Hired one for the day a couple of years ago. For the day. Gave it back after 5 hours. End of the dream.

Clearly not for everyone and suggest you hired a very odd model if the idle speed was 2,000 rpm.

As I said before, I loved mine and did 30,000 miles in it but it was a more refined version than some variants. It was very comfortable, it was water tight, it had a good heater, it ran like a Ford Mondeo (which the engine was from I believe) but it was still very low, pretty quick and the handling was brilliant.

If I had the spare money I would be buying a Caterham 160/170 as I don’t need ridiculous speed – I just want the very low weight and driving experience.

Good to hear of more Caterham hire places. I did read that there is a new one in north wales in Llanbedrog has recently started.

For those that fancy hiring one to do the North Coast 500 there is a Highland Caterham Hire in Elgin.

Before buying, I did hire one a number of times: from a place over in York (no longer hires now, but had a Simga 1.6 125) Book-a-track (310r SV) when they where based at Donnington Park, Oakmere in Northwich a couple of times (270s S3 and 1600 Super Seven SV).
I loved em each time i drove one, but it was the wife that took more convincing.
the last one i hired before buying was a ford sigma engine 1600 “super seven” the more ‘retro styled’ version: i.e. it was available with either flared arches or much larger cycle wings around the front wheels. had a larger wood rimmed steering wheel, and had throttle bodies which resembled carbs (but still fuel injected)
And i’d say, had i not driven others, i prob wouldnt have carried on looking for one: that particular one, had an engine map on it, so on a very light throttle, it over fuelled to produce pops from the exhaust… prob was, when your trundling through town, it’s just not happy, it’d be lumpy and lurch. We’d driven over to Haworth to stay the night before head off towards settle the next day, and on heading out the next morning, it was a bit chilly, the car is already on choke: and there was some light controlled road works, and the car cut out while travelling through as the over fuelling flooded the engine. thankfully, i was going downhill so it bumped restarted. The steering wheel rim was that thin, that it was just uncomfortable .to hold after a while. All day we where just stuck behind traffic trundling along at 40mph along A Roads. Wife was like “why on earth do you want one?”

The one i eneded up buying: 1.8K series, SV – it’s such a contrast to that “super seven” The Suspension is a lot better, and more comfortable over bumps, the engine is far more benign when in town traffic: it’ll happily trundle through town in traffic. It doesnt have a daft map to make it pop and bang, just a nice bumble when warm. Steering wheel is a momo QR wheel, thick leather rim, much more comfortable to hold. Previous owner used to tour europe in it, and it’s still a really comfortable place to sit for hours. Have done a number of runs with the local group of the caterham club, where i’m leaving home early morning and getting back 8-10hrs later having driven around 200miles

ps: agree – if it was idling at 2k rpm, then there was something wrong. They are usually fairly normal road car engines (with the exception of a lighten flywheel in the more track orientated “R” specs) in the hire cars, so should be idling around 900rpm like a normal car. Tho with the complete lack of sound deadening and (at least on the current ford engines) the exhaust exiting right by the driver’s hip, they do sound much louder even at idle.

Caterhams (and all kit cars really) can be set up in many different ways, road ,track and everything in between.

The main thing that changes the character of the car is the dampers and springs, if you have a car with the standard factory dampers/springs that will be pretty good on the road, riding quite softly and taking pot holes quite well. If you swap to the dampers/springs that they fit to the cars used in the race series then you will lose a lot of the good road manners, the car will be exceptionally firm – but amazing on track, as long as the suspension geo is set up for your preferred choice of tyres.

After dampers, things like roll cages and straight cut gearboxes reduce suitability for road use further still, but it does depend on your mind set as to whether this is a problem.

I used to do loads of track days in mine, so its pretty much set up as a track car, with a full roll cage, bilstein M1 Dampers, straight cut gearbox, no heater (still got full weather gear though;-)), suspension geo set for running slicks, so its pretty hardcore/full on, but I still used to drive it to and from the track, going all over the country in it.

Would love to have a crack at the NC500 in something sporty!

NC 500 is not the place to “have a crack” in a fast car. Lots of single track roads and a lot of traffic. I could tell you some roads / pick a route round the highlands that is much more appropriate 😉