Dreadnought Garage Callander

[cstrachan]

Anyone used these guys ?

http://www.dreadnoughtgarage.co.uk/

I see they are a Caterham (guess someone here must have used them because of this) specialist and have heard good things about them from people getting general work done on other cars. I was thinking of giving them a shot for the 220's yearly service as they are fairly close by.

Any reports good or bad?

Cheers!

C

[mac]

Ask Ed, I think he has a little bit of work done on his 7 by them.


Mac

[tenkfeet]

Met Brian when he fixed my mates boat engine . Good guy the family certainly know their way around a K.

[gorrie]

Yep... I know Claire & Paul ... and they've worked on my cars in the past (mostly MG's... but also a Fisher Fury). Never had an issue with any of their work, and in fact have taken cars to them after having issues elsewhere. Passionate about what they do.... wouldn't hesitate to use them if I still had an MG/TVR/Cat... and in fact I did ask if they'd do my Elise (before Ali set up on his own).

Not the cheapest place mind... but, can't fault their work.

[cstrachan]

Thanks, confirmed everything I heard, basically a good family run garage that know their nuts from there bolts

I will post back a report and price (awaiting a quote) when done.

Cheers!

[tut]

Brian is from the old school, and together with Paul and Claire they run a family business.

I have had no work done on my car by them, other than a free geo set up, but they are the kind of people that I would trust with my car.

tut

[hiscot]

i have found brian to be very help full on another site ,the family have a real passon for motorsport and cars , i also think paul used to have an elise at one time

[Shug]

Paul brought his Elise to KH and managed to stack it (at Clarks I think) However, he's not noted for taking prisoners with his driving style! Was on here for a while as well. The last I heard of the Elise, they were going to mega-tune the K Series, but that was years ago and it went quiet thereafter. Good guys

[jj]

I am sure Ed had less than a favourable experience, as well as saying he`d not go back?

[tut]

He went straight on at the Hairpin with a supposedly brake failure in his S2.

Brian arranged a timed run off between us on a KH Dreadnought trackday in 2004 when he had his racing Metro, 230hp K engine, which is why I got the free geo.

They were going to produce a S/C Elise conversion, but it never went to completion.

tut

[gorrie]

The S/C K-series got side-lined... after all they were also developing a package for the S/C Ford V8 at the time (which did get completed) and trying to get a deal together for racing in either the SEATs or BTCC.

I know Paul sold his Elise after giving it a spangly TVR paint-job, and started having shedtastic-fun in a green Rover 800 Vitesse round KH. He bought a bubble-shaped rover 200 with the intention of perhaps using it for a test S/C conversion, but I think he found out after buying it that it had the wrong type gearbox... so didn't bother.

Then he bought my R200 BRM off me whilst it was in for a service... ran it for a year or so, and I think his mum is now using it.

As far as I'm aware, they lost a backer for the BTCC thing... so I think that has been parked also... and I'm sure Paul said he was going to be doing some racing with MG's again this year.

I'm sure there will always be 1 or 2 negative stories of any garage, but, I'm also sure that any negative ones for Dreadnought will be very much in the minority. They have always been good at giving me advise as well.... Claire was happy to spend time putting an email together of things I should watch out for when I was swithering about getting a TVR S1... Paul warned me off a Cerbera or Tuscan & pointed me towards getting an Elise or VX220, despite the fact he knew that Dreadnought would have been getting my servicing/repair business if I'd bought either TVR...

Good people... imho

[ed]

Afraid i had a terrible experience with them and i wont be going back.

Could have been unlucky though....

[alicrozier]

Brian arranged a timed run off between us on a KH Dreadnought trackday in 2004 when he had his racing Metro, 230hp K engine, which is why I got the free geo.

Ahem, despite getting beat.

[tut]

Yep, but fair do's, that was when I had three different types of Maxsports fitted and rear wheels pointing in the same direction, hence the geo.

Brian still gave it to me for free though, even though I lost by 0.3 secs.

tut

ps Dicked him later though........

[mac]

He went straight on at the Hairpin with a supposedly brake failure in his S2.

Brian arranged a timed run off between us on a KH Dreadnought trackday in 2004 when he had his racing Metro, 230hp K engine, which is why I got the free geo.

They were going to produce a S/C Elise conversion, but it never went to completion.

tut

Shugster's right - it was Clarkes, but you are correct with the claimed brake failure........ still haven't worked what left the 11's heading into the gravel trap yet tho