Archive for Caterham

UK-based Caterham Cars will be present at the Tokyo Motor Show in Japan with three of its latest models. The Superlight R300 EU4 will make its Japanese premier while the CSR 175 EU4 will make its world premier. The sports car maker will also showcase the Roadsport EU4.

Caterham which has been selling its cars in the Land of the Rising Sun since the 1970’s recently confirmed Premium Cars Import (PCI) as the company’s exclusive importer in the country in January. Managing director Ansar Ali who used to hold a position in Lotus as general manager said, “Japan has always been one of our biggest export markets. During the early 1990s, Caterham was selling over 100 cars a year in Japan and now, with our new importer doing great work to highlight the company from their Tokyo base, we are looking forward to pushing sales up again.”

“I have no doubt we will achieve this objective as we now have a retail network of over 15 dealers in Japan who are committed to making Caterham another British success in this exciting and dynamic market,” he added. Caterham will be one of just three European manufacturers exhibiting at the motor show.

The Caterham Seven RST-V8 is the ultimate Caterham, with a power to weight ratio of over 1,000 bhp per tonne, more than double that of a Bugatti Veyron.

In the engine bay of each RST-V8 is a 2.4 liter 40 valve V8 by RS Performance, which puts out 380 horsepower at a sky high 10,000rpm and 258Nm of torque at 8,500rpm in normally aspirated form. This sounds like it’s half way on the way to being an F1 engine, which typically puts out over 700 horses and topping out at 19,000rpm. The V8 is mated to a 6-speed sequential paddle shift gearbox with an LSD.

A version of the engine supercharged at 0.8 psi (0.05 bar) produces 500 horsepower, with 406Nm of torque at 8,500rpm. The supercharged variant of the Caterham RST-V8 is called the “Levante”, and only 8 units will be available. Each vehicle comes with a two day driver training course, as this machine is not your run of the mill fast car.

0 to 100km/h with the 500 horsepower engine takes less than 3 seconds, and has traction control and launch control to help harness all that torque pushing a car that weighs just over 500kg.

Top Gear has an interesting challenge here, it’s the trio against The Stig in a race to see who actually manages to start th race. What we have here is The Stig driving from Caterham’s factory to the destination which is a race track, while Jeremy, James and Richard attempt to build their Caterham kit car from scratch at the destination before The Stig arrives. Video after jump.

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Here is a video of a Caterham Seven driven by Ken Evans going up the Loton Park hillclimb route. Driving at such speeds in what is essentially a big go-kart with a car engine is exciting. Video after jump.

Video courtesy of: Seven Builder

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Caterham’s new Superlight R400 is a part of a range that are the successors to the original Lotus Seven by Colin Chapman launched 50 years ago. The 400 in the Superlight R400 refers to it’s massive 400 horsepower per tonne power to weight ratio, thanks to it’s Caterham-tuned Ford Duratec 2.0 liter engine putting out 210 horsepower at 7,800rpm and it’s stripped down 525kg weight. Thanks to this power to weight ratio, those 210 horses take the Superlight R400 from 0 to 100km/h in less than 3.8 seconds! This engine is much more powerful than the K-Series engine used in the previous Superlight. You shift through 6 gear ratios (Caterham’s own design), and power is sent trashing through the rear wheels with a De Dion setup LSD differential.

The new chassis tubes are precision laser-cut and are jig-welded by a Panasonic robot and is an all-new design, tweaked to offer 12% more rigidity, thus increasing grip, feedback, resulting in an increased ability to get faster lap times around the track. The rear suspension has also been improved with 30 changes to the dampers, as well as optimization to the anti-roll bars and road springs.

Check out this video of a Caterham-clone car going around an autocross track. It is not a real Caterham but one of those home-built clones. Nevertheless, a spectacular performance.

More photos after the jump.

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