Caterham hired for this weekend - excited!!
Discussion
So tomorrow I collect a basic Roadsport for the weekend (hired from Caterham Midlands). Looks like the weather is going to be fantastic, I have a route planned through the Cotswolds that'll take us down to Bath (thanks Highway Star 
) and hopefully it will be a jolly splendid weekend to help 'sell' the Caterham idea to the good wife.
From my perspective, it's going to be very interesting to get back behind the wheel of a Caterham. My last experience was back in 2011 (see here: http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...) and that particular car was a K-series, 6 speed and SV-bodied. This time I've got a sigma engined, 5 speed, S3-bodied Roadsport. It'll be interesting to make the comparison.
) and hopefully it will be a jolly splendid weekend to help 'sell' the Caterham idea to the good wife.From my perspective, it's going to be very interesting to get back behind the wheel of a Caterham. My last experience was back in 2011 (see here: http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...) and that particular car was a K-series, 6 speed and SV-bodied. This time I've got a sigma engined, 5 speed, S3-bodied Roadsport. It'll be interesting to make the comparison.
I suspect you will be suffering from the heat this weekend - but still better than roadtesting in the rain! If there is a kind local available maybe someone could lend you a half hood to get some shade and still be pretty breezy in the cockpit. A 5 speed Sigma roadsport is a lovely car. Not too fast though and you do have to work it, but absolutely fine for road use. I thoroughly enjoyed owning one and still rate it as one of my favourites sevens to have used.
Hi All,
Well I've now got it, and what a day to be driving one! That being said, it's certainly a hot one out there. Question: I have the heater vents closed (heater pull-lever firmly forward) - is it worth opening them, or will I just be venting hot engine-bay air into the cockpit?
Oh, and have also tried driving with the doors off...I can breathe fine, but anything over 70 mph feels like I'm being repeatedly punched in the face. I've also had the harness straps do just that!
Anyway, here's a shot of the little beauty outside my house
Well I've now got it, and what a day to be driving one! That being said, it's certainly a hot one out there. Question: I have the heater vents closed (heater pull-lever firmly forward) - is it worth opening them, or will I just be venting hot engine-bay air into the cockpit?
Oh, and have also tried driving with the doors off...I can breathe fine, but anything over 70 mph feels like I'm being repeatedly punched in the face. I've also had the harness straps do just that!
Anyway, here's a shot of the little beauty outside my house
Edited by ghibbett on Thursday 1st August 14:36
Hi Ghibbett,
If you're "blatting" about in the Cotswold's tomorrow morning and should be in the Shutford area, pop in for a coffee, kettles always on. I've got a couple of "hot" Sigma Caterhams here if you want to take a look.
Give me a call to let me know what time you might be about, I'll be test driving around the local lanes tomorrow morning.
Have fun!!
Regards
SKC
01295 788445
07712 530858
If you're "blatting" about in the Cotswold's tomorrow morning and should be in the Shutford area, pop in for a coffee, kettles always on. I've got a couple of "hot" Sigma Caterhams here if you want to take a look.
Give me a call to let me know what time you might be about, I'll be test driving around the local lanes tomorrow morning.
Have fun!!
Regards
SKC
01295 788445
07712 530858
ghibbett said:
Hi All,
Well I've now got it, and what a day to be driving one! That being said, it's certainly a hot one out there. Question: I have the heater vents closed (heater pull-lever firmly forward) - is it worth opening them, or will I just be venting hot engine-bay air into the cockpit?
If it's too hot try opening the vents. If it's still too hot try closing the vents.Well I've now got it, and what a day to be driving one! That being said, it's certainly a hot one out there. Question: I have the heater vents closed (heater pull-lever firmly forward) - is it worth opening them, or will I just be venting hot engine-bay air into the cockpit?
If it's still too hot try opening the vents then closing them again.
If it's still too hot try closing the vents then opening them again.
Open the vents and see if it cools down.
Close the vents and see if it cools down.
Try half opening them.
Try half closing them.
Give up, and appreciate it's gonna be roasting hot inside no matter what, more so in this weather, and that the flaps, like every other creature comfort on these cars, do nothing.....
....and just enjoy it regardless.
SKC said:
Hi Ghibbett,
If you're "blatting" about in the Cotswold's tomorrow morning and should be in the Shutford area, pop in for a coffee, kettles always on. I've got a couple of "hot" Sigma Caterhams here if you want to take a look.
Wow, thanks very much! I'm heading down the Fosse through to Stow-on-the-Wold, then on to Cirencester and finally onto Bath, so not really in the vicinity on Shutford unfortunately. However if you're out and about, I'll be sure to wave If you're "blatting" about in the Cotswold's tomorrow morning and should be in the Shutford area, pop in for a coffee, kettles always on. I've got a couple of "hot" Sigma Caterhams here if you want to take a look.
Also would love to see these 'hot' sigmas too
Cheers
Hi Ghibbert,
Hope you had fun yesterday, great day for it.
If you're thinking of buying one or want to get more involved with the club scene, I highly recommend joining the Lotus7club. Warwickshire has a great club and meets every first Wednesday of the month at several different venues throughout south Warwickshire. It's normally a great evening with meal and drink (partners are made to feel very welcome) and if the weather is nice, normally end up with some tyre kicking the car park.
If you're interested, let me know and I'll get your name added to the club mailing list.
Best regards
SKC
Hope you had fun yesterday, great day for it.
If you're thinking of buying one or want to get more involved with the club scene, I highly recommend joining the Lotus7club. Warwickshire has a great club and meets every first Wednesday of the month at several different venues throughout south Warwickshire. It's normally a great evening with meal and drink (partners are made to feel very welcome) and if the weather is nice, normally end up with some tyre kicking the car park.
If you're interested, let me know and I'll get your name added to the club mailing list.
Best regards
SKC
SKC said:
Hi Ghibbett,
If you're "blatting" about in the Cotswold's tomorrow morning and should be in the Shutford area, pop in for a coffee, kettles always on. I've got a couple of "hot" Sigma Caterhams here if you want to take a look.
Give me a call to let me know what time you might be about, I'll be test driving around the local lanes tomorrow morning.
Have fun!!
Regards
SKC
01295 788445
07712 530858
You might want to remove that from public view....If you're "blatting" about in the Cotswold's tomorrow morning and should be in the Shutford area, pop in for a coffee, kettles always on. I've got a couple of "hot" Sigma Caterhams here if you want to take a look.
Give me a call to let me know what time you might be about, I'll be test driving around the local lanes tomorrow morning.
Have fun!!
Regards
SKC
01295 788445
07712 530858
Turn7 said:
SKC said:
Hi Ghibbett,
If you're "blatting" about in the Cotswold's tomorrow morning and should be in the Shutford area, pop in for a coffee, kettles always on. I've got a couple of "hot" Sigma Caterhams here if you want to take a look.
Give me a call to let me know what time you might be about, I'll be test driving around the local lanes tomorrow morning.
Have fun!!
Regards
SKC
01295 788445
07712 530858
You might want to remove that from public view....If you're "blatting" about in the Cotswold's tomorrow morning and should be in the Shutford area, pop in for a coffee, kettles always on. I've got a couple of "hot" Sigma Caterhams here if you want to take a look.
Give me a call to let me know what time you might be about, I'll be test driving around the local lanes tomorrow morning.
Have fun!!
Regards
SKC
01295 788445
07712 530858
Sorry, not had the time to really write in detail what I wish too (thoughts on Sigma engine, 5 vs 6 speed 'box, SV vs S3 etc). Will get something together soon along with some video I captured on my GoPro.
However I must say I was very impressed with the car. Considering it's pretty much the starting point with only 125bhp and the old 5 speed 'box, it went really quite well and was hilarious fun!
Anyway, will get the video processed and jot down some words over the next few days.
Cheers.
However I must say I was very impressed with the car. Considering it's pretty much the starting point with only 125bhp and the old 5 speed 'box, it went really quite well and was hilarious fun!
Anyway, will get the video processed and jot down some words over the next few days.
Cheers.
Hi All,
Apologies for the delay, but here are my thoughts on the Roadsport 125 I hired from Caterham Midlands. I've also linked a little video I made during a short Blat on the day I collected her.
So as a background, and as can be seen in my original post, I hired an XPower 140K SV with a 6 speed 'box a few years ago for a weekend in Scotland. I loved it. So I really wanted to try a Sigma engined, S3 chassis with a 5 speed 'box as a comparison. In honesty I was a little apprehensive that it just wouldn't cut the mustard for me, however the main purpose of the weekend was to introduce the Wife to Caterhams and woo her to their charms by cruising down to Bath, along a carefully planned route through the Cotswolds and hope the weather was good. It was. It was magnificent.
So as an overall summary, how did it, and my Wife, fare? Well I loved the car. It was a lot better than I thought it would be. I'll go into specifics below, but as a road-based package it was just great fun. The Wife, although not ovally enamoured with the faff of the harnesses and ingress/egress of the car, soon fell for its charms and had a ball of a weekend. Therefore permission has been granted to buy one - possibly helped by the fact I've just bought her a new Mini - so now I just need to save a few quid and find the right car. I reckon I'll be looking to buy my first Caterham sometime in Spring next year.
So as to the specifics of the Roadsport 125, and also in comparison to my other Caterham experience in a K-series 140bhp, SV bodied car with the 6 speed 'box:
Engine:
The little 1.6 Sigma was a delight. Very tractable, torquey enough to work the 5 speed 'box well but with good power to the 6750 limiter. It also sounded great, with a nice induction rasp and the lovely Caterham blaring exhaust note, right next to your ear. And an added bonus of lots of crackles, pops and occasional artillery fire during the overrun between 1700-2000 rpm. Extremely amusing. The only thing that would be great would be to have a few more revs to play with, along with a slightly more lively top-end and a wee bit more oomph. I imagine the 140bhp Sigmas are a riot on the road!
Gearbox:
This was probably my No1 'worry'. A cruddy old Ford Sierra gearbox with ratios designed for towing caravans. I mean how rubbish is that?! Well not that rubbish actually. The gearchange is extremely sweet, the 2/3/4/5 ratios are actually very good (no doubt helped along by the torquey Sigma) but 1st is definitely too short. Unless you're planning a quick getaway, 2nd is fine for pulling away - I even accidentally pulled away in 3rd without issue. Prior to this hire, in my mind I would only consider a 6 speeder, however now I would definitely consider a Caterham with a 5 speed 'box, especially when mated to the Sigma engine.
Chassis:
So time to squeeze into an S3. I'd purchased some Puma Speedcats and was worried that I'd still have problems with the pedals. I didn't. Decent driving footwear really does make a difference. Space wise you certainly notice the narrower cabin, especially when belting up (impossible with the doors latched - unless my elbows just stick out a lot?). However it is nice and snug once in and I'm only a wee 5ft 8" chap, so no comfort issues at all. The only thing was, with the weather we had, it didn't half get hot in the cabin, especially in the footwell.
Another point regarding the chassis - I don't think the car had the wide track front suspension and it certainly pushed into understeer quicker that I'd have liked. I can't remember the model of Avon tyre it used, but they seemed extremely hard.
Anything else?:
The car has 521 miles on the odo when I collected it at Caterham Midlands. I put another 315 miles on it. When looking in the boot, I was rather disappointed to see a load of swarf in there, I assume left over from the factory. Is this common place with factory built cars? A bit shoddy to say the least!
My final point - driving without doors. I only saw up to 80mph without the doors on, whilst experimenting on a private road, but I didn't have any problems with breathing as some people report. It certainly feels like you're getting a nice face massage (read: being slapped in the face), but it's not too bad. That being said, I didn't half get a few whacks to the face by the harness straps with the doors off. You soon learn to tuck them in!
Anyway, here's my little video: http://youtu.be/sqy3P3CDmt0 Tip: 1080p and headphone/decent speakers are best.
Thanks for reading
Apologies for the delay, but here are my thoughts on the Roadsport 125 I hired from Caterham Midlands. I've also linked a little video I made during a short Blat on the day I collected her.
So as a background, and as can be seen in my original post, I hired an XPower 140K SV with a 6 speed 'box a few years ago for a weekend in Scotland. I loved it. So I really wanted to try a Sigma engined, S3 chassis with a 5 speed 'box as a comparison. In honesty I was a little apprehensive that it just wouldn't cut the mustard for me, however the main purpose of the weekend was to introduce the Wife to Caterhams and woo her to their charms by cruising down to Bath, along a carefully planned route through the Cotswolds and hope the weather was good. It was. It was magnificent.
So as an overall summary, how did it, and my Wife, fare? Well I loved the car. It was a lot better than I thought it would be. I'll go into specifics below, but as a road-based package it was just great fun. The Wife, although not ovally enamoured with the faff of the harnesses and ingress/egress of the car, soon fell for its charms and had a ball of a weekend. Therefore permission has been granted to buy one - possibly helped by the fact I've just bought her a new Mini - so now I just need to save a few quid and find the right car. I reckon I'll be looking to buy my first Caterham sometime in Spring next year.
So as to the specifics of the Roadsport 125, and also in comparison to my other Caterham experience in a K-series 140bhp, SV bodied car with the 6 speed 'box:
Engine:
The little 1.6 Sigma was a delight. Very tractable, torquey enough to work the 5 speed 'box well but with good power to the 6750 limiter. It also sounded great, with a nice induction rasp and the lovely Caterham blaring exhaust note, right next to your ear. And an added bonus of lots of crackles, pops and occasional artillery fire during the overrun between 1700-2000 rpm. Extremely amusing. The only thing that would be great would be to have a few more revs to play with, along with a slightly more lively top-end and a wee bit more oomph. I imagine the 140bhp Sigmas are a riot on the road!
Gearbox:
This was probably my No1 'worry'. A cruddy old Ford Sierra gearbox with ratios designed for towing caravans. I mean how rubbish is that?! Well not that rubbish actually. The gearchange is extremely sweet, the 2/3/4/5 ratios are actually very good (no doubt helped along by the torquey Sigma) but 1st is definitely too short. Unless you're planning a quick getaway, 2nd is fine for pulling away - I even accidentally pulled away in 3rd without issue. Prior to this hire, in my mind I would only consider a 6 speeder, however now I would definitely consider a Caterham with a 5 speed 'box, especially when mated to the Sigma engine.
Chassis:
So time to squeeze into an S3. I'd purchased some Puma Speedcats and was worried that I'd still have problems with the pedals. I didn't. Decent driving footwear really does make a difference. Space wise you certainly notice the narrower cabin, especially when belting up (impossible with the doors latched - unless my elbows just stick out a lot?). However it is nice and snug once in and I'm only a wee 5ft 8" chap, so no comfort issues at all. The only thing was, with the weather we had, it didn't half get hot in the cabin, especially in the footwell.
Another point regarding the chassis - I don't think the car had the wide track front suspension and it certainly pushed into understeer quicker that I'd have liked. I can't remember the model of Avon tyre it used, but they seemed extremely hard.
Anything else?:
The car has 521 miles on the odo when I collected it at Caterham Midlands. I put another 315 miles on it. When looking in the boot, I was rather disappointed to see a load of swarf in there, I assume left over from the factory. Is this common place with factory built cars? A bit shoddy to say the least!
My final point - driving without doors. I only saw up to 80mph without the doors on, whilst experimenting on a private road, but I didn't have any problems with breathing as some people report. It certainly feels like you're getting a nice face massage (read: being slapped in the face), but it's not too bad. That being said, I didn't half get a few whacks to the face by the harness straps with the doors off. You soon learn to tuck them in!
Anyway, here's my little video: http://youtu.be/sqy3P3CDmt0 Tip: 1080p and headphone/decent speakers are best.
Thanks for reading
Hi Ghibbett,
Interesting reading and nice video.
http://www.warwickshire7s.co.uk/
If your thinking of buying a car, possibly worth a trip along to your local club, can highly recommend it, Great bunch of people and very friendly, wives and partners welcome. Club meets every first Wednesday of the month. This time of year we can get up to twenty cars turn up.
Regards
SKC
Interesting reading and nice video.
http://www.warwickshire7s.co.uk/
If your thinking of buying a car, possibly worth a trip along to your local club, can highly recommend it, Great bunch of people and very friendly, wives and partners welcome. Club meets every first Wednesday of the month. This time of year we can get up to twenty cars turn up.
Regards
SKC
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