Try googling "My Caterham" I think that site has really good pictures of the Caterham chassis.
Caterham, by the way, bronze welds their chassis using a machine controlled gas welding process.
Wayne
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| Caterham vs Locost Frame http://locostusa.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=39&t=5884 |
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| Author: | twnpipe [ January 5, 2009, 6:21 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Caterham vs Locost Frame |
I'm doing my due diligence and have copies of many frames but still unclear on the major difference between a $1000 frame and the frame on the $ 60,000 caterham's. Does anyone have pictures of the Caterham's for a side by side comparison? The caterham is smaller and lighter and has evolved since the 60's and generally has been strengthed over that time. 1 x 1 sq. tubing on the Locost and MIG or TIG welding and cross bracing often of same material, what's the Caterham? Haynes and Tanner's books, have good pictures of the Locost. Probably missed this someplace in the forum's but tried. thank you |
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| Author: | KB58 [ January 5, 2009, 6:38 pm ] |
| Post subject: | |
I can't answer your direct question, but comparing a "$1000 frame" to a Caterham $60,000 frame isn't a fair comparision on a dollar value. One is a frame built by you in a garage and the other is only one component in a $60,000 car. If price must be compared it must be against what Caterham would charge for just the frame, not the entire car. Regardless, if you start with the plans for the $1000 frame and use the stiffening mods that have been referenced on here, I bet it would be every bit as good as any frame sold by Caterham, or anyone else. |
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| Author: | Titus [ January 5, 2009, 8:18 pm ] |
| Post subject: | |
KB58 wrote: I can't answer your direct question, but comparing a "$1000 frame" to a Caterham $60,000 frame isn't a fair comparision on a dollar value. One is a frame built by you in a garage and the other is only one component in a $60,000 car. If price must be compared it must be against what Caterham would charge for just the frame, not the entire car.
Regardless, if you start with the plans for the $1000 frame and use the stiffening mods that have been referenced on here, I bet it would be every bit as good as any frame sold by Caterham, or anyone else. I am not sure what they would charge for just a frame, but the local Caterham dealer sells the base kit with everything but the engine and transmission for about $26k. |
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| Author: | SkinnyG [ January 5, 2009, 9:12 pm ] |
| Post subject: | |
A skinned Caterham frame is $11,000. http://www.rmsci.com/catalog.html |
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| Author: | twnpipe [ January 5, 2009, 10:28 pm ] |
| Post subject: | |
SkinnyG, so that's 11k plus shipping, ouch. What is the construction and weight comparison? KB58 The forum members are excellent on the sharing of improvements to the book chassis and allowing newbie's to follow along with their projects. Learning much more than the books provided. When I was at Buttonwillow Raceway it was just Caterham's out with the NASA group and I was wondering why no one else was out. |
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| Author: | elewayne [ January 5, 2009, 10:28 pm ] |
| Post subject: | |
Try googling "My Caterham" I think that site has really good pictures of the Caterham chassis. Caterham, by the way, bronze welds their chassis using a machine controlled gas welding process.
Wayne |
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| Author: | Jawfish [ January 5, 2009, 10:32 pm ] |
| Post subject: | |
I don't have a side to side comparison pictures, but there were a few comparisons on the Locostbuilders.co.uk forum, I would suggest doing a search and you'll get a few result. As for material, they are about the same 1*1 square tubing, but the caterham/Lotus use a round tubing as well. I know that some later Caterhams have an aluminum honeycomb floor. A locost frame is easier to built then a Caterham frame, so it's just normal that the frame will be cheaper, and actually a complete locost frame is more like 3000-3500 and there not even skinned. Look at ebay frames, they're not complete... You still need to finish the transmission tunnel, add the supension brackets, transmission mounts, motor mounts, clean it, paint it, and put on the aluminium... In the end the Locost, the Haynes and the caterham are 3 different looking cars with different specs and a different target market. You need to decide what is it you really want, and for what purpose. Also ask your self what kind of a build do you want, from designing every single bracket to just bolting the pieces together. Thats probably the biggest part of your due dilligence... and your right the members here will share their knowledge in improving the design. Cheers, Fred |
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| Author: | horizenjob [ January 5, 2009, 11:07 pm ] |
| Post subject: | |
You can download a Caterham frame example from the Google Sketchup site. One notable thing about it is that the driveshaft tunnel is better tied into the rest of the frame at the front and rear. Also the rear frame around the differential is a lot more complex. |
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| Author: | killernoodle [ January 6, 2009, 12:35 am ] |
| Post subject: | |
Complicated doesn't even begin to describe the rear end: 
For a big pic, http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9a/Caterham7spaceframe-rear.jpg |
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| Author: | killernoodle [ January 6, 2009, 12:41 am ] |
| Post subject: | |
Complicated doesn't even begin to describe the rear end: 
For a big pic, http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9a/Caterham7spaceframe-rear.jpg |
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| Author: | twnpipe [ January 6, 2009, 1:02 am ] |
| Post subject: | |
elewayne - thanks for the mycaterhaml.com site, great information. I find the British sense of humor so enjoyable - but what do they think of yanks? killerdoodle- that's what i was looking for but now am afraid to see more |
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| Author: | Blackbird [ January 6, 2009, 3:08 am ] |
| Post subject: | |
Here's a pic of the front half of that same car - http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/c ... -front.jpg Note that this is a specific model, the Caterham CSR. IIRC it is the only Caterham that has double wishbone suspension in the back and the only one with inboard shocks in the front. Moti |
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| Author: | davew [ January 6, 2009, 8:49 am ] |
| Post subject: | Catherham Vs Locost |
I believe that the new Caterham frames are now robotically MIG welded and that all the tubes are laser cut, within a .1mm including all the fishmouths. The Caterham is one of the very few clubman frames that has a creditable FEA analysis performed on it, which resulted in a design that has three different size tubes and 5 different gages. Most locost builders probably did not even buy two different size gages of tubes. I'm sure we could design an improved frame with the added diagonals, but we would be hard press to match the efficiency [ torsional/wt.] As stated above the $1000 Locost frames are only a 1/3 completed, it's not very time consuming to cut off straight tubes and welded them together, the real task is making all the brackets and other attachment hardware then correctly fixturing them. I would bet a lot of the builders that purchase a frame, find that out the hard way. Most builders will tell you a full frame takes some time, Dave W |
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| Author: | KB58 [ January 6, 2009, 10:19 am ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Catherham Vs Locost |
davew wrote: ...it's not very time consuming to cut off straight tubes and weld them together, the real task is making all the brackets and other attachment hardware then correctly fixturing them. I would bet a lot of the builders that purchase a frame, find that out the hard way.
Very true! 
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| Author: | Blackbird [ January 6, 2009, 1:27 pm ] |
| Post subject: | |
Davew nailed it. Moti |
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