Caterhams

[minifox]

hi everyone.
ive been looking at the caterham series and was wondering if you guys could answer some questions,
i would like to know which series would be good for a young novice driver?
and also a budget for these
i have seen that the graduate and academy do not allow pro teams but i have no way to prepare or run the car myself so is there a way round this rule?
thanks alot
lewis

[Eddy V]

I guess you best send graeme a PM, he is heavily involved in the Caterhams.

[SimonY]

Best series for a novice driver Academy, Supergrads, Roadsport B. Do not recommend Roadsports A or Megagrads for novice. [Classic Grads would also be a good place to start (and the cheapest) but the cars are a bit long in the tooth and the grids a little thin]

No team support in any of these three, but you can get the car completely prepared between races if you wish and just pick it up. All of the above series have good support from either Caterham (Academy, Roadsports), or McMillan (Grads) at the circuit, and everyone is very helpful.

Grads series I suppose are more club orientated, RS is a little more serious.

Typical budget? Very approx 10k per season for Supergrads, Roadsports with reasonable amount of testing. Used cars 10-14k.

Therefore total budget first year 22-25k for Academy, Supergrads, Roadsport B.

[graeme]

Hi Lewis. The "no teams" rule is to keep the costs down. The cars at this level need no significant preparation - I put my Classic in the garage after each race and take in back out to go to the next - if I remember, I might check the brake pads. Once or twice a year I take it for a full service at McMillan Motorsport, but to be honest if I wasn't so lazy I could do it myself (and I'm fairly mechanically inept).

You could do a season in Classics for £5k with no testing or significant damage. Most of that is entry fees (£2.5k?). You'd only get through one set (maybe two) of tyres a season, and they are only £160 a set. There's even cheap membership for new Classics (£100 - which cover technical support at races and catering) to encourage numbers up from the mid-teens we're getting at the moment. There's 3 front-running cars for sale on the Grads website at the moment at £8. - 9k, so you could do a first season for £13k; maybe £15k if you did some testing. And you could always halve your running costs by only doing half the races...

Super-Grads would be a bit more - £3 or 4k more for the car and a bit higher running costs for tyres, etc.

[Jen-MSAR]

Another Classic Grad racer, and pretty much a novice, I think it is a very good place to start as the grid sizes are a little smaller, so not as daunting for a beginner, but you always have someone to race against. Its fun and a great low cost place to start. once you have the confidence you can move up to the other classes if you choose to do so.

[JamesH]

Don't want to hijack the thread, but you could try Locost - much slower, but much cheaper. And they look the same as Caterhams.

Large grids can be daunting, but entry fees are cheaper. Always someone to race against as is a large range of drivers. Entry fees cheapest as run by 750MC. Cheaper to repair.

As cars, they are very similar to the Caterham at the front, but have a live rear axle.

Good second hand car would be £3000-5000, cost to run for a season, barring accidents, upto £3000ish, depending on how many testing sessions you do of course. Tyres are about £40 each, I used the same set for more than one season, although I was a bit c**p.

[graeme]

Originally Posted by JamesH

And they look the same as Caterhams

but have a live rear axle.

...as do Caterham Classics

Tyres are about £40 each

A539s? - same as Classics again

[graeme]

Sorry - I forget I'm not on a Caterham forum here

Perhaps "they look a bit like a Caterham" would be better

[minifox]

after a chat to someone in the know with caterhams iv decided that it isnt really the way to go because of lack of exposure. which also definatly rules locost out.
thanks for all the replies

lewis

[graeme]

Good to know there's no-one in the know here...

[Tim Falce]

Originally Posted by graeme

Good to know there's no-one in the know here...

[JamesH]

Originally Posted by graeme

...as do Caterham Classics


A539s? - same as Classics again

Fair points all!!

Well, they do look like Caterhams!!! My body work appears to have been made by taking moulds of one!

[JamesH]

Originally Posted by minifox

after a chat to someone in the know with caterhams iv decided that it isnt really the way to go because of lack of exposure. which also definatly rules locost out.
thanks for all the replies

lewis

Lack of exposure? If you want exposure (are you talking TV?), then you'll need a bigger budget than Caterhams for any of the classes you can see during the daylight hours!

[graeme]

Originally Posted by JamesH

Well, they do look like Caterhams!!! My body work appears to have been made by taking moulds of one!

Sorry! - I've seen some real sheds of Sevens - maybe they were Robin Hoods or the like

[minifox]

sorry i took all your points on board too but spoke to someone about it and decided against it.
i have increased my budget accordingly to reach a championship with more exposure etc
thanks anyway

[Robin_D]

You'd have to up your budget by a lot lot more to join the Ginetta's as I don't think I have ever seen a G20 with complete bodywork!!

[JamesH]

Could just buy a roll of fibreglass and big tub of resin. I had to do that for Locost......and they only have 4 small wings and a nosecone to repair!!!

[JamesH]

Originally Posted by graeme

Sorry! - I've seen some real sheds of Sevens - maybe they were Robin Hoods or the like

Here's mine - looks a bit Caterhamesque...

http://s175.photobucket.com/albums/w...ng%20Pictures/

[minifox]

if you want a very good example of a locost then paul presgraves car is immaculate.
thanks for all the help again guys.

[h_____]

Exposure? I guess thats why there are 2 caterham racers guesting in the Carrera Cup this weekend, and a couple I keep seeing on TV in GTs now.