7 reasons why the Caterham Seven is still going strong

In May 1973, Colin Chapman and Graham Nearn shook hands in an aptly named pub in north London. Chapman signed over the tools, designs, and rights to the Lotus Seven, which he has been selling since 1957, at the Lotus pub in Primrose Hill. At that time, Caterham Cars was born.

Nearn named his new company after the small town in Surrey where he built his factory, and a month into his deal with Chapman the first Caterham Sevens were rolling off the ‘production line’ at the rate of just one a week.

In the 50 years since, Caterham has sold 22,000 Sevens in more than 100 different variants, powered by more than 35 different engines. In 2021, under new owners VT Holdings of Japan, the company achieved record sales.

So what is the enduring appeal of this little tear duct?

1. Still true to Colin Chapman’s philosophy

“Simplify, then add agility” was Chapman’s manifesto, and it’s hard to think of a car that better exemplifies this than the Seven. Early Sevens weighed around 330kg, and today even the heaviest model tips the scales at just 610kg and makes up around 10 times the horsepower. There is almost nothing to these cars but a steel airframe and thin aluminum body panels, an engine and two seats. You can’t get much simpler than that.

2. You can build it yourself

Lotus offered the Seven in kit form, and Caterham continues to do so. In fact, it’s the only way you can get new ones in America. Caterham estimates it will take a skilled craftsman 80-100 hours to build one. Hagerty’s own Sam Smith has created quite a few of them. Oh, and if collecting a full-sized Seven is a little daunting, then you can choose to choose Lego version.

3. Made for racing

Caterhams have been competing since the beginning, with the sixth car ever competing in the 1973 Grande Prémio Café de Angola. In the 1990s, Caterham established its own racing series, which was previously known as the Scholarship and is now called the Caterham Academy. Today, a full season with trackside support in the British series costs less than £40,000, and that includes tuition, a racing license and a road racing car.

4. You don’t need big horsepower for big fun…

The first seven were powered by a 1.7-liter Ford side engine that mustered only 36 horsepower. Caterham’s current ownership streak is 170, it’s powered by a Suzuki turbocharged 660 rpm engine that produces 85 horsepower. In stripped-down R guise, the car weighs just 440 kilograms, so you’ll see 60 mph from rest in 6.9 seconds and top out at over 100 mph.

5. But the power is there if you want it

Since the 1980s, Caterham has offered power-hungry customers a choice of killer performance supercars. In 1986, it launched the HPC powered by the Cosworth 1700 engine, and buyers had to take the High Performance Course to get behind the wheel and experience its 300 horsepower per ton. Then, 1992 saw the launch of the Jonathan Palmer Evolution with a 2-litre, 253bhp Vauxhall engine which was developed by Swindon Racing Engines for service in the British Touring Car Championship. Stepping up in 1999 was the R500, powered by a 1.8-litre Rover K-Series engine producing over 500bhp per tonne. The supercharged modern Rocket 620 uses a 2-litre supercharged Ford Duratec engine for 314bhp. It will reach 60 mph from rest in 2.79 seconds and blast up to a breezy 155mph – a performance described by James May as, “That’s not acceleration; that’s like being in football when someone kicks.”

6. It is a record breaker

Caterhams have found themselves in the record books many times. The JPE – which James Mills of Hagerty UK drove in 2020 – was the fastest production car in 1992, reaching 60 mph in 3.4 seconds, and a modified Honda Fireblade-powered Seven clocked the fastest speed against 102.52 mph in 2001 In 2011, Caterham did 566 donuts non-stop, and in 2017 one of its cars scored the highest number of donuts in 60 seconds. Olympic-winning cyclists Sir Chris Hoy spun the car 19 times per minute.

7. He is a great tourer with amazing abilities

In 2000, Caterham introduced a larger SV chassis option, which added three inches to the car’s length and 4.3 inches to its width, making it more comfortable for larger occupants. Despite its basic nature, Saba can be quite a good tourer. James May proved that by flying a modified 310 R around Madascar in The Grand Tour in 2020, while I managed to squeeze in a week’s worth of camping equipment for the tour. seven of Britain’s best roads in seven days in my own Roadsport.

Through Hagerty USA

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