Source: Amazines.com
April 7, 2009
When the visionary designer Colin Chapmen first set out to design the Lotus 7 he had lightness, speed and agility at the forefront of his mind. What he could not of know was that he was about to create a timeless design classic, which still has the ability to embarrass supercars costing over ten times as much.
The first Lotus 7 was released to the public in 1957 and cost £1000 pounds to buy new. However the simplicity of the design meant that Lotus could also offer the 7 in kit form where it would cost half as much. Chapman's constant aim throughout all of his cars at Lotus was to lightness, ensuring that the cars he produced had supreme agility and road holding.
As Lotus grew in stature Chapman realised that the company would need to shed its kit car image if they were ever to be considered a serious supercar manufacturers and so, in 1973, the designs and rights to the Lotus 7 were sold to Caterham Cars and the new Caterham 7 was born.
It is no surprise that the Caterham 7 has continued to be popular with enthusiastic driver throughout the decades, with its simple engine at the front, power at the back and two seats in the middle philosophy, this sports car was destined to be a hit. As is often the case when you have a winning design on your hands you often find others trying to copy it and Caterham is no exception, pursing several legal cases to protect the design rights.
The design of the Caterham 7 remained pretty static until, in 2000, the SV version was offered. This was Caterham's answer to all those drivers who found fitting in the 7 a tight squeeze, giving an extra 11cm of width to the chassis meant that a whole new group of drivers could experience the astonishing road holding and performance of the 7.
Unbelievably despite the car's lightweight origins Caterham continued to reduce the weight of its road racer, and this gave rise to the super light range of Caterham's. In 2004 Caterham released its most extreme version of the 7 yet, with the R500 Evo. This car could accelerate up to 100mph and then brake back to zero again in just over 10 seconds, a feat that placed it ahead of a seriously humbled Ferrari Enzo.
Caterham have continued on with the lightness theme by producing a new version of the R500, a car that utilises the very latest in carbon fibre and thin wall aluminium materials, and has enough of a power to weight ratio to worry a Bugatti Veyron owner. Nowhere is spared the weight loss program, even the windscreen is an optional extra, although thankfully the headlight bulbs still remain for those late night summer drives.
Whilst the flagship Caterham models offer incredible performance for their price, there is actually a Caterham 7 available for every performance and budget requirement. More importantly if you can face a few long nights locked up in your garage and build one from a kit you will be able to save money even further, and glow in the satisfaction that the sports car you have just created is all your own work.
