Caterham superlight R series opinions

General General Lotus Talk
1

Im having serious thoughts about changing the exige for an R300/400 or 500 superlight. Has anyone got any unbiased opinions, id be really sad to see my exige go but had it 5 years now and have always admired Caterhams so would be one of the few cars i could change for, just dont want to regret it. Only driven a 130 od bhp old K car but was superb.

Ive got baby no 2 on the way in a few months but after this year im definately going to be doing more trackdays so car would be used for them plus the weekend drives as would be a third car so practicality does not bother me.

If I was to get a new one then would go for an R300 and build it myself somehow :slight_smile: as really like the thought of doing that.

2

Have you driven one?

3

Not driven a superlight just a kseries supersport I think it was, and I loved that.

I just thought many people on here would have had them an have a good opinion of the pros an cons vs an exige.

4

Mark

I’ve had 3 Caterhams - & love them!

As you would expect, they are not as “civilised” as an Exige, but for your purposes that won’t matter. I think an R500 would be a stage too far, bearing in mind that the R300 is a mighty quick car.

Go for it - you won’t lose much in depreciation if you don’t like it & decide to sell it!

5

Well two of the reasons I went for the Exige over a Caterham are roof and safety.

6

I’ll have more feedback after tomorrow :slight_smile:

Not driven one yet, but have had the same thoughts a couple of times… I imagine it’ll be a very different experience from an Exige, but looking forward to it.

7

I’ll have more feedback after tomorrow :slight_smile:

Not driven one yet, but have had the same thoughts a couple of times… I imagine it’ll be a very different experience from an Exige, but looking forward to it.

8

Thanks guys some usefull comments there, not really thought about the depreciation aspect put a valid point.

Dave please let me know how you get on :slight_smile:

9

Had a Westfield when I was 20 (cheaper than a golf gti) and thought it was immense. IF I ever had the balmy idea that I’d sell the S1, the R300 would be the ONLY car to replace it with. Not bothered about the more powerful ones, my ability is more limited than the performance they can offer. In fact, if times ever got tough, I’d get a lowly powered De Dion and rag it to death!

Read about a guy who owned one all his life from a teen to his 60’s and am very jealous, a lot of car for little money, he must have saved a packet. If you want my advice, do it!

Kurt

10

For trackdays I would go for the Caterham - R300 is more than enough to have fun either in a straight line or sideways, mostly depending upon your choice of tyres. Make sure it has no windscreen just the aero bubble for the full on effect.

Not sure I would ever want to drive a Caterham on public roads - the chassis is actually too fragile and no match for modern cars in terms of safety.

I think a 340R or 2-11 may be a compromise between the two?

Dave - how’s your arms/shoulders today!

11

Arms/shoulders fine surprisingly! I think it was just the first session that seemed tough, after that it didn’t seem as bad - probably a bit of tension on my part I guess, although they definitely are heavier on the steering than my S1.

Really glad I booked a CAT for the afternoon, the car was faultless and I thoroughly enjoyed it! Thanks to Jonny and the crew.

I’d only ever been in a Caterham as a passenger before yesterday… That was a couple of years back at an Oulton park trackday where a lot of the lap was spent sideways - huge fun!

The car felt pretty powerful but not ‘shove in the back’ powerful if that makes sense… Very similar in power to weight as my Honda S1 Exige I’d say. Not enough power to scare me, but enough to be great fun.

The car under steered a lot, purely because that’s how they have been setup. This makes total sense for cars that are going to be driven by people of all standards, don’t get me wrong, it was still possible to get the back end out, but it meant that I had to change my style of driving to manage the understeer - really making sure the front was loaded on turn in and trail braking more than I would in my lotus.

In terms of ultimate pace on the day, I’d say it was close to my Honda S1, perhaps a bit slower. I managed to have a nice little session chasing Chris Baker in his 260bhp 211 round towards the end of the day and he was pulling away easily along the back ‘straight’ - the aero of the Caterham seemed to be the cause here, no idea what speed it was, probably 110 or so and it just didn’t seem to pull anymore. Having pulled that gap, i could usually close it by the end of the lap, so we had a great few laps of me following him… He then let me past and tried to follow… Which all went well until he cheated and started cutting the corner :wink:

In terms of driving, I’ll stick my neck out and say that driving a Caterham would improve your driving skills quicker than an Elise/Exige. The weight and size makes you feel even more ‘connected’ than in an Lotus… And you feel the grip/balance/weight transfer very easily.

Not sure I’d like to drive one on the road, even just on a weekend blast.
It feels more like a toy than an Exige
Am I glad I booked a BaT car ? Yes. Definitely… If you are seriously thinking of swapping cars to buy a Caterham, it would be crazy not to have a real drive of one before swapping.
Would I change my lotus for one ? No… My Lotus is not exactly standard anymore and has a lot of my sweat embedded into it :smiley: it’s an awesome track tool and I appreciate that even more now after being in the Cat.

I’d LOVE to take a Caterham out with a race Geo on it, I imagine that would be another experience again… Perhaps that would change my mind!

12

No speedos on the r300 (or at least not one I could find on the dash options) but the indicated speeds on the base superlights was 120mph on the back straight - I’m certain the r300 will be have been faster :smiley:

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[quote=DaveP]Arms/shoulders fine surprisingly! I think it was just the first session that seemed tough, after that it didn’t seem as bad - probably a bit of tension on my part I guess, although they definitely are heavier on the steering than my S1.

Really glad I booked a CAT for the afternoon, the car was faultless and I thoroughly enjoyed it! Thanks to Jonny and the crew.

I’d only ever been in a Caterham as a passenger before yesterday… That was a couple of years back at an Oulton park trackday where a lot of the lap was spent sideways - huge fun!

The car felt pretty powerful but not ‘shove in the back’ powerful if that makes sense… Very similar in power to weight as my Honda S1 Exige I’d say. Not enough power to scare me, but enough to be great fun.

The car under steered a lot, purely because that’s how they have been setup. This makes total sense for cars that are going to be driven by people of all standards, don’t get me wrong, it was still possible to get the back end out, but it meant that I had to change my style of driving to manage the understeer - really making sure the front was loaded on turn in and trail braking more than I would in my lotus.

In terms of ultimate pace on the day, I’d say it was close to my Honda S1, perhaps a bit slower. I managed to have a nice little session chasing Chris Baker in his 260bhp 211 round towards the end of the day and he was pulling away easily along the back ‘straight’ - the aero of the Caterham seemed to be the cause here, no idea what speed it was, probably 110 or so and it just didn’t seem to pull anymore. Having pulled that gap, i could usually close it by the end of the lap, so we had a great few laps of me following him… He then let me past and tried to follow… Which all went well until he cheated and started cutting the corner :wink:

In terms of driving, I’ll stick my neck out and say that driving a Caterham would improve your driving skills quicker than an Elise/Exige. The weight and size makes you feel even more ‘connected’ than in an Lotus… And you feel the grip/balance/weight transfer very easily.

Not sure I’d like to drive one on the road, even just on a weekend blast.
It feels more like a toy than an Exige
Am I glad I booked a BaT car ? Yes. Definitely… If you are seriously thinking of swapping cars to buy a Caterham, it would be crazy not to have a real drive of one before swapping.
Would I change my lotus for one ? No… My Lotus is not exactly standard anymore and has a lot of my sweat embedded into it :smiley: it’s an awesome track tool and I appreciate that even more now after being in the Cat.

I’d LOVE to take a Caterham out with a race Geo on it, I imagine that would be another experience again… Perhaps that would change my mind!
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Thanks Dave that is a really informative writeup for me. I think your are right i really need to hire one. Was it the R300 Superlight bat car you used?

14

Dave my route was faster though even if it did have a bit of grass driving. To be fair Dave was the only caterham to keep up with my 2-11. I think it would be fair to say they were about the same straight line speed apart from when we were at speeds of over 100 when the 2-11 had the edge. It was hard to follow you though Dave for those few laps as you didn’t have brake lights. I couldn’t shake Dave off my tail but then he can drive a car hard.

15

Chris - top driving by you & Phil - your car’s durability (cough!) speaks volumes for the 211 :sunglasses:

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[quote=chris]Dave my route was faster though even if it did have a bit of grass driving. To be fair Dave was the only caterham to keep up with my 2-11. I think it would be fair to say they were about the same straight line speed apart from when we were at speeds of over 100 when the 2-11 had the edge. It was hard to follow you though Dave for those few laps as you didn’t have brake lights. I couldn’t shake Dave off my tail but then he can drive a car hard.

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Yea, I’d agree about the straight line speed up to 100 or so. You were certainly going well though mate, must have been that extra camber :wink: I was having to peddle hard to keep up.

Yep, I was in Bat Cat 4 - an R300.

17

Dave,

Just a brief comment about the setup on the cars. Contrary to what many people think, our rental cars aren’t set up to understeer - they are set up the same way they are for racing (with the exception of the flat floor cornerweighting). That’s the quickest way to get a Caterham round the circuit - with a small amount of understeer. Unlike the Lotus, the Caterham will continue to push-on and get worse and worse understeer unless you change your driving style. I personally hate understeer with a passion, but never suffer with it in the Caterhams - you just have to make sure you’ve got the nose tucked in before turning, sometimes using the brakes where necessary (e.g. at the BookaTrack banking and at the hairpin). Once the car is understeering, there is no point continuing to accelerate as it will only get worse, you need to modulate the throttle to get the nose tucked back down.

Next time your near a BaT day give me a shout and i’ll take you out for a couple of laps in one of our R300’s and i’ll show what I mean - certainly never had anyone complain of understeer when i’ve been giving passenger rides :slight_smile:

It is quite a different driving style to the Lotus though - having done hundreds of track days in both cars, it’s not fair to try and pick a favourite. The Caterham is easier to drive on the limit and responds quicker/is more nimble. However, the Lotus is ultimately a more challenging car to drive on the limit because it’s that bit more difficult to control once it starts to slide.

If you’re just after fun then there’s very little out there to beat an R300. Ours run the race-spec Avon CR500’s, but sticking a set of ACB10’s on there would turn it into the perfect track day car. The only reason we don’t run ACB10’s is because they’re not really an all-weather tyre and when we’re running 10 cars we can’t be changing from dry to wet tyres and back every time the weather changes!

Jonny
BaT

18

Jonny,

Will certainly take you up on the offer thanks, I have no doubt you are right with the amount of hours you driven on track in both cars.

Yep, eventually I found myself trail braking almost to the apex in order to keep the front tucked in, which is a lot different to my Exige. Think I was starting to get the hang of if by the end of the afternoon and you can really feel the sweet st when you get it right with the car rotating and balancing when you get back on the throttle.

The instructor who came out for a few laps at the start said ideally the car would have a bit more rake on it to help with the understeer ?

With dry race tyres I bet they are pretty awesome!

See you soon,

Dave

19

Dave, was it you who spun in front of me(keeping it on the tarmac)? :wink:

20

It was mate, I had two spins… No talent :wink: