Caterham Fireblade is a little underwhelming...

  • Thread starter MockngBrd
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MockngBrd

MockngBrd

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was waiting for sooo long for a Fireblade to popup, and bought one as soon as it appeared

but after driving it abit, throwing all the parts at it and giving it a Supercharger, taking it out and giving it a light tune.. its just not as great as i'd imagined it be... i mean, not as great as i'd hope after reading so many magazine articles on it...

my 111R runs even faster laps, although i'd attribute that to the 111R being able to take a GT-wing.. but stilll.... kinda expected more from the Caterham :nervous: :nervous: :nervous:

anyone else feels the same? or have been let down by a car u'd thought wld otherwise be great?
 
I thought the Caterham was rubbish. After full mods, it becomes OK at best. The Suzuki GSXR car is much more enjoyable :) If you see one of those, buy it!
 
ikarys
I thought the Caterham was rubbish. After full mods, it becomes OK at best. The Suzuki GSXR car is much more enjoyable :) If you see one of those, buy it!
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i was really expecting soo much more after reading all those articles bout Caterhams... was thinking... "all right.. time to destroy my lap records..."

then... 3,2,1... go!!!!!!! wait??? why so slow?
 
The Caterham is pretty average, I have been looking for that Suzuki though :), it seems awesome for the power it has.

If I don't find it in the UCD I'll just have to wait till level 23 B-Spec... :|
 
The Caterham is effin' fast! It's like a Stock Car (NASCAR), the first gears are slow as hell but once you reach 100 Km/h like, it will be fun as hell.

Even, I gave it up a race in Arcade in the Nurb, the oponnents were Veyrons and McLarens, they were faster but I flew through them in corners.
 
I had a lot of fun with it, it just falls apart when you are wanting it to go much faster than 240km/h. Seems pretty realistic to me. It does well at london and pretty well at the top gear test track... I was lucky to pick it up before doing the british lightweight events.
 
Jedi2016
The Caterham is fun, but that's about it.. it was never meant to be fast in a competitive sense.
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From these videos of the real thing in action, I would have to agree:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mq46Q1f0Cog&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zN29Pgxg1pE&feature=related

Looks like the Caterham R500 was the faster of the two. I'm curious as to why they chose the Fireblade over the other variants, but then again, we're talking about the same group that decided that the game was better off with multiple variants of the same car...
 
Caterham was a fun car to drive around. If it is an all caterham race then will be more fun.
precise handling and careful accelleration needed
 
I like the car but so far have only driven it stock. I built it up the other day and put some soft race tires on it. Was gonna have an all caterham race but one of my friends forgot to add his so it will have to wait until another day.

I bought one right away too but later got one as a prize car. I also got the little Suzuki as a prize somewhere or was it from one of the random cards? Anyway I have driven it but only stock as well. I rememeber on GT4 it was a blast so I will mod it up real soon and see what it has.
 
I got this car today and I was just like I expected it would be, really good fun :) Not as much fun as the Yellow Bird, but I wish the Fireblade was a Premium cos imagine replays in the cockpit view or the ones looking back at the drivers helmet as your sliding it round the corners! I'm gutted it's not a premium.
 
I am going to disagree here. The Caterham is my favourite car! The first time I drove it was without an oil change or engine rebuild at ~24,000 miles, needless to say that it never got used since that first test drive. Then, one day, I decided that I was going to fully tune it to see what it could really do. So I spent however many thousand adding extra power etcetera only to be disappointed again.

Then I adjusted the transmission and it became my favourite car!
 
You need a custom box at the least. The car had the same aero dynamic properties as a crate of bricks, stock hp will only net you around 137 top speed, that is with a custom box.

That car essentially is a go kart with transmission, it is fun to drive.
 
vinze1129
precise handling and careful acceleration needed
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that's what we're here for :)

SergioRZ
The power/weight ratio should make the car FEEL much faster in the game. But no... it feels slow and not fun at all to drive.
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????????????????? i just used mine for the first time in GT5 and i'm in solid gold love.

i didn't even up the tranny itself, just the clutch and flywheel. add some 1000 cr and under stuff, racing filter, chip, etc, and you have a giant-killer.

of course it won't go 300 km/h . i real life who would have the huevos to drive a featherweight like this that fast anyway? it already wants to take to the air at half that!
 
Especially on Sports Soft tyres.

Truth be told though it's the wrong Caterham. The Fireblade engine is suited to a motorbike weighing 180kg not a car weighing nearly five times as much. It's very high revving with relatively little torque compared to other Caterham models
 
Betty_Swallocks
The Fireblade engine is suited to a motorbike weighing 180kg not a car weighing nearly five times as much.
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The Caterham Fireblade is not five times the weight of the Fireblade motorbike. It is only twice the weight at 369Kg. Still a great power to weight ratio.
 
I, too, had high expectations for this thing which were dashed...bad transmission, no torque, not as nimble as the stats would suggest... I'd rather buy a Lotus Elise or something of that ilk...
 
I quite like the fireblade... put racing softs on it and tune it all the way to max HP and its actually a pretty quick car...
 
Everyone who've been disappointed by the caterham ITT and haven't bought the close ratio 6 speed transmission OR the fully customizable one need to do so and try again, PD have incorrectly modeled the gear ratios for this car.

After you buy a new transmission the car become a sheer joy to drive.
 
Its not as great as people think it is, and its no where near as bad as this thread makes it out to be. First of all, if your expecting speeds north of 150 MPH, you will be disappointed. For best results, I say put the trans at around 130 MPH max.
 
The Caterham doesn't accelerate quickly, but once you get there you don't have to slow down much.

Even stock it's bloody quick. I bought the racing gearbox and lowered the top speed a bit.
 
The caterham is very underwhelming. This poor performance really takes the fun out of it. Suzuki GSX-4 really fits the niche role in a much more enjoyable, and capable way.
 
balang_479
The physics dont work well on such a light car, it floats.
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You didn't see the Caterham R500 on Top Gear I'm guessing...the car slides out of corners like it is on butter and still put in an outstanding time. Doesn't seem too off from real life in the game
 
Obli
The Caterham Fireblade is not five times the weight of the Fireblade motorbike. It is only twice the weight at 369Kg. Still a great power to weight ratio.
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Sorry, my mistake. I was reading the Performance Car Guide entry for it and read kg for lb. :guilty: I did think it seemed a bit much but it was late and I obviously didn't think that part through properly.

Yes, it is still a great power to weight ration. I think if we get customisable gear ratios it will be a lot better.

I'm not knocking it though. It's enormous fun to drive, especially on SS tyres. With the reduced grip you have to be so much more precise and careful when you drive. You can't just chuck it into a corner and expect the mahoosive grip to get you round. You have to get it right.
 

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