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Just over two months after it debuted its new sports racer, the SP/300.R, to great success, Caterham Cars has unveiled another offering, the first new addition to its world-renowned Seven range in two years. The car is called the Supersport, and the company says it’s one of the purest versions yet of the iconic British sportscar.

Derived directly from the race car that competes in the highly-successful Caterham Supersport championship, the road-going Supersport borrows all of the track version’s performance essentials, but is fine-tuned for the road, making it arguably the purest street-legal Seven.

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The 140 hp vehicle carries the DNA of Colin Chapman’s 1950s concept of ‘less is more,’ and remains true to the legend’s philosophy of lightweight, minimalist machines that place outstanding handling characteristics and the thrill of driving at their core.

It’s powered by a Caterham Motorsport-tuned 1.6 litre Ford Sigma engine, mated to a five-speed manual transmission with ‘sprint’ ratio gearing. Features include a lightweight flywheel, uprated springs and dampers borrowed directly from its race car cousin, stiffer anti-roll bars, track biased dash with integrated change up lights and an aero screen.

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Equipped with CR500 Avon tyres sitting on 13-inch wheels, the car comes with composite race seats and a four-point race harness instead of standard seat belts, which of course completes the track-inspired experience for the owner.

Weighing just 520 kg, the Ford lump gets the Supersport from 0-100 kph in just 4.9 seconds and takes the car to a top speed of 193 kph. As is the case, buyers can choose to get the Seven Supersport as a factory-built vehicle or in component build-it-yourself form, which brings down the cost of ownership.

Yup, that’s right. The Caterham-Lola SP/300.R racing car is selling out fast, with more than half of the yearly allocation sold since the vehicle made its debut in January at the Autosport International Show in Birmingham.

Of course, more than half in this case is 14, since only 25 of these 300 hp lightweight racers are made each year. The low volume is so nothing is compromised in terms of build quality and customer service.

Besides well-heeled individuals, several teams have placed deposits for the car, with Fauldsport, the reigning Caterham Superlight R300 Teams Champion, booking three vehicles.

“We are delighted with the way the car was received at the Autosport show. It’s the first new model Caterham has built for 15 years but, even so, we were bowled over by the reaction and the interest, which led to several deposits being placed almost immediately,” Caterham Cars managing director Ansar Ali said.

“There are many more people who have registered their interest in buying the remaining 11 cars, so I’d anticipate that our order book will be filled quite soon.” Well, yes, lovely.

Described as an “exciting new chapter in its history”, Caterham – the British carmaker famous for the Seven – has unveiled the SP/300.R sports prototype racer at the Autosport International Show in Birmingham, UK. Created in partnership with British engineering brand, Lola Cars, the “aesthetically-sensitive” prototype will feature Caterham Motorsport’s new supercharged version of the Ford Duratec engine, expected to produce around 300 hp.

That’s enough to propel the sub-600 kg car from rest to 60 mph (0-96 km/h) in around 2.5 seconds. The gearing of the car has been selected to reach maximum rpm in top gear at the end of Spa-Francorchamps circuit’s Kemmel Straight, one of the more frequently-visited trackday venues. Top speed will be around 270 km/h.

Lola led the downforce development and aerodynamic styling using CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics). The basic chassis is an aluminium tub with a longitudinally mid-mounted engine, coupled to a stress-bearing rear transaxle. A forward splitter and large rear wing reduce lift, while a flat underbody maximises ground effect benefits. There’s also an F1-style raised nose section and sectioned panels, which will help reduce repair costs, ease maintenance and allow single-handed removal of body panels on track.

The SP/300.R gets full race suspension – front and rear dual wishbones with pushrod dampers plus adjustable ride height. The rear suspension architecture is derived from Lola’s Formula 3 cars. The tyres are bespoke items by Cooper Avon fitted to 13-inch race rims.

Only 25 SP/300.Rs will be manufactured each year. Caterham is planning a one-make series in which the SP/300.R will star, but details are yet to be finalised.

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 litre 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.