Caterham

Caterham Cars will exhibit at the 2016 London Motor Show – the first major British motor show since 2008. The show is open to the public from Friday May 6 to Sunday May 8 and will be held at Battersea Evolution, featuring new and historic cars as well as motoring celebrities. Caterham will be present throughout the weekend, including the Press and Trade day on Thursday May 5.

No matter how many cars are on display at the free-to-view Regent Street Motor Show at the end of this month (Saturday 31 October) – and there will be hundreds – one more will leave than arrived. Four technicians from Caterham Cars will be building a car from scratch throughout the day. The four-strong team will start the day surrounded by a number of boxes full of parts to build up a Caterham Seven, and just six hours later they plan to drive the finished car away. Caterham Cars was founded in 1973 to manufacture and sell the self-assembly Seven two-seat sports car, and they’ve been doing it ever since. Based on the Lotus Seven from the 1950s, the current Caterham shares the same ‘back-to-basics’ looks as the original and it still shares the ethos of the original – performance […]

The 2015 season of Caterham’s five official race series reached their conclusion in a gripping finale at Silverstone on 17-18 October, with four championships going down to the wire and six champions being crowned in total. The GQ Caterham Academy, Caterham’s introductory race series designed exclusively for rookie racing divers, saw two full grids compete for the title. The season saw the competitors gaining their race licence at the start of the season and then progress from sprint events to circuit racing. In the Green group, Rui Ferreira had already sealed the title prior to the final weekend with three wins throughout the season. Andy Perry secured the championship in the White group with a second place finish at Silverstone proving enough to secure the title. The next step up the Caterham Motorsport ladder, the Roadsport class, saw 2014 Caterham […]

The ground-breaking Caterham Academy championship celebrated its 20th anniversary Thursday, October 1. The very first Academy event took place, under the banner of the Top Gear Caterham Scholarship, at Mallory Park in 1995 and Caterham has located rare footage of the event to celebrate the landmark birthday. Since its inception, the Academy has gone on to become one of the most popular novice race series in the UK, with more than 900 amateur male and female drivers competing across the 21 seasons racing the iconic Caterham Seven. The series is still going strong, with only a handful of the 56 grid slots for 2016 remaining. Academy graduates and aspiring racers alike can get a taste of the action from the inaugural event by viewing the following video.

British sportscar manufacturer, Caterham Cars, has expanded its growing European dealer network with the appointment of Borghi Automobili as a new distributor in Italy’s fashion capital, Milan. Borghi Automobili was established in 1919 and has almost a century’s experience in selling exotic sportscars from all over the world. The appointment re-establishes Caterham’s presence in Italy and the full European range of Caterham’s iconic British sportscars – including the Seven 165, the brand-new Seven 275, and Europe’s most powerful Seven; the 485 – will be available, as well as Caterham Academy and R300 race cars.  In addition to catering for new customers, Borghi Automobili also offers Italian customers a full after sales service. To celebrate its appointment as an official dealer, Borghi Automobili held a launch event on Friday 25th September at the showroom and showcased the recently released Seven 275 […]

Caterham Cars is entering the UK’s most prestigious eco-driving event, the MPG Marathon, for the first time in a two seater sports cars billed as the manufacturer’s ‘most frugal ever’. The British sportscar maker will be entering the entry level version of the iconic Caterham Seven, the 160, rated as the most economical in the company’s history and the most cost-effective two-seater sportscar on the market. The 160 is powered by a super-compact, turbocharged three-cylinder Suzuki engine, which enables it to achieve an impressive 57.6mpg, emit just 114g/km CO2 and yet reach 0 – 62mph in a blistering 6.5 seconds. “We are delighted that Caterham Cars is entering the MPG Marathon, the UK’s leading lean driving challenge, for the first time,” said organiser Jerry Ramsdale, publishing director of Fleet World. “We will be very interested to see how it compares against […]

Caterham has revived the spirit of one of its most illustrious Sevens – the boisterous 1.6-litre Seven Superlight – with the launch of a new special edition model. Just 20 of the special edition cars – launched at this weekend’s Goodwood Revival ahead of the 20th anniversary of the original Superlight in 1996 – will be built. The original Superlight’s production run ceased in 2004, but it heralded a new era of purposeful, track-biased Sevens designed to offer even more performance and low weight at a pared down price point. Despite its ultra-minimalist character – even for a Seven – the Superlight went on to become one of Caterham’s most coveted models, selling some 200 examples while in production. Priced at £29,995*, and sporting a similarly extreme spec sheet to that of the original, the Superlight Twenty receives a 135bhp […]

Reigning Caterham R300-S Superlight champion, Aaron Head and 2014 runner-up Dave Robinson will continue their head-to-head fight for this year’s title at Brands Hatch this weekend (Aug 1/2). In one of the most thrilling championship battles in the history of the competitive class, the pair have been scrapping all season long, but it is Robinson who leads going into the race weekend at the famous Kent circuit. The R300-S Championship is the pinnacle of Caterham’s domestic motorsport programme, which features five series, starting with the entry-level Caterham Academy, which is where Robinson started his racing career.

British sportscar manufacturer, Caterham Cars, is partnering with dealership Westside Cars, expanding its European dealer network to Hamburg, Germany. The dealership launch further strengthens Caterham’s presence in one of its key markets, Germany. The showroom in Hamburg will display the full European range of Caterham’s iconic British sportscars, including the Seven 165, the brand-new Seven 275, and the Seven 485. The launch of the new 1,500 square metre showroom was marked with an opening event for invited guests on the 26th June, and the dealership opens its door to the public on Saturday the 27th of June. Independent dealer Westside Cars is the latest to open a Caterham dealership in Europe, and the British sportscar manufacturer now has a growing network of dealerships in Europe. In addition to attending to new customers, Caterham Westside will offer after sales service run […]

Caterham Cars has introduced three brand new additions to its existing range of iconic sportscars. The Seven 270, 360 and 420 are all available in the UK immediately. The introduction of these three new variants simplifies Caterham’s range to comprise five core models. In addition, all Caterham Sevens can now be specified with brand new ‘S’ or ‘R’ equipment packages. Like all Sevens, the new variants adhere to Caterham’s brand mantra of delivering ‘accessible fun’ through the traditional Caterham minimalistic, lightweight approach to sportscar engineering. The three new vehicles sit between the existing range bookends – the entry-level Seven 160 and the supercharged 620R, the most powerful production Seven ever built. Launched in 2013, the Seven 160 embodies the pioneering spirit of early Sevens with its compact 3-cylinder engine and live-axle rear suspension. Next up is the new 270 model, […]

Caterham is preparing to return to Formula One for the 2014 finale in Abu Dhabi next month according to AutoWeek. As it was put into administration following founder Tony Fernandes’ ill-fated sale to Colin Kolles-managed investors, the team as well as backmarker Marussia sat out Austin and will again be absent in rainy Brazil this weekend. But it then emerged on Wednesday that Caterham’s administrators, led by Finbarr O’Connell, have lodged an official team entry for the 2015 season. Marussia, now renamed to the operating company Manor, is also on the provisional FIA entry list. But reports that Caterham and Marussia have paid the $500,000 entry fee already are wide of the mark. That fee is not due until late November. O’Connell, however, who now runs Caterham, said it was imperative to lodge a 2015 entry so that the team […]

British sports car maker Caterham is driving ahead with ambitious plans to conquer Asian markets, according to chief executive Tony Fernandes, who is also chairman of QPR. “We may be a small voice now, but we’re on our way to engineering a decent set of lungs,” he said at the Singapore Grand Prix, where the firm launched its first new ultra-performance model, the AeroSeven Concept. Caterham was bought two years ago by Mr Fernandes with business partner Kamarudin Meranun. They also founded the Tune Group, which opened its first hotel in Edinburgh this year. The pair founded budget airline AirAsia 12 years ago and said the experience would help the motor manufacturer gain a stronghold in the region. “We were told our plans for AirAsia could not work,” said Mr Fernandes. “Today, AirAsia has a growing fleet of more than […]

British sports-car outfit Caterham is launching both a new Seven race car with a forced-induction engine, and a one-make racing series in which the car can compete next year. The Caterham R600 racer offers 275 hp in the company’s familiar lightweight, stripped-out Seven chassis. The engine in question is a supercharged 2.0-liter Ford inline-four, rated for 275 hp and 200 lb-ft of torque. A six-speed sequential transmission sends power to the rear wheels by way of a limited-slip differential. The company claims the R600 will be much faster and “more aggressive” than existing Caterham models, but promises that “the linear power delivery of the supercharged engine makes it superbly drivable.” Make sure to check out the full story at Automobile Magazine.

Niche British vehicle manufacturer Caterham Cars has established a new standalone engineering company that plans to produce a range of affordable sports cars. Caterham Technology and Innovation (CTI) will be responsible for the development of the completely new line of accessible sports cars that will be inspired by the same lightweight and minimalist philosophies that drive the famous Caterham Seven. CTI will draw on the advanced technologies and materials developed by the group’s Team Lotus Formula One and Caterham Team AirAsia GP2 motorsport operations. CTI CEO, Mark Edwards, said the new company boasted a world-class team of vehicle engineers committed to building on the Caterham ethos. “The new shareholders are committed to investing in an exciting range of global products over the next 10 years,” Mr Edwards said. “Tony Fernandes [the owner of Caterham Cars] has been very clear from […]

Caterham Cars has joined forces with RS Performance to offer “the ultimate in bespoke Seven coachbuilding” to enthusiasts who want an expression of British sports car exclusivity. Caterham has long been the epitome of personalized motoring with almost every version of the 12 000 Sevens on the road differing from one another. The joint venture takes that famous philosophy to an altogether new level. RS Performance is an exclusive, niche engineering house. Born out of the passion and pedigree of its founder, Russell Savory, it will offer an “everything is possible” service to Caterham customers who want truly “built to order” cars. Using the motorsport-honed Caterham chassis and benchmark technology as a cosmetic and engineering base, RS Performance, will “turn imagination into reality”, Savory said. The heartbeat of every RS-badged Seven will be the unique RST-V8 engine.