Jump to content
SAU Community

I Have Always Wanted To Build An Ultima Or Caterham

Roy

By Roy,
in Motorsport Discussion & Builds

 Share

Recommended Posts

Roy Grand Master

Roy

Posted
  • Author
Posted

I never sell anything :) So unless it gets stolen or written off it will be going into my personal museeum off what I once thought was cool.

I have purchased a few of those kit car magazines out of the UK trying to get an understanding of which cars are good, and which are rubbish. The Caterham appears to be the clear leader, with Westfield a distant second when it comes to the quality of the suspension, mostly rear end and brakes/handling etc. If someone with the relevant experience can point to another, cheaper kit then I would happily look at it. At the moment every 3-4 weeks I just search for an Academy car or R300 Race Car with a view of rebuilding it and putting Honda S200 running gear in it

tweety bird Grand Master

tweety bird

Posted
Posted

Caterham don't do kit cars in aus

With the new Ford powered models about to become available, Caterham decided to enter the Australian market in its own right as a manufacturer in 2006.

In former times, various importers had represented the brand in Australia, some building up kits supplied by Caterham from the UK and others bringing in factory built cars.

However, with Australian Design Rules (ADRs) becoming ever more strict and with the Australian Government discouraging "kit" cars, it has become extremely difficult to

register a car built from a "kit".Consequently, a decision was taken to only import factory built Caterhams that comply with Australian Design Rules.

It should be noted that the Australian cars are in fact based on European Type Approved cars and that none of the cars as sold under the SVA registration

system in the UK are eligible for ADR compliance.

http://www.caterhamc....au/release.php

Roy Grand Master

Roy

Posted
  • Author
Posted

But your sister can buy you a kit in the UK and send it over for Xmas. The Aus dealer is a criminal and the costing means its no surprise you dont see any locally. Though to be fair about the prices, there are probably reasons why they charge what they do, doesnt change the fact you would have to be pretty cashed up to pay for one from an Aussie dealer

samstain Enthusiast

samstain

Posted
Posted (edited)

There are a few people on a clubbie forum I'm on that have imported and are in the process of registering clubmans from the UK, however they are ones they built/owned over there before coming out here, and they are doing it because they are 'attached' to it, not to save money

I you want to get one here and are worried about the price the cheapest way is to just buy a used local one that is already registered, if you really want to build one, as silly as it sounds the best way is again to buy a finished & complied one, pull it apart and then put it back together. Recently in NSW itt has been virtually impossible to get one registered, but apparently its all about to change, the other states aren't as bad.

I very nearly bought a Ultra Car a couple years back, but we were about to start a family and didn't have the time or room to build it, so ended up with a registered SR20DET Puma. I just wish I had the time to drive it more. Although the power is crazy, and I'm yet to find a car that will beat it in a straight line... I sometimes wish it was a NA as the way it delivers its power doesn't always make it fun (or even possible) to drive to its limits.

Edited by samstain
The_Seth Apprentice

The_Seth

Posted
Posted

Or if your willing to get something a bit more local you could have a look at these websites:

http://www.prbaustralia.com.au/ (these guys even run their own race series)

http://www.birkin.com.au/birkin-kits-and-pricing.php (these guys have put together two very nice packages)

http://www.strykercars.com/sports-kit-cars-specifications.php (offer multiple production stages to buy from eg: Starter Body/Chassis Kit to Turn Key)

http://www.arrowsportscars.com.au/products.htm (good starter prices)

There are many options open to you.

djr81 Grand Master

djr81

Posted
Posted

Last time I looked you could register it as an Individually Constructed Vehicles. Depends on the state, but in Vic you just get your VASS engineer to sign it off

The Birkins are pharken nice. There is a yellow one over this way (You may also have seen it at the Aus Super sprint championships)that goes well hard on the track. Worth looking at especially with all the carbon bling you can get on them.

  • 1 month later...

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
 Share
Go to topic listing


  • Similar Content

  • Latest Posts

    • 04-LOOX
      R34 GTR Vspec Garage Sale - All must go!

      By 04-LOOX · Posted

      Hi, is the HKS  Tower Bar still available ? negotiable ? 🤔
    • Duncan
      Duncan's V37.......race car?

      By Duncan · Posted

      From there, it is really just test and assemble. Plug the adapter cables from the unit into the back of the screen, then the other side to the car harness. Don't forget all the other plugs too! Run the cables behind the unit and screw it back into place (4 screws) and you should now have 3 cables to run from the top screen to the android unit. I ran them along the DS of the other AV units in the gap between their backets and the console, and used some corrugated tubing on the sharp edges of the bracket so the wires were safe. Plug the centre console and lower screen in temporarily and turn the car to ACC, the AV should fire up as normal. Hold the back button for 3 sec and Android should appear on the top screen. You need to set the input to Aux for audio (more on that later). I put the unit under the AC duct in the centre console, with the wifi antenna on top of the AC duct near the shifter, the bluetooth antenna on the AC duct under the centre console The GPS unit on top of the DS to AC duct; they all seem to work OK there are are out of the way. Neat cable routing is a pain. For the drive recorder I mounted it near the rear view mirror and run the cable in the headlining, across the a pillar and then down the inside of the a pillar seal to the DS lower dash. From there it goes across and to one USB input for the unit. The second USB input is attached to the ECUtec OBD dongle and the 3rd goes to the USB bulkhead connected I added in the centre console. This is how the centre console looks "tidied" up Note I didn't install the provided speaker, didn't use the 2.5mm IPod in line or the piggyback loom for the Ipod or change any DIP switches; they seem to only be required if you need to use the Ipod input rather than the AUX input. That's it, install done, I'll follow up with a separate post on how the unit works, but in summary it retains all factory functions and inputs (so I still use my phone to the car for calls), reverse still works like factory etc.
    • Duncan
      Duncan's V37.......race car?

      By Duncan · Posted

      Place the new daughterboard in the case and mount it using the 3 small black rivets provided, and reconnect the 3 factory ribbon cables to the new board Then, use the 3 piggyback cables from the daughterboard into the factory board on top (there are stand offs in the case to keep them apart. and remember to reconnect the antenna and rear cover fan wires. 1 screw to hold the motherboard in place. Before closing the case, make a hole in the sticker covering a hole in the case and run the cable for the android unit into the plug there. The video forgot this step, so did I, so will you probably. Then redo the 4 screws on back, 2 each top and bottom, 3 each side and put the 2 brackets back on.....all ready to go and not that tricky really.      
    • Duncan
      Duncan's V37.......race car?

      By Duncan · Posted

      Onto the android unit. You need to remove the top screen because there is a daughterboard to put inside the case. Each side vent pops out from clips; start at the bottom and carefully remove upwards (use a trim remover tool to avoid breaking anything). Then the lower screen and controls come out, 4 screws, a couple of clips (including 3 flimsy ones at the top) and 3 plugs on the rear. Then the upper screen, 4 screws and a bunch of plugs and she is out. From there, remove the mounting brackets (2 screws each), 4 screws on the rear, 2 screws top and bottom and 3 screws holding in the small plates on each side. When you remove the back cover (tight fit), watch out for the power cable for the fan, I removed it so I could put the back aside. The mainboard is held in by 1 screw in the middle, 1 aerial at the top and 3 ribbon cables. If you've ever done any laptop stuff the ribbon cables are OK to work with, just pop up the retainer and they slide out. If you are not familiar just grab a 12 year old from an iphone factory, they will know how it works The case should now look like this:
    • Duncan
      Duncan's V37.......race car?

      By Duncan · Posted

      Switching the console was tricky. First there were 6 screws to remove, and also the little adapter loom and its screws had to come out. Also don't forget to remove the 2 screws holding the central locking receiver. Then there are 4 clips on either side....these were very tight in this case and needed careful persuading with a long flat screw driver....some force required but not enough to break them...this was probably the fiddliest part of the whole job. In my case I needed both the wiring loom and the central locking receiver module to swap across to the new one. That was it for the console, so "assembly is the reverse of disassembly"
×
×
  • Create New...