Help - 40th birthday present for potential Caterham owner

[Kingskingdom]

Last year I brough a Cerbera and didn't stop smiling until I had to sell it to due to redundancy and 1st child. The TVR forum was extremely helpful during my 1st year of ownership, I hope you can help with my latest dilema.

A good friend is also about to reach mid life crisis "40" on Friday this week. He has been dribbling over the Caterhams on the net and is making all the right noises about making a purchase. As it's his birthday, I have decided that he needs to experience the Caterham bug. Hopefully, it will give him the confidence to make a purchase.

Any suggestions on the best Caterham experinece/trial at a reasonable price. He is based in Milton Keynes. I need to keep costs as low as possible due to the redundancy/child issue. However, he has been a very good friend and deserves a friendly prod in the right direction as he is still too young for his Volvo!! Please help

[Murph7355]

2 best options are likely to be:

1) Call Caterham. They hire them out. Money may even be knocked off the price of a new car...

2) Bookatrack hire them out on their track days.

You're going to be looking north of 300 quid though I would think.

[tel777.]

My wife bought me a day at the Caterham Slalom a few years ago and now I have one of my own. She paid for me to have half a day it cost around £100 but in the long run that day has cost her upwards of £25,000 as I am doing the Caterham Academy this year.

I loved the slalom and could'nt stop talking about it all the way back to Norfolk from Silverstone and that was when I decided to take the plunge into Caterham ownership.

I now love it, I may not be the quickest on the grid but I have a really huge grin on my face everytime I drive it.

Thankyou to the guys at Caterham Slalom.

We are all racing at Mallory park on the 1st of July if you turned up to watch I would guarantee he would get the bug.

Tel

no 77

[Kingskingdom]

Hi. Thanks for the info, this looks exactly what I was after. 1 final question. He is 6ft 2, 17 stone, ice hockey player....will he fit in a Caterham?

[Murph7355]

Kingskingdom said:

Hi. Thanks for the info, this looks exactly what I was after. 1 final question. He is 6ft 2, 17 stone, ice hockey player....will he fit in a Caterham?

As long as he doesn't try getting in with his stick, pads and skates he should be OK

He may need to try one sans seat (or with a bench type seat), and the pedals may need tweaking. It will also need to be a "long cockpit" (can never recall years on these etc, but think any deDion car newer than 1990 or so qualifies).

I'm 6'4", have been up to 18st (drinker and all round fat bastard) and fit snugly (fit better with a gut than I do without, which is all the excuse needed).

[fcat]

..and there's always the SV model which has a slightly wider & longer chassis which can suit those with a fuller figure (like me)

[lord summerisle]

My first experiance of a Caterham was a half day slalom event as a present with my dad - didnt get alot of seat time for the £99 (2 courses 4 runs of each, lasting about 40-50secs - theres a vid in my profile, and on PH TV there were a load from a PH slalom day a few years ago) but i've wanted one ever since!

a days hire is very cost effective at £150 for the day, they normally have a SV and standard chassis available