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Surrey’s Premier Lifestyle Magazine

Swinging sixtiesand a sweet spot

A lot has altered over the past six decades, but apart from its obvious name change, the Caterham Seven remains true to its heritage. To celebrate this year’s milestone, the sixtieth year since the first Lotus Seven, Caterham Cars has built a variant of its iconic Seven. Seemingly planned in the mid-1960s, but never launched, it’s the Caterham Seven Sprint. Euan Johns examines Caterham’s enduring retro appeal.
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The Seven is the original and staunchly British lightweight sportscar and has always been seen to boost national sentiment. The car was the brainchild of the legendary Colin Chapman and originally launched in 1957 at the London motorshow as the Lotus 7. It achieved star status in 1967 in the cult classic ‘The Prisoner’ television series, a special edition appearing in 1989.

The design embodied Chapman’s ethos of adding lightness to a vehicle and his philosophy of ‘less is more’ is still very much to the fore today. The low mass of the car makes it inherently agile, enabling outstanding performance and perhaps most of all providing a driving experience with an unparalleled sense of purity, control and reward.

Caterham Cars has been selling the Seven since the late 1950s when it was appointed as a Lotus dealer. In 1973, Caterham purchased the rights to manufacture the car from Lotus and has been building and selling it ever since. The Seven is a continually evolving work in progress and Caterham has continued to refine and enhance the design whilst carefully keeping its DNA intact, respecting the brilliance and innovation of the original formula.

Motorsport is always at the heart of the Seven and it is the original ‘race car for the road’. In the 1970s, the car was designated as too fast to race by the authorities due to its overwhelming superiority over its rivals, and banned from competition. The ban inspired Caterham to be pioneers, minimising costs, and to make racing with strict regulations close and exciting.
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Caterham Cars is proud to be one of the remaining British-owned and British-based car manufacturers, with the majority of parts sourced from within the UK wherever possible. Now operating as part of the Caterham Group of companies, which includes technology and development, the focus is still on providing customer service and an unmatched driving experience. It is, quite simply, a motoring icon and the family is continually growing.
The launch of the Sprint heralded the start of Caterham’s ‘60 years of the Seven’ celebrations, which culminate with a spectacular Caterham festival at Donington Park this summer. To reflect the anniversary further, only 60 Sprints were made for the UK and European markets.

The retro detailing of the Sprint will delight Seven purists and provides the perfect scene-setter to the brand’s celebrations. Priced from £27,995, the car was launched at the Goodwood Revival last year, a fittingly retro setting for a car with one wheel firmly planted in the ‘60s. The interior and luggage space are fully carpeted, as befits a ‘60s connoisseur, and there are very few concessions to modern life. The Suzuki engine generates performance good enough to be considered beyond mundane, but perfectly capable of a more leisurely application as it does its best to mirror an ancient motor. The Sprint is a car happiest on smaller roads and doesn’t go well over bumps. It has precise steering via the wonderful thin wood-rimmed wheel, all adding to the retro feel.

Although much effort has gone into the looks of the Sprint, it’s certainly not a triumph of style over substance, wisely avoiding any sense of retro cheesiness, and is, frankly, a colossal amount of fun. Sadly, potential purchasers of the Sprint will be disappointed as despite the hefty price tag, all 60 were sold within a week. There is, however, an alternative…

In the circle of dedicated followers of Caterham Cars, one model is spoken about in reverential terms, the R300. Launched in 2002, it was deemed to be the perfect blend of low weight, punchy performance and agile handling. So the introduction of the Seven 310 has come as good news for those who failed to hitch a ride first time round as this too hits a sweet spot.

Harking back to the acclaimed Rover-powered Superlight R300 model, the Seven 310 has emerged from engineering developments made by Caterham’s motorsport programme. It’s priced at £24,995, fully-built, and for existing Caterham Seven 270 owners the upgrade is available for a mere £1,495.

So, the formula is the same and the car has everything expected from a Caterham. The turn is sharp, steering agile and responsive and body control flawless. In short it offers the best pared-back driving experience for the money today. Various ‘essential’ add ons such as upgraded brakes, suspension, bucket seats and a six-speed gearbox will push the price close to other options. However, the 310 offers the ‘purest’ driving experience if that’s what is craved.
essence info
Caterham Cars Limited
Fleming Way, Crawley, West Sussex RH10 9NQ
Telephone: 01293 312300
Website: www.caterhamcars.com

“We have always prided ourselves on continually developing the Seven during the 44 years we have been custodian of the model. But we never wished to dismiss our heritage either and I know there are plenty of Seven purists and aficionados out there who will really appreciate the level of detail we’ve gone to with the Sprint to resurrect the spirit of those early cars.”
Graham Macdonald, CEO, Caterham Cars