What’s happened to the 160?

[LiamV12V]

The 160 is completely missing from the lovely new Caterham website, has it been canned?

[Simon1796]

Discontinued for the uk and possibly Europe I understand.

[LiamV12V]

Is this related to the new emission standard coming in, I wonder, or are IVA cars exempt?

[Trackdayguy]

Im staggered that Caterham earn any money out of these short lived projects like the 160 when so few are sold compared with the development costs to get it into production.

[CanAm]

I would guess that Japan is the target market for the 160, bearing in mind that it qualifies as a Kei-car.

[PiersR]

I am sure I read somewhere that CC could no longer obtain the engine.

Piers

[Trackdayguy]

CanAm said:

I would guess that Japan is the target market for the 160, bearing in mind that it qualifies as a Kei-car.

That would make sense, Suzuki parts and all that. I know for a fact that the 160 was not available here in North America, due to issues with Suzuki not being here. They pulled out of Canada a few years ago.

[downsman]

I hope they replace it with another narrow tyred low power model, preferably normally aspirated

[crabjam]

I think they stopped taking orders in early 2018; certainly long before my kit arrived in September. As mentioned above I don't think they could get hold of the K6A engines any more. In terms of the total number sold, it's worth remembering that as well as 4 years' worth of 160 production, the 120 Sprint/Supersprints sold in 2017 are mechanically very similar.

[Axeboy]

Great little engine.

I'll be interested to see what they replace it with

[GolfJulietTango]

Caterham Cars ran out of engines, which are no longer built. Whether a limited rin was part of the plan, I do not know but considering the effort CTI (when it existed) put in, would surprise me.
Apparently the replacement, the R engine (R06A) does/will not fit, which is a real shame.

[InitialDave]

CanAm said:

I would guess that Japan is the target market for the 160, bearing in mind that it qualifies as a Kei-car.

I don't think it does. Too wide and too powerful.

[CanAm]

InitialDave said:

CanAm said:

I would guess that Japan is the target market for the 160, bearing in mind that it qualifies as a Kei-car.

I don't think it does. Too wide and too powerful.

It has a narrower rear axle (from a Suzuki Kei car) and skinny tyres specifically to keep within the 1480cm limit. "Out of the 100 Caterham cars coming to Japan each year, 80 are kei car spec"

[InitialDave]

Interesting, I didn't think it managed to creep under that. Do they turn the power down a notch for Japan? The UK ones were 80bhp, right?

[CanAm]

InitialDave said:

Interesting, I didn't think it managed to creep under that. Do they turn the power down a notch for Japan? The UK ones were 80bhp, right?

Original articles mentioned UK market cars being tuned to 80 bhp. I guess they just use the standard JDM engine in Japan.

[Axeboy]

This article gives a little info, spot the yellow plate, thats a surprise as I assumed it wouldn't meet the requirements either

http://www.speedhunters.com/2015/06/less-is-more-c...

[InitialDave]

Yep, definitely a kei plate. Makes a lot of sense to try and get it to meet the regs though.

[Olivera]

Thankfully dead, just a dreadful choice of engine for a Caterham.

[Axeboy]

Not driven the 160 but I have driven a few Catherhams and owned a tuned k6a

Great little engine. Certainly reviewed well, why the hate, just opinion/preference?

Genuinely interested as I still have a hankering for a 160 more than some of the other engine choices

[anonymous-user]

Each to their own. It’s not an engine I would have ever considered; certainly wouldn’t be at home on a track and I can’t imagine it keeping me interested for long on the road.

Having said that, with skinny tyres it could be amusing and it’s probably fun for a country run.