Caterham unleashes CSR 260
260bhp in a lightweight tub? Sounds mighty fine...
    260bhp Caterham CSR 260 |
The latest, and most radical, evolution of Britain’s supercar-bashing two-seater has arrived.
Caterham will next month begin delivery of the much-heralded Seven CSR 260 road car to customers, many of whom have been waiting since October last.
The Cosworth-powered range-topper will hit 60mph in 3.1 seconds, race on to a top speed of 155mph, and deliver more smiles per mile than anything else on the road.
With mouth-watering performance, race-circuit honed handling and F1 style suspension, more than 60 examples of the 260bhp Caterham Seven have already been ordered. You'd have to say that it's astonishing performance from a car whose aerodynamic qualities have been unfavourably compared to a brick.
Caterham reckoned that it shows unprecedented demand given that no customers have yet to drive a road going version of the CSR 260. The bespoke Cosworth-tuned 2.3-litre engine produces 200lb-ft of torque, giving unprecedented power delivery and awesome acceleration in any gear.
“When you look at the performance, there is nothing quite like the Caterham CSR 260 for its value. You can guarantee, it’ll embarrass many a supercar,” said Ansar Ali, Caterham's new MD. “It's a peerless performer on both the road and the race track, and proof that we intend to remain at the pinnacle of lightweight, high performance sports car design and manufacturing.”
The race version of the CSR 260 will also take centre stage in the new Cosworth Caterham Masters for 2005 – an endurance series across six of the finest driver’s circuits on the Continent including Spa, Valencia and Nurburgring.
The CSR 260 costs from £34,000. Sounds like a performance bargain to us...
Want one.
i was lucky enough to drive a CSR in November last year at Donington - it's a great bit of kit and even on a very cold day, with no tyre temperature at all, and being very concious that this was the only CSR in existance - i easily broke the R400 lap record by 2secs !
It handles, so well, the suspension and dampers are the key to it's supreme handling.
The cosworth lump produces incredible torque throughout the range. In short, it's a joy to drive
I think the problem for Caterham is that the CSR is far cheaper than the R500 and i think close the the R400 price, but I'll rather have a CSR any day !!
woof said:
I think the problem for Caterham is that the CSR is far cheaper than the R500 and i think close the the R400 price, but I'll rather have a CSR any day !!
I'm not sure it's a problem for Caterham, but I expect there are a few owners who are less than pleased. On the other hand the CSR is based on the SV chassis, and there are plenty of purists who think it's to big and lardy.
Having only a relatively short test drive, I'd need to get to grips before commenting in great detail. Still it won't be long before my CSR200 arrives, so perhaps I'll be back
No offence to Dax but I doubt they have tried 80 something damper settings on the back of a Rush? THen seperately tried a load more on the front?
Chris Harris gives it an extremly warm review and he personally owns an R500.
Circuit driver didn't think the Dax was even close to the Seven in terms of dynamic ability. I cannot see that this new version which has clearly had an enormous amount of time spend on it is going to be comparable.
But if you do want a Caterham and that's not quite enough power for you, how about dropping in an RST-V8? That'll give you something in the region of an R750...
Admittedly, it'll cost just a wee bit more than the CSR 260, but you can wedge it into the standard Caterham chassis.
dino ferrana said:
Reading Autocar's review of the CSR it seems it is significantly different to past Sevens.
No offence to Dax but I doubt they have tried 80 something damper settings on the back of a Rush? THen seperately tried a load more on the front?
.
Maybe not as much as 80, but I think you underestimate just how good the Dax engineering/design is. The head designer there is apparently an ex top dog ford chassis/suspension specials man, And Dax have recently been acclaimed for their completely unique, and patented camber compensation system.
For the average joe driver that many of us are, I wonder how much difference that extra 20 odd grand would make to youre lap time?
Read the Autocar review it heaps and exceptional amount of praise on the CSR. When a mainstream publication gets that excited about a specialist car it must be at least reasonable.
What version of the Rush would you be trying to compare to a CSR? I have found in the past that when people say the clones are wildly cheaper they are usually talking about starter kits with lots of bits sourced from scrappies or second hand.
Is it me or do Dax seem to have an obsession with massive wheels. It may just be the perspective but they always seem to have huge wheels and rubber band tyres?
dino ferrana said:
I think the critical acclaim has mainly come from the Kitcar press who praise everything in sight!
Read the Autocar review it heaps and exceptional amount of praise on the CSR. When a mainstream publication gets that excited about a specialist car it must be at least reasonable.
What version of the Rush would you be trying to compare to a CSR? I have found in the past that when people say the clones are wildly cheaper they are usually talking about starter kits with lots of bits sourced from scrappies or second hand.
Is it me or do Dax seem to have an obsession with massive wheels. It may just be the perspective but they always seem to have huge wheels and rubber band tyres?
Dax seem to have three distinct models - large cars with huge V8s (stupid in my view, but hey, that's just me), rather smaller cars with cossie engines (turbos, again not my bag) and finally even smaller, lighter cars with bike engines (more my bag, but I guess that's pretty obvious from my profile!). Can't quite see which of those would compete with the CSR. To be honest, when anyone says "Caterham alternative" I think Westfield, although I'd imagine the wide-bodied westfield is probably rather less developed than the CSR is now, I should think that'll only be a matter of time if a market develops for high performance SV type cars though.
All enthusiast magazines get off on Caterhams - it would be like a Christian magazine saying they weren't sure there's a god if they didn't. That's not to say it isn't a fantastic car, just in the same way that the kitcar press is to be taken with a pinch of salt, so must autocar et al.
Not all Daxes have silly wheels, in my experience it's generally just the ones with silly V8s.
Practically all non-Caterham sevens are significantly cheaper, spec-for-spec than the genuine version. Residuals are better with real Cats, but even that may not fully justify the price differential, it just depends on your sense of priorities.
Kingr
kingr seven said:
All enthusiast magazines get off on Caterhams.......
Not all Daxes have silly wheels, in my experience it's generally just the ones with silly V8s.
Kingr
Wouldn't it be nice for one of the 'mainstream' magazines to review and compare a few of the leading sevenish cars (dax/westfield) to an equivalent caterham. I bet everyone would be up for it other than caterham (something to worry about?).
I have the afformentioned silly V8, and I agree, it is silly ;-) !!! however when I speced the car I was told the the tyre size was purely asthectic and would make very little difference to perf/handling, (its 40mm extra each side). IMO it looks great and differs to car to all the others... which look like caterhams.
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