One of the fundamental tenets of decision analysis is that a decision hasn’t been made until resources have been committed. Outside of my time writing up this blog, brainstorming, chatting with people, and research, no resources had yet been committed – this project was effectively just an idea.
Well last Friday that all changed – I plunked down a deposit on a Caterham. I’m purchasing it through Kapeña Motors – Rich has been pretty helpful so far and I think he’ll be a great resource once I start building the car.
This isn’t a cheap project mind you. I’ve decided to purchase everything through Caterham, including an engine and transmission. I don’t plan on using them – I plan on selling them. When one buys them through Caterham along with the chassis you get a great deal – I should be able to nab a nice profit on them. Still though, this is a pretty significant outlay – nearly $47k.
It’s a completely reasonable criticism that this is a bit of a waste – I could easily buy a used car and do the swap. I’m choosing not to do this for the simple reason that I want to assemble the car from the ground up in order to learn more about the manufacturing and design of these cars. I suppose I could disassemble and reassemble a car though.
Most of the new cars sans engine/trans are even more than what I’m paying for the whole package – apparently Caterham’s US distribution channel has changed quite a bit, so now it’s much less expensive to get into a car.
Well, onto the specifics! It’s a Caterham 280 in red with the R-pack (Engine – 1.6 liter Ford, LSD, racing seats + belts, sport suspension, quick release steering wheel, carbon fiber dash, upgraded brake master, black pack – cosmetics, light weight flywheel, and some other bits and bobs), 6 speed gearbox, and 13″ racing wheels.
Currently I’m waiting to hear from Caterham if I can get some CAD files of the chassis. I’m not overly optimistic – that seems like it would be quite generous, but the worst answer I’ll get is no. If I do get them I’ll be able to start the design much earlier which would help.
Next up – I need to figure out what exactly I want this car to do – this will help me pick out overall battery and motor specs.