Caterham Seven Fireblade - Why is it so slow?

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Rader

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Has anyone experienced this? I just finished a race in B-Spec, went to check my UCD and there it was, I know it's a prize car but I bought it anyway, made and oil change, the oil was really old, washed it and took it for a spin, it had 38888KM on the clock, all fine.Waiting for the race to start I accelerated, I noticed the engine takes some time to bring the RMP's up, I thought it was strange but didnt mind it, but when I actually launched it barely moved in the first 20 Km/H then it starts to pick up speed slowly, I checked and it took 8 seconds to get to 100km/h, I mean what the hell? A 369KG car with a bike engine at around 150HP takes 8 seconds to go 0 to 100? And another thing that seemed odd was the gearing, yeah when you go past 100 it starts to get a bit better, but the gears are too long, 200km/h and you are still in 2nd gear?The car has 6 gears, how much is faster it goes? Can somebody help me on this?
 
Better tires help alot too. The caterham is known for its sluggish launch off the start, but once you get to speed, it handles very well.
 
andmen
buy a close ratio GB then. Or a fully customizable trans. It should do a 0-60 in 3.5.
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I will try that, but seeing that the gears are really tall I wouldn't expect much of a difference, as you said it should do 0-100 in 3.8 ( I just checked) but as I said it doesn't , worth a try.

Superphox
Better tires help alot too. The caterham is known for its sluggish launch off the start, but once you get to speed, it handles very well.
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Which Caterham has a sluggish start? It should be like a bullet, just like an Ariel Atom and similar cars for example. I don't think its a tire problem, as I didnt even spin them, nor they heated up.


I will try and launch from another RPM, maybe at mid-range knowing that bike engines don't produce much torque, maybe this will help, any other suggestions?
 
just look at figures, max bhp is @ 10800rpm , and max torque is poor at 13kgfm @ 9300 rpm its gunna be sluggish low down

you gotta keep it on the boil best to use a manual gear box... with 5 laps getting used to it ive got my time from 1:41 down to 1:36 @ trial mountain and im sure thers still a few more seconds to find (running 170bhp)
 
It is slightly odd, not what I was expecting. My expectations were very similar to yours, and in stock mode it seems gears 4-6 are redundant :sick: But I stuck a custom transmission in there, and the thing is a beast. It's so much fun to drive, and it can kick the ass of many of my supercars round tracks with small straights 👍
 
I've noticed this too, in fact I posted this a month or two back:

pippin4652
The Caterham, and other very lightweight cars for that matter, seem to show an oddity with the physics on GT5 (GT4 too.) Very lightweight cars such as the Seven seem to be very sluggish off the line; in standard tune it only manages to get to sixty in around six seconds, whereas in reality it would be close to half that. It isn't anything to do with the way it is geared, a car with so little inertia would have no problem overcoming that. I'm almost certain it is a quirk of the physics modelling in the game.

I also own a Subaru 360, and for a laugh I threw every part possible at it. Now, a car with 60-ish bhp, weighing 350kg and wearing slick tyres would, in reality, get to 60mph much quicker than fourteen seconds.
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Its only really off the line where it has troubles though, good fun once it gets going!
 
Viper9201
It is slightly odd, not what I was expecting. My expectations were very similar to yours, and in stock mode it seems gears 4-6 are redundant :sick: But I stuck a custom transmission in there, and the thing is a beast. It's so much fun to drive, and it can kick the ass of many of my supercars round tracks with small straights 👍
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Ohh thanks, could you give me some more details about your setup? How low can you go with the custom transmission? Have you done any other changes to your car? I was finding this odd aswell, definitely not what I was expecting, just like you.And after watching some YouTube videos I saw its the same, will try it later and post the results later, grinding B-Spec Indy 500 at the moment.

@pippin4652:

I thought it was just me!That was a letdown for me, I love lightweight cars like Caterham's, Radical's and Atom's, would be so much fun flying them around tight tracks(and tracks with long straights like the Nurburgring Nordschleife :drool:) being faster than monster high powered monsters, would be a hell of a battle, hope they fix it in some update, even thought it seems it never will because that would mean reworking the physics. :(
 
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I I bumped mine up to about 240hp, stuck in the close ratio 6-speed, and put soft sports tires on it.

It's deceptively quick, and even though I think I'm used to it now I'll still have times when pushing it pretty hard where I realize I could have gone another 8-15 mph faster through the last corner.
 
if you have the stock gear box first goes to over 100 km/hr which accounts for a slipping clutch and lack of tire spin when you launch. Try buy the customizable trans and launch in 1st and hit second fast.

I know what you mean though, car needs ALOT more throttle response, it's a ****ing bike engine.

They failed on A LOT of cars in this game.
 
Just to go an opposite direction than everyone else...and a longshot im sure....but if your using a DFGT sometimes the brake pedal will flutter/hang just enuff to slow you down some ...looking at the brake indicator, 1 "bar" may be lit or repeatedly blink...It happened to me a few times, under similar circumstances. Exchanged it for a new one, also saw threads how to fix it on here...

Hope its just a tuning issue for though! Good luck...
 
Rader
Ohh thanks, could you give me some more details about your setup? How low can you go with the custom transmission? Have you done any other changes to your car? I was finding this odd aswell, definitely not what I was expecting, just like you.And after watching some YouTube videos I saw its the same, will try it later and post the results later, grinding B-Spec Indy 500 at the moment.
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Set the top speed to around 150-170mph depending on the track, makes it much better. Oh and uprated clutch and flywheel help a lot. It's still not a rocket off the line but is pretty much unstopable once its going 👍 Of course, traction control and all assists except ABS should be off :sly: I have since modded the engine for more power, and it handles the extra horses very well, such a fun car to drive!
 
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The stock gearing on this car first goes to over 100 km/hr so they got it right. It rips hard once you get going a bit but I think because its so light it has massive traction problems
 
CivicInLake
The stock gearing on this car first goes to over 100 km/hr so they got it right. It rips hard once you get going a bit but I think because its so light it has massive traction problems
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in real life, the 1st gear goes to 90 km/h at 12.000 trs/min

you need the second gear to pass the 60mph

the std gear ratios are :

1° 2,727
2° 1,933
3° 1,6
4° 1,4
5° 1,263
6° 1,167

final ratio : 5,33499

it rev' a maximum 12.600 trs/min , means the top speed is (théoricaly) 218 km/h

I never go upto 195km/h in real, it need a very long straight line from 150 km/h to top speed.

it take 4seconds from 0 to 100 km/h
 
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The Catherhams/Westfields arent made to do much more than 250kmt. And the fireblade option model is one of the laziest. Why didnt they ad the rover v8 model or the hayabusa engined model?
 
mines cranked to 254hp, you will need to rebuild the engine if it drops to around 230hp as thats what i just this second ago did.. had always been 237hp, untill i just relised after thinking of mentioning it myself, regarding the rebuild..

its a fun and quick car to drive, but even on racing mediums its still tail happy if you try to power hard out a corner, so nurbring can be more challenging..

not that i think the now extra 17-23hp would make a big difference, but still the car is a bit dissapointment in the sense that with racing tyres, 231-237hp, -400kg it just doesnt go off like a rocket or have the quickness against more powerful, but more heavy cars like it actually would in real life(maybe not so much stock, but one this powerful should be like the atom)... i still got stock gearbox though, although changing it might still not make a big improvement like youd want...
 
Mod the crap out of it, look up a tuner set up here online, and it is easily one of the top 5 most fun cars to drive in the game.
 

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