catherham

[sendmyusername]

Was reading tony fernandes selling F1 catherham.
Rumour has it, it's not just the race cars he is trying to sell.
Bit crap if catherham were finially getting some investment.

[rossybee]

Read someplace it was cos he struggled to spell "Catherham"

[sendmyusername]

If it was a real car company i would have managed !
:-p

[j2 lot]

Looking for £350m for Caterham cars & F1

[sendmyusername]

I thought the £350M was just for the F1 team, and that he was also looking for a buyer for the road cars too ?
He's definately trying to sell F1 team, but the road cars are just rumours at the moment

[j2 lot]

F1 team, Caterham Cars & the engineering arm- Caterham composites . Speculation that he may sell F1 team separately but for sale as a package.

[ryallm]

Worrying times for Caterham Cars. First we hear the joint venture with Renault/Alpine is off, now this. Wonder if the mid-engined car which was being co-developed with Alpine will ever see the light of day? They surely can't go on just building the 7 forever can they?

Mark

[David]

Shame if it damages the Caterham Cars. Turning a niche low volume sports car manufacturer into a multinational company was never going to work (even if it was just the name). By all accounts the marketing has been hyped well beyond what the product line can deliver. With the end of the R500 production last month and the failure of the 'track only' 620R to reach noise targets of most tracks, the future looks bleak. IMHO it'll be a management buy- out for Caterham cars and back to traditional market place and the profitable spares and secondhand sales - at least there's money to be made there.

[jason]

^ concur with David.

And not forgetting the fugly new bonnet badge - I hope the old'n comes back as an up yours to Tony. [my wants are simple ]

[ryallm]

Forgot about the Aero 7. That seems to have been a bit of a damp squib too sadly - I read they were going back to the drawing board with the design after overwhelmingly negative response to the concept's appearance. I really hope the mid engined car does go ahead - I really liked the idea, although perhaps now Zenos will be doing it better instead

[Scuffers]

how many times have Caterham tried to move on from the original 7 and totally messed up?

they tried the 21 (the Elise killed it) the CSR (total dog) and now the 620r (radical already there) - and that's just the ones they actually launched/built, there have been countless aborted projects.

the problem is they keep coming at this wrong, the 'me too' on low volume just does not work, you need to be there first with something radical (sorry) and new.

if your not, you need to take on something existing that's not longer being made but that you can generate demand for (the Elise S1 would fit this perfectly IMHO)

once you start to go up the price bracket, then it's going to get very hard as the potential market for this shrinks massively, here just aren't the customer numbers for £50+K toys there were even 10 years ago, and to date, Caterhams are 3 or 4th cars.

TVR were probably the last company in the low volume market that made semi-practical 1st/2nd cars and look what happened to them.

lastly, in this day and age of legislation, noise limits, EU5 emissions, it's just not easy like it used to be.

[Dominic]

if your not, you need to take on something existing that's not longer being made but that you can generate demand for (the Elise S1 would fit this perfectly IMHO)
.

Often thought that too. I guess lotus maybe won't allow it as it would potentially become too close a rival to some of their existing models.

[j2 lot]

I thought I was reading Sniff Petrol & was expecting pictures a crashed Caterham when I saw this :

http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topi ... n#topicTop

[Dominic]

I thought I was reading Sniff Petrol & was expecting pictures a crashed Caterham when I saw this :

http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topi ... n#topicTop

Some of the following PH comments are a good laugh. ...."coming to a crash barrier near you soon"

[j2 lot]

& a denial from Caterham all is normal according to the press release:

Despite press rumours to the contrary, Caterham Group is not for sale.

The reports circulating this weekend are factually incorrect.

It is, however, true that the Group is actively searching for additional investment as it seeks to fulfil ambitious plans to develop.

The shareholders of the Group, co-Chairmen Tony Fernandes and Datuk Kamarudin Meranun, remain wholly committed to the Caterham brand.

Fernandes confirmed: "The Caterham Group is not for sale. We love what we build and we are always looking for further investment. This is no different to how we started AirAsia. Yes, we are constantly challenging ourselves and making decisions on everything from the structure to projects within the Group. That is normal business. That does not mean we are selling."

Read more at http://www.caterhamf1.com/news/2014/cat ... ULIMxdA.99