Caterham 310 R SV Build Blog

Hello! This build blog follows my journey building a Caterham 310 R SV.

Navigation is by choosing relevant section at the top (or clicking menu in the top right if you are on a mobile device).

The blog is designed to be followed in order, so ignore any dates you see on posts. My order deviates significantly from the build manual. More information on the about page. A full tool list and car spec is given, along with a section detailing disagreements I had with the manual.

I am a total amateur, although I made many mistakes I have edited the blog so it contains the final steps I took at each stage. I had no remediation required in my post build check.

Now for the bad news – two years after starting this blog and after spending many hours making it, you can no longer buy the 270 or 310 from Caterham! (Thanks to GS for the tip on this). The 1.6L Ford Sigma engines have gone out of production. 270 and 310 models have disappeared from their website, as well as the Super Seven 1600. The 360 and 420 models, which use the 2.0L Duratec engine are still available in kit form – these are faster than the 310. If you build one of these I recommend the excellent 420detailedbuildblog or purplemeanie, some parts of this blog will still be relevant, but the engine is of course different. One day I might do a 420! You do have the monster 620, but Caterham don’t offer a kit for that – if they ever do, I would definitely have a go. They seem to have introduced a 170 which uses a 660cc Suzuki engine, again this blog will be slightly different. At least some people got benefit from this blog before Caterham discontinued the car!!

You can buy kits from Caterham, or from an approved dealership. I bought my kit from Williams Automobiles, a sports car dealership near Bristol in the UK, and I cannot praise them enough… if you want to do this yourself, give them a call and have a chat and take one for a test drive.

I don´t think I would have been able to build this properly without assistance from other blogs, particularly the 420 detailed build blog and cat310s. So if the authors ever read this – thank you!!

Another massive thank you is due to my mate Steve A, who a) did most of the work talking me into actually buying the car and b) helped me get the engine in. Wouldnt have been able to do it without you mate! Finally thanks to my wife and kids for tolerating me disappearing for long periods of time to work on the car.

Caterhams change over time, this build blog is following progress on my 310 R from delivery in December 2019 to final completion and PBC/IVA in November 2020.

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