MikeE

I had a FIA bar fitted (by Caterham) to my Superlight a couple of months back and decided to take a close look at it yesterday. Now whilst the bar is clearly more sturdy than the standard fit I was a little surprise at the way it's mounted. I thought I'd heard that it was bolted down through to the suspension mounts. However it appears to just be sitting on top of the chassis rail behind the seat backs. What's more it's only held on with one bolt per side (one of which was finger tight!). The rear bracing is bolted to the thin chassis tubing at the back of the boot, but again this doesn't look like it would take too much of an impact to detach or distort significantly. Anyone got any views on the above? Mike.

Andy - if it does come onto the open market how much do you want for it? Mike

Another silly question. You say if the previous owner had bothered to waxoil..... Do factory built Caterham have any corrosion inhibit applied or am I likely to start seeing this on a 2 year old 7? What are the first signs of trouble? Mike.

Sold!

Yes, I spoke to Caterham on Tuesday. It should be available in July and will fit the normal windscreen scuttle (you'll have to unbolt the screen and windscreen wipers). I don't know how much it'll be but given that the current carbon aeroscreen is £250 then it will be at least this if not more - therefore £100 for mine sounds like a bargain! Mike.

Do I take it £150 is too expensive then? If so make me an offer. Mike.

I've just looked on the Caterham site and the Carbon Fibre R500 screen is £250 new. So I would sell the screen and scuttle panel (which you'll need to change) for £150. and no I don't have any mirrors for sale.

I'm having a windscreen fitted at Caterham today so no longer need my Carbon aeroscreen and scuttle panel (in Lotus Azure blue). Anyone interested? Mike.

So have determined that an anti-cavitation tank would be a good investment for trackdays how much do they cost (from Caterham or can they be supplied from else where). And how difficult are they to fit, or how much to get someone else to fit? Spoke to Caterham last night and they're talking circa £350 fitted, I thought someone else here had said it would be £200 + fitting. In the meantime I'm on a trackday on Monday, in the abscence of an anti-cav tank is it worth me over filling with oil or will this cause more problems than it solves? thanks for any info. regards, Mike.

I booked onto the Bookatrack day at Goodwood next Monday and was wondering what the situation was ref. above on a Oct 2000 SuperLight 1600. I thought (I must have seen it in the Caterham advert for my car) that I had an anti-cavitation tank. However I went through the original build spec last night and couldn't find anything on there. I also looked under the bonnet and couldn't see anything obvious. How do I know if I have got an anti-cavitation tank fitted? Were/are they standard on this model? If not what other protection does it have to avoid oil starvation (sump baffles?). Is this likely to be a problem at Goodwood (I'm a relative novice and am running standard CR500 road tyres)? thanks for any advice. cheers, Mike.

I'm booked onto the BookaTrack day at Goodwood this coming Monday and they have a noise limit of 98db. I've got a standard superlight 1600 but have no idea what sort of noise level it will produce. As far as I can see it's got the standard single exit pipe, catalyst and silencer. Anybody know the answer? Anyone know how I can make it (temporarily) a little quieter if I need to? cheers, Mike.

But I've owned three TVRs before so I know all about bodge engineering. What I've seen of the workmanship on the Caterham has impressed me so far, they're much better engineered. They actually use permanent fixings (rivets, screws and bolts) instead of the TVR solution of slapping evostick everywhere! Reference the lsd - that's what the salesman said when I pointed it out on the test drive. What I don't understand is why it would do that when stationary and in neutral. Edited by - MikeE on 22 Apr 2002 14:48:14

So what does that mean? Is it a problem or not? I'm booked to do a trackday at Goodwood next Monday and don't really fancy it if somethings going to come adrift! Mike.

I just took delivery of an 18 month old Superlight 1600 from Caterham cars on Saturday. I've spent all weekend open mouthed at the driving experience and wondering why I didn't buy one years ago! However I've noticed a couple of worrying(?) noises that I didn't hear on the other Caterham I test drove. There seems to be a clonking/rattling on the rear suspension when going over bumps and also, as a separate noise, a bit of drive train shunt (diff?) when lifting off the throttle. When in neutral there seems to be a grinding noise which goes when I depress the clutch - is this normal. The cars only covered 6000 miles so I'd be surprised if this is wear and tear (I've got a 3 month warrantee from Caterham). Can anyone give me any advice ref the above? Should I be worried about this? Apart from these teathing problems the cars fantastic - roll on the first trackday! cheers, Mike.

I'm due to pickup my new (to me) Superlight from Caterham this Saturday. On the test drive I had difficulty using the throttle without catching the brake pedal as well. Also my girl friends on the short side (5'2") so couldn't reach the pedals safely. Can anyone give me some advice regards the above two problems? Mike.