lotus faster than an R500 ?

[jackal]

is it just me or does anybody agree that the laps of the new R500 on the recent DR video (vs. lotus 2-11 and atom) are a terrible demonstration of how not to drive a caterham fast round a cct ?

chris harris can drive for sure, i know people who have raced with him... so not suprisingly he gets the best time in the Lotus

now I know that Caterham have been known to send out press cars with tons of understeer and not great setups etc.... but geo regardless, you just can't drive into every corner at 1000mph and take a dozen stabs at the throttle on the way out the other side..... its not the quickest way round surely ?

[dsl2]

Here here, echo's exactly what I thought. No exactly worrying the apex's where they?

[jackal]

whilst im a fan of all things Lotus... you've only got to peek at Donnely's times in his race 2-11 (he used to race F1 as well so not too shabby) in the Elise Trophy to know that the R500 would murder it in ANY circuit. From memory, the R400's (only 200bhp) go 4-5 seconds quicker for example at Oulton on road tyres.

fair enough... its only a bit of fun and a mag test, lighten up you say, who cares etc...

But if they're gonna be so far out, why have the test in the first place ? It's not saying anything is it ? (apart from smooth = fast). Just stick to a few lanes, a little ploughmans lunch down in east sussex, a bit of chit chat about body control and examples of pulling away from the lights on the A40 etc..

[sfaulds]

The Lotus Trophy run road tyres too (yoko 48r's), but the front runners are at least 2 seconds a lap slower round Oulton than a CR500 shod Caterham C400 (220bhp).

I cringed and pressed stop as soon as I saw the first ham-fisted attempt at getting the R500 round a corner on that video - ridiculous 'test'.

[dino ferrana]

Richard Meaden and Chris Harris are both handy drivers, I think Jethro would probably agree (and would be silly if he didn't) that he is nowhere near as experienced as either. It was only a few years ago that Jethro did the Academy, Harris has done the N'ring 24hours a couple of times and driven in loads of other aces. Meaden has driven most things going and I think holds a fairly high grade international race licence.

2-11 makes even a aeroscreen R500 look practical!

[OJ]

I can vouch for being able to keep up with a 2-11 around Silverstone GP, in a C400 race car with a passenger on CR500's. He looked like he was really trying too

[jackal]

OJ said:

I can vouch for being able to keep up with a 2-11 around Silverstone GP, in a C400 race car with a passenger on CR500's. He looked like he was really trying too

yes it wouldn't be difficult

i was never too far behind 1.53 at oulton in my car and that was on a recreational trackday, no race setup & i'm not an ex F1 driver

[OJ]

jackal said:

OJ said:

I can vouch for being able to keep up with a 2-11 around Silverstone GP, in a C400 race car with a passenger on CR500's. He looked like he was really trying too

yes it wouldn't be difficult

i was never too far behind 1.53 at oulton in my car and that was on a recreational trackday, no race setup & i'm not an ex F1 driver

Yes, I was amazed. Was also on a track day driving our spare car which I later proved to be about 1 sec/lap slower than in my own. I expected to get spanked by it