Among modern automobiles, a model that remains in production unchanged for more than five years is a rarity. Much longer than that and the vehicle has entered serious outlier territory. What then to make of Caterham’s tiny Seven, the sole model in the British sports car maker’s current catalog, now in its 53rd consecutive year of production?
Based on the Lotus Seven, an ode to lightweight minimalism, Caterham’s Lilliputian Seven is fundamentally the same austere car first introduced in 1957. Updated for the better over time, but visually and conceptually identical to its forebear, the model is actually closing in on 70 years and counting, surpassing the original Volkswagen Beetle, which was retired in 2003 at age 65.
Founded by Colin Chapman in 1952, Lotus would become the most successful of the myriad small start-ups in postwar Britain aiming to build racing and sporting road cars. With engines and gearboxes from larger manufacturers, tubular steel space-frame chassis and stressed aluminum body panels, the Lotus Seven constituted an early hit for Mr. Chapman and his company. It has remained a modest but steady seller through the years.
Its bare-bones appeal was decidedly not for everyone, yet the Lotus Seven remained in production for 17 years. Though perceived as even more raw than its no-frills sports car competition, the model underscored Mr. Chapman’s defiant credo — “simplify, then add lightness.” It was as suited for attacking racetracks as it was for bombing down winding country lanes with a single companion and, in the tiny well behind its two occupants, a maximum of two small gym bags and a six-pack.
Weighing in at around 1,100 pounds (or almost one-quarter of a Tesla Model 3), it was the essential driver’s car: a highly effective dart out among the heavy artillery, quick despite scant horsepower, yet faster through corners than most cars this side of a Formula 1 machine.
By 1973, however, the Seven no longer fit with Mr. Chapman’s plan to make more money by moving Lotus upscale. But this petite, bug-eyed thing with no doors, a tiny windscreen and barely enough room for two slender Britons wasn’t killed off. Far from it. In a testament to both the Seven’s enduring appeal and Mr. Chapman’s constant need to refill Lotus’s coffers — drained regularly by the expense of running a Formula 1 racing team — all rights, design and tooling were sold in 1973 to an especially enthusiastic Lotus dealer in Surrey, England: Caterham Car Sales & Coachworks.
Like a latter-day cover of a hit song, a new chapter was born, with the reanimated model from Caterham going on to sell almost 10 times more than the original ever did. To date, some 22,000 Caterham Sevens have been delivered.
Now with offices and a new factory in Dartford, Kent, Caterham was bought in 2021 by a Japanese holding company, VT Holdings, a large automobile distributorship and dealer network, injecting much-needed capital into the carmaker. Capacity — always a constraining factor — rose, and Caterham, which historically sold 500 cars worldwide in a good year, now looks to sell up to 800 in a year. A major push into the American market is high on the company’s to-do list.
Reflecting Caterham’s new ambition, Trevor Steel, the senior vice president for operations and chief financial officer, recently visited Miami, where he spoke of the company’s American dream. “Our cars have trickled into the U.S. for many, many years,” Mr. Steel said. “But we’ve never really focused on the market, simply because we’ve never had the ability to service it properly. We didn’t want to let consumers and enthusiasts down by having extraordinarily long lead times on delivering the product, which would have been the case.”
The new factory, he said, will allow for more timely deliveries, and the plan is to double the company’s dealer count from the current six: in Buffalo, Miami and Nashville (opening this year), along with Golden, Colo.; Irvine, Calif.; and Redmond, Wash. “They’re a great fit for us,” Mr. Steel said. He added, “the new owners take a very long view on things. They came over and assessed the position we’re in, realized that we needed some investment, which the business quite frankly had needed for decades.”
Along with the factory, the cash infusion has allowed the company to hire its first-ever American press officer, and it’s planning a Caterham-only racing series in the United States, similar to the one it also puts on in Britain and several European countries. “It builds community and demand,” Mr. Steel said.
Meanwhile, proximity to affluent customers with track-day aspirations explains the company’s new partnership with the Precision Drive Club, housed at Miami’s Hard Rock Stadium in Miami, home of the Dolphins football team, the Formula 1 Crypto.com Miami Grand Prix and the Miami International Autodrome. Members of this exclusive (100 members tops) and expensive club — it reportedly calls for a $375,000 initiation fee, along with $35,000 in annual dues — will have access to the track and Caterham’s race-ready Seven R.
A test drive by this reporter did not disappoint. The Seven is a scalpel for the road, perfect for drivers who are well acquainted with the elements, and who might enjoy hurling themselves around a closed course in a potent racer that asks nothing of you other than that you pay close attention to what you are doing.
Happily, one needn’t possess Drive Club wealth to get behind the wheel of a Caterham. The company offers a radically basic sports car, too. With a choice of power plants, less potent models start at $70,000, depending on options, while used ones run in the range of $20,000 to $40,000. Unusually, but as always with Caterham, new cars are delivered without engines to the American dealers who place the orders. The machines are shipped either unassembled in flat packs or partly assembled to be completed by the dealer, an approved shop or, should one be so inclined, the new owner, a task made possible with dexterity and only moderate mechanical skill. Under a 2022 law, up to 325 such “replicas” may be exported annually to the United States by their maker, though the cars must employ engines that meet federal and California emissions standards.
Depending on engine choice, Caterhams range from brisk to insanely fast. Two four-cylinder Ford engines, Sigma and Duratec, are available, with multiple states of tune ranging from 155 to 310 horsepower. The lusty 210-horsepower, two-liter Duratec we drove proved rapid indeed, hitting 60 miles an hour in 3.8 seconds.
Steering is endlessly communicative, direct and razor sharp. Every bit of road and surface information is telegraphed, just as a serious driver might hope, through the small, suede-covered wheel. The Seven R may be driven on the street with as much ease and vigilance as any Caterham (which is to say, enjoy yourself but watch out for bigger vehicles whose drivers might not see you).
Recalling an earlier era, Caterham expects that many enthusiastic owners will drive their cars to and from track and race days. The cars’ light weight, Mr. Steel emphasized, makes them much more economical propositions as weekend racers, with less punishment delivered on components like brakes and tires. But it’s more than that, he said.
“You very rarely attract any negative attention in a Caterham when you’re driving it,” Mr. Steel said. “How we see the product is almost as a badge of honor.”
“If you’re driving the Caterham, it’s not about the size of your wallet,” he added. “It’s about the fact that you’re a proper driver. We’re the antidote to the modern world of desensitized driving.”
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