£15K, a challenge, your help appreciated
Discussion
OK, so I need some peoples help. The situation is as follows.
I live in Paris and want a track toy for my time in France. I want it to be a Caterham rather than anything else and I have had to now restrict my budget to £15K, this will grow incrementally over time, but thinking end of season and winter will be best opportunities to splash out. Caterhams in France are eye wateringly expensive for the specs.
I'm 6'3, 18 stone dressed, reasonably compotent behind the wheel but rusty as it's been a long time since I was last on track and want something I can use to re-develop my driving skills and have a lot of fun with. Therefore any Caterham I buy I would look for it to have enough BHP to drag my delicate frame along a straight fast enough not to get too annoyed getting through the corners quickly to be swamped down the straights. I have a Griffith in the garage which is the weekends away and touring car so road registration, although preferred is not essential.
So, if you had £15k in your pocket and the classifieds (or other available resources) at your disposal; what from the current offerings would you choose and why as your preferred track day weapon.
Wide track, dry sump, full cage etc etc ? ?
£15k isn't a hard ceiling, ultimately I will to trailer it and can afford to upgrade over time more easily than wait for the exact right car etc. . . All help appreciated.
So £15k, a chance to read through the classifieds and tell me what you think as a collective Caterham forum. .
I live in Paris and want a track toy for my time in France. I want it to be a Caterham rather than anything else and I have had to now restrict my budget to £15K, this will grow incrementally over time, but thinking end of season and winter will be best opportunities to splash out. Caterhams in France are eye wateringly expensive for the specs.
I'm 6'3, 18 stone dressed, reasonably compotent behind the wheel but rusty as it's been a long time since I was last on track and want something I can use to re-develop my driving skills and have a lot of fun with. Therefore any Caterham I buy I would look for it to have enough BHP to drag my delicate frame along a straight fast enough not to get too annoyed getting through the corners quickly to be swamped down the straights. I have a Griffith in the garage which is the weekends away and touring car so road registration, although preferred is not essential.
So, if you had £15k in your pocket and the classifieds (or other available resources) at your disposal; what from the current offerings would you choose and why as your preferred track day weapon.
Wide track, dry sump, full cage etc etc ? ?
£15k isn't a hard ceiling, ultimately I will to trailer it and can afford to upgrade over time more easily than wait for the exact right car etc. . . All help appreciated.
So £15k, a chance to read through the classifieds and tell me what you think as a collective Caterham forum. .
Hi Johno, long time 
For that money, and what you want to use it for get a metric chassis ex roadsport, set you back about £10k and stick in a duratec
All of the recent roadsport chassis came with lowered floors and adjusting the seat and pedals should get you in with some comfort under the cage.
For that money, and what you want to use it for get a metric chassis ex roadsport, set you back about £10k and stick in a duratec
All of the recent roadsport chassis came with lowered floors and adjusting the seat and pedals should get you in with some comfort under the cage.
Hi,
Certainly try a few cars out for size but I don't think you would be too big for an S3 at all. I'm 6'2" and (unfortunately!) weigh more than you and I find an S3 version fine. I have sat in the SV model and feel a bit lost in there especially if you are using it predominantly as a track car.
Lowered floors are well worthwhile and you can increase leg room by either tilting the seat (tillets give more room than leather S types) backward very slightly or by lifting it an equal amount from the floor which effectively means it can slide further back on its rails before meeting the sloping alloy panel behind the seats. You only need to use small 5mm spacers to make noticeable difference.
Looking at the ads at the moment, my money would be on the Blackbird with the essential and uprated Nova gearbox : http://www.pistonheads.com/sales/3043933.htm A BEC is a formidable car on both road and track and much more forgiving for road use than you might think. Converting a car from its original spec to either BEC or Duratec is more costly than it originally seems so I would buy something fairly close to what you want in the first place
HTH
T
Certainly try a few cars out for size but I don't think you would be too big for an S3 at all. I'm 6'2" and (unfortunately!) weigh more than you and I find an S3 version fine. I have sat in the SV model and feel a bit lost in there especially if you are using it predominantly as a track car.
Lowered floors are well worthwhile and you can increase leg room by either tilting the seat (tillets give more room than leather S types) backward very slightly or by lifting it an equal amount from the floor which effectively means it can slide further back on its rails before meeting the sloping alloy panel behind the seats. You only need to use small 5mm spacers to make noticeable difference.
Looking at the ads at the moment, my money would be on the Blackbird with the essential and uprated Nova gearbox : http://www.pistonheads.com/sales/3043933.htm A BEC is a formidable car on both road and track and much more forgiving for road use than you might think. Converting a car from its original spec to either BEC or Duratec is more costly than it originally seems so I would buy something fairly close to what you want in the first place
HTH
T
Buy mine - http://www.pistonheads.com/sales/3189286.htm (riot van not included!) and then use the rest of your budget to modify to your precise taste...
Thanks all for words of advice etc .... Got an interesting offer from someone which after careful consideration we have made into a deal that -km happy with.
I wanted a track car that was also a bit of a project for the winter and although I know you're always better to start with what you really want, trying to find an SV was ridiculously hard for my price bracket.
What I've nearly completed a deal on is an SV chassis'd track car, with 135 1.6k. I'll end up making it look better and ultimately upgrade the power, but it's got LSD, wide track, 6spd, bigger brakes etc etc, so a good starting point.
Good to see you're still around Ben, maybe catch up some time as I'll need more advice soon enough
I wanted a track car that was also a bit of a project for the winter and although I know you're always better to start with what you really want, trying to find an SV was ridiculously hard for my price bracket.
What I've nearly completed a deal on is an SV chassis'd track car, with 135 1.6k. I'll end up making it look better and ultimately upgrade the power, but it's got LSD, wide track, 6spd, bigger brakes etc etc, so a good starting point.
Good to see you're still around Ben, maybe catch up some time as I'll need more advice soon enough
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