Honda Superlight Seven

tut · Post by **tut** » Sun Jan 20, 2008 5:19 pm

As Fergus says, nothing magic about a Honda conversion, once it is sorted it works well in an Elise, but that does not mean that it works the same in a Caterham.

The engine itself and the gearbox are incredible, never had a single problem and I have two. The problem lies with the ancillaries, especially the driveshafts and CV joints. Once you have these sorted, it is a great package.

The sun is still out, so just went out for a drive before lunch, and I still marvel about how good the car feels and handles, and that is after nine years. I just can not imagine a better combination of the Honda and S/C in an S1, and I have tried an awful lot.

I then took out N1 TUT for a small spin, no MOT or tax but it is booked into John Duthies so legal in a straight line, and she also felt great. First time for over a year. Still felt as quick as you would want on the road, but I had forgotten how good it feels when it goes into VTEC, engine note changes, exhaust snarls, and you get a push in the back.

With the S/C it is like a turbine, the surge is there all the way through, and though more civilised, it is very addictive.

So although there are lots of Supercars out there that I would like to try, not sure that I would enjoy them more once the novelty had worn off.

And most of them are just too damned wide..............

tut

foz01 · Post by **foz01** » Sun Jan 20, 2008 5:41 pm

fd wrote:Nobody has asked the only important question . . . what do you want to use a caterham for ?

They are hugely compromised cars and different ones have different compromises . . .

As for all the FUD about K series . . . what a load of bollocks . . . light, reliable and cheap . . . and used by many people who will testify to that . . . if you want to look at all the grief that a honda that is not in a civic can cause . . . open your eyes and look at all the hugely unreliable honda installs in elises . . . You can't really say that if you have just spent more than the value of the donor car on an engine conversion . . . but ffs . . . show me one that has done 50K miles without a problem, and not just the engine . . . conversely how long have you got to hear about starship milage K series ?

One thing to remember . . . the more 'non standard' from the factory the car is the more time and hassle you will have with it from a machanical and maintainance point of view . . . if you are not very capable from a spanners point of view . . . budget in finding someone who can help . . .

Fd

Everything factory does not means its perfect, far from it, i have seem loads of "factory" design flaws fwiw, in loads of cars!

Daveb · Post by **Daveb** » Sun Jan 20, 2008 7:29 pm

I dont think theres too much weight behind the Caterham being designed round a K Series argument either.

Yes the K Series is a light engine with not bad power so it suits the car well but its also cheap, British, mass produced etc... Caterham have chucked lots of engines in their cars - 8v Vauxhall, 16v Vauxhall, Ford Pinto-Xflow?, Ford Zetec, Ford Duratec. Probably just different spring rates between them if anything.

fd · Post by fd » Sun Jan 20, 2008 9:19 pm

I think you're right Dave . . . but one of those is not the honda . . . which just makes running the car in real terms (rather than polishing it) more difficult and expensive . . . I've seen all the behind the scenes work that goes into running something very non standard . . . the honda is very non standard . . . understand what this means . . . long hours in the garage, bespoke parts you have to make or have made, no support from the manufacturer or from others with similar cars, etc, etc . . . if you're a serious garage engineer then fine, if not then you will be screwed . . . or broke . . .

I know that if the tango's engine goes bang in a big way one weekend that the next weekend I'll be back with another engine and it'll have cost me less than a set of decent tyres . . .

It's no less likely to happen with the honda really - K series don't suffer catastrophic failures any more than any other engine . . . I've seen very few (count them on one hand) in the last 7-8 years, some caused by daft tuning, some by operator error . . . very few just let go.

The whole Honda is god, K series is the devil is just contrived sh*t that has been propogated by people who want to sell you one and believed by people who frankly don't know any better . . . I guess one day they might solve all the design and implementation failures . . . question is . . . who wants to be one of the guinea pigs ?

Also . . . 240bhp in a caterham . . . unless you are going to race it AND fit TC then you are wasting your time . . .

Fd

paulW · Post by **paulW** » Tue Jan 22, 2008 11:20 am

fd wrote:Nobody has asked the only important question . . . what do you want to use a caterham for ?

Fd

totally agree.
Need to weigh up Competition, Trackdays, Autotest, and Road Usage.

Bike-engines can be fun in all disciplines, but are a bit of a headache on the road, not good for autotesting and certainly higher maintainance.

Racer like Fergus\Mac, perfect for what its designed to do, and could be made more road friendly.

Jason's road car, sits happily in all categories, and is actually a nice place to be, could happily cruise around Europe in it.