We have a soft spot for Caterham’s consistence, craftsmanship and commitment to the purest form of driving experience. The Surrey-based car maker has been building an evolution of the Lotus Seven since 1973, when it bought the rights to the car’s design from Lotus.
The original Seven debuted in 1957 and to the untrained eye, the very latest iteration, the Super Seven 1600, looks practically identical. Differences are legion, however, from the options of a wider body to the original pencil-slim version, plus an efficient contemporary 4-cylinder Ford Sigma engine, with its modest 135bhp delivering impressive performance – this is one of the lightest cars you can buy.
In recent years Caterham has enjoyed great success mining its archives, with the pared-back limited-edition Sprint and Super Sprint versions of the Seven. The 1600 is designed to evoke the bold colours and forms of the 1970s, with ripe body colours like Caribbean Blue, Tuscany Red, Saxony Grey, Serengeti Orange, Bordeaux Red & Oxford White, and the compact interior is beautifully trimmed.
The modern Seven might appear like an indulgence, but its lightness, simplicity and efficiency make it well suited to modern roads. As always with Caterham, the car is considerably cheaper if you buy it as a kit and put it together yourself; one of the last chances to indulge in this particularly hands-on form of motoring.
INFORMATION
Super Seven 1600, from £33,495, by Caterham
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