RE: Caterham Academy opens its doors
Tuesday 14th June 2005
Caterham racing can be fun...Fancy racing a Caterham, and getting a foot on the racing ladder? The Caterham Academy is offering grid spaces for the 2006 season, for £199 a month.
Caterham Academy opens its doors
Applications for the 2006 season are now invited
Caterham racing can be fun...
Launched in 1995, the Academy was set up as a first step onto the motorsport ladder and still provides an excellent and unique introduction to the sport for the novice racer. Due to unprecedented demand, the Academy is selling all available places well ahead of the race season.
The Academy package
Designed solely for novice drivers you can race the Caterham Academy for as little as £199 per month. The price includes:
- Road legal Caterham Roadsport (1.6 litre 120bhp K-Series engine)
- A technical seminar at the Academy's Caterham Midlands facility
- Basic driver training & medical for you to obtain your race driving licence (ARDS course)
- All race entry fees
- Race licence fee
- Test day with professional race instruction
- Eight motorsport events; four speed events which include hill climbs and sprints and four race events at top UK circuits
- Caterham technical support at each meeting for expert help and advice
- All event and administration fees
All you need to do is turn up with your car. You can drive to the track in the Academy car, have a great day's racing and then drive home. If you want to progress to the next level in the Caterham race series, simply upgrade your car and progress into the Caterham Roadsport Challenge.
The monthly payment the Academy quotes is for its financial package, which requires an upfront payment of £3,900 towards the £16,495 cost of the car. It includes VAT.
Discussion
Just wanted to say that if I'd known about the Caterham academy when I first started motor racing - i would of saved myself £30k and learnt more in that first year than I did throwing money away on a crappy car and a crappy team !
It's sold as the first run on the motorsport ladder and there isn't a better start available !
£16 - 17 you get a seasons racing and you keep the road legal car !!
blackangel said:
Can you buy the Caterham Academy cars second hand? Is there a market for the cars after your first season racing?
The race in the Academy you have to buy a new car through Caterham Cars.
Most drivers then go on to some other Caterham Formula - The Academy Car can be upgraded to a Caterham Roadsport or you could go race the incredible succesful Caterham Graduates series.
check out www.caterhamracing.com for a bit more info
If you're totally sure that all you want to do is race then it's cheaper to buy an ex academy/grads car and go straight into the grads series. There are plenty of folk in the grads club who can help you with the hassle of arranging ARDS testing, getting organised for your first race and so on.
Advantage of the academy is that your hand is held all the way and you get to try out sprinting and hillclimbs too. But you do pay for it!
(For the record I did the academy in 2002 and throughly recommend it for people with my level of organisational skills)
Advantage of the academy is that your hand is held all the way and you get to try out sprinting and hillclimbs too. But you do pay for it!
(For the record I did the academy in 2002 and throughly recommend it for people with my level of organisational skills)
blackangel said:Last years cars were being sold by Caterham for £15k
Can you buy the Caterham Academy cars second hand? Is there a market for the cars after your first season racing?
I'm doing it this year, and would reccomend it to anyone (but I would as I'm running 2nd in the championship
). The other advantage of this over the graduates racing is that everyone is a novice, so it's a bit more of a level playing fieldAll novices?
In theory yes. But there are novices and novices. In my year there was a guy who used to race bikes, quite a lot of people who had been driving sevens for years, and a couple of guys who seemed to have an unlimited budget for doing track and test days. And then there were the other half of the field - including me - who were on their first seven and a very limited budget.
I am told there are even more marked differences now they let in people who have held sprint licenses.
R
In theory yes. But there are novices and novices. In my year there was a guy who used to race bikes, quite a lot of people who had been driving sevens for years, and a couple of guys who seemed to have an unlimited budget for doing track and test days. And then there were the other half of the field - including me - who were on their first seven and a very limited budget.
I am told there are even more marked differences now they let in people who have held sprint licenses.
R
Hi Richard
I was going to add something along the lines of this - but it's the same in any formula - some drivers do have more experience, talent or endless budgets - The academy is a pretty level playing ground (well as good as your going to get)and i think it's still the best starting place - then with a year's experience they can then move on to the Graduates
I was going to add something along the lines of this - but it's the same in any formula - some drivers do have more experience, talent or endless budgets - The academy is a pretty level playing ground (well as good as your going to get)and i think it's still the best starting place - then with a year's experience they can then move on to the Graduates
RichardO said:
All novices?
In theory yes. But there are novices and novices. In my year there was a guy who used to race bikes, quite a lot of people who had been driving sevens for years, and a couple of guys who seemed to have an unlimited budget for doing track and test days. And then there were the other half of the field - including me - who were on their first seven and a very limited budget.
I am told there are even more marked differences now they let in people who have held sprint licenses.
R
I thought you weren't allowed to hold any form of MSA licence to get into the accademy
Anyway, yes the playing field is more level, this year there was a place up for grabs if you won EVO driver of the year. Unsuprisingly, he's pretty good
OTOH I'd only done one car track day before getting the accademy car and I'm still there or there abouts
If you want a chat about it drop me a line through my profile, or come and see us a Lydden this weekend
Anyway, yes the playing field is more level, this year there was a place up for grabs if you won EVO driver of the year. Unsuprisingly, he's pretty good
OTOH I'd only done one car track day before getting the accademy car and I'm still there or there abouts
If you want a chat about it drop me a line through my profile, or come and see us a Lydden this weekend
woof said:
Just wanted to say that if I'd known about the Caterham academy when I first started motor racing - i would of saved myself £30k and learnt more in that first year than I did throwing money away on a crappy car and a crappy team !
It's sold as the first run on the motorsport ladder and there isn't a better start available !
£16 - 17 you get a seasons racing and you keep the road legal car !!
Just playing Devil's advocate for a moment...
The other option as a novice is to enter into the 24hr 2CV race. Now before you rubbish this, bear with me.... The cars are all reasonably even and due to their relatively low speed (average speed about 10mph slower than graduate cars around Snett) the racing is fantastically close. In one race (the 24hr) we worked out that each driver did the equivalent of 2.5 years of Caterham racing (6 hours racing) as well as practise, two qualifying sessions etc etc.
Amongst the competitors this year were Alan Gow (TOCA boss), Phil Bennett (Nurburgring lap record holder and racing at Le Mans this year) and Michael Vergers of Radical fame. As well as a host of Caterham and TVR racers...
The cost for buying a drive in this event? Just under a grand. Far less than the depreciation of a Caterham Academy car!! I really struggle to see any better / cheaper way of gaining motorsport experience. Over the course the weekend I got to race for several hours in the dry, at night, in the rain, re-starts behind safety cars, pit-stops, qualifying.....
I looked at doing the CV race for fun - but i just couldn't bring myself to drive one - LOL
Also looked the the Beetle races
I'm sure the racing is quite fun but it does lack any speed - which is a bit of a pre requisite of motor racing ? what's the top speed of a CV ? Academy/Grad car should be able to do 115mph down the back straight ?
And of course you only get one race signature in a 24hr where as 2 1/2 years of racing would of earned you an International C (if you wanted one)
Not sure if these series offer any assistance with driver training or the complete package the Academy does ?
Certainly would advise that anyone thinking about motor racing needs to look and talk to a few people before leaping into anything
THe caterham lads are all good chaps - and i still haven't found anything that is more fun to race than the seven (well the CSR is better still) The racing is always close - aerodynamics of a brick , guarantee great slipstreaming overtaking (has it's minus points as well)
BTW - i don't get any commision from them !
Also looked the the Beetle races
I'm sure the racing is quite fun but it does lack any speed - which is a bit of a pre requisite of motor racing ? what's the top speed of a CV ? Academy/Grad car should be able to do 115mph down the back straight ?
And of course you only get one race signature in a 24hr where as 2 1/2 years of racing would of earned you an International C (if you wanted one)
Not sure if these series offer any assistance with driver training or the complete package the Academy does ?
Certainly would advise that anyone thinking about motor racing needs to look and talk to a few people before leaping into anything
THe caterham lads are all good chaps - and i still haven't found anything that is more fun to race than the seven (well the CSR is better still) The racing is always close - aerodynamics of a brick , guarantee great slipstreaming overtaking (has it's minus points as well)
BTW - i don't get any commision from them !
MBH said:
Just playing Devil's advocate for a moment...
The other option as a novice is to enter into the 24hr 2CV race. Now before you rubbish this, bear with me.... The cars are all reasonably even and due to their relatively low speed (average speed about 10mph slower than graduate cars around Snett) the racing is fantastically close. In one race (the 24hr) we worked out that each driver did the equivalent of 2.5 years of Caterham racing (6 hours racing) as well as practise, two qualifying sessions etc etc.
Amongst the competitors this year were Alan Gow (TOCA boss), Phil Bennett (Nurburgring lap record holder and racing at Le Mans this year) and Michael Vergers of Radical fame. As well as a h
ost of Caterham and TVR racers...
The cost for buying a drive in this event? Just under a grand. Far less than the depreciation of a Caterham Academy car!! I really struggle to see any better / cheaper way of gaining motorsport experience. Over the course the weekend I got to race for several hours in the dry, at night, in the rain, re-starts behind safety cars, pit-stops, qualifying.....
agreed - talk to as many people as you can. I thought the 2CV race was a joke until I started looking into it and the calibre of the teams and drivers taking part.
As for top speed with a tow they are doing about 100mph down the back straight at Snett. Personally given the length of the race I don't think an average speed 10mph slower than the Caterham's is too much of an issue when you look at the costs savings! Also because the aerodynamics are hopeless the slipstreaming effect is huge. I tagged on to the back of the leaders for a few laps and my lap times fell my two seconds!!
As for top speed with a tow they are doing about 100mph down the back straight at Snett. Personally given the length of the race I don't think an average speed 10mph slower than the Caterham's is too much of an issue when you look at the costs savings! Also because the aerodynamics are hopeless the slipstreaming effect is huge. I tagged on to the back of the leaders for a few laps and my lap times fell my two seconds!!
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