caterham seven

it’s hard to believe that over fifty years have passed since colin chapman unleashed the very first lotus seven on the world of motor cars.
bringing his own philosophy of design to the forefront of roadgoing open-wheel driving, chapman redefined the idea of a sports car by integrating racing design into roadgoing vehicles that were essentially barebones pocket rockets. the original seven sold 2500 copies in its first year and became a mainstay of clubman racing in britain for many years.

designed as a flies-in-your-teeth alternative for people who could afford cars as playthings, the seven went through several phases, adding creature comforts along the way that in some people’s view “softened” it up. in 1973, lotus decided to step away from the seven’s kit car image and concentrate more fully on high-end limited series road cars at that time. the rights to the seven were sold at that time to lotus’ distributors caterham cars who continue to build the car to this day.

to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary, the bbc website has some nice images from the fiftieth gathering of lotus/caterham 7 enthusiasts.

so, now that you’re immersed in the idea of a small, highly-powered little sportscar, let’s take a tour of the caterham site and see what’s going on these days with this most iconic of english automobiles. well undoubtedly the best place to start is the showroom to have a look at what’s available these days. on the surface the various models look more or less the same, but it’s in the details - the suspension and drivetrain and to some degree the details in finish that you see the differentiation along the model line. ranging from the sigma


to the ultra high-end performance csr

i think i’d likely end up somewhere in the middle with the roadsport model, designed as it is for all weather conditions.

if you’d like to see some video (which like all good car videos gives you a kazillion teaser shots and lots of nice throaty exhaust rumbles and on-board cameras hanging on for dear life) then the “fifty years of driving thrills” video is for you! after that then perhaps you should have a look at the slalom, the drift, and the circuit videos.

caterhams are constructed of aluminium sheet attached to a tubular steel chassis. caterham sevens are front engined with rear wheel drive and two seats. their extremely high performance is achieved through light weight (less than 500 kg (1,102 lb) on some versions) rather than particularly powerful engines. having said that, you can pick up an extremely powerful model called the csr which you can outfit with a 260 hp cosworth engine. the stats for this particular version are staggering and difficult to imagine - remember your bum would be no more than a foot off the ground and your eyes might be no more than three feet off the ground - 0 - 60 mph in 3.1 seconds and a top speed of 155 mph! as caterham states in its release: “the csr uses a substantially revised chassis for increased torsional stiffness and offers new integrated dashboard, revised aerodynamics, f1-style pushrod front suspension and fully independent rear suspension. the CSR260 is a devastatingly quick, yet highly controllable, road and track weapon.” i can only imagine. if you would like to see this little rocket flying around a track on anglesey (oh and while you’re there you get the added bonus of the caterham’s pretty cousin - the lotus exige on the same track) the watch this . . .


here’s a lap of nurburgring onboard a caterham seven superlight . . .