Morning all,

I am interesting in owning a Caterham 7 or kit cars of similar pedigree.

I am looking at it to be an everyday car though, so would need a heater, roof, window wipers, some degree of low maintenance etc.

Does such a thing exist or are these cars for sunny days, track days, and rain mac wearing people?

I don

You definatly can use them everyday. I think one of the car mags had a R400 on long term test and did over 20k miles in a year.

But its a definate compromise. I'd love a kit car, but it would be a car for the (rare) dry weekends.

I wouldn't like to have to dry a 7 in the cold and rain to be honest.

Why not get a cheap runabout and a kit car?

I've got another BMW on order as a second car so I will have two cars but wanted to use the kit car most.

I'll have the beemer for when I need boot space and if its really bad outside but for every other day it'l be the Caterham.

I seem to remember Evo mag had a Caterham as one of their long term test drive cars in the past. don't know if you have that magazine? I've got the last 3 years but don't know which one its in tbh.

You could ask about kit cars on evo mag's forum

Evo :: Index

derek

Budget?

Does it have to be a kit?......Elise?

A friend of mine built a Caterham with the old Ford engine (was it a 1700 version?) it was ridiculously fast through corners, astonishing really and he drove a 911 Turbo at the time and even he was impressed. He did make the mistake of forgetting to order the heater and when he went back to Caterham to buy one for a retro fit they refused (or tried to charge him several times the original price

The idea was:

Sell current beemer, whilst it still has good value.

Use some of the cash to buy a kit car

Have some of the money left over for, er... I dunno anything I guess!

And have the new beemer for when we need a boot etc and have the kids seats in.

Resale of mine ~

The Caterham holds it value better than any other kit car and there is a huge amount of support out there for the construction of one. Even Top Gear built one didn

Did you want to build, or buy a built one?

Just found this,

Caterham Cars - Designed for racing, built for living

Remember going out in a 1300cc classic sitting on a lump of foam no doors or windscreen, fantastic fun.

Tigers are a good compromise as they are a lot cheaper than caterhams (guess what my next toy is going to be )

Spose I might be in a position to answer some questions for you as this is mine

You can use one everyday if you are commited enough but a few things to think about first

Security, there are no doors and no where to lock valuebles so you have to take everything with you when you leave the car anywhere.

There not the easiest car to get in and out off, especially with the hood up

Due to being very light even a low powerd car can be quite a handfull in the wet or icy conditions.

Even with the hood up you will get wet when it rains and if you are driving with the roof down and it rains forget stopping to put the hood up as you will end up wetter than just carrying on as it takes quite some time even with practice.

Bearng in mind our weather with the hood up visability isn't great, the rear and side screens tend to mist up and it's noisy with the hood up too.

Sorry if I'm sounding like a kill joy but you need to know that it's not really designed as an every day car and as such there are some compromises you need to make. On the plus side they are great little cars to own, huge fun to drive, easy to work on and I wouldn't get rid of mine unless it was to replace it with another one with a larger engine

I looked at Caterham's and various other versions of 7's and decided on a Westfield, reason being you can buy a better spec Westfield for your money than you can a Caterham, they have a good name within the 7 community and so hold their value better than many other 7 style cars, the factory are a bunch of the nicest people you could meet in the kitcar industry and will help you with any problems you may have

If your serious about using it ever day I'd look for a 1.8 or 2.0 zetec powerd car using injection not carbs, I'd also make sure it has independant rear suspension over a live rear axle.

Some research for you

WSCC

Blatchat

If you have any questions or your near Nottingham and fancy a spin in one drop me a pm

Darren

Fab car Les Paul.

Have you thought about Cobras Walkie. The top of your budget might get a reasonable one with a bit of work on your side. Not sure if this is in your remit or not.

Fab car Les Paul.

Have you thought about Cobras Walkie. The top of your budget might get a reasonable one with a bit of work on your side. Not sure if this is in your remit or not.

Thanks

4:19 :eek: Can't you sleep or you working nights

You can get a westfield with a V8 if you like the noise, wouldn't want to use one every day though as the fuel bill would be huge

Did forget to mention the 1.6 Sigma engine, which would also be good for an everyday car as it's a good modern engine that produces 150 bhp and is light, if 150bhp doesn't sound much just remember that will give you almost 300bhp/ton in a 7

This one would have made a nice everyday 7

Darren

Have a look at the Pistonheads classifieds to see if there's anything going that fits the spec you're after.

Thanks

4:19 :eek: Can't you sleep or you working nights

You can get a westfield with a V8 if you like the noise, wouldn't want to use one every day though as the fuel bill would be huge

Did forget to mention the 1.6 Sigma engine, which would also be good for an everyday car as it's a good modern engine that produces 150 bhp and is light, if 150bhp doesn't sound much just remember that will give you almost 300bhp/ton in a 7

My defence M

Hiya,

At that sort of cash you could get a nice Elise. Very similar in character to the 7 but slightly more practical and at least it has a tiny boot and the doors lock. Handling is typical Lotus sharp (although I am biased to anything lotus hehe)

Cheers

Anybody know whether the Ginetta G20 has a soft top available for it?

Westie with MX5 running gear

You can use a kit-car everyday if you have the right attitude. Dress appropriately.

The majority of kit-cars are poorly designed/made (compared with a modern production car) but far more fun. A kit car is unlikely to be very reliable. In my opinion the best kits are the simplest ones; no doors, basic roof, basic engine/suspension & no fripperies. These are likely to be more fun & more reliable than a fancier kit. Cobra replicas & 170mph coupes are OK if you are spending really big money but you can't build a Lambo' replica that's as good as a Lambo' for 1/10 of the cost. You just can't; life's not like that.

Caterhams are great; head & shoulders above most of their imitators; but they are more expensive.