Well, excellent news this morning. My dealer says that my car (red 1.4 Sport) is already in the UK and should be ready to pick up on March 10th, two weeks early! As I ordered (from stock) on 9th February, this seems like very good service. Soon the little red bambino will be zooming around the Cornish lanes . . .

John

Don't be surprised if it's sooner than that will you.

Mine arrived in the UK on the 11th Feb & was at the dealers on the 14th Feb.

mmm, now I'm tempted to think that mine might arrive earlier than 14th April...BTW has anyone seen the new Caterham 7 V8??? Simon Bell would be interested to know that it has ESP and ASR!!!hehe

Hmm, I think a V8 in the 500 would be a very good idea. In the good old days, we would chuck out the air filters, slap on bigger carbs, straight-through exhaust and high-lift cams in the first week of ownership. Now, it seems there's not a lot of scope for fun - just an ECU remap, whatever that is. which you can't even see and certainly can't polish up, like you could the the old SU dashpots. I feel sorry for you blokes - all you have now to make up for it is a piece of plastic chrome, Bluetooth (whatever that is) and a perfume dispenser.

Best regards

John

lol...good point....

That is no ordinary Caterham. I toured America in 2005 with a guy who had a less bling version of that car with an earlier version of the engine I think the naturally aspirated one. He had traction control on his, absolutely necessary to get the thing moving but it could be turned off as well. My Caterham has 185bhp and weighhs just over 500kgs so its no slouch, the guy was able to drive away from me as if I was standing still......and the noise.........amazing.

The V8 is a motorbike engined V8, originally two bike engines joined together on a custom block but now a well developed engine in its own right. If money was no object I would have that engine in my Caterham.

I hate the look of that new Caterham though, way too bling for my taste and at £115,000 a tad expensive as well.

John R Smith said:

Well, excellent news this morning. My dealer says that my car (red 1.4 Sport) is already in the UK and should be ready to pick up on March 10th, two weeks early! As I ordered (from stock) on 9th February, this seems like very good service. Soon the little red bambino will be zooming around the Cornish lanes . . .

John

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John are you sure thats not MY car. All joking aside do you mind me asking who did you do the deal with on your 500?

Thanks

Yoshi

Yoshi

let me say straight off that I am really sorry you had the problems with your 500 order. If it had been me I would have been really pissed off. Mine was a car they already had in the pipeline - it is just a standard 1.4 Sport with no extras - but it was what I wanted anyway, so I didn't bother with any additions to save the waiting time. It's the same dealer as you, as you have guessed, Vospers at St Austell. But there's still plenty of time for things to go wrong, I'm sure - it'll probably turn out to be green with a flower vase and whitewall tyres

Best regards

John

John R Smith said:

Yoshi

let me say straight off that I am really sorry you had the problems with your 500 order. If it had been me I would have been really pissed off. Mine was a car they already had in the pipeline - it is just a standard 1.4 Sport with no extras - but it was what I wanted anyway, so I didn't bother with any additions to save the waiting time. It's the same dealer as you, as you have guessed, Vospers at St Austell. But there's still plenty of time for things to go wrong, I'm sure - it'll probably turn out to be green with a flower vase and whitewall tyres

Best regards

John

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I did see a red 500 in the yard with white wall tyres, To be honest I've found the sales team at vospers good with both Mark & Matthew top notch. My car was just bad luck, which they've tryed to sort out for me. I would still recommend them to anyone.
Look forward to seeing your 500 on the road somewhere soon. (If a blue panda or a silver honda civic flashes it lights at you, then its not a stalker)

Good Luck n happy motoring

Yoshi

An update -

Vospers tell me this morning that my car is now in their compound and that we are on track for a March 10th handover. They say that I have been very fortunate, as others who ordered before me are still waiting for their cars to be shipped.

John

If it's in their compound you should be able to get it within a few days, unless it's in the dock compound, then March 10th is realistic (although it's still likely to be sooner, mine was 3days from dock to dealer)

Mark

I'm not too bothered about having it sooner, as we have to make some space for it at home yet (this involves clearing out a load of garden debris, moving a boat, etc). I was interested to see your thoughts about the 1.2 and 1.4 compared - I chose the 1.4 because down here you really need zip rather than cruising ability. The nearest motorway is two hours away at Exeter, and we only have one dual-carriageway (the A30), which I hardly ever use anyhow. Most of my driving is done on twisty, hilly, narrow B-roads and even narrower Cornish lanes. I doubt whether 6th gear will see much use The best car for our conditions I ever had was a 1965 Mini-Cooper, bored to 1340cc with all the bits. This was just killer in the lanes.

John

John R Smith said:

Mark

I'm not too bothered about having it sooner, as we have to make some space for it at home yet (this involves clearing out a load of garden debris, moving a boat, etc). I was interested to see your thoughts about the 1.2 and 1.4 compared - I chose the 1.4 because down here you really need zip rather than cruising ability. The nearest motorway is two hours away at Exeter, and we only have one dual-carriageway (the A30), which I hardly ever use anyhow. Most of my driving is done on twisty, hilly, narrow B-roads and even narrower Cornish lanes. I doubt whether 6th gear will see much use The best car for our conditions I ever had was a 1965 Mini-Cooper, bored to 1340cc with all the bits. This was just killer in the lanes.

John

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As I said, for country lanes the 1.4 is an absolute hoot.