VHPD Roadsport R.

[RoadsportR]

Very low mileage Caterham Road sport “R” factory built in November 2000. Ordered and supplied new with 1800 cc Rover VHPD engine Dodge Viper Pearlescent Blue with yellow nose band. Significantly upgraded since.

5 speed gearbox mated to ZF 3.92:1 lsd. Fresh AP Racing clutch. Wide track front suspension. Upgraded 4 piston front and uprated rear brakes. Latest spec DOT 5.1 high temperature silicone brake fluid. Bilstien spring platform adjustable suspension. Uprated front and rear springs. Uprated 9/16 inch dia adjustable rear anti roll bar. Freestyle fully adjustable front anti roll bar. FIA track day rear roll over bar. FIA 3 inch wide race harnesses. VHPD de cat exhaust pipes with 4 into 2 into 1 collector. The Cat is packaged separately but comes with the car for Mot’s. ITG R500 induction filter. JPE yellow dash gauges. Three core triple pass coolant radiator. Oil/water overflow catch tank. Dash switchable water temperature and oil temperature gauge. All new coolant hoses. Specialist 9 inch dia track day exhaust system (consistently 97dB static at 5725 rpm). Apollo oil air separation tower. FIA battery cut out master switch. Boot mounted Caterham plumbed in fire extinguisher with two engine area outlets. Momo quick release steering wheel. Tillet composite seats with drivers side forward and aft adjustability. Remote ignition with push button start, aero switch ignition and Thatcham 2 remote automatically setting alarm. Aero fuel filler cap. Alloy gear lever knob. Secure and waterproof road tax disc holder. Steel wheel nuts all round. Carbon rear wing protectors. Carbon door entry sills. Fully carpeted cockpit with rear mounted map pocket. Part carpeted boot. Heated front windscreen and full wet weather equipment including wipers and screen wash system side doors and mirrors and toneau. Heater. Black Pack. 6 inch wide x 13 inch dia 7 spoke Anthracite front wheels with Avon CR500 tyres. 8 inch wide x 13 inch dia 7 spoke Anthracite rear wheels and Avon CR500 tyres. Recently renewed front and rear pads. Fully stamped service history book with every invoice including new purchase production sheets etc. The history file is genuinely one inch thick with every concurrent Mot and service invoices clearly ratifying the existing mileage. Road tax until 1/5/12. Mot until 25/10/12.

Engine timing belts changed at last service 1000 miles ago.

Gearbox stripped and fully rebuilt by Road and Race transmissions within the last 500 miles. (£600).

Limited slip differential stripped and fully rebuilt by Road and Race Transmissions within the last 700 miles.

Stripped and fully rebuilt throttle bodies.

Brand new air filter back plate.

Brand new propshaft.

Brand new drivers side drive shaft.

Brand new front and rear wheel bearings.

Brand new 3 core triple pass coolant radiator (100 miles only). (Original radiator packaged as a spare).

Brand new thermostat housing and thermostat.

Brand new starter motor with heat shield fitted.

Brand new dashboard switches as needed and all brand new engine sensors. They were all in full working order but we replaced them as a precaution. The removed original parts are all packaged as spares and come with the car. The parts removed and replaced with brand new items were the ignition switch, ignition aero flick switch, indicator relay, hazard lights relay, throttle position sensor, water temperature sender to dash gauge, water temperature sender to ECU, new air induction temperature sender. The original switches and sensors and senders are all packaged as spares and come with the car.

Brand new distributor cap. (original packaged as a spare).

All new titanium spark plugs.

New throttle cable. (original packaged as a spare).

 

I genuinely believe that the chassis is original and undamaged and any inspection will ratify this.

 

The car is believed to have 190 bhp and certainly feels it. Very unusually it is still running on the original Rover MEMS 1.9 ECU. There is clearly scope for more power if felt needed but I can say that it is already embarrassingly close in performance to my R500 Duratec. An Emerald or similar with verniers would definitely give more power and better low speed smoothness but currently when over 3500 rpm the engine flies and we have always felt the engine had sufficient performance as is. The chassis has a superb current set up and virtually infinite adjustability.

 

The original VHPD engine was removed and replaced new (on insurance – cracked sump) in 26/9/2006 when the car had done just over 10000 miles. All receipts and written confirmation regarding the installation are on file. The owner replaced the speedo head at the same time. We have the old speedo head which confirms the mileage at the time of removal and the car has done 5885 miles since. The chassis therefore has done less than 16000 miles and the engine has done 5885 miles. All of the above is fully documented and on file with service stamps, invoices and overlapping concurrent MOTs which all clearly corroborate the mileages involved.

The engine shows 5 bar start up oil pressure and retains very high oil pressures when warm. The engine is oil tight, water tight and fast. The 5 speed gearbox is precise and sweet to use following the recent rebuild. In a Caterham 6 speed manual gearbox 6th gear is direct drive (ie 1:1) but in our 5 speed gearbox 4th gear is direct drive (ie 1:1) with 5th gear effectively being an overdrive which is a boon when road touring. Of course this high gearing could be a draw back on track but we have the shorter geared final drive (3.92:1 rather than the standard 3.62:1) which lowers the gearing on the whole gearbox and provides for great acceleration but retains a overdrive 5th gear.

We have pretty much replaced everything on the car in the last year and a half so as to ensure reliability. The car runs superbly as either a road car or track day car. We did three track days last year and 5 this year including two with the Lotus Seven Club which were superb fun and proved that the car was more or less the equal of anything on track especially as we always run with windscreen and two in the car. You could speak the Club instructors who spent a fair bit of time in the car at the two Lotus seven Club days. The car body work and paintwork are in excellent condition with some stone chipping to the rear wings as you would expect. It has a fantastic fully stamped and fully documented service and MOT history. The asking price does not reflect the time energy and costs we have put into preparing the car to the current level but we have decided to move up to GT3 next year hence the reason for putting this great little car on the market. I hope we don’t regret this decision.

 

Photographs available on request or look at the recently loaded Pistonheads advert.

http://www.pistonheads.com/sales/3471470.htm

 

We have a very good single axle Woodford trailer which is available for sale separately. The trailer had a full service and brake rebuild just after we bought it last year. We also have a recently Road and Race Transmissions rebuilt Caterham 6 speed manual gearbox, 2 x brand new unused sets of 13 inch (6” and 8”) Anthracite wheels and tyres one set with brand new Avon CR500 and one set with brand new Kumho Excta soft compound (bought for cold intermediate conditions) as well as a Caterham carbon quick release interchangeable aero screen with carbon mirrors (Caterham part number WW30K) which was taken from my R500D and is again brand new and unused. These items are available for sale by separate negotiation.

 

£18850.

 

 

 

 

Edited by - RoadsportR on 4 Dec 2011 21:55:18

[James7]

YHBM

 

James

[StuB]

YHBM

 

Stu

 

[Drifter]

I was interested in this car a couple of years ago when it was last for sale - seemed quite good at the time

[Petrolhead]

Pistonheads Ad here

 

I notice your in the North East, where abouts?

[RoadsportR]

Ten miles north of Newcastle upon Tyne.