supersportsp

Sold at $40k. Wow. I am surprised it got this high. By looking at the bidding, it appears it didn't hit reserve until close to the final selling price.

What would concern me about this car is the fact that it has had a pretty active life so far. Of the 2800 miles on the car, 1766 of those came in the Thunder Hill 25 race, plus you figure in practice, set-up etc. probably closer to 1900 miles just from that race alone. Your pretty much buying a race car here and its current spec indicates it has been continued to be run hard. I love the spec, I just wonder about rebuild needs on the motor and other wearables. A 25 hour endurance race is no small feat.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v715/tgodbout/LakeStevensCar1.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v715/tgodbout/LakeStevensCar2.jpg I think this car would be far superior. More expensive, but more modern and there is no issues of dry rot or aging. People forget how expensive it can be to get a car that has sat for a long time road worthy. This is an extreme example, but I know of a gentlman who spent $50k getting an F-40 (he paid $325k for it at the time) with 120 miles on it road worthy after it had basically sat for 15 years. The car up in Lake Stevens is a stunner in the flesh. You could eat off any surface. I was afraid to sit in it. http://www.usa7s.com/aspnetforum/Default.aspx?g=posts&t=2745

It has been on the Seattle Craigslist and on eBay before. Didn't make reserve about two weeks ago. I think he was asking over $20k on Craigslist if I remember correctly. The car just further North posted here is a much, much better deal.

Oh, I have dirty thoughts of having a Se7en and living in Bozeman. Sunday am jaunts to Big Sky, post work rips up to Hyalite...

So, I went and looked at this car today. If for one glaring omission from my own questioning (and from the ad) I would have bought it on the spot today. First the omission. I was expecting due to the build date that this car was a deDion. It is a live axle car, which for this vintage seems to be extremely rare here in the U.S. If I wanted a live axle car, I would get an original Lotus so I could potentially historic race it at some point. Anyway, on to the car. It is in absolutely perfect, fresh from the factory shape. I am not one to heap praise on cars and I am a serious nit picker, but this thing was as near flawless as I have ever seen. And clean, clean, clean, and even more clean on top of that. There was not a spec of dust on it, much less grease, dirt, or grime. The motor looked brand new, the insides of the rear wheels looked like they had just been waxed and there wasn't so much as a smear of road gunk on the bottom of the car. Bob and his son were both nice and easy to talk to. I can't recommend this car enough to anyone looking for a live axle/crossflow Caterham.

didn't hit reserve at $17k.

Yep. I have been watching this one myself. No such luck at $12k. It is at $16k right now and hasn't hit reserve. I know of way better cars for less money.

Having driven a fully race prepped S2, I can say your goal is a noble one. It was probably one of the best driving experiences of my life. I wish I would have had the money to buy that car at the time. It got shipped to the Netherlands I believe.

I have to agree with JohnCh here. This is not a reputation winning event for Deman USA by any stretch of the imagination. Commercial manufacturers are not supposed to have sellers regret. Why are you asking this group for pricing suggestions if you don't even know what it costs to build it?

Well, I have to agree with gjslutz, shiva is demonstrating a great deal of self control. I imagine this is extra difficult because of the international nature of the transaction. I would be looking to be made more than whole in this situation. You had a contract, money was transfered and you even rented a truck to go pick it up etc. I would think all of your money back, transaction costs covered and a big discount on a new SR27.

Went for $31,350. I didn't see when it hit reserve. It had been sitting at $25.5k for the last four days. From what I read about the BDR in this form, it has 170 hp. But, as Al noted, you could tune them to the moon if you were so inclined. With 300 hp not being unreasonable.

On the actual subject of SR27 pricing, I have this input. Make a sub $30k car with a normally aspirated engine. Turbos are great and all (I have a 92x Aero and GTI 1.8T in the household), but for driving pleasure, I find the N/A motor to be much more appealing. Driving a Se7en is a pretty involving process already. They are very quick, twitchy, cramped in the cockpit, generally requiring a good deal of concentration. The simplicity of not having to deal with turbo power drive-ability issues like lag, big power hits etc. is preferable to me in a car like this. I want a car with instant throttle response, smooth consistent power delivery etc. Lotus and Caterham have using this formula for 40+ years now. I would say it works.

DavidL, you ruined my scheming plans...damn you!!! And enjoy the car. It is in awfully nice shape. Get some new tires though, they were not. I think if I had fit in it without issue, I might have bucked up for the price. JohnCH and I went back and fourth about this for about a week.

Al, I am new here, but I looked very hard at the DeDion here in Seattle and drove it. I was prepared to buy it, but not at the price the seller was asking. I was banking that I could get him down to $23k if he sat on it for awhile. It was a very nice car, solidly built by the seller himself and drove/presented well. For someone looking for a classic Caterham it was right on the money. I wanted a Caterham, but I wanted something more like your car in the $30k or less range. Cycle fenders, 180+ hp motor, wide track etc. If I could have gotten the car probably at $24k, I would have pulled the trigger, but the owner wouldn't go down more than $500. Then I saw the guy from the Bay Area who posted on their local Caterham site looking for basically this exact car at that price. I knew it was only a matter of time before he found the one here. I think what you had was the perfect buyer for the perfect car. I was looking for a deal so I could update how I wanted, he wanted a DeDion Caterham for under $30k. If I could justify the greater expense, I would have been very interested in your car.