I want to make a Caterham from a kit. Am I retarded? How much

don't know about Australia but here in Canada they cost anywhere from 20-70k to build depending on how much you do yourself, quality of materials and so on.

>how long will it take?
depending on your skill and how much time you can throw into it, anywhere from a winter to 10 or so years. keep in mind most kits never get finished.

Am I retarded?
I don't know, did you go to a "Special" school? do people congratulate you for going to the bathroom in the bathroom and not your pants?
It might not be a bad thing, I knew an autist who had fully restored a 1953 Cadillac before he turned 16.

>>14041390
>I want to make a Caterham from a kit.
Me too
> Am I retarded?
Perhaps, it takes a lot of expensive tools (at the very least, socket set, torque wrench, engine hoist, at least 1 jack, full set of jackstands, probably some electrical shit too)
> How much will it cost, and how long will it take?
IIRC A kit striaght from Caterham costs ~£9000 other companies do similar (if not as good) kits for less. If you have some idea of what you're doing it can be done in about 12 hours since it's a standardized kit with an instruction manual. More likely you'll be working on it evenings and weekends for a couple hours at a time and make a few mistakes, so a month or two. Took my dad 3 months to build a Countach kit car with a custom tubular steel chassis, but he's a marine engineer serving as chief on some ExxonMobil tanker
> Are there any taxes or legal problems that I need to worry about in Australia?
I haven't the foggiest, in Britain you just get a £200 form, some dude from the DVLA checks it out and assuming you pass it's road legal. If it fails it's £50 for a retest.

>>14041390
Any Amerifats have any info? American here wanting to build a Caterham

>>14042840
Are these things even street-legal in burgerland?

>>14042847
Only as a kit car.
And if I'm not mistaken it being a kit car is alot easier to deal with and cheaoer paperwork wise.

which steelies are these? they look like alfa, but im pretty sure they arent. ive seen them on lots of different cars.

>>14042832
Okay, inflation hit Caterham hard. Entry level is now £16,000 assembled, £12,000 a kit. You can refund the engine for £1000 if you want to put a different one in though

>>14042840
locostusa d0t com.

not sure if that would get filtered out. its a forum for building one from scratch. the frames are actually surprisingly easy to build because they use square tubing and can be done with only compound cuts, no bends.

I have been slowly planning one for a while, but too many other projects in the way.

>>14042859
Well there is a good bit of forms, depending on the state, like where the parts came from, who built what, but it's not that bad.
About $40-80 for the kit
CA here, so if it goes here, most likely it goes else where.
Here you can basically make any type of motor vehicle and reg it as a kit car. As long as you can prove it's not just a car dissassembled and rebuilt

Also this:
http://us.caterhamcars.com/

>>14042859
Ah okay. I read something about the Ariel Atom and cars like it not being legal over there.

>>14041390
>building a car out of a kit of parts that is intended to be built as a car and called a kit car

>>14042840
go on the us caterham website and find your nearest dealer.
there's about a dozen in the states

>>14042871
$40-80k*

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>>14041390
They are retardedly expensive just for the kit here in the states. You pay for the Caterham name.

Gimmie a Factory 5 818 over it any day.

>>14042962
Caterham has a bunch of imitators in the UK.
In head to head tests it has always won.
You really do get what you pay for.

>>14042962
>Factory 5 818 over it any day.
This or Daytona coupe. that thing is gorgeous

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>>14042840
Tennessean here, keep reciepts. midlana dot com has a full build diary and the book contains full plans. there are several people building these on the midlana forum. they use miata uprights and steering rack. the car is also mid engine.

What kind of kit is it? whats included?

does it come with engine and trans?
do you need to fab everything, or do you just assemble things, and source some components yourself, like wheels/tires?

>>14043603
From their US site:
>The Seven 280 is supplied as standard in component form for self assembly, complete to your chosen specification with all the parts you'll need to get your car on the road. Your engine and gearbox will be available as a seperate package.

Basically they provide everything and you can pay more for partial assembly. You can do total assembly yourself. In the US you can get it assembled up to a rolling chassis without the engine or transmission installed. If you don't want to finish it yourself you can have a third party shop install the engine. My understanding is that is the UK the car can be purchased fully assembled from Caterham themselves. Though UK seems to be very friendly to kit built cars.

Cheapest US kit is around $34k.

>>14042840
>>14043842
Birkin makes a really nice lotus 7 kit for the USA. Much cheaper than Caterham.

>>14041390
fuck off Peter

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>>14041390

Do it only if you do this immediately.
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=s4AbGzWoG3o

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>>14042990
It is what I want most in this world

>>14042972
Because caterham cars aren't affordable to many and there are a lot of low cost (hence the name Locost) builds out there that will give pretty much the same experience excluding build quality

>>14045773
yeah and they're shit mate

>>14045846
They're as good as the people making them.

Got zero knowledge on how to actually set up suspension? Of course they're going to be shit what do you expect

>>14041390
The kit starts at $70k AU.

Lel, you can just import a Corvette for that much.

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>>14042962
>Factory 5 818
jizzinmypants.jpg

>>14042784

This has to be Australian shitposting. I build a Factory five in about three years without an donor 'stang.

http://exomotive.com/exocet/

Poor mans Atom. Depending on how much work you do yourself you could be in this for less than $10-12k. Flyin Miata will build out a roller, including sourcing the donor, for around $16k..

http://youtu.be/Vzo_st9_VIc

>>14047180
That thing looks nose heavy as fuck.

>>14047180
That looks god awful

>>14042962
>Factory 5 818

This is basically the car that the BRZ/FR-S was supposed to be.

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>>14047670
Yes and no. It has the chassis dynamics and the looks down pat. The problem comes to the practical stuff.
The 818 is a mid-engined 2 seater. The Toyobaru triplets are FR 2+2's, with a rear seat, basically for insurance reasons, and a usable trunk. The 818 lacks the seats and storage space to be called what the BRZ/FR-S/GT86 was supposed to me.
Everything else though is spot on, and as far as kit cars go, the 818 is surprisingly practical, in that it actually HAS a trunk.

The only thing I don't like about the 818 is the new ultra aggressive front end. The new headlights are a big improvement though

someone please post the madman who built a canvas covered racekar

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>>14044092

Mah nigga

One of these with dat 5.0 is my someday dream car

>>14048288
The other thing is the 818, fully completed, is cheaper, more powerful, and lighter than the Toyobaru's.

FRS/BRZ: $25k new
fully completed 818 (including 2002-2007 Subaru Impreza WRX parts car): $15-20k.

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>>14048316

And its actually obtainable

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>>14048288
Interior looks great too, especially for a kit car.
Pic is the roadster, which lacks side windows, and the soft top is an optional extra.

>>14042962
>>14046199
>>14048288
>>14048339
WHY HASN'T /o/ PROCLAIMED THIS THING THE GOD-MACHINE YET?!

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I really wish 356 kits weren't so damn expensive or unobtainable in Australia. Damn thing is pretty much my dream car.

>>14043842
>Though UK seems to be very friendly to kit built cars.

UK car law has special loopholes for homebuilt and limited production (<1000 per annum) cars that let them ignore most safety and emission regulations. They're really, really hard to insure however

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I switched my major back to mechanical engineering so I can hopefully work for Factory 5 one day. I love the new 818 and the Daytona Coupe. I really want to get involved in their designs and implement my ideas.

I know if I work as an automotive engineer for a major car company like Ford or Toyota then my voice will be unheard and I'd just get keked by bean counters.

That is my dream.

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>>14041390
it depends on your skill level for a start. the caterham is just a copy of a lotus 7. just built under licence they are built all over the place under various names the one in australia / nz is FRASER. normally if you starty from nothing with a build manual in your hands you will have the car built in no time. you can get them in 3 stages:
1. bare chassis and body. the rest you do yourself by just following the manual. the hard parts are just mounting parts as most of your main holes are usually pre-drilled follow the builders manual and you cant go wrong.
2. rolling shell. just choose an engine the caterhams normally use the 2 litre ford zetec found in the ford mondeo. but lots of other engines have been used in these things like the toyota 4AGE
3. complete turn key car costs about 30-40,000
if you budget stretches that far. will be 100% road legal.

BTW the usa has now helped out kit car builders, you can now buy turn key cars and be fully legal. instead of most people having to finish the cars themselves to make them legal yes this rule has only come into force in the last month?

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>>14048651
I fucking agree m8. such a great expression of a sports car

>>14048710
NZ has just as many kit car manufacturers >>14048651
>>14048766
no their not. you have been looking in the wrong place. there is guy in nz who does the 356 speedster/550 porsche replicas in nz they dont do the hard tops. plonks on a shortened? bug floorplan

>>14048793
From what I understand (Scotfag) New Zealand is basically Scotland with less pakis and better weather

I really want to visit

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>>14048793
I mean if I were to get one though, I would just save up for a real 356

>>14048762
So that means Frasers are about a third of the price of Caterhams.
Is there a difference in performance or build difficulty?

For someone who's never built anything close to the complexity of a car before, is a full build reasonable or would I be better just putting in the engine?

>>14048793
Care to give some links to the manufacturers? I can't find shit with google tonight.

>>14048339

still doesnt look great, interiors are what put me off most about kit cars, they look great on the outside and absolute trash on the inside

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>>14048914
That's a bad example, but it's better than most due to the vinyl wrapped interior pieces, like the dashboard. It's plain looking, but far from ugly and far from looking like shit quality.

>>14048356
Most of /o/ doesn't have the combination of workshop space, tools, money, and time needed to build a kit car.

I'm also iffy on kit cars from a safety standpoint. As much as I'd like cars less burdened with heavy safety equipment, kit cars tend to go the opposite direction. I live in the middle of NJ suburbs full of oblivious texting soccer moms in giant SUVs and self important jackasses in luxury cars that feel traffic laws don't apply to them. Realistically most of these are weekend/track cars, but I can't yet justify spending that much on my weekend toy.

>>14049313
I used to know a guy that had a Caterham he built as his only car

He worked in an office and walked to work, so I suppose it can work as a main transport

>>14048914
Truth here. I've always wanted certain replica cars and then I see the interiors, and its like... sheet aluminum with 4 holes for gauges and 2 milk crates t sit on. I'm not expecting an Audi interior or anything but goddamn.

>>14049313
Factory Five develops a unique chassis for each of their cars, complete with proper crumple-zones. You get what you pay for.
A lot of Factory Five cars are raced (You can even order cars specifically to compete in one make races), so safety is a big issue.

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I'm kinda keen on building one of those RS200 replicas based on the Toyota MR2 Spyder. Seems inexpensive and easy enough for my first project of this type. Plus the mechanical bits can all remain stock and the passenger cabin and frame structure all remain stock so safety wouldn't be an issue. I'm generally not keen on replicas over unique kit cars, but the RS200 is so rare this would be a way of having one I wouldn't be afraid to drive. Plus it can be a reliable daily driver, and a decent platform to race as well. I love the idea of both commuting in this thing, and ripping it up in rallycross events.

>>14049318
>He worked in an office and walked to work, so I suppose it can work as a main transport
Practicality wise one would be plenty usable for me. I don't exactly live close enough to walk to work. I could take a bicycle except for the fast roads and murderous drivers around my office.

>>14049342
Good point. One with the new hardtop would probably make for a decent daily.

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>>14041390
>http://www.dpcars.net/dp2.htm
Under "past" there is a westfield build
>https://web.archive.org/web/20140209215842/http://flyinmiata.com/westfield/build.php?UID=
flyin' miata building a kit before they started (and stopped) building turn key cars
Hopefully this helps fag.