Caterham - the mother of all kit cars

The Daddy - Caterham 7

This is a blog that was created out of love for the kit car scene, so I thought it appropriate to start it off with the mother of all kit cars - the Caterham. This company makes multiple road-legal (sometimes barely) racing machines, and it has been doing so for ages.

The assortment is consisted of several models - SP300.R and the multiple variations of 7. The SP is a nice track machine, but the most kit car lovers among us had their hearts set on this scene thanks to the later, the grandpa kit car, the magnificent 7.

The original, Lotus 7, started its life way back in 1957, and was discontinued in 1973. The Caterham car company, then the major Lotus dealer, didn’t like the idea of their favorite model being discontinued, so they bought rights to produce this car. And they produced this car. And they are still producing it. If you just count the time, you’ll see that this car has been in production for over half a century. People usually finish schools in that time, get jobs, start working, work quite a lot of time, get kids, maybe even grand kids, see their kids through school, start wearing glasses, get big bellies, maybe even lumbago. Cars, on the other hand, are considered museum pieces, relics of the times long gone, prehistoric monument that shows us how far we’ve gotten since those old days, when the radio and carpets were the only luxuries in a car. Oh, I almost forgot, the window winders, too. Safer than a sliding piece of glass, that’s for sure.

But not this car. This one stayed basically unchanged for all these years, completely basic, completely utilitarian, and completely current. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, this car is still among us, and still brings the thrill to the motorists around the world.

As I’ve already implied, the world has gone on since then, so the 7 had to be modernized. It got better brakes, a bit modified suspension with better shocks and dampers, more precise steering, better lights, better, more modern engines, yet its roof still leaks, its doors threaten to open at any speed above the pedestrian pace, it still rattles and threatens to send you to the dentist post haste. But that doesn’t mean the majority of people care about it. In fact, some people intentionally choose more powerful, more hardcore, even more racetrack oriented models. Oh, yes, the 7 has many models. From the entry level Classic, with its small, 1.4 liter 105bhp engine, to the most powerful, bad and mad, mind boggling CSR with 260bhp. To some this may not really sound like much, but when you are driving around in a car that weighs about as much as only one Humvee’s wheel, well, that can take you to some serious speeds. Don’t get me wrong, you won’t be able to enter the NASCAR with it. The aerodynamics are still a complete 50s design, and the top speed is far from bringing out the screams of joy on the Autobahn. Although, when you lose your roof, and doors, and half of your hair, and all of your teeth, it can turn into some serious screams of utter horror. But if you take it to the mountain road, and use that light weight to produce some serious turns on the twisty bits, enjoy the rapid accelerations and let the car show you what it’s made of (if you overcook it, might as well be literally - there are no modern electronic ABS and ESP systems on cars like this to save from the driver’s incompetence), these cars really get alive and screaming. They become a part of you, and even the slowest model, with its 6.5 seconds 0 to 60 and skinny tires, becomes an instrument of a glorified oversteery goodness. They are just that good.

The official Caterham presentation can be found here.