superlight r - what to look for
Discussion
Now we're talking... You might have gathered from my username that I have one of these, have done for the last 3 years. Love it. Is an absolute bargain in my mind, but doubt you'll find one for bottom end of your range. That being said prices have been squeezed from above (unreasonably I think given bang for buck).
Right, in answer to your question, they come in a variety of specs and many will have had some sympathetic improvements. The significant difference over a few years was that the throttle bodies changed from Rover KV6 "swan-necks" to PTP "bananas". The latter is slightly better, but still not great. The key engine issue is around the horrible mapping that the stock car has. Many owners will have fitted timed cams and an Emerald programmable ECU. This is (in my mind) an essential upgrade and if you get a car with it done you have saved yourself the best part of 2 grand. If the cams/emerald was done by Dave Andrews and the engine mapped by Dave Walker at Emerald you are onto a good thing. So, moral of story is some non-standard parts are a major plus. This transforms performance and driveability from a dog/race-car style to something that behanves in traffic and pulls from low down.
Some have had new throttle bodies, usually Jenveys. When mapped with the emerald, these get you to 200bhp (ie same as R400 which has roller barrels). Also good news.
Dry-sumps were not standard so if you can find one with this it's a major plus. This car has big power and grip and the dry sump gives much more oil protection than the normal shallow sump, even with an Appollo tank fitted.
Cosmetic stuff of seats, dash etc varies. Most prefer Tillett style seats to leather, but easy swap. Carbon nose/wings was standard, but dash was not carbon. Normal dials as Stack only standard on R400. All have 6 speed box, LSD, 5 spoke lightweight 3 piece rims.
I recommend you NOT to buy a high priced standard one from Caterham themselves if you are comfortable. They will only sell standard cars and once you have twiddled a bit yourself and paid the premium to them that will be where you lose most money. However, I am fairly confident on prices as there seems to be a hard floor to K-series prices, Superlights are more and Superlight Rs more still. That leaves little chance of major price drop in my view.
James
Right, in answer to your question, they come in a variety of specs and many will have had some sympathetic improvements. The significant difference over a few years was that the throttle bodies changed from Rover KV6 "swan-necks" to PTP "bananas". The latter is slightly better, but still not great. The key engine issue is around the horrible mapping that the stock car has. Many owners will have fitted timed cams and an Emerald programmable ECU. This is (in my mind) an essential upgrade and if you get a car with it done you have saved yourself the best part of 2 grand. If the cams/emerald was done by Dave Andrews and the engine mapped by Dave Walker at Emerald you are onto a good thing. So, moral of story is some non-standard parts are a major plus. This transforms performance and driveability from a dog/race-car style to something that behanves in traffic and pulls from low down.
Some have had new throttle bodies, usually Jenveys. When mapped with the emerald, these get you to 200bhp (ie same as R400 which has roller barrels). Also good news.
Dry-sumps were not standard so if you can find one with this it's a major plus. This car has big power and grip and the dry sump gives much more oil protection than the normal shallow sump, even with an Appollo tank fitted.
Cosmetic stuff of seats, dash etc varies. Most prefer Tillett style seats to leather, but easy swap. Carbon nose/wings was standard, but dash was not carbon. Normal dials as Stack only standard on R400. All have 6 speed box, LSD, 5 spoke lightweight 3 piece rims.
I recommend you NOT to buy a high priced standard one from Caterham themselves if you are comfortable. They will only sell standard cars and once you have twiddled a bit yourself and paid the premium to them that will be where you lose most money. However, I am fairly confident on prices as there seems to be a hard floor to K-series prices, Superlights are more and Superlight Rs more still. That leaves little chance of major price drop in my view.
James
I owned one for 2 years and absolutley loved it. Good bang for your buck now. I'd not buy another without a dry sump though - I consider that an essential option given the wider tyres and power of the SLR compared to the Superlight. Caterham as good as admitted this by endowing the R400 with dry sump as standard.
I ran mine on Optimax and truthfully eradicated all of the low revs/cold running problems. I also ran an SLR spec. car afterwards that was a pig - totally transformed it with Emerald and Dave Walker setup. But by no means junk the standard setup first, nor let this put you off buying a standard car.
Dash WAS carbon on the SLR - think Superlight with a more powerful engine and you have the basic spec of the car - i.e. carbon front and rear wings, nosecone and dash.
Prices? £17k ought to buy you a good straight road car - I've looked at cheaper ones and missed one or two real bargains at £13k a year or so ago. I can recommend the blue car that's on PH - it was at Ratrace when my car was being worked on there and the previous owner to the current one threw bundles of money at it.
I ran mine on Optimax and truthfully eradicated all of the low revs/cold running problems. I also ran an SLR spec. car afterwards that was a pig - totally transformed it with Emerald and Dave Walker setup. But by no means junk the standard setup first, nor let this put you off buying a standard car.
Dash WAS carbon on the SLR - think Superlight with a more powerful engine and you have the basic spec of the car - i.e. carbon front and rear wings, nosecone and dash.
Prices? £17k ought to buy you a good straight road car - I've looked at cheaper ones and missed one or two real bargains at £13k a year or so ago. I can recommend the blue car that's on PH - it was at Ratrace when my car was being worked on there and the previous owner to the current one threw bundles of money at it.
rubystone said:
I can recommend the blue car that's on PH - it was at Ratrace when my car was being worked on there and the previous owner to the current one threw bundles of money at it.
that's the one i'm after but the guy hasn't got back to me yet.do you know if that has a dry sump, and has had the emerald jibby-wotsits done to it?
I'm not so sure it has a dry sump - there's no Caterham bell housing tank viewable in the pix - unless it has a Pace - but even then the tank usually sits where the heater is or in front of the passenger footwell (as it did on my old car).
From the photos, I doubt it has an Emerald either but as I said, a higher octane fuel does make a big difference to these engines.
>> Edited by rubystone on Monday 30th January 16:56
From the photos, I doubt it has an Emerald either but as I said, a higher octane fuel does make a big difference to these engines.
>> Edited by rubystone on Monday 30th January 16:56
Rob
No problem - if you looked on Blatchat you'd see rather more postings for me!
As Rubystone says, the blue one you mention LOOKS LIKE it has original MEMS ecu and no dry sump, at least not a standard Caterham one. I have seen this car at a track day. Looked very cossetted and in good nick as the ad says and arrived on a trailer (points to VERY cossetted!). The reasonable price of it is probably driven by relatively high miles for one of these and it's slightly non-standard spec (yellow dials, brake bias etc). Hardly a worry, but history relates that standard cars are easier to sell and hence command better prices.
You might pop to Caterham and test drive their SLRs to get a feel for what a stock car feels like. I suggest you word it slightly differently! I did that and did back to back tests in SLR and R300 - my option was secondhand SLR or new R300 - no competition in my mind, but horses for courses.
Re Rubystone's Optimax point, I think engines differ a bit. I always used Optimax if I was able to and it still ran like a dog at the low end; I got very worried that I'd bought a duffer but did plenty of investigation and then went for emerald. Now lovely. It's not an essential for your car and you can always retro-fit if you want to. I guess my point was not to be put off if you see one and to regard it as an upgrade not a funny mod.
James
>> Edited by jimmyslr on Tuesday 31st January 08:54
No problem - if you looked on Blatchat you'd see rather more postings for me!
As Rubystone says, the blue one you mention LOOKS LIKE it has original MEMS ecu and no dry sump, at least not a standard Caterham one. I have seen this car at a track day. Looked very cossetted and in good nick as the ad says and arrived on a trailer (points to VERY cossetted!). The reasonable price of it is probably driven by relatively high miles for one of these and it's slightly non-standard spec (yellow dials, brake bias etc). Hardly a worry, but history relates that standard cars are easier to sell and hence command better prices.
You might pop to Caterham and test drive their SLRs to get a feel for what a stock car feels like. I suggest you word it slightly differently! I did that and did back to back tests in SLR and R300 - my option was secondhand SLR or new R300 - no competition in my mind, but horses for courses.
Re Rubystone's Optimax point, I think engines differ a bit. I always used Optimax if I was able to and it still ran like a dog at the low end; I got very worried that I'd bought a duffer but did plenty of investigation and then went for emerald. Now lovely. It's not an essential for your car and you can always retro-fit if you want to. I guess my point was not to be put off if you see one and to regard it as an upgrade not a funny mod.
James
>> Edited by jimmyslr on Tuesday 31st January 08:54
rubystone said:Shouldn't really make any difference to the driveability, and higher octane should only help if it's pinking. Mapping for higher octane gives a bit more power, but then you have to stick to higher octane. Decent mapping makes a HUGE difference... and Dave Walker is a very nice and helpful guy.
From the photos, I doubt it has an Emerald either but as I said, a higher octane fuel does make a big difference to these engines.
Don't dismiss buying one from Caterham, they usually have a good choice and the car gets a once over before it leaves. Plus a 3 month warranty is not to be sniffed at and could prove useful. Private cars can sometimes be extremely well looked after but actually have something wrong with them but the owner has not noticed because it is the only car they drive.
Remember you can take a standard car back to Caterham for them to buy or Sale or Return it on your behalf. If it is modified this option is no longer open to you. Some people will dismiss this as nonsense and say there is always a market for a good car, this is true to an extent but a lot of people are put off by non-standard bits!
Remember you can take a standard car back to Caterham for them to buy or Sale or Return it on your behalf. If it is modified this option is no longer open to you. Some people will dismiss this as nonsense and say there is always a market for a good car, this is true to an extent but a lot of people are put off by non-standard bits!
Dino is right about saleability issue. As it happens I bought mine from Caterham since when I have b******d around with it sympathetically (verniers, emerald, Jenveys, bigger rad, Brise starter, Freestyle springs, ARB and diffuser, race aeroscreen, SPA dials, the list goes on...). It would be pain to sell to someone who was not very into these things. I guess my point is that as well as paying a premium (albeit 3 years ago when things were different...), I then paid a shed load for all of the above to make it a better car, but if I was to sell it I would get standard money. That would be someone's gain and my loss; Rob could be a "gainer" if the right car comes along and he's happy with non-standard.
Rob - join Lotus 7 Club and post a wanted ad on Blatchat; you'll also get the adds in clug mag, Low Flying. Loads more activity than here, although many advertised on Blatchat also appear for sale on Pistonheads. I sold my first one on Pistonheads! Also, if you ask some questions in the everyday chat section of Blatchat you might get someone saying their car is for sale.
James
Rob - join Lotus 7 Club and post a wanted ad on Blatchat; you'll also get the adds in clug mag, Low Flying. Loads more activity than here, although many advertised on Blatchat also appear for sale on Pistonheads. I sold my first one on Pistonheads! Also, if you ask some questions in the everyday chat section of Blatchat you might get someone saying their car is for sale.
James
I'd echo Rubystone's comments on the standard setup: my SLR runs the MEMS ECU and early throttle bodies and is fine. My suggestion would be not to let this put you off a particular car and to try it to check that you can live with it.
You should try and find one with a dry sump if you expect to do any trackdays; they command a premium on resale as well.
Oh and congratulations on an excellent choice: 3 years and 6000+ mostly track miles down the line and I can't think what I would ever change it for.
>> Edited by jeremyc on Tuesday 31st January 22:27
You should try and find one with a dry sump if you expect to do any trackdays; they command a premium on resale as well.
Oh and congratulations on an excellent choice: 3 years and 6000+ mostly track miles down the line and I can't think what I would ever change it for.
>> Edited by jeremyc on Tuesday 31st January 22:27
rubystone said:
....and I can tell you, Jeremy does not hang about - nor does he ever give his car less than 100% abuse on-track - frankly I cannot understand how the poor thing puts up with it - and he runs it on slicks too!
Errr thanks ... I think. 
Just to be clear I hope you mean "abuse" as in enthusiastic driving as opposed to a lack of mechanical sympathy.
You never know how many potential future purchasers are reading .... 
Rob_T said:
I can recommend the blue car that's on PH - it was at Ratrace when my car was being worked on there and the previous owner to the current one threw bundles of money at it.
that's the one i'm after but the guy hasn't got back to me yet.do you know if that has a dry sump, and has had the emerald jibby-wotsits done to it?
The one fore sale on PH - L7 SLR was my 7 first off for a few years ! Super car. I kept it pretty much standard, then sold it to a friend who did some bits, which then was sold to a 3rd who is selling now (or was last time I looked on the classified).
superlightr said:
I can recommend the blue car that's on PH - it was at Ratrace when my car was being worked on there and the previous owner to the current one threw bundles of money at it.
that's the one i'm after but the guy hasn't got back to me yet.do you know if that has a dry sump, and has had the emerald jibby-wotsits done to it?
The one fore sale on PH - L7 SLR was my 7 first off for a few years ! Super car. I kept it pretty much standard, then sold it to a friend who did some bits, which then was sold to a 3rd who is selling now (or was last time I looked on the classified).
Yep, my SLR was in at Ratrace for some TLC when I met your friend - IIRC from Surrey?...he was spending bundles on the car at the time and it was looking good. I think that Simon's now sold it on too...
Gassing Station | Caterham | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff