'96 Caterham on eBay

[supersportsp]

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Extraordinary-1996-Lotus-7-Caterham_W0QQitemZ300322067402QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUS_Cars_Trucks?hash=item45ec9713ca&_trksid=p4506.c0.m245&_trkparms=65%3A7|39%3A1|240%3A1318

 

No affiliation, but l have been aware of the car for about two months now and exchanged info with the owner. Don't know about the "The engine alone costs $18,000." statement. It better be god's own cross-flow for that kind of money.

 

The bidding seems suspicious as well, starting at $28.5k and immediately getting a bid, then another for $100 more. The guy has been asking $29k for it for quite some time and didn't get any action from the Lotus sites I saw it on, so why are two different folks suddenly so interested at $28.5k?

[scannon]

Wow, 166 hp for only $18k? Somebody got bent over. Maybe the $18k is the cumulative amount spent on the engine since it left the factory during its probable tour as a FF engine.

 

It now has a second bid.

[Kitcat]

An honest 166 hp from a Crossflow is pretty decent. Mine makes 93hp. BBall mentioned his made 115hp with the 244 cam.As we have seen elsewhere on this site, even Zetecs advertised as 210 hp are dynoed at 145 hp etc. So, it looks like a special engine in a run-of-the-mill mid 90's Cat.

[Ian7]

Without going in to the price aspect, Ted Wenz makes some of the finest race engines on the east coast, but I'm not sure its the smartest thing to put in a street seven, unless you're prepared to maintain it as frequently as it needs and deserves.

I'd bet the only way they got 166hp at (only) 7000 rpm is with 45dcoe webers, so it probably doesn't run well at low revs, and wont idle below 3000 :-)

bet its a blast once its going though....

[supersportsp]

So, this supposedly sold for $33.1k. Besides the odd bidding, I find it amazing that he was able to get well over $3k more than he had been asking on some of the Lotus sites for the car simply by putting it on eBay. Sure, eBay exposes you to a lot of folks who might not be on LotusTalk.com, but with these cars it isn't like someone wouldn't know to look on one of the Lotus sites for one anyway. This car had been on LotusTalk.com and others for over 2 months with no buyer at $29.5k.

[thegoat]

I ended up selling my Exige for more than I had it listed on lotustalk.com and craiglist by putting it up on eBay. It fetched more than I expected to get for it in the best case scenario - but only a few hundred more. I was surprised, but rarer cars sometimes need the increased exposure.