Caterham doesn't like revolution. The diminutive British sports car company bought the rights to Lotus 7 in 1973 and spent the next 22 years honing, refining and tweaking every facet of Colin Chapman's masterpiece. By the mid-'90s, the Caterham 7 had become the roadsweeper's broom-it had been given 10 new brushes and 20 new handles, but it still claimed to be "original."
Sooner or later, though, there always comes a point when simple evolution is no longer sufficient. Customer demands for more and more power had pushed the 7's chassis to and beyond the limits of what was sensible. The Superlight R500 had 500 bhp per metric ton, an engine that popped and farted like a recalcitrant child and a setup that was all but undrivable on a wet road. The 7 as we knew it had reached the end of the line.
The car you see before you is the all-new Caterham CSR, with a radically redesigned chassis and a Cosworth-developed engine. It's on sale now priced from 28,500 ($53,939) and shares only a smattering of parts with the original 7. This is the model that seeks to lead the company into a bright new dawn.
The familiar looks are no accident. Caterham has played the "new model" game before to disastrous effect. The 21 was launched in 1994 and soon found itself in competition with the Lotus Elise. On paper, a grown-up, civilized 7 seemed like a sensible bet, but the execution was horribly flawed. Caterham spent $650,000 developing the 21 while Lotus spent $11-15 million on the Elise, and the difference showed. Only a handful of cars were ever produced and the whole project was filed in the drawer marked "mistakes never to be repeated."
The new CSR is therefore an example of Caterham returning to what it does best: building a simple, no-frills sports car that seeks to deliver more grins per mile than any of its rivals. The aesthetics are instantly familiar-the bicycle wings, the chrome lamps and the slab-sided flanks are all present and correct. But determined Caterham spotters will also spot some subtle tweaks. The body shell is based on that of the SV (or "Fat Bastard" as it was internally known) so it's wider than the original 7 and offers more cabin space. The nose now wears a subtle chin spoiler to reduce lift, and there are some neat carbon-fiber "whiskers" on either side of the nose cone to smooth the airflow over the redesigned fenders. No doubt these revisions are worthwhile, but the 7 continues to boast the aerodynamics of the proverbial barn door-the coefficient of drag figure is around 0.65.
So much for the posing-lift a leg over the amusing low sills, stand on the seat and then slide inside. The view down the louvered hood and on to the polished headlamps is vintage 7, but the driving environment is anything but. Customers are being offered a new dashboard as a 750 ($1,419) option that drags the 7 into something approaching the 21st Century.
The simple metallic slab of the old car has been replaced with a tubular design that mixes padded vinyl with exposed chassis members. There are proper heater vents, column stalks replace the old toggle switches, and there's even a cubby suitable for, whisper it, a cell phone. Our test car also benefited from Tillett carbon-fiber seats, which are far more comfy than they look and are a good bet for vertically-gifted drivers. As the Monty Python team might have put it: "This, ladies and gentlemen, is 'luxury'."
Nestling in front of the driver's toes is arguably the CSR's most significant novelty. In place of the aging and highly-tuned Rover K-series lump is a 2,261cc Ford engine that has been comprehensively fettled by the talented guys at Cosworth. It's available in two states of tune. The entry-level car boasts 200 bhp, while this flagship model pumps out 260 bhp at 7000 rpm and 200 lb-ft of torque at 6200 rpm. If that doesn't sound too spectacular, remember that the 7 weighs just 1,433 pounds. The power-to-weight ratio is 456 bhp per metric ton, or nearly double that of a Porsche 911 Carrera S.
Within the first turn of the crank, it's clear that this is a dramatically different motor than the one it replaces. To deliver its 230 bhp, the old K-series was at the very peak of its tuning capacity. This was a thinly disguised race engine that was massively expensive to produce, downright unruly at low engine speeds and far from bulletproof. By contrast, the Cosworth unit is only lightly tuned and motors down the road with (noisy) serenity.
Although peak torque occurs at a lofty 6200 rpm, there's plenty of pull from much lower in the rev range. It no longer feels like it's about to grenade itself about town and if you want to drive this car in fourth gear on a wave of torque, you can-all the way to 120 mph. This should ensure that the Caterham appeals to a broader range of customers.
And if you want to play the hooligan, it's more than happy to oblige. Caterham reckons it'll crack zero to 60 mph in 3.1 seconds, but such a figure is so dependent on road surface and driving skill as to be almost irrelevant. It's enough to know that up to 100 mph or so this Caterham is quick enough to outrun any exotic you care to mention. The acceleration in the first three gears is so stark and so visceral it threatens to redefine your understanding of the word rapid.