Caterham Super Seven, caterham 7, R500, SuperSport, Lotus, costs, stats, specs, photos, video, links, history, contacts etc

~ A short history of the Super Seven ~

The first Seven was built in 1957 by Lotus, the brainchild of Colin Chapman, who was convinced of the advantages of small lightweight racing cars, giving huge power to weight benefits. He actually referred to the Seven as something he had dreamed of designing since he was a schoolboy - a 'four wheeled motorbike'.

The first sevens were priced at £587 and were powered by a 40bhp Ford engine coupled to a single dry plate clutch and a three speed Ford gearbox. The design proved to be an instant success, Graham Hill being the first driver to race the seven in 1958. Over the next decade there were three more series of the Seven developed, improving transmission, suspension and increasing power to 84bhp.

In 1967 Caterham Cars became the sole distributor, and have continually developed and improved the car since. Major developments over the years have included the introduction of double wishbone front and de Dion rear suspension, four wheel disc brakes, a six speed close ration gear box, a torsionally stiffer spaceframe chassis with honeycomb panels for side impact protection and lead free engines with catalytic converters. The cars can be bought in kit form, or can be factory built to SVA approved standard (£2,250).

In 1976 the R.A.C. banned the seven from racing, as they said it was "too fast" - so the Caterham Seven developed its own racing championships (of which there are now four).

The quickest Caterham - the R500, introduced in 1999, has a 0-60 time of 3.4 seconds (autocar) and a top speed of 146 mph, and in a recent comparative track test (Oct 2000) posted the following time round the Croft racing circuit along with the following: (the R1 is a 1000 cc racing bike with a 0-60 of 2.8 and a top speed of 170mph ridden by Ronnie Smith - tester for 'Performance Bikes' magazine).

Caterham R500 - 1.31.53

Yamaha R1 - 1.32.96

Stealth B6 - 1.35.37

Lotus 340R - 1.35.78

Caterham Blackbird - 1.35.98 *

Nissan Skyline 600 bhp - 1.36.55

Mitsubishi Evo VI RS Sprint - 1.40.55

Porsche 911 Turbo - 1.40.95

TVR Cerbera 4.5 - 1.41.22

Ariel Atom - 1.44.80

Caterham R500 on track

“The figure that guarantees the R500 a place in the all-time-fastest line-up is the staggering 2.3 seconds it takes to scoot from 70-90mph in fourth gear Which is exactly the same time as the Mclaren.” 'AutoCar'