Caliban Kit Cars - In love with the track

[Oskiinus]

Cool idea Comp! Are you basing this company on TVR perhaps with a bit of some british kit car manufacturer?

[Radster]

Caliban Thunder Infinity (2013 - 2017)

Punching above its weight!

The Caliban Thunder. The little one, as we like to call it. You might remember its classic counterpart, which was used to host a one make race. But times change, and so do cars; here’s our modern interpretation of our supermicrocar.

With a body made out of aluminium, on a space frame AHS steel chassis, and double wishbones at the front and multilinks at the rear, this car will provide you a smooth, responsive and agile driving and racing experience. Our advance safety system confers it the status of street legal; at the same time, our advanced manufacturing techniques allow us to cut the weight down to only 870kg. This allows the car to corner at 1.15Gs at 20m and 1.17Gs at 200m.

Let’s talk about power. Our 1.6 N/A inline 4, fitted with individual throttle bodies and mechanically linked to the throttle pedal, pushes 150hp at the wheels, through a 5 speed manual transmission. You’ll be launched from 0 to 62 mph in only 6.3 seconds, topping out at 130mph, making this the car of choice for twisty tracks.

But hey! You want to know the price, don’t you? Well, this kit car can be yours for only $13200. (30% markup). Start hitting the track this weekend!

[abg7]

The Thunder is an excellent trackday toy, and one that definitely looks the part, but it deserves a six-speed gearbox, so why did you go with five? Was it to reduce the weight even further? Also, would longer gearing (for less twisty tracks) provide any meaningful improvement in top speed? 130 mph is a bit on the low side in my opinion.

[Radster]

The 5 speed was chosen over a 6 speed for cost and weight concerns indeed. The 5 speed, which is also used in the Type SC, allows the car to reach 130mph with ratios that are close enough, so there’s no need to add the extra weight and cost of an additional gear. 130 mph is its absolute top speed with the 150hp engine, so there’s no need to have longer gearing.

[Radster]

Caliban Type SC Infinity (2016-Present).

The classic!

The Caliban Type SC Infinity is what we believe a sports car should be. Built on the classic space frame chassis, with our usual removal of all superfluous technology, and aggressive styling, you’ll be setting the fastest lap times on it. The styling given to the SC is a bit of a throwback mixed with modernity, and it was designed by no other than the guys at Cavallera! (One of their design schools designed the body for us).

Propelled by a 3.2L V8 (2x1.6L I4 put together, sharing a common crankshaft), naturally aspirated, its 360hp sent to the rear wheels will get you from 0 to 62 mph in only 3.5 seconds. If you nail the upshifts, that is, as the power is sent to the rear wheels through a 5 speed manual with a geared LSD. Its top speed is 265 km/h.

Our four wheel pushrod suspension design gives the car the finest driving dynamics, being able to corner at 1.16Gs (20m) and 1.16Gs (200m).

The kit with the parts necessary to build this car can be yours for only 28350$ (50% markup).

(Props to @ramthecowy for the design of the body!)

[squidhead]

This body is seeing more action than the non mclaren one. Nice to see all the different ways it can look.

[Radster]

Caliban Thunder Rev.1 (1946-1951). The beginning of a legend.

Commercial for the Caliban Thunder in the USA, circa 1946-1947. The Thunder kit could only be obtained outside the UK by third party import agents in the early years.

It all began in early 1946. Lord Mach I, founder of what would soon become Caliban Kit Cars, wealthy titleholder and expert in materials had returned home from fighting in WW2 as Germany surrendered. Lord Mach I was a fan of motorsports, attending races regularly before (and after) the war; however, he hated one aspect from motorsports, and that was its elitism. Usually confronted by having to invest large sums of money to get started, with no guarantee of getting it back, lots of talented drivers had to remain outside of the race tracks and grand prixes.

But Lord Mach wanted to change that. He had a mission in mind: build a sports car for people to compete, for the price of a regular car. Teaming up with two engineers and a designer, Lord Mach began to build the first prototype.

The final car.

The first kit was finally given green light to be sold in mid 1946. The all around steel tubular chassis, combined with four corner independent suspension made the Thunder a force to be reckoned with at the tracks.

The original Thunder also included the first iteration of the six cylinder Nightbringer engine. This first generation features a two valve per cylinder, direct overhead cam and all cast iron construction, with twin single barrel carburetors. Displacing 1.8L, the engine developed 80hp.

With a pricetag of only $760 in the USA, the legend had been born.

[Radster]

Caliban Type SC Rev. 1 (1949-1956). Breaking out the big guns.

Advertisement for the Type SC in the early 50s. The Type SC was a response to the American market wanting bigger and more powerful sports cars, and any kind of car really.

Towards the late 40s, the Thunder had become a good seller (speaking in kit car numbers) for the UK. However, it struggled in the other market Caliban was trying to compete in, the USA, as Americans wanted bigger and more powerful cars.

This forced Lord Mach 1 and his engineers to design a bigger kit car, with a bigger engine as well. The new project was codenamed SC (Sports Coupe), and it consisted of a longer and slightly wider Thunder, with the wheelbase increased from 2.3 metres to 2.7 metres. It still kept its all around double wishbone suspension and steel space frame construction.

The new powerplant powering the engine was the first generation of the Stormcast V8, specially developed for the Type SC. Displacing 3.2 liters, with direct acting overhead cams and all cast components, fed by twin single barrel carburetors, the first generation of the Stormcast developed a healthy for the time 152hp. Mated to a three speed manual, this was the first Caliban to complete the 0-62 sprint in less than 10 seconds, at 9.5 seconds.

The first Type SC kit was also the first car to be produced in the USA with external help, and was sold for $1120 in 1951.

[Radster]

Caliban Thunder Rev. 3 (1956 - 1971). The new style.

Advertisement for the 1957 Caliban Thunder.

With the short lived Caliban Thunder Rev. 2 (1952-1955) consisting in just minor styling changes with the same engine as the Rev. 1 losing its momentum, Lord Mach I knew the Thunder was long due for a replacement. To cement the Thunder’s reputation as the budget kit/sports car of choice, the new redesign reflected this by going smaller, getting a smaller engine and lower curb weight.

The 1.8 Nightbringer engine was replaced for the first generation of the 1.6 liter “Screamer”, an inline 4 that had lower costs to produce, was just as powerful and more fuel efficient. With 80hp put through their newest 4 speed manual gearbox, sent to the rear wheels, the Rev. 3 Caliban Thunder had agility for days, a claim backed by its four corner independent double wishbone suspension.

Mr Bean’s Thunder.

In 1990, as part of an agreement with John Howard Davies, Lady Mach III requested 3 exact replicas of the original Thunder to be provided to the producers for their character to drive during the different episodes of the show. The iconic greenish yellow, black bonneted Thunder soon became an icon of the 90s.

Mr Bean’s 1957 Caliban Thunder.

[Radster]

Caliban Type SC

Advertisement for the 1961 Caliban Type SC. It was Caliban’s first advertisement featuring a photography instead of a drawing.

The Caliban Type SC was, just like the Thunder Rev. 2, a facelift of its previous iteration. As such, it was starting to become outdated, as well as being bloated and heavy in comparison to what the engineers at Caliban wanted it to be. To top it all off, the 150hp the original SC made were starting to become anemic by the standards of a horsepower war that had already begun.

Lord Mach then gathered a few of his engineers and some of the engineers ACA sent him. They came up with the Rev. 3 Caliban Type SC.

The new design was all about speed. With the limited understanding of aerodynamics back then, the designers at Caliban created a ‘bullet-shaped’ car that cut through the wind much easier than the previous Type SC; but it wasn’t all about aerodynamics, as the Type SC sported a dynamic, intimidating style. The chassis was once again a steel tubular structure, but this time around the panels were made of the commonly found in kit cars fiberglass. With this, the Type SC went from 1013kg in the 2nd revision to just 930kg in the 3rd revision.

The Stormcast engine was revised and improved; the new modification saw the twin single barrels swapped for twin DCOE carburetors that, combined with a new and improve tune, saw the power rise from 150hp to 200hp. Displacement remained unchanged, at 3.2L. The crossplane exhaust note was delivered through dual exhausts, ending in two tips each.

Power was fed to the rear wheels through their tested and approved 4 speed manual transmission. It completed the 0-100 sprint in just 7.1 seconds, making it quite fast for the era.

This new chassis would see two more revisions (4 and 5) well into the 60s and 70s.

In 1966, a Caliban Type SC driven by Alec Henry would win the 500 miles of Brands Hatch, who would then repeat its victory in the 1967 6 hours of Brands Hatch. This double victory at the same track, in two consecutive years, became one of the main selling points of the SC until the 70s.

[Radster]

I wanted to remake the modern Thunder, pls don’t kill me

Props to @ramthecowy for this awesome logo!

Caliban Thunder Infinity.

A pocket track weapon.

A background at the tracks.

The Thunder was the kit car that started Caliban as a marque. An affordable, ready-to-race kit car to eliminate elitism from motorsports; the Thunder’s DNA has been kept intact throughout the years, perfected with success in minor categories of motorsports such as GT4 and the BTCC, as well as rally and rallycross. Its motorsports heritage, combined with the input it received from our partners throughtout the years (ACA, Erin and more recently Contendiente), shaped the small car into the ultimate sports car.

Kit car simplicity, sports car style.

Our kit cars are not just replicas, and the Thunder wasn’t going to be an exception. Agressive styling, with some notes taken from the cyberpunk style, combined with the modern design trends, gives our little race car its iconic, unmistakable look. You know it’s a Thunder when you see one.

Enjoy it anywhere.

Complying with all safety and emission regulations, the Thunder can not only be your track weapon of choice, but your weekend whip too. At 34 milles per gallon for its exceptional performance, it’s not going to burn a hole in your wallet either.

Racing car performance.

Our latest evolution of the 4 cylinder Screamer engine develops 180hp from just 1.4 liters of displacement. That power is sent to the rear wheels through our 5 speed manual transmission, mated to a mechanical LSD. That combination means the Thunder is good to go from 0 to 100 in only 5.1 seconds, topping out at 236 km/h. With cornering forces consistently over 1.25Gs, however, the Thunder is a cornering monster that can leave bulkier, heavier sports cars behind with ease.

[Radster]

Caliban lore: the days of Group C and the CPP-8X prototypes.

The 80s were truly crazy years. Group A cars were no joke, group B cars were bonkers, and Group C…broke 400km/h constantly.

Caliban wanted to take part in this orgy of speed, high octane fuel and long races; however, they would not be able to take on Le Mans alone, thus starting a search for partners. After an extensive search and negotiations that delayed Caliban until 1984, they finally managed to get to an agreement with Spanish manufacturer Contendiente to co-develop a prototype in exchange for help from Caliban for their IMSA program. After three years of an intense cross effort, the first prototype was put inside the track. The CPP-8X series of prototypes had just started in time for the 1987 season.

Caliban-Conte CPP-87

The first of the series was their humble beginning in Le Mans. Sporting a twin turbocharged, codeveloped v8, modified to displace 4.6 liters, the CPP-87 produced 650hp; the aerodynamics were still not perfected, and as such, the -87 was a handful as well as underpowered and bad at the corners. The CPP-87 was driven by Alec Henry, Javier Rubio and Dylan Davies. If there was one car that the CPP-87 could kind of give a good duel, though, it was the Nohda 500VX, at Daytona and Sebring.

As such, no wins were obtained during the '87 season, with the ocassional top 10; the Bonhams, Erins and Shromets (who won the championship that year) were just much superior. Aware of this, both companies went back to the design bench to modify the vehicle.

Caliban-Conte CPP-88

With revised aerodynamics, and an engine now producing 730hp from a revised tune that managed to ramp the power up keeping the reliability, as well as a revised suspension tune, the new prototype was quite the improvement from the -87. The -88 did much better, with a win in that season, and finally managing to keep up with the competition; however, the -88 was still not good enough to win at the mother of all races: the 24 hours of Le Mans. The victory at Sarthe was brought home by Erin that year.

The most notable detail about the '88 model is that it reached its final aspect, with the next -and last- model looking exactly the same except for minor aero tweaks.

The same team as the previous year raced once again in the '88 season.

Caliban-Conte CPP-89

The final 8X prototype, the CPP-89, was the most succesful of all of them. Harvesting two wins this time, one at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodriguez (Mexico) and the other by making a dream come true for Caliban: winning the 1989 24 hours of Le Mans.

It wasn’t an easy feat for yet again the same lineup of drivers, but after a hard battle against the Erins on track during the last 2 hours, the Caliban managed to take the lead and keep it half an hour to the finish. With this victory, as soon as the season was over, the Caliban-Contendiente motorsports partnership would break, only becoming partners again in 2011.

The aero package was beefed up to the maximum, the car put on a diet to reduce its weight and the turbos tuned to, instead of making more power, keep the same 730hp with added versatility from an earlier spool and therefore, a wider powerband the driver could play with.

To this day, the CPP-89 is remembered as the Caliban that managed to take the Le Mans victory for the kit car company, with its three drivers remembered by the people nostalgic for the days of Group C and racing enthusiasts alike.

[Radster]

The 70s: Caliban Type K.

The 70s were times of crisis for Caliban. The Caliban Type SC would temporally see the axe in 1972, due to low sales of the model; Lord Mach II would take Caliban almost to bankruptcy and finally pass away in 1981. But before focusing on the Thunder exclusively in 1976 as aftermath of the oil crisis of 1973, Lord Mach II started contacting companies in search of help. It would be Keika who answered them, due to Keika CEO’s old ties with the kit car company.

After several months of negotiations, Keika decided to give Caliban access to the platform their Katana was built on. With this, the engineers at Caliban started working on their new “Type K”, an spiritual successor to the SC, at least then, that’d correct the flaws of the latter. It was also Caliban’s first mid engined experiment, that would later shape the current Type SC and the Predator, starting Caliban’s mid engined era.

The Type K was a big design experiment for Caliban. New shapes, futuristic looking vents, a new body to work on and new regulations to work with. These factors shaped the Type K into a futuristic looking sports car, with its front bonnet grille probably being its most iconic part.

The Type K was a bit less hardcore than the previous Type SC, and a bit heavier; however, it was faster thanks to a revised 3.2L v8 putting out more than 200hp and cornered better, for the first time a street going Caliban cornering above 1G consistently. The Type K was capable of reaching 62mph in 6.1 seconds and topped out at 130 mph, respectable figures for the era and budget.

The Type K would be axed in 1976, but the Type K and Caliban’s collaboration with Keika sparked something up inside Caliban’s know-how, design language and brand tradition. This would later boom in the 80s when Lady Mach III took her father’s place as the CEO, changing the company radically and bringing it to what it’s today.

[Radster]

The end of the crisis: Caliban Thunder Infinity.

Caliban Thunder Infinity, the original ad. Circa 1980.

After almost ten years in a low, Caliban desperately needed something to come back with. They had lost a lot of their relevance during the 70s, and they needed something to bring attention back. That’s how the first Thunder Infinity came to be, as the sixth revision of the Caliban Thunder.

Caliban was unable of making such a car by their own, however. What they did is, to this day, controversial. The new chassis was based on the 1975 Contendiente Estrato, and the single point fuel injection system, outright copied from the 1978 Maine Motors Imperator’s. This made the new Screamer engine capable of having technology a small sports car company could otherwise not have, the 1.6 liter engine now pushing 100hp.

Some stuff remained the same, however, with the 4 speed manual transmission found in previous Thunders still present, as well as a simple interior and equipment. Its radical styling and sporty credentials won a place in many sports car lovers’ hearts, as well as finally take Caliban out of its decade long crisis. The 80s were looking much better than the 70s already…

Extra details and stats!

[Radster]

Late 80s: the return of the Type SC.

The Type SC was axed in 1972 as a consequence of radidly decreasing sales of said model, which, for a low volume company, were already low.

However, in 1985, Caliban was contacted by Contendiente for the first time to build the CPP-8X prototypes in collaboration with each other. In return, Contendiente helped Caliban rise up again with a high end sports car (the first gen Predator) and new technology (like multipoint fuel injection), as the beginning of the first of their partnerships; Contendiente originally wanted to buy Caliban, but that wasn’t possible until 2012.

This all allowed Caliban to bring the Type SC, their flagship, back into the game. And as such, 1987 sees the new generation of the now mid engined sports car appear for the first time.

The beginning of the Type SC as we know it nowadays.

With the new Type SC, the engineers wanted to apply everything they had learned at the track in a single car. The new, more aerodynamic body was fitted with wider tyres, either the I4 from the Thunder (BO) or a v8 derived from combining two of them (TO). The reborn Stormcast produced 250hp from 3.2 liters of displacement, thanks to the new Contendiente-provided fuel injection systems. This propelled the coupe from 0 to 100 in just 4.8 seconds and to 235km/h. This was posible thanks to the, once again, 5 speed manual borrowed from the 3rd generation Enemigo. Cornering wasn’t weak either, thanks to a relatively low weight of 1000kg, which allowed the Type SC to pull 1.13/1.15Gs at the skidpad.

The classic sports car is highly regarded by fans and owners and ex owners nowadays. It also remains an icon of the synthwave culture due to its agressive, 80s looks, appearing in games such as PowerDrive 2000 and albums from various synthwave and artists.

It also took part in three motorsports ventures. IMSA GTO and GTU were two of them, contending in the GTO category through a factory backed team, and facing privateer Keikas in GTU through also privateer teams.

The IMSA GTO race car.

[Radster]

Nothing is safe from modern art. Not even Caliban.

Pictured: “Bloody Mess”, photography, from French artist Camile De la Fontaine, 1967.

[Radster]

And then the 90s came around…

And by 1994, the 1987 Caliban Type SC 's styling was completely out of touch and outdated. And while the internals weren’t changed much appart from minor improvements to the engine and the chassis, the styling department did receive an important redesign. And thus, the new kit was launched in 1995.

Since not many changes took place between this and the original car, as this was a long running single generation with a facelift, I’ll let images and a tidy spreadsheet do the talking for a change! Did I say you can drive it in Gran Turismo Sport?

The 1996 Caliban Type SC as it appears in Gran Turismo Sport.

Caliban Type SC (1995 to 2003)
Engine: Mid mounted Caliban Stormcast v8 "Dual cammer", 3.2L, 2 valves per cylinder.
Fuel system: fuel injected, single throttle body.
Power output: 225 horsepower.
Body and chassis: Steel tubular chassis, fiberglass panels.
Suspension: all around double wishbones.
Interior: two semi bucket seats. Basic radio standard. ABS included.

[Watermelon3878]

Great looking cars, and I bet they’re a blast to drive in beam.ng.

If only I wasn’t too lazy to hook up my G920 to my laptop…

[abg7]

I understand why it gained a smiling face with its first facelift - it couldn’t help but have fun all the time!

[Radster]

1987 CALIBAN TYPE SC REMAKE.

What’s different:

• Remade design.
• Engine changed: still a 3.2 liter v8, but more realistic and lore friendly for a kit car of the era (fuel injection swapped for a carburetor, flatplane crankshaft from a Thunder Infinity’s 1.6L I4, single overhead cams, with 204 horsepower at the time).
• Retuned for drivability and performance at the track (WIP).

Test drive available soon.