I was fed up with actually running a track car. And I can't be arsed to trailer one around. Arrive and drive is the way forward

I've decided that pagids are the only modification I may do to the M3. I am deliberately going to avoid tracking it as much as possible.

 

Cunning plan.

OT but did you catch the chaps there with E46 M3 / CSL? Think there was one of each. And on older one on it's roof

 

Before Jo and G jump in on this one I'll share what little I have been forced to learn in the last 6 months.

Jo's Caterham 7 cost her about 13k and was set up specifically for the track. All the bods I have spoken to at Blat chat meets, track days and races say the same thing. Decide where you want the car to be set up for. 7's for tracks are horrible on roads (like Jo's) whilst 7's on roads are weak on tracks and feel slack and loose in comparison to a track set-up one.

As for power, Jo's is about 130bhp and that's good enough. I've seen her demolish some serious competition on a track day. Of course the high bhp cars eat the distance gained when back on the straights but check out any of mid vid files and you'll see the R400 / 500s or even the radicals are not much quicker if at all through the corners. So do you want an exocet on the straights? Then don't get a Caterham necessarily, but want to be quick everywhere then do it.

As for pricing - you pay for the Caterham 7 name but the car is almost deprerciation proof (assuming a massive recession etc doesn't kick in).

Engine wise for 7's there are several options - the older ones are usually carb'ed and can be any manner of things, the later generation was the trusty K series (nice light engine) and the latest are a Ford erivative. There are a few iterations in between there but that's when the beardies / hippies i.e. MarkB can help out.

If you are going to make it track focussed you may want to think of getting a trailer like a Minno. That'll be about another

 

I spent a while deciding between Westfield and Caterham and tbh I still don't really understand the differences, but here's my laymans view:

Westfield owners seem generally younger and more into modifying the cars to the extreme, whereas Caterham owners fall into one of two camps; people that like to be authentic, wear goggles to drive on the road and do lots of polishing, or people who race and have cars held together with duck tape.

That is of course a sweeping generalisation !

Other things i've been told/noticed:
* Westfields are a bit wider than Caterhams, although both also do a wide bodied version. FWIW I have driven an SV CAterham (wide body) and hated it - felt like a barge.
* Someone I know who was a sworn Westfield fan admits that my Caterham is better handling than even his Westfield which was heavily fettled

I know nothing at all about Dax, Robin Hood etc.

Before you get totally overwhelmed by it all (very easy) I would suggest that you:
1) Decide what you want to use it for
2) Decide an approximate budget
3) Test a few - go to owners meets and get rides, and test drive some (probably through Westfield/Caterham so you can drive them) because they might surprise you
4) Keep an open mind until you've done all of that

I got really hung up on bhp and power, and test drove a V8 Westfield and a 1.8K Caterham before deciding on mine. Personally I hated them but I love the revvy nippy nature of mine. Like Kelk says, the bhp doesn't make any difference around the corners, just on the straights. Somethig I hadn't really twigged until this weekend !

Budget wise you could pay anything from 6-7k upwards !

Older Caterhams tend to be Ford Crossflows, then you move onto the K Series stuff and Cosworth engines etc., and then onto the new Sigma engines (which are apparently slower than the K Series cars!) There are also of course bike engined cars too which is a whole other barrel of worms!

There are some good bargains to be had at the moment if you look at ex-racers (and in general I think), but it really depends what you want them for. For example many of the racers will have had the thermostat removed (like mine) so you'll struggle to get it warm on the road, they will have heaters removed (like mine) to save weight, and some of the full cage designs don't allow the weather gear to be fitted. Racers also tend to have a full cage on them; the standard from-the-factory rollbar is useless and if you decide you don't want a cage I would suggest upgrading the rollbar if it hasn't been done already. Some of the cage designs don't allow the roof to be fitted.

The main Caterham club is www.blatchat.com and the main westie one is www.wscc.co.uk i think.

You're more than welcome to come and see mine and go for a spin on the road before I SORN it, but it'll have to be daylight as I don't have any headlights!

 

Westy club is at http://boardroom.wscc.co.uk/ the main website is shite

at least 200bhp for 2 up fun.

windscreens are for pooftas @:-d

 

If it's to replace a bike, what about a bike engined Westfield?

 

Bike engined cars tend to only have either an alternator OR a reverse gear.

 

In the crossover between the Ford Kent engined cars and the K-Series there were some produced with the Vauxhall/Opel XE which make excellent road cars (and were raced at the time as well).

I had a 1.4K Supersport (130bhp) and that was certainly great fun on the road and whilst uncomfortable I drove it all around the French Alps (as far south as Monaco) and whilst getting there was painful, it was a joy in the mountains.

For the sort of power output you're looking for the R300 had 160bhp - the best compromise between a road going and track going Caterham IMHO but good ones of these are in the

 

didn't think you had any passenger seat belts or a passenger seat jo!

 

Just soaking all this up...