Championship Cup of Caterham Performance (CCCP)

[orpheusd0wn]

What you'll need for the CCCP:

A stock Caterham Seven Fire Blade with no driving aids, and S2 tires. The challenge of a stock Caterham is not the low hp, it's the gearbox: shift judiciously.

Where you'll need to race (in order):

1. Trial Mountain Reverse
2. Fuji 80's
3. Cote d'Azur
4. Montegi SuperSpeedway
5. Citta d'Aria Reverse

Cote d'Azur and Trial Mountain Reverse are best run smoothly, keeping away from the sides, which can serve as obstacles.

Fuji 80's and the SuperSpeedway become very technical in the Caterham, because every bit of speed counts. Even a little bit of lost momentum could prove quite costly on the clock.

Citta d'Aria Reverse is the culmination- gorgeous, challenging, a track where one must not only avoid the obstacles but be very smooth to carry the most speed.

What I'm asking you to do is post the color of your Caterham, your thoughts on the experience, and then, if you wish, your lap times (optional). Being this is a Championship for the people, there can be no winner, only the state.

 

[orpheusd0wn]

My Caterham is Yellow, a "tip of the hat" to Lotus Yellow, being the Seven was born a Lotus, to the best of my knowledge. The replays are stunning on Citta d'Aria, even when the laps aren't clean.

I forgot to mention the Caterham's stiff suspension in my intro, it's absolutely part of the car's identity: no fun over bumps, but glue over smooth pavement.

You know what the last bend at Fuji 80's made me think of? A field of Caterhams breaking out three wide in bolt for the finish. That would be a sight.

When you run on SuperSpeedway, do you go high or low? That track is complicated in it's own way, to me. I'm never sure if I'm on the best line. I run high, to carry more speed. If you go low, you cover less distance. I'm not sure which is better.

The Caterham's brakes (and lack of weight) really shined at Cote d'Azur. Monaco also forces the gear issue ("Should I peak out first, or ride low in second?") more often than the other tracks.

My own times:

Trial Mountain Reverse - 1'42.073
Fuji 80's - 1'33.354
Cote D'Azure - 1'58.719
Motegi Super Speedway - 42.411
Citta di Aria Reverse- 1'50.436

Total time: 7'46.993

 

[Super T]

I'm definitely giving this a go, I love the Caterham, it'll be a good excuse to get some mileage on it. 👍

Diablo Red.

Trial Mountain 1'41.329

But my car has had the stage three weight reduction and the port polish/engine balancing done, all the other modifications I removed though, it's also had an oil change so I'm probably slightly up on power and down on weight. I don't like doing too much stuff in Arcade mode as it doesn't put any mileage on the cars in your garage.

I'll be back with more times soon. I'm doing the WRS and trying to set-up my first ever short races series at the moment so my GT4 time is a bit busy.

 

[Metar]

When you run on SuperSpeedway, do you go high or low? That track is complicated in it's own way, to me. I'm never sure if I'm on the best line. I run high, to carry more speed. If you go low, you cover less distance. I'm not sure which is better.

The Caterham's brakes (and lack of weight) really shined at Cote d'Azur. Monaco also forces the gear issue ("Should I peak out first, or ride low in second?") more often than the other tracks.

On the SuperSpeedway, I always go on the outer side, and then cut left, as close as possible to the inside - On the wider turn, even 1000HP+ LMPs and Group Cs don't have to brake, and on the smaller one, it's a bit harder, but on a Caterham, I think it can be done with open throttle.

I'll give it a shot next week.

 

[Evo7GTA]

Well I bought a Yellow Caterham and did the CCCP and came away impressed with the car for the most part. The really long gearing took me some time to get used to especially on the Citta d'Aria and Cote d'Azur tracks but once you get acustomed to it the car is a joy to drive.
The stock suspension is very stiff as you mentioned. I ran off the road and started bouncing all around and catching air.
Overall the car is great fun to drive. Very fun "Championship". 👍 I think I'll install a different transmission and see just how different the car reacts.

Here are my times.
Trial Mountain Reverse - 1'39.499
Fuji 80's - 1'30.344
Cote d'Azur - 1'53.720
Motegi Super Speedway - 43.089
Citta d'Aria Reverse - 1'47.549

It was easy to be quick on Trial Mountain. The car just goes easily through the corners and coming down the straight it gains a good bit of speed. (120mph+)

In my first couple laps of Fuji I found it hard to find the limit of the car and kept on running off the track. But I settled into a good groove and set a good lap.

In some parts of Cote d'Azur I found it hard to be smooth/quick. Due to the long gearing that car doesn't really accelerate quickly out of the hairpin turns. Also, I don't know if it was just me but on these same turns it seemed like the car doesn't have much lock as it wasn't really turning too sharply. But like I said it could just be me.

Super Speedway was a walk in the park for the Caterham. I found I could take the longer turn flat each time and slow to about 100-115mph for the shorter turn.

Citta d'Aria took me quite a while to master. Outside of the rally races I've hardly ever driven that track so I was hitting the wall left right and center. After that one (and only) fast lap I called it quits.

 

[Metar]

Yeah, I hated that Citta course too. But after a couple of laps in order to gold a licence (haven't even silvered it yet), I learned to love it. Especially with those slow, old Alfas. Heck, I take rounds on it for relaxation and as a "warm-up", and to improve tecniques.

Did some Caterham rounds (according to CCCP regulations), but I'm not yet satisfied. I haven't found that sweet spot on this car.