Caterham, it seems, is going through one of its purple patches. You’ll likely recall it has a three-seat electric car (Project V) limbering up in development, and back in the summer it opened its new ‘multi-million-pound’ factory in Dartford - which is where the old one was, of course, but this one is considerably bigger and shinier. To mark the occasion (vaguely) and to celebrate two decades of the CSR chassis, Caterham has done something special with the first UK cars produced at Dartford X: behold the new limited edition Seven CSR Twenty.
This is significant for three reasons. Number one, who doesn’t love a Caterham Seven? Especially a great-looking one built in 2024 when most new cars have about as much to do with lightness as a takeaway pizza does with your keto diet plan. Number two (and we’ll defer to the comments if we’re wrong here) but Caterham hasn’t made a habit of building - or, at least, advertising that it still builds - the CSR chassis in recent years, so it’s nice to see it back in the spotlight. And three, for the first time ever, it has combined the more sophisticated chassis with the 210hp 2.0-litre Ford Duratec you typically get in the Seven 420. Which ought to be nice.
Granted, that’s significantly less power than you got from the old 2.3-litre unit that Cosworth used to breathe on (and its 3.9-second-to-60mph time is the best part of a second slower than the one Wikipedia claims for the CSR260) but we don’t remember complaining about the power available to the last Seven 420 we drove, so it’ll likely be sufficient for most.
At any rate, the redesigned suspension is the star of the show, with (as a reminder) the fully adjustable springs and dampers moved inboard at the front, while at the back the CSR gets independent double wishbones - making it, in Caterham’s words, ‘the brand’s most compliant chassis’. The resulting Seven did not always enjoy universal critical acclaim (it was very expensive compared with the simpler versions, for one thing) but those who liked it tended to love it, and the model certainly generated a cult following in its time.
The newest version, it must be said, does not fix the cost issue (brace yourself): prices for the new Seven CSR Twenty start at £79,995. Beyond there being just 20 examples made available to UK buyers, to help justify the stadium-like proportions of the figure, Caterham claims the ‘model boasts the most premium finish ever seen on a Seven’. Inside you get a satin carbon dashboard, CSR Twenty edition dials, branded Muirhead leather and Alcantara seats (with a numbered plaque between them), a premium leather tunnel top, Alcantara gearstick and handbrake gaiters, black carpets and a leather Momo steering wheel. The actual wheels are exclusive-to-CSR Vulcan 15-inch alloys, and you get a choice of Kinetic Grey and Dynamic Silver.
“The interior of the car is a level up from what we’ve produced before thanks to an array of high-quality materials used throughout,” reckons CEO Bob Laishley. “When you combine this with the exhilarating and engaging handling of our CSR chassis, this really is a Caterham built for longer distance road trips. It’s a vehicle that truly celebrates 20 years of our CSR chassis and I’m proud to see it being hand-built here in our new Dartford factory.” If that all sounds like a bit of you, the car should be available to spec on Caterham’s website from today (Tuesday). We suggest you move quickly.
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