Caterham Academy 2004

Back in March (the 22nd) was when I actually placed my order with Caterham Midlands. Here's my completed order form so you can see my options. Notice the request for black nose cone and wings which isn't standard and a delivery date requested for June! Little did I know that this would be slightly wide of the mark....

Just over a week later I got my order confirmation from the factory, but unfortunately they were now quoting delivery late July, so I chased Caterham Midlands on the date. I then got a letter from Caterham saying the deliveries wouldn't start until September as they wanted to produce all the 2004 Academy cars in one go. Caterham Midlands confirmed the new date a couple of days later. This meant an extremely long wait through June and July with delivery seeming a very long way away.

On 16th June (as it turns out, just under 3 months before delivery) I got the request for the second deposit. I also requested a copy of the build manual in advance which Caterham Midlands kindly sent to me. It let me find out what I was going to be letting myself in for!

I tried to get a firmer delivery date during July but was unable to tie it down any more than 'the middle of September'. Following some advice from a 2003 competitor I emailed the factory at the beginning of August and they came back with a delivery date of the week ending 12th September.

Then I got the final documentation through on August 12th, including a request for full payment and a pro forma invoice with the (very) detailed breakdown of the spec. I need to ring the factory approximately two weeks prior to delivery to arrange the actual date.