GaryC

That (from an Elise owner) sums up the difference between the two, and is the reason I have a Westfield.

If you want to look good, carry the shopping, go away for the weekend...etc - the Elise is the one. If you want a raw track day/sunny weekend sports car the Westfield/Caterham is the one. The guy trying to sell me an Elise (main dealer) put me off when his main selling point was the fact he had just returned from the south of france for the weekend in one - "very much a mini-GT". I didn't want a mini GT

If you want best bang for the buck, the Westfield is the one. The £14k caterham mentioned above sounds OK, but for £10/12k you will get a 2 year old 330/350bhp per tonne (thats better than any current ferrari (except the Enzo) and matches the Diablo ) megablade (Bike-engined Westfield). Track wise, almost nothing will touch them, and if you can drive a car on the road, you can can drive one of these

Same money will *just* get you a very base Caterham. It will be slower, heavier, older technology, not sound as good, have a 4-speed (5 if you are lucky) gearbox...etc. You will only have hot-hatch PWR and be several years old. You will have the smug satisfaction that you have the so-called 'heritage' (Caterham bought the rights to the design, Westifield just copied and developed it). Me, I wanted the best car for the money. My £12k got me 330bhp/tonne, 6-speed steering wheel gearchange sequential gearbox, 12500 rev limit, screaming F1 soundtrack, full tillet race seats and harnesses, in-car intercom, LSD, handling/suspension set-up by a professional racing driver..... The equivalent caterham is well over £20k

The other thing that put me off the Elise was insurance. My Car (with twice the PWR of the Elise) costs £300 fully comp. The Elise was going to be £1200++ The handling on the Elise is fabulous, so fluid and sweet, but just not sports car enough, and even on a test drive, I get kept 'running out' of power...even in a 160

As for crash worthiness, the Elise will be better (although not the 'better than anything carbon fibre tub' someone claimed on here last month ) but you do see far more bent Elises at track days that caterfields! The cats/westies weigh so little (especially in bike engined form) that you can scrub speed off far easier and avoid hitting things. The only bumps I've seen in cats/westies have been very minor dings and just needed 'pocket change' repairs.

Best bet....drive both (or all three)...and several times. It's bloody good fun

Type R

I have time on my side so no major rush, doing the Elise test drives this week and next, and then try the Westie route, think your right about the Cat's. Drove a Megablade a couple of years ago, so might hunt a 2nd hand one down to test drive.

The main reason I like the Elise, is it does have a bit of practicality, my missus, needs space for a makeup box, which virtually would fill the boot of the Elise, let a lone fit in a Westie, so convincing Lou would be the hard part.

davyboy

You are discussing some cars I may be looking at in the summer, but right now, all I want is an E30 M3 to go with my 944 Turbo.

Have you considered one of them?

Type R

Thought about a 944, but I want an open top, never had one before, and Lou would leave me if I bought a Beemer.

GaryC

My Westie has more boot space than an Elise no roof/windscreen/doors...but more boot space

Type R

Really !!!

When I looked at one a few years ago didnt even think it had any.

GaryC

It's an option, some just have a hole, some have a larger fuel tank, some have a boot. It's the width of the car, c18" broad and c18"/2 feet deep. Big enough to keep 2 helmets, full car waterprooof cover, weekend bag, intercom headsets, two cans of tyre weld and two sets of waterproofs/gloves/hats in. Guy who built it had fit a weeks worth of clothes and full set of camping equipment in

It's also got a GIVI box plate (and the box!) on the boot lid which itself can also fit 2 helmets and 2 waterproofs in, so it probably got more boot space than Mrs Cs MINI

Toerag

Look at a caterham and a westfield side by side. The caterham is a girl's car, the westfield is a man's car. 'nuff said! PS. if you fancy it, you can put a rover V8 in a westfield quite easily and spin the wheels in any gear at any revs

catflap

lol