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Manufacturer Caterham Cars
Production 1973-present
Body and chassis
Class Sports car
Body style open 2 seat
Powertrain
Transmission 5-speed manual
6-speed manual
6-speed sequential manua
Dimensions
Curb weight 515 kg (1,135 lb)
Chronology
Predecessor Lotus Seven
The Caterham 7 (or Caterham Seven ) is a
super-lightweight sports car produced by
Caterham Cars in the United Kingdom. It is
based on the Lotus Seven , a lightweight
sports car sold in kit and factory-built form by
Lotus Cars, from the late 1950s to the early
1970s. After Lotus ended production of the
Lotus Seven, in 1972, Caterham bought the
rights to the design, and today make both kits
and fully assembled cars. 2007 marked the
50th year of production of the Lotus/
Caterham 7.
The Caterham 7 is a small, lightweight, two-
seater sports car renowned for its
performance and handling. Various other
manufacturers offer a sports car in a similar
basic configuration, but Caterham owns
various legal rights to the Lotus Seven design
and name. The company has taken legal
action in the past in order to protect those
rights. In South Africa, it lost its case against
Birkin (a competitor) on the basis that it
never obtained the rights from Lotus that it
claimed it had. [1] The modern Seven is based
on the Series 3 Lotus Seven, though Caterham
have developed it to the point that no part is
the same as on the original Lotus.
History
Today’s Caterham cars have a blend of
traditional styling and modern components.
They can trace their lineage directly to an
original 1950s-era Colin Chapman design.
Chapman, a Royal Air Force pilot, studied
structural engineering and went on to become
one of the great innovators in motorsports
design.
After the war, Chapman became a highly
successful race driver and then founded Lotus
Engineering Ltd. in 1952. Chapman’s vision of
light, powerful cars and performance
suspensions guided much of his development
work with the basic design philosophy of,
"Simplify, then add lightness". [2]
The Lotus 7 originally debut was at the 1957
Earl’s Court Motor Show in London.
The first Lotus 7s were priced at £1,036
including purchase tax but it cost only £536 in
kit form as no purchase tax was required. It
weighed only 725 lb (329 kg). Fast and
responsive, the Lotus 7 was one of
Chapman’s masterworks, an advanced
machine that surpassed the earlier Lotus 6 as
a vehicle that could perform beautifully on the
track and be driven legally on the road. The
7’s basic (and much copied) design was to
stand the test of time, continuing in its
popularity for the ensuing 56 years.
The 7’s evolution continued when, in 1973,
Caterham Cars obtained manufacturing rights
from Lotus to enable Lotus to move away
from 'kit cars' and produce more up-market
sports cars. Caterham renamed the car the
"Super 7" – an apt name, as it was becoming
clear that the car’s fundamental design was
nearly impossible to improve having the right
balance of strength and handling with a very
light weight. Caterham's original offering was
the Series 4, since that was the current
production car at the time of the handover
from Lotus. Unfortunately Caterham suffered
numerous supply problems with the Series 4
and by the middle of 1974 they had reverted
to the Series 3, which was perceived to have
better sales potential. The modern day
Roadsports and Superlights (in "narrow-bodied
chassis" form) are the direct descendants of
this car and therefore of the original Lotus 7.
Chassis and suspension
As with the Lotus Six before it, the original
Lotus Seven utilised an extremely light space-
frame chassis with stressed aluminium body
panels. Although the chassis has had
numerous modifications to strengthen it and
accommodate the various engine and
suspension setups (and to try to find more
cockpit space for the occupants), this basic
formula has remained essentially the same
throughout the Seven's life (with the
exception of the dead-end Series 4, which
used steel for the cockpit and engine bay and
glassfibre for the bodywork). Early cars used
a live rear axle , initially from various Fords,
later from the Morris Ital . De Dion rear
suspension was introduced in the mid-1980s
and both geometries were on offer until 2002
when the live-axle option was phased out.
The modern Superlight employs adjustable
double-wishbone suspension with front anti-
roll bar and a de-dion rear axle, located by an
A-frame and Watt's linkage.
The Caterham 7 range was based exclusively
on this Series 3 chassis until 2000, when the
SV (Series V, or Special Vehicle) chassis was
released, aimed at accommodating the
increasing number of prospective buyers who
could not fit comfortably in the Series 3
cockpit. The SV chassis offers an extra
110 mm (4.3 in) of width across the cockpit,
at a cost of 25 kg (55 lb) of extra weight, and
both chassis sizes are available today in
Roadsport and Superlight variants. [3] The SV
chassis subsequently provided the basic
dimensions for the Caterham CSR . The
suspension was completely redesigned,
bringing the front suspension inboard, using
pushrods, and replacing the De-Dion rear axle
with a lighter, fully independent, double-
wishbone layout with new coil/damper units.
Additional chassis modifications resulted in a
25% increase in torsional stiffness. [4] The
CSR was released in October 2004, with a
Cosworth Duratec engine and is currently
available from the factory in either 200 bhp
(150 kW) or 260 bhp (194 kW) form.
Engines
Early cars used the Lotus TwinCam engine
(subsequently manufactured by Vegantune),
followed by Ford cross flow engines. [5] The
first Cosworth BDR engines appeared around
1983, in 1600 cc 140 bhp (104 kW) form,
followed by 1700 cc 150 bhp (112 kW)
versions three years later. By 1990 the top of
the range engine had become the 2 litre
Vauxhall HPC, as fitted to the Vauxhall
Calibra , putting out 165—175 bhp. A few HPC
"Evolution" models were built with engines
developed by Swindon Race Engines
producing between 218 bhp (163 kW) and
235 bhp (175 kW). In 1993 Caterham created
the JPE special edition (named for Formula 1
driver Jonathan Palmer) by using a 2 litre
Vauxhall Touring Car engine, putting out
around 250 bhp (186 kW) and reducing weight
to around 530 kg (1,168 lb) by such measures
as removing the windscreen in favour of an
aeroscreen. The JPE was quoted at 0-60 mph
times of around 3.5 seconds and, with
Jonathan Palmer at the wheel, set a
0-100 mph-0 record of 12.6 seconds. Around
1997 the cross flow range was replaced by 8v
and 16v Vauxhall units which, in various
guises lived on until the end of the VX-
powered Caterham Classic, in 2002.
The Rover K-series made its appearance in
1991, initially as the 1.4 litre engine from the
Metro GTi . This engine became the backbone
of the range for the next 15 years. The 1.6
litre k-series appeared in 1996 and the 1.8
litre a year later. 1996 also saw the addition
of the 'Superlight' range, a range that
successfully focussed initially on reducing
weight and subsequently on bespoke tuning of
the k-series to ever-higher outputs. Weight
was saved by removing the spare wheel (and
carrier), carpets, heater and often the
windscreen (replaced with an aeroscreen),
hood and doors. Lightweight "Tillet" GRP
seats were usually fitted along with carbon-
fibre front wings and nosecone (note however
that items such as heaters and windscreens
could still be specified by the Superlight
customer if they so wanted). Wide-track
suspension was added to the superlight,
increasing the track at the front to match that
at the back. The later Superlight-R offered the
dry-sumped VHPD (Very High Performance
Derivative) variant on the 1.8 litre k-series.
Output was now up to around 180 bhp
(134 kW), in a car that now weighed as little
as 490 kg (1,080 lb). Three years later
Caterham took the same concept to a new
level and created the iconic Superlight R500,
still based on the Rover 1.8 litre k-series but
now tuned (by Minister Racing Engines) to
around 230 bhp (172 kW) at 8,600 rpm in a
car weighing just 460 kg (1,014 lb). The R500
was initially available in kit-form, but quickly
became a factory-build only item. Quoted
performance figures still make impressive
reading; 0-100 mph in 8.2 seconds (although
EVO magazine quotes 8.8 seconds[6] ).
Perhaps unsurprisingly, such a stressed
engine required frequent "refreshing" in order
to keep it on the road and a series of engine
revisions was undertaken throughout the
R500's life in order to increase reliability. This
culminated in 2004 with perhaps the most
extreme production Caterham of all; the R500
EVO was bored out by Minister to 1,998 cc
and delivered 250 bhp (186 kW). At £42,000,
the R500 EVO was hardly a sales success - it
is widely believed that just three examples
were sold. It did however succeed in setting a
series of performance car benchmarks several
of which last to this day; the 0-100 mph-0
record was set at 10.73 seconds (in second
place was a Ferrari Enzo costing ten times as
much) and, until the end of 2006 it remained
the fastest production car timed by EVO
magazine around the Bedford Autodrome
West Circuit, ahead of a Porsche Carrera GT.
Only the Radical SR3 1300 has subsequently
posted a faster time than the R500 EVO. [6]
After the demise of Rover and Powertrain ,
Caterham started the process of phasing out
the Rover k-series engine and replacing them
with Ford engines; the Sigma engine for
Roadsports and the 2.0 litre and 2.3 litre
Duratec engines for the more powerful
Superlight and CSR ranges. Although
Caterham's website suggests that there are a
few models (such as the Superlight R300) still
available with a k-series engine, this migration
is largely complete.
Caterham have had something of a tentative
relationship with the installation of motorbike
engines into their cars. Since 2000, a
Canadian firm has been selling Caterham 7
models using the GSXR1300 engine used in
the Suzuki Hayabusa. It reportedly does 0-62
in under 3 seconds. In 2000 the Honda
CBR1100 engine was installed into a 430 kg
(948 lb) superlight chassis to create the
Caterham Blackbird, delivering 170 bhp
(127 kW) at 10,750 rpm (although just 92 lb·ft
(125 N·m) of maximum torque). The Blackbird
offered near R500 performance for rather less
money (Top Gear quote 0-60 of 3.7 seconds
and a top speed of 143 mph (230 km/h) at a
new cost of £25,750). [7] In 2001 a Honda
Fireblade engine was offered in a live-axle
chassis, via James Whiting of Ashford,
Middlesex. Quoted power was 128 bhp
(95 kW) at 10,500 rpm. Both of these models
have ceased production. There has also been
at least one installation of the RST-V8,
created by Moto Power; a 2 litre, 40 valve
340 bhp (254 kW) V8 made from a pair of
motorcycle engines joined at the crank. An
early, pre-production review of the car/engine
combination exists on the EVO website. [8] In
Feb 2008, the "Caterham 7 Levante" was
announced, featuring a supercharged version
the RST-V8, offering over 500 bhp (370 kW),
installed in a modified Caterham chassis, with
bespoke bodywork. Made by RS Performance
(described in the press release as
"Caterham's new performance arm"), the
Levante is intended to be a limited run of 8
cars at a cost of £115,000 each. [9]
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