9am on a cloudy Saturday morning in Paris. Just three hours to get to Le Mans.
It’s a 120 mile journey, with a 2.5 hour drive time on a good day – and the Saturday of Le Mans weekend is not a good day to be travelling to the Circuit de la Sarthe. The 250,000 expected visitors to the 90th anniversary of Le Mans are likely to all arrive together. And Google Maps offers one word. Gridlock.
No chance of making up time en route, either, because the gendarmes are well aware of what’s going on. Twitter reveals many stories of over-zealous Brits getting pulled over.
Still, it's not all bad. I'm driving a Caterham Seven SV - powered by a 300bhp supercharged Ford Duratec engine - to the track. I’m keen to try the Seven, having driven a competitor product - a Westfield Megablade - at track days for the past year.
I’m driving the 40th anniversary version of the Seven – which comes with bespoke decals, additional interior leather and a chrome badge showing which model out of the 40 made it is. This is number one.
Like the Westfield, power from the Caterham is immediate and surprising. Unlike the Westfield, though, the ride is well adapted to the road.
As we leave the car park and head for the motorway I’m looking forward to getting to know the SV. We don’t get far, though, as the legendary Parisian traffic stops us getting above 30mph for the first half hour of our trip. I'm very aware that the temperature gague is not only showing that the car is warmed up, but is slowly edging towards being hot as well. We need to start moving.
Soon enough, though, we’re clear of the traffic and on the open road – Caterham country. This SV is fitted with a five-speed manual gearbox taken from a Mazda MX-5 rather than the usual Ford Sierra units used. Since Sierra gearboxes are increasingly in short supply, Caterham has had to source an alternative. It's a good 'box, and likely to become standard issue on the Seven range in the near future.
The SV has been a good seller for Caterham – broadening its market and customer base and allowing drivers of all shapes and sizes to get involved with the brand. Chief Commercial Officer for the company and my co-driver for the trip, David Ridley says the SV now accounts for half of all Caterham road car sales, falling to 20 per cent when cars built solely for the track are taken into account.
We make good time along the A11 towards Chere, but sure enough the overcast skies open and rain begins. Luckily, the aerodynamic effects of the Caterham mean that most of the rain doesn’t enter the open-topped cabin. Combined with a surprisingly effective heater driving the SV in the wet is, in a word, fun.
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Silly comments
The silly comments about using a Morgan instead are clearly from a 'money no object' contributor.
I agree, I too would prefer a Morgan. However the Morgan is two to three times the price of the Caterham (which in reality is probably more fun).
I assume the same person has made similar comments on the accompanying sister piece about driving to Le Man in an Aston DB9. "Quite an awful car the Aston. Should have been confined to the history books along time ago. If your going to be silly, I'd much rather have a plush, modern Bugatti Veyron, with an Audi engine. Now theres some class for you, really."
"Driving to Le Mans in a Caterham Seven"
An evocative piece Darren, thank you; especially good for vicarious enjoyment. I don't/haven't had a 'Seven' but certainly wish that I had, based on your recounted experiences - particularly under such special circumstances as a run-out to Le Mans - and in good weather! Anyone who doesn't like that sort of thing clearly either:
doesn't really like cars, or (b) also doesn't work hard enough!!
Therefore, quite why anyone [i.e. unfortunately all other, preceding commentators] bothered to even access the item, nevermind then compound their error with such derogatory phraseology [e.g. quote: "Quite an awful car the Caterham"] towards the marque and model, defies rationality. Everyone of us is entitled to their own views, particularly about something as subjective as an enthusiasm for matters automotive but, literally, all other preceding responses were wholly negative to the C7 - eh?
Even if other comments are from folk connected to 'the competition' (of whatever sort that may be), such negativety seems - at best - likely to be counter-productive. It would have been far simpler not to bother reading the item in the first place or, if even then not totally charmed, at least be more polite to Darren's reporting efforts...
A Caterham SV
Not a good choice in my view. Standard-width car or something else.