Caterham to Elise - 6 months on…
Discussion
Well, its 6 months since I sold the Caterham and bought an Elise 111R. Thought I would let you know how I am getting on as I asked advice on here at the time, before I made the decision.
It was the right decision for me! I had the Caterham for 4 years and a Westfield for 5 before that. I enjoyed the time with the cars but when I look back I didn’t use either that much. I guess that was for a variety of reasons… the main one being the inability to use it in poor weather… call me a wuss if you want to, I know some of you hard core boys use it all year round!
For me there is no pleasure in going out in the car and getting a soaking… Or worrying when you leave home that the weather is going to turn poor… The hood makes the car just too difficult to get in and out of, it’s a pain to put on, and its not good to drive the car with the hood up… I even tried a half hood….
My wife summed it up on Thursday night… It was a nice warm evening, but a fair few looming black clouds. We set off in the Elise for a 120 mile round trip to see some kids from her school who were at an outward bounds camp in Wales… we had a great drive there and back and managed to miss the rain. She commented that if we had the Caterham we wouldn’t have gone in it, for a fear of the weather…. With the Elise it’s different. It is truly useable as an every day car, the hood is quick and easy to put up, and it’s great to be in the car, hood up or down.
We have also used the Elise for quite a few weekends away, something else we never did with the Caterham or Westfield. Plus I have used it quite a lot to go to work…
On the downside, its not as fast as the Caterham (the Caterham and Elise have roughly the same amount of power but the Elise is heavier) but that is hardly noticeable on the road, and the Elise actually “feels” quicker! Also worthy of note that I bought the Westfield for £2.5K as a car that had stood for a couple of years…. Spent around £1000 on it and sold it for £6K after 5 years! The Caterham only lost £2k in the 4 years I owned it; I doubt I will match that with the Elise!
So for me the right decision. No point in owning a car that’s going to sit in the garage, and I am enjoying the Elise much more due to the ability to use it more! I guess I am no alone with this, just look at the number of very low mileage 7 type cars around….
I spent a lot of time agonising over the two and I'd never have gone for the Seven if it was an only car or I planned to do a lot of touring. In contrast I find the Seven more exhilerating to drive on a short blast though and the sheer simplicity of it for doing your own maintanence and replacing consumables for track work swung it for me. Not looked back since getting the car (okay, that's just over a week, but 500 miles and one track day later it feels like a lot more).
If I had gone for anything else though it would have been the Lotus and if in the future the time comes to move on I'll probably give that a shot next...
If I had gone for anything else though it would have been the Lotus and if in the future the time comes to move on I'll probably give that a shot next...
Ive had Westerfields for the last 5 years all been used for track use, Ive packed in racing and wanted a quick road car that made me smile so I sold my last Caterham race car and bought an Elise Sc big mistake for me , I drove it 3 times (used one tank of fuel only) managed to keep it for 4 weeks , I hated it with a passion , It was the most uncomfortable car Ive ever sat in, gave me chronic back ache after 20mins, gearbox was terrible, it droned at cruising speed giving me a bad head ,if you hit a pothole it felt like it was going to snap in half , handling I didnt trust as it nearly had me in a hedge twice! and performance was shocking I could amost swear my diesel car was quicker. nice car to look at though! anyway I sold it and replaced it for pretty much the same money with a csr260 and I use that all the time,had it 6 weeks now and still love it ! feels more refined than the Lotus 
more comfortable, quieter at cruising speed (and induction hammer sounds mint when you nail it ) dont have a prob with the weather,I take it out even if it looks like rain, if you keep it above 70 the rain misses you anyway 
had the hood on a couple of times as has been absolutley tossing down and find it spot on and not much more of a job to fit the roof as the lotus was 
more comfortable, quieter at cruising speed (and induction hammer sounds mint when you nail it ) dont have a prob with the weather,I take it out even if it looks like rain, if you keep it above 70 the rain misses you anyway had the hood on a couple of times as has been absolutley tossing down and find it spot on and not much more of a job to fit the roof as the lotus was Edited by JeffC on Sunday 12th July 19:38
allen l said:
I allready went the other way. 
Covered over 1400 miles in just a month. I must say, I have had big fun with the previous car, but it came nowhere near the 'caterham fun' I have now.
I think I'm on target to beat that - 500 in the first week! Covered over 1400 miles in just a month. I must say, I have had big fun with the previous car, but it came nowhere near the 'caterham fun' I have now.
I think for a toy it gets more than enough use even without the better hood and fractionally larger boot of the Lotus. To be honest one of the main advantages of an Elise round here would be that there are so many of them you could park one on the street quite discretely if you wanted to use it for the occasional trip to work - a Seven is more likely to generate attention, good or bad. I see at least one Elise every day, but I can't remember the last time I saw another Caterham that wasn't at a meet or track day.
mrh3113 said:
Hhhmmmmmm I had an Exige and am now thinking Megabusa.... TBH the Exige wasn't much fun in the wet on the road (track was different) as the A048s meant you couldn't push it much, so it was saved for fair weather days anyway...
And you think a Caterham/Westfield is any easier to 'push on' with (even with all the compression damping backed off and the front ARB on stiff)!?
buzzer said:
...
For me there is no pleasure in going out in the car and getting a soaking… Or worrying when you leave home that the weather is going to turn poor… The hood makes the car just too difficult to get in and out of, it’s a pain to put on, and its not good to drive the car with the hood up… I even tried a half hood….
Obviously each to their own, but technique is everything with the hood on a Caterham.For me there is no pleasure in going out in the car and getting a soaking… Or worrying when you leave home that the weather is going to turn poor… The hood makes the car just too difficult to get in and out of, it’s a pain to put on, and its not good to drive the car with the hood up… I even tried a half hood….
With the right technique, the hood is easy to get water tight in a few minutes.
And with the right technique, getting in is easy (if not graceful). And I'm 6'4", have got in and out of an S3 car when pushing 18st and I'm certainly no yoga aficionado!
I didn't find the car especially unpleasant to drive with the hood up either. Obviously not the choice way to drive it, but when the weather merited it, no issue.
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