Just a thought....

[Markp13]

As sone may have read before, I am and have been after a caterham for some time. As yet I am yet to bite.

Here is what I am thinking, and please feel free to put me right. In my budget seems to be k engined 7's, which as you are aware is no longer available and the engine from what I can make out seems to be "softer" than the new ford units.

So would I be better( bearing in mind I would like to keep the car for a reasonably long time) buying a ex racer sigma car for around 13000 and using the remainder of my budget to upgrade to a 200bhp ish duratec? This will be for mostly road use.

I presume an engine transplant is a simple enough task? Ie the sigma chassis will happily take it.

Therefore for under( hopefully) 20000 pounds I could have a high powered duratec rather than a high powered k series.

Mark

[Dave J]

buy a well speced pre august 98 car

refurb and install duratec

sell all the k series stuff

[rubystone]

Dave J said:

buy a well speced pre august 98 car

refurb and install duratec

sell all the k series stuff

...which is just what Dave did...

[k1600ssred7]

Why pre-98? Just asking out of interest because my car is 99.

[Dave J]

not quite ...

I bought my 97 superlight 1600 in 1997 when it was 6 months old from a bloke in debt.
it's still a superlight with all the carbon etc but 3 years ago I fitted a 226bhp duratec , now to upgrade to more power

pre aug 98 registration means you only have a visible smoke test at mot so essentially you can do anything you like ... these cars are like triggers broom .....

[S47]

Buy a late model sigma, SWMBO looked for a cat7 for over a year, most we looked at were CRAP, Dave J's suggestion of buying pre '98 is OK IF you can find a decent car [VERY DIFFICULT INDEED] pre '98 means the car is 13 years old and most certainly will need rebuilding at great expense. and even after rebuilding it's still a 13 year old car. and only worth 13year old money
Buying a late model ex Academy means it's gonna be in reasonably good nick, though there are some real bad ones around, so be careful.
Bottom line is with a late model car it's gonna be easier to sell/Pex if you want to. in the future. and your invested money is gonna be safer.
Hope this helps you decide

[Dave J]

as s4 saysits two and one of the other - cheaper older at the bottom of it's depreciation or newer which you will then dramatically change and possibly reduce it's value or desire

I guess another factor to consider is if you are going to do the work yourself or if you may sell after a year or two ?

mines a keeper so I'm not bothered by it's change of spec and the pre 98 spec is valuable to me personally ....

[BertBert]

What was the net cost of the upgrade Dave? Ie the Duratec bits, car mods minus the k-bits sold? How's the change of exhaust side done? It sounds an interesting project that must now be well known with all the pitfalls removed?
Bert

[121212]

Build your own ,source the easy bits yourself buy the rest new that way youll be sure its right ,whatever you buy secondhand will be risky especially an ex-racer.Stick it on a Q plate and tune it to any spec you wish unless you really want a personallized plate.

[S47]

Surprisingly there's not much difference in £price between Clapped out 13+year old cars and Good cars less than 3 years old, especially if you buy privately. Maybe £2-3K which IMO is sweet FA when you're spending £10-15K or more on the car, and you're gonna need to spend at least this much rebuilding that Knackered 13 year old Superlight to bring it you your spec -

[Nicodema]

I have to agree with S47. I'd go for a recent racer, actually run it as is for a year or so to get used to it. Once I'd told myself I was bored with it I'd do the nice easy swap to a Duratec.

Here's a decent starting point, with good provenance as far as I can tell

[Markp13]

Link no worky.

I'm guessing a duratec to fit into a sigma car need chassis mods?

[Nicodema]

That's odd, the link works for me

No, it's Nathan Lindop's rather well sorted "Caterham Supersport Race Car" in the PH classifieds for £14k
You've then got a few options for Duratecing it later on, which would probably spend you the rest of the £20k, depending on how much oomph you want.

[BertBert]

Is that the rough cost then? £6k.
Bert

[Markp13]

BertBert said:

Is that the rough cost then? £6k.
Bert

Would be interested in the cost as bertbert says.

I do know a 220 bhp raceline unit is about 6.5k.

[BertBert]

Markp13 said:

Would be interested in the cost as bertbert says.

I do know a 220 bhp raceline unit is about 6.5k.

Wow, that's a good chunk of money! I'd be more interested in 180'ish. If you are going to go the old car approach, do the mods (I assume chassis and new sideskin one side and hole the other), get ECU and installation kit, then sort out a gearbox, you must be pushing 8, 9, 10k?

Maybe I'd be better off just getting an old k 1600 supersport 6-speeder and doing Jenveys, verniers and ECU.

Bert