Caterham kept outside on driveway - terrible idea?

[Kiwi79]

Hi All,

I've been contemplating adding a fun car to the household and had a great experience with an AMG C63s but the running costs are putting me off and having previously driven a 360R in S3 chassis for a few days I keep wondering about a Caterham.

I would be likely looking for an 400/420 or something with at least 200hp (360R was nice but I've owned some fast bikes and it just didn't quite have the necessary go).

Problem is I have no garage just a 2-3 car driveway in a cul de sac. I would get a car cover but I do wonder if it will turn to a giant pile of rust during the British Winter. Assuming these don't get stolen much?

So rubbish idea or not? I'd rather not put it in storage as I just want to go out and drive it when I get the itch.

[Kiwi79]

Tye Green said:

7s aren't built to the same standards of rust protection as mainstream cars and will deteriorate rapidly if they get wet regularly.

What would be best approach to avoid rust - car cover, hose down underside if taken out on salty road and some sort of spray like Lanoguard? I must admit I don't really know how hard it is to get to the underside of a a Caterham. I suppose a small ramp on one side would make udnerside accessible?

[Kiwi79]

RSTurboPaul said:

Are you buying/building new or used?

If new, I imagine one could enquire about a special 'outdoors spec' treatment that added extra protection? (Powder coating suspension components more thickly, extra stages in the frame paint process, etc etc??)

Will be used 2008 onwards if I go down the Caterham path

[Kiwi79]

Interesting, thank you Lord Summerisle for sharing

lord summerisle said:

When I bought mine a couple of years ago, I was living in a back to back terrace house and the car had to live on the street outside the front door. We'd just put in an offer on a house with a drive and garage. That was in August and we didn't move until March the year after. And it spent a further year on the drive of the new house before we got the garage clear to be able to get the car inside: so overall the car spent 2 winters outside.

So some points to note from my experience.

1. Insurance - when I called around: many wouldn't insure unless garaged, or I fitted a tracking device. I ended up with MSM insurance. They would insure the car kept on the road, so long as the car was under £20k in value.

2. As I said, I bought the car in August. I placed an order with Soft Bits for Sevens for a long nose shower cap around the same time. But they didn't get the order out to me until mid December! So the only weather protection for the car was the standard hood, which is mostly ok, but isn't totally weather proof. It's fine when you driving in the rain. But when the car is stood still there are plenty of gaps that rain gets in around the doors. Especially when the wind is blowing the rain in from the rear of the car. Plus the louvres on the bonnet mean lots of water gets in, and the pedal boxes aren't the most well sealed items. I took to putting a tarp under the bonnet to help stop some of the water ingress.
despite all this, the inside of the car was still damp - needing to keep on top of any mildew growth on the harness/carpets/boot cover. I'd take the seat bases inside and put something to soak up water from the carpet



3. After the shower cap did arrive, I found that I'd still need to put the hood on anyway, as even with the holding straps done up so the cover was tight - when it rained it would pool over the cabin - and you'd come out in a morning after it rained/snowed overnight to find that there was a pool of water with the cover pulled down so it was touching the tunnel top. Also when it's on the side of the cover leaves some gaps around the back of the door/wheel arch. And the bottom of the boot cover - so again things still get damp & mildewy.



4. After I moved and had the car on the drive & knowing the shortcomings of the shower cap - I got a full car cover: much better for coverage - as it came down leaving only the bottom of the tyres exposed. But again, still needed something over the cabin to stop water pooling in there. So still putting the hood up. or later just the half hood when i finally got round to ordering one (from Oxted - delivered within 2 days of ordering, would have been next day had i called up an hour earlier to pay)
Problem with the full cover was that it would pull on the mirrors - so every time you went for a drive, you'd first have to reset the mirrors as they would have been yanked in all directions as the wind had caught the cover. or just as you where taking the cover off.

As you can imagine - having to take a cover off, take off the hood.... and then redo it all every time you went for a drive & keep on top of keeping the car dry.
Oh and might be a co-incidence but also the heater element sprung a leak after the first winter outside.


So - yes it's doable. but be aware there are issues to mitigate. And it's much better the car is now safely away in a dry garage, and i just need to open the door and drive it out when i fancy a drive.