2002 Model range feedback and info page!
Now replacing the Superlight and
Superlight R, the R300 and R400 are here!!
Both “new
cars” are in fact just re-jigs of the 2001 Superlight and R models, containing
no significant new developments. Both R300 and R400 sport the R500’s magnesium
roller barrel throttle bodies, although you pay for this on the R300 because
you lose your carbon nose and rear wings and sadly the LSD too. From where I’m
standing (and this is totally personal and remember you can spec your way
around it) the Superlight 1.6 was actually a “better balanced” package for its
money – an equal spec R300 will be a slightly more expensive car than the SL.
The R400
replaces SLR. The R400 idea is much better than the old system of ordering a
Superlight then adding the VHPD engine pack to make it an “R”. Adding £6000 to
the cost of your Superlight “just for more power” seemed a giant amount of
money! Now, you pay £27700 for the R400 and it comes complete with everything
SLR purchasers were ordering anyway- Stack dash, Dry Sump etc. The only point
to consider is that the R400 offsets the cost of the roller barrel throttles
against the 13” magnesium wheels the SLR used to have, eschewing them in favour
of the 15” light alloys as per R300. This makes the R400 a slightly more
expensive car than the SLR when purchased at equal spec.
Specs:
R300 £20700
1.8 litre 165bhp K-Series power unit
15" Alloy wheels with Avon CR500 tyres
Anti-cavitation oil system
Carbon front wings
R400 £27700
1.8 litre 200bhp K-Series power unit
15" Alloy wheels with Avon CR500 tyres
Carbon pack including nose, wings and wing protectors
Stack instrumentation
Limited slip differential
Carbon nose and wings
Engine Differences
Xpower is the official new name of the K series –
and Caterham have taken the opportunity to embrace this change. The new engine
are certainly not just rebadged K series as originally thought : definitely
they have some detail changes to note.
Firstly, as mentioned several times they are now
equipped with the Caterham roller barrel throttles. This is a definite move
forwards because they are superb and it means that you don’t have to buy
throttle bodies later. To compliment the new induction setup the engines have
all new ECU systems with different programs. This has to be good news too,
although as with the previous EU3 K series loom, the new Xpower loom won’t be
plug compatible with the vast majority of aftermarket ECU’s. I imagine this is
very bad news for any tuning company that started development work on an ECU
for the K EU3 as there will now not be so many of these! It is not yet clear
who is making the new ECU but I have a very strong suspicion that it will be
MBE, who are responsible for the R500 management.
The exhausts on the R300 and R400 are the same as on
the R500 – 4 into 1, race type systems. This again reduces the Caterham parts
bin and improves top end performance, at the expense of a touch of midrange
power.
The internals of the engines appear the same as the
K although we know that the main bearings have been upgraded to indium ones.
These are apparently inferior to the R500’s but certainly better than the tin
standard ones in the K series 1.6 and 1.8 that was.
Notes:
Remember that you’ve still got paint at £1200 for
metallic (this used to be £1100), windscreen if you want it etc….
Despite the Caterham site showing the steering lock
as 1.93 turns lock to lock on all the “R’s” you’ve actually still got to pay an
extra £60 for the 22% rack and black powder coating is now standard on the
INTERIOR of the car but you’ve still to pay £300 if you want the engine bay
doing black too. Uprated master cylinder is still £80 .
The “R’s” come with a new, R500 style carbon wind
deflector that has a sort of windscreen style mounting plinth – this means you
could swap to a full screen in 20 mins on the same mounting bolts if you needed
extra protection for a long journey. Obviously you won’t have wipers but you
can’t have everything!
Conclusion
Overall, I would say that the R300 and R400 are a
master stroke for Caterham. They successfully improve the specs of the standard
performance models offered and reduce the need for the customer to tinker with
the basic spec’s to improve performance. In addition, the amount of change is
kept to a level where existing customers are not upset and the value of their
existing cars is kept in tact.
To illustrate this point, I am quite happy to keep
my order for the SLR even though I could have changed it to an R400. The
reasons are that it would have cost more for the R400 and I will get the very
last ever SLR off the production line! The differences are so minimal (I
specced the bits on my SLR that the R400 has anyway) that there is no point.