THE SEVEN STORY

From 1340cc to 310bhp in six decades – via much evolution and several changes of ownership

YOU’VE JUST READ how the 7 was conceived and reached its definitive Lotus form. The twin-cam version, though, was an exotic rarity. Most Lotus 7s used pushrod Ford engines, in pre-crossflow 1340cc or five-bearing 1498cc form, then Kent crossflow guise.

That’s where the 7 was at, engine-wise, when Colin Chapman let it go. It was already semidetached from the rest of the Lotus range, sitting uneasily with smoother-looking, highertech, ‘normal’ Lotuses, and it was built and sold by a separate Lotus Components Ltd division, which also built customer racing cars. Latterly the 7 had become too expensive to build, with all those tubes and aluminium sheet, so in 1970 Lotus Components redesigned it with an enclosed tail end in glassfibre. It had a sculpted, modern look, thought the stylist, and the nose section was squared-off to match.

Nearly everyone hated the resulting Lotus 7 Series 4. Even in the forward-looking 1970s, people realised that mutton and lamb met here in a very uneasy mix, newly built-in heater or not. So once Graham Nearn’s Caterham Car Sales had sold the last of the S4s he acquired from Lotus in 1973, along with the manufacturing rights, Nearn reverted to the ‘classic’ S3 design for 1974.

THE NEARN ERA

Graham Nearn’s operation had already been the sole agent for the Lotus 7 since 1968, but as of 1973 the cars became, officially, the Super Seven, with a new badge featuring the Lotus triangle cleverly inverted to house the figure 7. They soon became known as the Caterham 7, though, and the name has stuck. The first Caterhams used the Lotus twin-cam engine, but supplies finally dried up in 1980.

So, via a short-lived flirtation with a Vegantune VTA twin-cam, it was back to the Kent engine, which reached its peak in 1984’s 1700cc Super Sprint, by which time a muchneeded ‘long cockpit’ chassis was available. Also offered was a Cosworth BDR with 170bhp, powering the first Caterham to be called HPC after driving guru John Lyon’s High Performance Course – compulsory for every new customer. From 1985, buyers could specif y a de Dion rear axle in place of the live one.

A MOVE TO DARTFORD

In 1987, having outgrown the original workshop at Caterham, the company moved manufacture to Dartford, Kent. A year later the brakes became all-disc and the suspension geometry was revised, setting the 7 well on the course that has made today’s super-sharp, ultrataut versions feel entirely different from the soft, flowing Lotus Sevens of the 1960s.

In 1990, a Vauxhall 2.0-litre ‘Red Top’ twincam propelled a relaunched HPC model, joined in 1992 by the first Caterham to be powered by Rover’s K-series engine – a perfect fit with the lightweight Caterham ethos. A year later, both cars could be bought fully built for the first time, along with 1994’s ill-fated Caterham 21 with a modern, full-width body which Lotus’s Elise rendered redundant. A sixspeed gearbox arrived in 1996, as did the featherweight, stripped-out Superlight. With 190bhp, that became the Superlight R for 1997, followed by the even faster R500 with 230bhp.

Developments included the longer, wider SV chassis with independent rear suspension and inboard front, Honda Blackbird and Fireblade motorcycle-engined models, and an ultimate Cosworth-powered CSR version with 2.3 litres, up to 269bhp and the option of a sequential gearbox. Simon Nearn had by then taken over the firm from his father, and in 2005 he sold it to a venture capital group headed by Ansar Ali.

UNDER NEW MANAGEMENT

Caterham prospered under Ali, continuing the successful Caterham Academy learn-to-race series that moved, like the entry-level road cars, to Ford’s compact Sigma engine in 2008 as supplies of the K-series dwindled. Ali sold the business to Tony Fernandes in 2011, who created a Caterham Formula 1 team when Lotus obliged him to cease running his outfit under Team Lotus branding.

That venture failed, as did the joint project with Renault that has become the new Alpine. But Caterham’s core sports cars are as popular as ever, be they powered by a tiny, 660cc Suzuki Swift motor with just 80bhp, a 1.6-litre Ford Sigma or a 2.0-litre Ford Duratec with up to 310bhp for the 620R model. Somehow they continue to get through all the regulations, yet they remain clear descendants of the Lotus original, even if every component has changed.

Caterham Cars has nothing to with the Surrey town any more, however. Since 2014 its HQ has been in Crawley, Sussex.