Go Kart thingy? How do I get it

  • Thread starter Thread starter maccam912
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im not a big fan of it, almost impossible to keep on the track at the nurb. way to jittery.
i guess you get that when there so light and the bumps on the track are so big.
 
3k_Poseidon
I don't about they're leagality in the US, but i'd guarentee it's not legal in california.
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There's a guy from my old neighborhood that owns one, and I saw him driving it around the area once. I don't know if that's really a reliable way of determining street legality, but...yeah.
 
if the caterham does have a v8 it must extermly fast. anyone know what the top speed of one?
 
Master_Yoda
if the caterham does have a v8 it must extermly fast. anyone know what the top speed of one?
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I don't believe there's ever been an official V8-engined Caterham (though I'm happy to be corrected if I'm wrong), the closest I can think to it is the Westfield SEiGHT (as was mentioned before in the thread). According to my 1996 december issue of Performance Car, the SEiGHT has a 3 litre V8, producing 270bhp @6000rpm and 280 ft lbs @4800rpm. The car is listed as weighing 1500lbs, has a top speed of 144mph, 0-60mph in 4.4 seconds, quarter mile in 12.7 seconds (no terminal speed given) and 50-70mph in 4.4 seconds (in fifth gear).

The comment for the car sums it up really: "Is, was, and always will be bonkers".

The current version has a larger engine, but has been sanitised slightly in comparison to the above car.

It's worth remembering though that these cars aren't really made for top speed (it's not a shape that lends itself to ultrahigh speeds), rather they're made for acceleration, cornering performance, fantastic handling and, above all, fun.
 
The current crop of Caterhams are K-powered, but I think they're going all Cosworth (with 2.0 and 2.3 Ford Duratec/Mazda MZR engines) since Rover went Kaput.

Besides the Westfield, Radical now has a small V8... Siamese Hayabusa lumps joined at the (dry) sump, with about 360+ hp (from 2.6 liters, no turbo), 200+ ft-lbs of torque, and a really tiny footprint (small enough for Sevens and Minis).

One question: The Caterham definitely wouldn't meet requirements in Cali for CARS, but wouldn't it meet MOTORBIKE standards? A lot of Seven replicas are motorbike-powered, and a lot of US and UK-made track-cars and kit cars only require motorbike licenses, so it SHOULD be possible, shouldn't it?
 
Master_Yoda
if the caterham does have a v8 it must extermly fast. anyone know what the top speed of one?
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They aren't all that fast, because they have the aerodynamic properties of Winchester Cathedral. Most are probably geared and powered to be somewhere around 110mph to 130mph, and the fastest speed I have ever seen quoted for a Seven / Caterham style thingy was around 150mph. It is in acceleration that this car keeps breaking world records, and always with a 4 cylinder engine. The Caterham JPE, featuring a Vauxhall / Opel 2l 16V engine took the world 0-60mph record from the Ferrari F40 in the early '90s, and Caterhams have held that record numerous times since then.

I'm aware of a few V8 lookalikes in production or development apart from the Westfield, and most of them have a small capacity V8 formed by joining two motorbike 4 cylinder engines.
 
I'm not going to even come here anymore since i live in California and know jack **** about these awsome cars.
 
i read an article about those hayabusa v8's in sport compact car.
 
slammer
Wrong there, most run the Toyota 4AGE motor, some have fitted the s2000 motor and only a few run any kind of V8 (Westfield SEight)

Most Sydney cars are PRB Clumans or Amaroo Clubmans, but are essentially the same as the Caterham 7

more here:
http://www.prbaustralia.com.au/
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I love watching know-alls come undone and not come bac to defend themselves :dopey:
 
Wasn't James Hetfield from Metallica driving that in the movie "Somekind Of Monster"?
 
ving
I love watching know-alls come undone and not come bac to defend themselves :dopey:
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Well I'm back with a Vingeance :) :) :)

What's to defend?

That they are all copies of Colin Chapmans Lotus 7?

That most of the clubmans in Sydney are PRB's or Amaroo's running 4AGE Toyota motors (Caterhams are thin on the ground here)

Or that the Westfield SEight, along with the new Mike Simcoe designed Elfin Clubman running LS1 gear are the only 7's with a V8 that you could count on one hand?

Or do you just miss me? :sly: 💡 :sly:
 
Syntax error
very small ..... i'd say about the lenght of say a suzuki cappucino also very low to the ground.... actually looks really funny in the midst of traffice. from what i've read they are extremly fast.

I think most of the one in sydney are kit cars, so the engines depend on the owners choice but as far as i'm aware most of them sport a healthy V8.
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So if you lived in Sydney, and raced against a whole bunch of them and were mates with them, you'd probably see why I posted my intial response Ving...all other posters provided good info on the Caterham which after all is the car that features in the game you should be playing :) :) :)
 
And you can buy them in spare parts to build at home!
 
Caterham's are reasonably common in the UK but they are affectively a Lotus Seven built by Caterham and cost anywhere from £15,000 - £30,000 ish.

There are other manafacturers Westfield etc producing their own variations of the same design.

There are also kit car versions where you buy a kit and build itself. There are lots of options for engines, specs etc but you can build yourself a good kit for around £8,000 with a new engine or even as cheap as around £2,000 but you'll need a donor car (engine, Gearbox etc). A common car in the UK is the old Ford Sierra which can be had for as little as £100, of course you'll need a little mechanical know how but there is many useful forums for reference. You may only end up with 100-120 bhp but still lots of fun.

One example is Robin Hood Engineering (www.robinhoodengineering.co.uk), They export too.
 
I was riding home on the bus and we stopped at this girls house. The garage door was open and there was guys working on a superseven.
I put the window down and kinda yell "Is that a superseven?" and they said ya.
It was pretty sick cause i had never seen one before.
 
Well yes everyone is right in saying the Caterham is a Car you can buy. In fact you can buy it from a Melbourne based company who imports Caterhams as kits and will build you a road going version with some 160hp (Consider the 600kilo weight). You can buy 200hp+ cars with cosworth engine but they are not road legal (only for track use). Go to www.caterham.com.au to see what i'm going to spend the next 10 years saving for $70k price tag and i'm a uni student. Also these guys will let you take a complete car for a "supervised" test drive.
 
Papa_Smurf
I was riding home on the bus and we stopped at this girls house. The garage door was open and there was guys working on a superseven.
I put the window down and kinda yell "Is that a superseven?" and they said ya.
It was pretty sick cause i had never seen one before.
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What a pleasant story:)
 
Here's a picture of one of the newer Caterham Super 7's.
We spotted it in France last year, and it sports a 4.0litre V8 engine.

My best friend, has always been a die-hard fan of the car, I'll ask him about engine sizes etc. I remember when we saw the car, he knew there'd be a V8 in it, so it can't be that uncommon.

If you want to see high-res pictures of the car, please follow these links:
Front (1.38MB)
Back (2.96MB)

F061_S.jpg


F068_S.jpg


What a bloody AWESOME car this is :D
 
7 replicas are considered kit cars in cali. It is perfectly legal to register a kit car in cali as the VW, and street rod guys do it all the time. You smog by the year of your engine so running an older engine can help.

100-120hp in a car as light as a seven would still be a blast. 120hp in an old VW bug is fast enough to be quite fun (bugs weigh around what a 7 weighs). 150hp in a car this light is serious sports car territory and 200hp is supercar territory.
 
dorkempi
Wasn't James Hetfield from Metallica driving that in the movie "Somekind Of Monster"?
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No that was Hetfield's Hotrod with a big American V8.
 
All I know is that the Super 7 fad was populized by Lotus, by modifying the Austin 7.

Another Pointless post. :D
 
I've seen a video in the net with a guy just going spinning this way and that with a red Caterham... have anybody ever seen that? Really amazing!
 
I've heard of ones built in Pensylvania that run 2 rotor rotary engines. One was in Motor Trend a couple of years ago. It looked pretty dumb because it had a wing that looked like it was stolen off of a JGTC car and was quoted as to having "450 horsepower". Man oh man. If only I could believe it.

[somewhat related] You know, the Fireblade as the fourth car I bought in GT4? I blew all of my savings on it and sold the third car I bought (Buick GNX) to help pay for it because I knew what a screamer those things were in real life. I was so pissed when I found out I couldn't race it...[/somewhat related]
 
Berrern
Here's a picture of one of the newer Caterham Super 7's.
We spotted it in France last year, and it sports a 4.0litre V8 engine.

My best friend, has always been a die-hard fan of the car, I'll ask him about engine sizes etc. I remember when we saw the car, he knew there'd be a V8 in it, so it can't be that uncommon.

If you want to see high-res pictures of the car, please follow these links:
Front (1.38MB)
Back (2.96MB)

F061_S.jpg


F068_S.jpg


What a bloody AWESOME car this is :D
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That's not a Caterham, it's a Westfield SEiGHT. It has the old Rover V8 in it.
 
^ Correct.

To my knowledge, Caterham have never put anything bigger than a four-pot into their Sevens.
 
On the subject of V8 7's, there's a company in New Zealand called Fraiser who makes 7's with Rover V8's in them. There's heaps of variations of 7's around, a lot of them here run Ford Engines or Toyota 4ages. There was also a limited edition of lotus 7's produced here with different front guards that sloped all the way down the side of the car like those old style cars, it looks really sweet. There's heaps of companies round the world producing 7's style cars with all kinds of engines.
 
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