What is it?
This is the latest new model from Caterham, and if you like your fun simple and furious, you’re going to like it.
The car’s called the Supersport and it slots into the range underneath the Superlight R side of the Caterham family. First thing you need to know is the price, which is seriously tempting. Send Caterham a cheque for £19,995 and a Luton van will come round to your house and drop off a large pile of boxes. Send £22,995 and you can collect a ready-made Supersport from Caterham.
What’s it like?
Under the bonnet is Ford’s 1.6-litre Sigma engine tuned to 140bhp and on the back of it is a five-speed gearbox fitted with sprint ratio gears. At the other end of the propshaft, there’s a limited-slip differential.
This spec alone gives clues to the Supersport’s intended role, but the four-point harness, minimalist bucket seats and lack of a windscreen confirm that this Caterham is intended for trackdays, sprints and hillclimbs. It’s not the lightest Seven ever, but at 520kg it’s still a strong performer. Caterham says 0-60mph in 4.9sec and a top speed of 120mph.
It’s a brilliant package. Around 130bhp to 140bhp is the perfect power output for a Seven, even if it’s carrying full weather gear and comfort options like a heater and soft seating. In this car it’s more than enough.
The Supersport is fitted with Avon CR500 tyres and for the road I’d be happy with a set with slightly less stickiness. With the LSD at the back, the Supersport has terrific grip out of slow corners. There’s a hint of understeer in quicker corners but that can be dialled out by a slight change of driving style.
The best fun I’ve had in a Caterham was a day hillclimbing at Shelsey Walsh in an R300. Drive there with a helmet on the passenger seat, compete, then drive home via a country pub for supper. No KTM, Elise, Atom or another trackday special has ever been able to improve upon that experience.
Should I buy one?
The new Supersport is from exactly the same mold; the difference is that it’s very affordable. I’d say it’s one of the best packages that Caterham has ever come up with.
Caterham Seven Supersport
Price: £19,995 (kit); Top speed: 120mph; 0-60mph: 4.9sec; Range: Na; CO2: Na; Kerb weight: 520kg; Engine: 4 cyls, 1595cc, petrol; Power: 140bhp at 6900rpm; Torque: 120lb ft at 5790rpm; Gearbox: 5-spd manual
Join the debate
Re: Caterham Seven Supersport
I'm all for lightness, but I think I would specify a windscreen; eating flies is bad enough when I'm cycling let alone at 70mph.
Re: Caterham Seven Supersport
Without the screen you save not only weight, but also a log of drag. Had an experience at at track day many years ago; my VVC engined Caterham had a full screen. After a spell in my car had the opportunity of a ride with a friend who had a car with a similar power to weight ratio. but without a screen, (no deflectors - he just removed screen at the track and put in on again when home time came. the difference in performance at higher speeds was immediately obvious, much better. However the push on the head trying to push my helmeted head back was incredible, and quite tiring. I later went out in another friend's superlight with the small deflectors, similar performance to the screen less car, but that little 3 - 4 inch deflector took all the pressure off the neck.
Very interesting comparison. The full screen creates a lot of drag, I used to joke that on a reasonably twisty track the Caterham was as quick as most of the bigger high performance cars with much higher top speeds, even though the Caterham I had only did about 125 all out. Mind you I used to find that on a motorway I was often overtaken by Astra vans
Re: Caterham Seven Supersport
Call me a woosy, but in an era when even the teeniest supermini has a front-end crash structure that could punch a hole through a bank vault, IMHO the Seven's lack of any meaningful side-impact protection is now really, really scary...
Re: Caterham Seven Supersport
Seven's lack of any meaningful side-impact protection is now really, really scary...
It is true but I would use a Caterham in spring and summer, and only during weekends. I can't think it can be more scary than 12 years old 150 hp bike.
I care about side-impact protection in my company car in which I cover 30k miles in a year...
Re: Caterham Seven Supersport
If I only could get one of these in Italy at £23k...I would probably buy it!
The only recent Caterham I drove is an R400, on the road I believe a 1.6 140 hp engine could allow to dare a bit much or having the same fun at lower speeds...it's a bit too easy to get over 100 mph in the R400
Re: Caterham Seven Supersport
Yep, that'll do me. Where's me cheque book......
