks. This is not going to be a weekend seven, I intent to use it whenever I realistically can.
DCL said:
That looks really nice but what exactly is it? Maybe I've missed a post, but it's got some interesting features 
It was built for a previous owner but not finished, run or registered. I acquired it from Millwood who had it finished with a few choices of my own, they had it tested and it was newly registered yesterday. (I had the plate on previous cars.) It has the 2.3 set up to provide a tad over 200 I'm told. I made the decision to buy it in November so for the last few months I have been like a kid waiting for Christmas!"so low down" can catch you out when the spring / summer arrives and the grass gets long....entries to some roundabouts can have zero visibility due to long grass or armco.....which the idiot behind you who is tanking along thinking it's clear to go doesn't realise as you get on the brakes 'cos you can't see anything !
Welcome to the world of Caterham driving....it's addictive
PS..nice looking car
Welcome to the world of Caterham driving....it's addictive
PS..nice looking car
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