Caterham 7

You just cannot beat the grin you get from a Caterham. You may be considering one for purchase right now, and perhaps, deciding between it and say a Lotus Elise or maybe even a Westfield. Go for the Seven, every time. The Elise may be more practical but it gives you the feeling of driving a "proper" car badly built. The Westfield is poorly constructed against the Caterham and depreciates far faster than the Seven and drives like a bacon sandwich in comparison. Now, which one should you buy??? If you have never driven a Caterham, do so. Driving a Seven is a bit like balancing a pen on your finger tip. It's what makes ...  Read the complete review

I thought about buying a Caterham 7 for 5 or-so years before finally putting my hand in my pocket and forking out for a second-hand Classic VX. My first sighting of this odd little car was on TV with Patrick McGoohan behind the wheel in "The Prisoner". This was a car that marked you as unconventional. Marked you as somebody who shunned the comfort of roof, doors, luggage space, radio... everything... everything apart from speed. The car was designed by Colin Chapman more than 40 years ago. The fact that they are still made, raced and enjoyed by thousands of people is testimony to Chapman's brilliance. If you are after an engaging, ...  Read the complete review

Oh my God!! Where did this car come from? What, with doors made out of 3mm plastic, and a power to weight ratio of 404 bhp to a tonne, this car is to be taken lightly. VERY lightly. With the R500 weighing only 460 KGs, and pushing out an awesome 230 bhp from it's 1.8 litre rover k series lump, this car must be up there in that "great hall of fame" with such cars as the Porsche boxster, Lamborghini Diablo and Lotus Elise. This car would certainly be able to take on the Mitsubishi evo, and the Lamborghini Diablo with ease up to 70 miles an hour, but upwards, the aerodynamics deficiency lets this brute of a car down. Bit of a shame really. ...  Read the complete review

I dont own one of these flying machines which prevents me from telling you all the bad things about it like the Fuel consumption, the Insurance and how totally impractical it is for our climate. However, I have driven one at Brands Hatch recently. I feel I should to tell you about the awesome power to weight ratio and super handling. I drove the 1.6 Sporting complete with tuned Ford X flow engine. The car makes a rumble you would expect from Ford tuned engines . The car oozes speed and noise with handling that nothing can match, the exposed suspension flexing with every movement. To be honest I took the car right to the limit which was bad in the wet but it still hugged ...  Read the complete review

If you are worried about building your own 7, don't be. My brother decided to build his own, and found it a doddle. After 40 years, they have it off to a T. The build manual is massive, and is almost as simple as "Fold Tab A into Slot B". You can get all the parts from Caterham, so no rummaging around breakers yards. For the half-dozen difficult bits, you even get a video to show you how. You than have to take it to a dealer for a check over. The one big tip: When you get all the boxes, check them through, then put all the body work back in the boxes until you need them - it's very easy to scratch them with all the spanners flying, ...  Read the complete review