Caterham Super Seven

           

    

Any automotive engineer will tell you that weight is the universal enemy of any aspect of vehicle dynamics--every pound of weight on a car will make it accelerate more slowly, reach a lower top speed, handle more ponderously, and get worse fuel mileage.

No automaker has preached the gospel of light weight more religiously than Lotus, and the ultimate expression of that fervor was the Lotus Seven--a long-obsolete design that nevertheless lives on both on the street and as a dominant force in amateur racing as the Caterham Super Seven.

While the Seven looks quaint--and well it should, as it's a design that is nearly 50 years old--it weighs not much more than 1,000 pounds. With that tiny amount of mass, and married up to modern engines, the Caterham Super Seven packs a supercar punch.

The top-of-the-line Caterham Seven CSR60 comes with a 260-horsepower Cosworth four-cylinder--propelling the Seven to a claimed 0-60 time of 3.1 seconds and a top speed of 155 mph.

That paint-stripping acceleration, which places the Seven among the fastest cars ever produced, belies the Seven's antediluvian looks, making the featherweight Seven a holy terror on the racetrack and a blast on the road.

Just don't expect to be too comfortable while you're driving it or expect to use it to bring many groceries home from the market.

The video below shows an enterprising Caterham driver using his CSR to smash the Top Gear lap record at the Dunsfold circuit in the UK--a pretty amazing accomplishment considering the exotic machinery that great British TV show has tested there.

--Chris H.

Comments

[Guido Cabrone on February 28, 2011 at 02:45 PM]

One of the British car magazines once described driving one of these as "Bungee jumping with a grand piano".

Hard to argue with that characterisation...