Vauxhall engine

[ciscodisco]

While looking around for a used Caterhan I have noticed a few for sale with Vauxhall engines. Did Caterham use Vauxhall units or have they been fitted by owners?
All comments, advantages / disadvantages would be welcome as I am still on the Caterham learning curve.

[Eric Mc]

Vauxhall engines of various types have been fitted to Caterhams BY CATERHAM CARS since the 80s. The best have been the 1800cc and 2000 cc HPC and JPE variants - mega quick cars and much sought after today.

At the lower end, Caterham's live axle "Classic" (which was built from about 1994 to 2001/2) switched to the 1600 cc Vauxhall GTE engine when the original Ford 1600 cc Crossflows ran out in 1997.

So, the answer is, yes, Caterham did build Sevens with Vauxhall engines as standard.

>> Edited by Eric Mc on Wednesday 25th May 20:57

[rubystone]

I'll let you know just how good the 2 litre HPC is - I'm running one now after 3 K Series (2 SLRs) before that. So far so good - the car stood up well to a serious thrashing at Brands.

I also didn't find the handling to be as bad as I expected - but then mine has widetrack, quicker rack and has been flat floored/corner weighted by Hyperion.

I think that a sorted VX on 13 inch rims and decent tyres is a good car.

[g7jhp]

I've also got an HPC, it's a 2.0 Vauxhall on Carbs.

Performance is great, sound is awesome and none of the reliability issues of the newer K series engines

There do seem to me a few around at present but they'll some go once the sun comes out, don't wait too long

[Eric Mc]

I agree with the comments about the 2 litre Vauxhall Sevens sounding great, loathe though I am to admit it (being a Crossflow Seven owner).