Bought a yellow Caterham R400 2004.
Discussion
Good workGood lad. You don't mess around 
Now, 13" wheels? What other options?
Perfect colour btw.
Don't worry too much about 0-60-100 etc. It'll be plenty quick enough to see most things a clean pair of heels on the Queen's highway.
And please be very careful and consciously ease yourself into driving the car quickly. A track day early on woule be a very good idea. I did my first at Snetterton which isn't a great circuit, but is actually a good starter circuit IMO. An airfield day would also be a good option.
Pictures when you have it please
Now, 13" wheels? What other options?
Perfect colour btw.
Don't worry too much about 0-60-100 etc. It'll be plenty quick enough to see most things a clean pair of heels on the Queen's highway.
And please be very careful and consciously ease yourself into driving the car quickly. A track day early on woule be a very good idea. I did my first at Snetterton which isn't a great circuit, but is actually a good starter circuit IMO. An airfield day would also be a good option.
Pictures when you have it please
rubystone said:
All those are standard on an R400
Oh no they're not! 
Caterham charge you extra for windscreen and weather equipment, 13" wheels, heater, stack dash and leather seats.
And of course we all know that paint is an optional extra on Caterhams: they'll have charged somewhere north of £750 for that superfast yellow paint.
Decent buy?
A tuner in Nottingham has offered to turbo-charge the motor, using low-ish boost, using experience gained from fitting turbos. to Honda Civic Type R and Toyota Celica and has said that I will have around 250 bhp and almost twice the stock R400 torque.
£5K.
First things first and all that, but I may well take him up. It would make this thing fly.
>> Edited by V8 OHV on Thursday 14th July 18:01
A tuner in Nottingham has offered to turbo-charge the motor, using low-ish boost, using experience gained from fitting turbos. to Honda Civic Type R and Toyota Celica and has said that I will have around 250 bhp and almost twice the stock R400 torque.
£5K.
First things first and all that, but I may well take him up. It would make this thing fly.
>> Edited by V8 OHV on Thursday 14th July 18:01
Jeremy, I fear we are splitting hairs ;-) - OK so maybe yours is the only SLR to have been ordered from new without weather gear etc, but in truth, 90% of the SLs, SLRs, R300s and R400s come specced with weather gear....naturally, this gives Caterham a fine excuse to make a bit of extra cash on the side though - just like Mercedes and BMW used to do when they charged for ICE - I hear that now they charge for a "Smoker's Pack"...which includes an ashtray and cigarette lighter!
V8 OHV said:
A tuner in Nottingham has offered to turbo-charge the motor, using low-ish boost, using experience gained from fitting turbos. to Honda Civic Type R and Toyota Celica and has said that I will have around 250 bhp and almost twice the stock R400 torque.
£5K. >> Edited by V8 OHV on Thursday 14th July 18:01
No no no.
Nat asp is the right way in a lightweight like this. Revvier the better.
And the K can be sensitive to temperatures. Can't imagine a turbo helping.
If you really end up feeling like you want to tinker, my advice would be to sell a std. car and buy a better base car that won't trash residuals.
Do you honestly feel that a 250 bhp / 250 ft lbs 'R400' (R500 Evolution power with much better grunt) would not be very saleable?
Did you mean to hunt out a used R500 Evo instead?
BTW, Which other Caterhams are 'better' than a R400 then? A well modified one or a stock car? I am raw to the marque but I only know of the R500, R500 Evo and the new 260 bhp thingy.
>> Edited by V8 OHV on Friday 15th July 07:46
Did you mean to hunt out a used R500 Evo instead?
BTW, Which other Caterhams are 'better' than a R400 then? A well modified one or a stock car? I am raw to the marque but I only know of the R500, R500 Evo and the new 260 bhp thingy.
>> Edited by V8 OHV on Friday 15th July 07:46
rubystone said:Nope - mine has all the weather gear as well, it's just never been used.
Jeremy, I fear we are splitting hairs ;-) - OK so maybe yours is the only SLR to have been ordered from new without weather gear etc, but in truth, 90% of the SLs, SLRs, R300s and R400s come specced with weather gear....naturally, this gives Caterham a fine excuse to make a bit of extra cash on the side though - just like Mercedes and BMW used to do when they charged for ICE - I hear that now they charge for a "Smoker's Pack"...which includes an ashtray and cigarette lighter!
I was simply taking my information from the Caterham price list; like you, I never buy a car from new.
V8 OHV said:I've a feeling that once you've experienced the R400 you won't be looking for a power upgrade.
Do you honestly feel that a 250 bhp / 250 ft lbs 'R400' (R500 Evolution power with much better grunt) would not be very saleable?
Did you mean to hunt out a used R500 Evo instead?
BTW, Which other Caterhams are 'better' than a R400 then? A well modified one or a stock car? I am raw to the marque but I only know of the R500, R500 Evo and the new 260 bhp thingy.
Remember Caterhams are much more about going round corners fast than straight line speed; for 99% of track and road driving an R400 will be just as quick as a higher power car (providing the pilot is up to it).
Your money is much better spent on getting a good handling setup, driver training/track days and perhaps saving a little weight if you're very serious. Certainly don't go for a turbo installation: Caterhams demand the instant response of a normally aspirated engine.
But first of all, enjoy the car as it is - you won't find a bigger motoring rush.
V8 ...here's a story for you. Once upon a time a mad Englishman thought that he'd like more power from his Caterham JPE Evolution. He threw the (already expensive) car at Courtenay, gave them his American Express Black Card and they built him a 320 bhp (may have been even more powerful) turbocharged Caterham for a reputed £40k or so build cost.
By all accounts this car was an animal and to cut a long story short he sold it. Now I cannot remember whether it was he or the next owner who then had it for sale for a considerable amount of time (over a year) with a specialist at about half of its build cost (i.e. at about £32k. It failed to sell and in the end he dropped it down to a more reasonable £20k. The car was sold and the new owner has done a fine job of returning it to orginal specification at considerable cost. (Naturally I'm not at all bitter that the new owner beat my offer on the car )
The moral of the story being that unless you want to sell the car to a Swiss, by turbo/supercharging it you're narrowing your future market to practically zero.
....and anyway, as Jeremy says, I very much doubt you'll want more power once you've sampled what your R400 has to offer up
Murph and I sampled a Caterham last night with an engine which offers 400bhp, a cambelt change at 30,000 miles, will liberate 550bhp with supercharging and yet is happy to trickle along in traffic in 6th gear all day...oh and it has 8 cylinders yet the engine only weighs 75 kilos!
By all accounts this car was an animal and to cut a long story short he sold it. Now I cannot remember whether it was he or the next owner who then had it for sale for a considerable amount of time (over a year) with a specialist at about half of its build cost (i.e. at about £32k. It failed to sell and in the end he dropped it down to a more reasonable £20k. The car was sold and the new owner has done a fine job of returning it to orginal specification at considerable cost. (Naturally I'm not at all bitter that the new owner beat my offer on the car
) The moral of the story being that unless you want to sell the car to a Swiss, by turbo/supercharging it you're narrowing your future market to practically zero.
....and anyway, as Jeremy says, I very much doubt you'll want more power once you've sampled what your R400 has to offer up
Murph and I sampled a Caterham last night with an engine which offers 400bhp, a cambelt change at 30,000 miles, will liberate 550bhp with supercharging and yet is happy to trickle along in traffic in 6th gear all day...oh and it has 8 cylinders yet the engine only weighs 75 kilos!
rubystone said:And theres me thinking Murph was leading the fatwah against the fat boy models.....
Murph and I sampled a Caterham last night with an engine which offers 400bhp, a cambelt change at 30,000 miles, will liberate 550bhp with supercharging and yet is happy to trickle along in traffic in 6th gear all day...oh and it has 8 cylinders yet the engine only weighs 75 kilos!
V8 OHV said:
A tuner in Nottingham has offered to turbo-charge the motor, using low-ish boost, using experience gained from fitting turbos to Honda Civic Type R and Toyota Celica and has said that I will have around 250 bhp and almost twice the stock R400 torque.
£5K.
I must say, I do find the stock R400 too slow: despite initial poncing around, I should have done a 'Get Carter' and just bought the damn 500, the 'Evo' variant being, even by the salesman's acknowledgement at the time, ott.
Loony mobile, nevertheless and deafening too, which is essential.
rubystone said:
Murph and I sampled a Caterham last night with an engine which offers 400bhp, a cambelt change at 30,000 miles, will liberate 550bhp with supercharging and yet is happy to trickle along in traffic in 6th gear all day...oh and it has 8 cylinders yet the engine only weighs 75 kilos!
Was that the cyclone engine? Is it two hyabusa engines mated together with a new crank? Spins up to about 11k rpm, producing about 330hp in stock trim?
Tell us more!
derestrictor said:You sir, are a f
I must say, I do find the stock R400 too slow: despite initial poncing around, I should have done a 'Get Carter' and just bought the damn 500, the 'Evo' variant being, even by the salesman's acknowledgement at the time, ott.
g lunatic PS need to give you a call over the weekend, any particular convenient time (AV stuff)
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