nigelpugh

Pat, So perhaps we should arrange a head to head between your R400 and my New R500 when its finished then eh? See if they want an article feature on that too!! Nige Nigel R500 CP - New 2008 Duratec R500

Guys, Don't know who makes the dry sump tank, its a CC supplied item that came with the kit. Nige. Nigel R500 CP - New 2008 Duratec R500

Darren, I am not sure about raceline building the engines. I know for a fact that my own engine was built by the number one engine builder at CC in Dartford. He recently had an accident, and broke his leg meaning he was off work for some time. During that time Caterham outsourced engine builds to a company in Lincolnshire, but I cant remember the name of them. Nige. Nigel R500 CP - New 2008 Duratec R500

Will, I agree, om you just nailed it with your point. My car is cool whatever blinking lights it has!!! Nige. Nigel R500 CP - New 2008 Duratec R500

Guys, I neither disagree nor agree on either the lights or the switches. However it is as they say, you get what is given, and those are what a new R500 is supposed to have, so that's what I got. Of course I am lucky re the lights as I have the luxury of choice as Caterham supply both sets so that the car can pass SVA. I might even choose to change them to suit my mood or the occasion, whether its a track day or road blat. I could even change from Alloy Gear Knob to White Nylon if I so choose, depends what mood I am in. Nige. Nigel R500 CP - New 2008 Duratec R500

Guys, As I said in another thread the sump and bell-housing are marked Titan, I think that's the same unit that Raceline use too. Nige. Nigel R500 CP - New 2008 Duratec R500

As you know the Engine and Bellhousing and Engine Mounts turned up today. Also the seats I had delivered with the car were wrong, so now I have some shiny new carbon and kevlar combined ones too. I also have a cool new alloy gear knob for the Quaife Sequential Gearbox which has the R500 logo etched into it, NICE!!. To go with that, I now also have a brand new tunnel top in Carbon Leather, with the right location for the shifter. It also has a very nice Small LED built into it, which replaces the one that at the moment is hanging loose on the dash, this indicates that the immobilizer is operational I think. It also has the inductive loop for the immobilizer built into it, and a neat little oddments tray, that I am guessing you can throw your immobilizers fob in there, it wakes the car up and you can leave them in there when driving the car, how cool is that then. The final item that came today is the rear light lenses is clear, with LED bulbs to replace the standard ones. There is the same for the fog light too, so now all of my rear lights will be in cool clear plastic. How ace is that then. Yes I know I am sad!!! Nige. Nigel R500 CP - New 2008 Duratec R500

Jason, Could be, I noticed today that my new engine has a dry sump system made by titan too, so perhaps Caterham have called them in for other supply on the parts on the new r500 too. Nige. Nigel R500 CP - New 2008 Duratec R500

Don't know exactly what is fitted in my diff housing. However it is stamped with a quaife logo on the outside. Also when I was inserting the drive shafts I noticed that the alloy parts of the LSD unit inside were red anodized aluminum. My previous R400 had an LSD, but I never notice the red anodized aluminum on that one when I built it. Nige. Nigel R500 CP - New 2008 Duratec R500

Guys, My Engine for my R500 Duratec was delivered today. I have posted some pictures on webshots: Here: caterham r500 duractec 2.0 Nige. Nigel R500 CP - New 2008 Duratec R500

Guys, As mentioned there are lots of photos of this and other parts of my build on my webshots album. here: niges r500 build And I have no problem with people pinching or sharing them, that's why they are on a public site!! Nige. Nigel R500 CP - New 2008 Duratec R500

Guys, That's my new R500 your referring too!! Yes there are lots of detail differences in the chassis, as well as the extra diff strengthening too. My new engine will arrive today, so I hope that the build will move on a pace too now. Nige. Nigel R500 CP - New 2008 Duratec R500

did not know my new car had intermittent, where did you get that from? nige. Nigel R500 CP - New 2008 Duratec R500

Mike, As all the wise words already offered by the rest of the guys, it is purely a matter of personal preference. I have a new R500 Duratec on order, which should be delivered some time( i hope) in September. I went for the Sequential box, because it struck me that it was a must have option with the new R500. I have previously owned and built a Supersport 1800K, with a five speed box, which suited that car as I used it mostly for touring. My last Caterham was an R400 with the Six Speed box. I used that car mostly for Track Days and Sprints, so the Caterham Six Speed was the logical choice. However from the get go, I was never happy with the Caterham Six speed, the selection was never slick enough in my opinion, and it was easy to miss gears especially on track days, using full bore up shifts. In addition my Six Speed went pop in a big way, and was totally rebuilt by the great guys at road and race transmissions, at a cost of thousands I have to say!! It was whilst rebuilding the gearbox, they found that my gearbox, had a part missing from the motion shaft, that was never fitted at all, explaining the reason why it always felt so bad to change!! Once road and race had fixed it, it was a massive improvement, and I am sure Mark Williams, who now owns my car will vouch for that too!! On my new car, the final decider for me on going sequential was the power and torque handling. The new Caterham supplied Quaiffe QBE60G, that is coming in my R500 is rated to 450BHP and 400 lb/ft, so with my car coming with 265BHP, I figure there's room for future upgrades. I am sure if you asked the right person at Caterham, try Nick Potter at Caterham Midlands, they would supply a new Sequential with your R400. Best of luck, and when my comes feel free to drop by to check it out!! Nige. Nigel R500 CP - New 2008 Duratec R500