What the hell are these cars?

the_syco

What the hell are these cars? I saw them in Maynooth on Sunday (yesterday). They had reg plates, but looked a bit odd. The people driving looked to be in their late 20's, early 30's. As you can see, they're nearly half the height of the red car next to them.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hgg51DCsuic

I want one

smash

caterham 7 kit cars

http://www.pistonheads.com/sales/list.asp?g=&s=39&filter=&o=&pc=&min=&max=&txt=&px=&p=&pagesize=100&xsl=gallery&y1=&y2=&d=0&dist=&nodays=0

Alanstrainor

I believe they're Caterham 7's.
http://www.caterham.co.uk/
Would love one so i would!

jayok

Ah - so that's what is parked next to me in the underground carpark Pretty cool looking I must say, if a little minimalistic.

smash

jayok wrote: »

Ah - so that's what is parked next to me in the underground carpark Pretty cool looking I must say, if a little minimalistic.

you work in Dell? there's a grey one knocking around there.

towel401

there's a lot of caterham clones around with the same shape. its hard to tell with the ****astic quality

Neilw

I don't think they are caterham's, look to be more like westfields or locosts, but are based on the lotus 7 style. Great little cars, would love to have one.

jayok

steve06 wrote: »

you work in Dell? there's a grey one knocking around there.

Nope - this one is in the City Center. I think I've seen the one at Dell though.

smash

Neilw wrote: »

I don't think they are caterham's, look to be more like westfields or locosts, but are based on the lotus 7 style. Great little cars, would love to have one.

they're deffo lotus 7 kit cars anyway. The black one looks like a RAPTOR MK Indy kit.

Neilw

steve06 wrote: »

they're deffo lotus 7 kit cars anyway. The black one looks like a RAPTOR MK Indy kit.

Sweet cars, I would love to pick up the westfield doner kit based on the maxda mx-5 chassis :cool:

cjmcork

there's a catherham in Monkstown next to Butler's Pantry........there's a lotus elise in UCD......tall feicer driving it - has to roll back the roof to get it - now THAT'S commitment to a car!

vibe666

no good if you're over 6 feet tall tho.

my stepdad built one for my brothers best mate a few years ago. he went for the dax rush cos they're a little bit bigger than most of the other lotus 7 kit cars and have more legroom.

my god was it ever quick!

he used a ford cortina donor with a 2L pinto engine in it with a few tweaks here and there. to give you an idea of how light it was, without the engine in it only took 2 people to lift the car right off the ground.

0-60 in a smidgen over 4 seconds and top whack was about 130mph. the cornering was phenomenal, but if there was even a drop of rain it was a death trap.

lost touch with him over the years, but would love to know if he still has it. I was only a lad when they built it, but I put a fair few hours into it myself helping them out.

last i heard from dax at the time, they we trying to shoehorn the engine etc. off a sierra cosworth 4x4 in one.

R.O.R

Fell in love with these when a friend of my dad turned up to our house one day in a Lotus 7, original 1960's in BRG with the yellow bonnet stripes. Turns out it was only 1 of 5 ever made with the 1.5 16v engine - that was seriously quick 0-60 (around 5.5 sec's).

One day, when I have a garage and some money, I'll be burning around in either a Caterham or Westfield - preferably a Westfield 3.5V8 SE. Years ago I had a Dutton Pheaton (think Lotus 7 on a real cheap scale, hitting every branch on the way down the Ugly tree) - but it was light, had the Ford Pinto 2.0 with the biggest K&N I've ever seen (bonnet had to be cut so it was sticking out) and a straight through cherry bomb. Great fun to drive in glorious sunshine and 25 degrees +. Bloody miserable to be in any other time.

Notch000

check out catheram R500 videos on youtube

charlesD

They look a lot like the Plymouth Prowler as well.

smash

haha, no they don't

S.I.R

yeah, little caterhams... majority have them 1400 civic lumps though ive seen some with 1300 turbo hubsa and 1600 vtec lumps...


pretty nippy but love it sideways..

2 Espressi

S.I.R wrote: »

yeah, little caterhams... majority have them 1400 civic lumps

No, they don't. Most of the 1.4s were Rover K Series blocks, the 1.6 often Ford units.

While Honda power has been used, (along with nearly everythign else) they're far from the majority.

If you don't know, don't guess, you only make yourself look foolish.

charlesD

steve06 wrote: »

haha, no they don't

They share the same hot rod style and the blue one in the video doesn't have the same type of roll-cage, which helps to change its appearance...

Neilw

S.I.R wrote: »

yeah, little caterhams... majority have them 1400 civic lumps though ive seen some with 1300 turbo hubsa and 1600 vtec lumps...


pretty nippy but love it sideways..

As was said, the 1.4's were rover k-series engines, they also used the 1.8 k-series and in the superlight models tuned up to 250+bhp.
Newer models are using ford duratec engines and 2.3l cosworth units in the csr's.

As for nippy, there are very few cars that would keep up with a superlight R500 to 100mph

vibe666

Neilw wrote: »

As for nippy, there are very few cars that would keep up with a superlight R500 to 100mph

how about if someone shoehorned one of these into one?



(sorry if this sounds like a sales pitch, but it's a great car!

they made the dax rush a little bit longer and there's room in it for a decent sized V8 or the ford cosworth engine (which they quote on their site as kicking out 330bhp). aside from the engine they weigh practically nothing so whatever lump you put in one is going to be quick, even a 1.4. think "rocket propelled bathtub"!