Caterham.
Then again, the R500 is more expensive than the comparable Atom in the UK. I don't even think we can get the R500 here and I know our Atom is different.
The Morgan was definitely the coolest. By a looooooooong shot.
Best track car in the US has to be one of these:
Yup we can get R500 here.
93EXCivic wrote: Yup we can get R500 here.
Is it the same as the one over there, or is it like the Atom (different engine at least)?
Aren't Caterham's only sold as kits here? (Assembly costs $$$ once here).
Javelin wrote:93EXCivic wrote: Yup we can get R500 here.Is it the same as the one over there, or is it like the Atom (different engine at least)? Aren't Caterham's only sold as kits here? (Assembly costs $$$ once here).
I believe same engine but yes they are kits only.
http://www.uscaterham.com/showroom/R500.html
Holy mother of berkeley!!?!?!?!!!
$61,057 for the R500 kit without an engine or trans!
Javelin wrote: http://www.uscaterham.com/showroom/R500.html Holy mother of berkeley!!?!?!?!!! $61,057 for the R500 kit *without* an engine or trans!
Still if I had that money to spend on a fun car, I would buy one.
Really? If you had $80K (and let's be honest here, it would take another $19K to get a new engine, the sequential trans, and build the thing, easily) to blow on a track car it would still be that?
I mean, I can see building your own 7 clone/replica thing, or buying a Z06, or a used 911 Turbo / GT3 / GT2, or a used Ferrari, but $80K on this is just unreasonable.
In reply to Javelin:
Yup. Having ridden in the old Caterham R500 (which was slower then the current one), there is no way anything else would do for that price.
Atoms are now the same on both sides of the pond. The US-spec Ecotec Atoms are an evolutionary dead end. When TMI started making the Atom 3 (which looks exactly the same), the US and UK versions were brought together. Although I don't believe the supercharged version is available in the US right now.
The R500 is the big daddy of the Caterham line. So yes, it's the most expensive. Pick up an R300 and you'll have just as much fun while saving $19k. But note that the pricing says that you need to provide a "bare 2.0 and transmission". Is this a core charge, perhaps? Duratecs are pretty cheap as crate motors.
Base price on a US Atom is $52k as well. In the UK, looks like the Atom is cheaper - the 300 is £34k, the Caterham R500 is £41k. The Caterham R400 is £33k, which puts it on a par with the Atom.
Who here has every been in an atom? I got to enjoy being driven around VIR at full speed with there test driver and god it was a blast.
But for the money you could build a Factory 5 GTM or cobra if you where careful where you sourced your parts and assembled it your self
Hey, X-Bow, Predator called and he wants his child back.
Caleb wrote: Who here has every been in an atom? I got to enjoy being driven around VIR at full speed with there test driver and god it was a blast. But for the money you could build a Factory 5 GTM or cobra if you where careful where you sourced your parts and assembled it your self
I got a chance to drive a 220 hp Honda-powered one a few years back. Being able to see through the frame to position the right front wheel is pretty cool. The car turns in like a demon with a low polar moment and a low wheelbase/track ratio - but never really takes a set in a long turn. It wouldn't settle down. Otherwise, the shifter was so vague as to be useless and the resonance from the intake when the cam went into VTEC was actually painful as it tried to turn your brain to mush. The latter two probably aren't issues on the Ecotec cars.
A look into the Atom history explains it. They're a drama car, a show car that got into production and Jeremy Clarkson catapulted into fame. But they're not racers and not developed as track cars. The Caterham and the FF have decades of wheel-to-wheel competition behind them, and they've been honed for years to make them more effective.
Javelin wrote: Caterham. Then again, the R500 is more expensive than the comparable Atom in the UK. I don't even think we can get the R500 here and I know our Atom is different. The Morgan was *definitely* the coolest. By a looooooooong shot. Best track car in the US has to be one of these:
Gotta ask where you found that picture....
In reply to Spinout007:
Google Image Search, but I know it just links back to GRM somewhere 
hopefully this works:) maybe.....
Those things were amazing to watch.....but there was this FC Rx7 there that was pretty amazing in it's own right....only issue was that it was only on track when I was out there trying to chase it.....
Morgan--for the sound!
R500. I need to build a locost...
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