My Caterhams - Nostalgia

General Owners Cars
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Sorry for the non Exige content. The weather of the last fews, plus recently seeing Evosal’s Caterham CSR, have reminded me how much I enjoyed my Caterhams, & of course, open top driving.

From the early '60s, I was determined that one day I’d own a Lotus 7. In 1994 I eventually realised my dream, & bought a green/yellow Super Sprint. After approx 1 year, I wanted something quicker, so traded it in against a Roger King engined HPC. Hells bells it was quick - approx 230bhp, Quaife dog box, dry sumped etc etc. As I was not into doing trackdays then (were they even available in 1995?), I soon realised that the car was way too fast for the roads… & more to the point, my ability! So, the HPC was traded in at Caterham, for an immaculate 6 speed 1.4 K series Super Sport. The handling of this car was sublime, & although it was nowhere near as fast the HPC, it was a joy to drive on the road. However, in 1997, I started working for myself, & with 3 youngsters to bring up, I could no longer afford to have a “weekend/fun” car. The Caterham was sold, & I bought a new Jap import Impreza WRX Type R, which I ran for a year until I bought another new Jap imported Mitsi EVO V1. Then in 2000, Lotus announced the launch of the Exige S1 The rest is history, & driving along in my Exige today, I asked myself “what would I rather be driving, for less than �100K?” The answer was absolutely nothing that I could think of - despite my deep respect for the Porsche 911 GT3 RS, & the Fezza 430 Stradale (at �140K), I just wouldn’t swap my s/c Exige for either of them, even if they were brand spanking new - honestly, that’s the truth! I don’t care about the rattles, the lack of aircon, the noise, the general lack of comforts, I fooking love my car

Anyway, for anyone interested, here are a few pics of the Caterhams, which were previously part of my life, & at the time provided me with an immense amount of driving pleasure:

1700 Super Sprint - the dream come true:

[image]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v222/Exiges/Caterhams/No4.jpg[/image]

The incredibly quick HPC:

[image]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v222/Exiges/Caterhams/No1.jpg[/image]

[image]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v222/Exiges/Caterhams/No2.jpg[/image]

[image]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v222/Exiges/Caterhams/No3.jpg[/image]

The joy to drive 1.4 6 speed Super Sport:

[image]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v222/Exiges/Caterhams/No5.jpg[/image]

[image]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v222/Exiges/Caterhams/No6.jpg[/image]

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what would I rather be driving, for less than �100K?" The answer was absolutely nothing that I could think of - despite my deep respect for the Porsche 911 GT3 RS, & the Fezza 430 Stradale (at �140K), I just wouldn’t swap my s/c Exige for either of them, even if they were brand spanking new - honestly, that’s the truth! I don’t care about the rattles, the lack of aircon, the noise, the general lack of comforts, I fooking love my car

I could not agree more - thought the very same as I stood washing mine chatting with you, Martin, Steve, Con, AndyD and the other assorted Lotus enthusiasts that swing by the Edwards on a Sat afternnon

Thought it again on the way home on the A43 as the subaru who decided to try and read the small print on my number plate became a small dot in my rear view mirror

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Nice cars Rob. Seems to be a pattern with quite a few se7en owners I know moving to Elises, including me.

My first one was an Aussie PRB with Toyota 20V 4AGE.


[image]http://www.kirrapak.com/busa/prb87.jpg[/image]

Had so much fun in that that I built a new one based on a Birkin kit but we fitted a Hayabusa engine.

[image]http://www.kirrapak.com/busa/busa24.jpg[/image]

[image]http://www.kirrapak.com/busa/busa26.jpg[/image]

Wish I still had them.

Sorry to steal your thread, well not really.

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Sorry to steal your thread, well not really.

Absolutely no probs, Dave

Never heard of a PRB before, but there are a few Birkins (SA origin, I recall) in the UK.

I’m hoping others will chip in with their car experiences - at the end of the day we all seem to agree that our cars have a very special appeal - aka Exigeness

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http://www.prbaustralia.com.au/

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Ta

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Saw two Caterhams out over the weekend and one Elise. Was up around Grassington on the Sat and in North Lincolnshire on the Sunday.

Had a good run with one of the Caterhams - we were both following a Jag XJR who was doing his best to loose us an some small B roads

It may be a heretic on here, but I actually prefer to track a Caterham Superlight over the Exige - it has a level of rawness that exceeds the Exige whilst seemingly bullet proof.

Funny thing is, I hated Caterhams - I would never even accept a passenger ride in one until I had a drive in one at a Palmersport corporate day.

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Was up around Grassington on the Sat

Spectacular place/area - my sister in law lives in a 300 year old farmhouse at the top end of the village. I love staying there whenever I get chance - some fantastic walks in the countryside/along the riverside during the day, then a 2 minute toddle down to the various hostelries in the evening

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Nice pics n cars there Rob

i used to hanker for a seven many years ago. By the time I could afford one, self preservation took hold…so I bought a Europa T/C instead

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Pesky, i love it! Nice motoring history

I like the whole ‘it was too quick for the roads - so i brought another’ bit Just goes to show its not how quick it is

P.S I was 10 when you got your first one

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thought id throw mine in…excuse the second one.
[image]http://img261.imageshack.us/img261/2129/twoum1.jpg[/image]
the above westfield (180bhp ish, quaffie, ap, lsd, widetrack, 2000 sets of wheels and tyres, all the bits you could ever want apart from it being a caterham) was my pride and joy at the time. i fully stripped it spent fortues discovered trackdays and owned it for nearly two years which was a big achievement, obviously i had another car to get round in.

[image]http://img156.imageshack.us/img156/299/aaaaa2ij4.jpg[/image] some time after selling my westy and other car i decided to get one car for the job, my vxt had a stage two jobbie done and its was a bit girlie but good fun. i did however completely miss the utter rawness of my previous westfield hence the next car

[image]http://img504.imageshack.us/img504/5381/pc150171tz5.jpg[/image] blade engine (new ish one with lots of bhp) man this thing was fast…and you can imagine the sound! but in all honestly it was too much…it scared the [censored] out of me. the westy was even took out when it snowed i loved it tha much but this saw no more than 100 miles in 5 months.

and all this leads me on to my current project…s1 elise cat d. the cat d bit has been sorted…all it needed was a new front calm, a rear subframe and new wishbones all round.

the end result will be an s1 exige with nylatron bushes, upgraded anti roll bar, big brakes all lines replaced and larger m/cylinder, nitrons, new ball joints all round, tow links all round, all wishbones powder coated and chassis area fully cleaned, honda k20, the propper xenon light upgrade, alloy rad, twin fans with switch control, oil p and temp gauges, you get the picture. i will do a my projects thingi when ive finished…sorry for ramabling
just got carried away there.