Premier Power F175 thoughts, reliability

[Wayne95]

Hi,
I am looking for a Caterham with the following spec

Yellow or Orange
SV with lowered floors
Leather seats
Sigma, or maybe duratec but they are pushing the price a bit.

Other option parts I'm happy to change as needed, but need these basics as a starting point...

I have seen a 2010 with the premier power upgrade to 175hp, but its got 45k miles, 35k since the upgrade. On the PT Sports website

I don't mind higher mileage if its been looked after, but is a more highly tuned engine likely to let go at some point? I heard quite good things about Premier, but I looked on their website and they are no longer doing builds, is this an issue for support should I need it?

Its my first Caterham, so thought 150hp will be enough, but this one looked great otherwise.

https://www.pistonheads.com/buy/listing/16793275

Any experience of the engine upgrades would be great

Thx
Wayne

[WombleCate]

Pretty car.

I know little about Premier Power, beyond they had a good reputation (I considered them for an upgrade, the cost put me off & PGM did some great work instead).

I am consistently amazed how under-stressed the Sigma is and how much it can take. I race a shared 140+bhp Sigma and on a test day with two driving it pounds round all day.

I’ve/ I’m hugely enjoying the Sigma, personally, I wouldn’t know what to do with 175bhp on the road (without slicks). The racing 420r have around 175bhp and on sticky tyres, sequential boxes they are still a handful.

[WombleCate]

45k may be lunar miles for a Caterham but aside for a few parts (DeDion etc) everything should be fine and for other parts fewer than 2.5k p.a. might not be ideal

[DVandrews]

I heard somewhere that Premier Power have ceased trading, you would need to confirm that though.

Dave

[AinsleyB]

Premier Power are no longer trading, sadly.
But they don't use magic parts, just standard bits any performance engine builder could use / buy.

If its had several miles post upgrade it should be fine. If you sit at 8000 rpm all day long, sure it will wear out. But for the road 500 odd KG's will not stress the engine.

[mcg_]

Its my understanding that northampton motorsport can do what premier power did (or similar). they used to map the PP cars anyway.

[Wayne95]

mcg_ said:

Its my understanding that northampton motorsport can do what premier power did (or similar). they used to map the PP cars anyway.

Thanks for that - useful information. I’ll give them a call to discuss the mods done by PP and see if they can look after it for me.

[Wayne95]

mcg_ said:

Its my understanding that northampton motorsport can do what premier power did (or similar). they used to map the PP cars anyway.

Thanks, I’ll give them a call to discuss looking after it for me. Not too far away from me either

[Turn7]

The F175 at PT I’m fairly sure is an SOR car, so tread carefully….

[AinsleyB]

What is / are the potential issues with a SOR then that needs treading carefully ?

[Turn7]

I’m not entirely sure it would covered the same as a retail car sale if that makes sense.

[Se7en68]

Premier Power haven't disappeared entirely as the statement on their website says that they are still supplying parts etc but do not have any workshop facilities. Whilst NMS did all of the mapping of the PP cars but they will be unable to tell you what Stuart actually did to the engines to achieve 175bhp.

In terms of reliability, Stuart has a 210bhp Sigma in his own car which has been thrashed mercilessly around various tracks with no reliability issues and I know of at least one other 200bhp Sigma from PP that has had no issues with similar usage. A Sigma with 175bhp is seriously under stressed in a Caterham.

If you are seriously interested in the car I suggest you drop Stuart an email, his address is on his website www.premierpowerengines.com

Cheers
Andrew