caterham/westfeild racing

[sykes111s]

I'am in the first stages of thinking of buying a caterham/westfeild for racing what are the costs, and which is the better series.

Any advice would be very helpful

[Graham.J]

There's the Caterham 'Academy' for beginners See Here

The above link said:

Designed solely for novice drivers, the retail price of £15,950 for this road legal Caterham Roadsport not only includes all event and administration fees, but also a medical, full ARDS tuition day and a technical seminar at our Caterham Midlands facility, 2 hillclimbs, 2 sprints, 4 races, and at the end of the season, you get to keep the car.

The Westfield Sports Car Club have a few different disciplines, if you email me offline I can post the information I have to you.

And for both cars there's the 750MC and more info can be found on their website www.750mc.co.uk

HTH

Graham

Edited to add: It's pretty much the price of the car + entry fees (vary from venue to venue) + running + repairs + upkeep etc etc

I can't comment on which ones best I'm afraid but I think the 750mc are the cheapest for entry fees et al.

Edited again to add: Don't forget the trailer and flame retardant clothing, that's quite pricey.

>> Edited by Graham.J on Thursday 3rd July 00:03

>> Edited by Graham.J on Thursday 3rd July 00:05

[spnracing]

I looked into Caterham Graduates for 2004.

I would budget about £600 for ARDS, suit, lid, boots etc - and you can pick up a graduate for around 10K. What looked to be the expensive bit was testing. Alot of the competitive cars seemed to be testing the day before every race meeting, meaning lots of time off work and a bigger budget for circuit fees, petrol, accomodation etc.

My estimate for a competitive season was the car plus 8-10K and might have been miles out...

[mikeww]

I race in the Caterham Graduates(first full season) and it's a huge amount of fun and very friendly. Car( second hand) will cost you between £7 and £10k ( mine with 700 miles on the clock with trailer was £10k.)
ARDS £180, clothes/helmet etc around £600.
Races will cost you about £140- mechanical support provided by the club who also carry spares. Probably about half book test days before races which adds about £120 to the cost but you do have a great weekend as the racers are all very friendly. Haven't added things up exactly but say £6k for a season. Cars themselves are pretty reliable as engines are not highly tuned and a hard road tyre is specified. 2 sets at £160 per set should last a year. Cars are very evenly matched, sealed engines, very limited mods so racing is really close and much more to do with driver ability than size of wallet. Don't know where you are based but we'll all be racing at Cadwell Sunday

[BBR73]

Caterham Academy is definitely the place to start as they mother you for your first season which is a great help if you have never competed before.

Plus the massive benefit is that to be eligible you can not of previoulsy held a competition licence, so you can be happy in the thought that you will be at exactly the same level as everyone else and not going up against seasoned pro's in your first year.

BBR73

[accident]

or you could buy a locost and race it for 2 seasons for well under the price of the caterham alone,same kind of car same close racing but with smaller bills

[UpTheIron]

Accident,

Tell me more. I'm in the same position as many others - do I sell my TVR for £20k+ as I can't drive it fast on the road any more, buy a tow car, trailer and race car???? Tempting isn't it...

[sykes111s]

thanks for all the advice I am going to go for the caterham academy.

I rang the show room today and they are sending me some details.

Does anybody know what the deliverly time is like a i forgot to ask?

[dino ferrana]

Tends to be 8-12 weeks but with the Academy they will not deliver the cars before a certain date (I think around September).

[sykes111s]

I'v put down my deposit for the academy
On the options sheet Stack display is £1000.
firstly what modal is it and is a £1000 a good price or am i better off buying it seperatley

[Graham.J]

I expect it'll be the ST8130P which retails at £925.00

But that's only a guess!

Ring Caterham and ask them which one it is.

Graham

[Stig]

Am in my 3rd season of what's euphamistically called 'Locost'.

Competitive cars can be had for about 4.5k second hand. Race entries come in at about £1200 for a season but on top of that you've got repair costs (expect a lot as seven style cars don't crash that well but it happens quite often as there's a lot of novices in the series), fuel costs not only for the car, but to get to/from the circuits, accomodation (unless you camp), spares etc.etc.etc.

On a shoestring budget, racing a Locost for a season will cost you about 8k. Cheaper in year 2 though.

All you need to know is on my site here: www.locost-racing.com

[sykes111s]

I did have a good look at Locost racing it proberly would have been better for cost but i decided on the Caterham as i'v always wanted one

[dino ferrana]

With the Caterham it is easy to upgrade bits and move to new championships that Caterham run. This means that the same car can be used for a few seasons even though the racing and cars get faster.

[brentus]

Hello Sykes,
See you racing in the Academy next year. Don't know where you are but I will be watching some of the rounds this year to pick brains.
As mentioned elsewhere www.blatchat.com is full of advice and try www.caterham-academy.co.uk/
brentus