Caterham Seven Super Sprint
WE SAY: WHAT IF TOAD OF TOAD HALL FANCIED A TRACK DAY?
We’re a nation suspicious of good business. Nothing like doing a bit too well for yourself to lose friends and alienate people. Caterham ought to be careful. It’s had two record years, and is fresh from punting its fastest-selling model (and one of its slowest cars) ever. The Sprint brought twee running boards and pastel paint to the turbo’d Seven 160.
But what if you are – and I refer verbatim to Caterham’s website – “the discerning chap or chapess who prefers the unbridled thrill of the race track to the constraints of public highways”? Someone enterprising has flled that niche by adding lashings of retro and a heady 15bhp boost to the Sprint’s tiny Suzuki engine.
A windscreen is a cost-option, with Brooklands aero screens now standard.
I say “screens” – you get two if you stick with two seats. Serious about trimming the already minute kerbweight? You can opt for a mono-seater layout.
Six European race-track-inspired liveries with contrast-colour nose cones are exclusive to the Super Sprint. A 12-inch Moto-Lita steering wheel is the focal point of a thoughtfully backdated cabin, and for genuine racecar intent, there’s a bespoke battery cut-of master switch proudly jutting from the dashboard. Driving gloves strapped on? Right-o. Fingertipping the dainty steering wheel, teasing the stumpy gearlever across its ultra-short gates, and rodeoing the live rear axle’s hyperactive bucking… you’re terrifcally busy, shoehorned between steering wheel and tonneau cover.
The airstream is accelerated headlong through the letterbox-sized slot between the aero screen and the bonnet, and attacks your brow with spray. The brakes lock the slim tyres with ease, and the gearbox doesn’t really do cold. But so charming is the Super, it sidesteps cynicism and feels terrifcally authentic. All 60 sold out in six hours. Ruthless roofess business. Happy 60th birthday, Caterham.