I am not a number!
April 18th 2008 13:43
Anthony Colin Bruce Chapman would be proud!
Now well into its middle age, the Lotus Seven continues to thrive in the form of the Catherham R500. The latest iteration is powered by a 263bhp two litre Duratec four cylinder, which is rather more power than the 47bhp the original Seven came with!
No-one would ever dare call the Seven a heavy car. Though the engineers at Caterham obviously decided the R500 could do with a trim, so by adopting the favoured Colin Chapman formula of weight loss " Add more lightness" off came nine kilos. You can thank the addition of Kevlar, carbon fibre and thinner panels for that.
Forget Bugatti Veyrons, anything by Ferrari and Zonda, this is a seriously quick car. Paddling through the optional six speed sequential gearbox to the 8500rpm redline, will see the 0-100kmh time come up in only 2.8 seconds!
People of a certain age may remember a television show starring Patrick McGoohan called "The Prisoner". This cult TV show from the sixties, featured a British Racing Green with yellow nosecone Seven in the streets of London. ( Available on youtube, just type in The Prisoner).
The R500 was not around in 1967, probably just as well. They would have had to re-name the show!
Now well into its middle age, the Lotus Seven continues to thrive in the form of the Catherham R500. The latest iteration is powered by a 263bhp two litre Duratec four cylinder, which is rather more power than the 47bhp the original Seven came with!
No-one would ever dare call the Seven a heavy car. Though the engineers at Caterham obviously decided the R500 could do with a trim, so by adopting the favoured Colin Chapman formula of weight loss " Add more lightness" off came nine kilos. You can thank the addition of Kevlar, carbon fibre and thinner panels for that.
Forget Bugatti Veyrons, anything by Ferrari and Zonda, this is a seriously quick car. Paddling through the optional six speed sequential gearbox to the 8500rpm redline, will see the 0-100kmh time come up in only 2.8 seconds!
People of a certain age may remember a television show starring Patrick McGoohan called "The Prisoner". This cult TV show from the sixties, featured a British Racing Green with yellow nosecone Seven in the streets of London. ( Available on youtube, just type in The Prisoner).
The R500 was not around in 1967, probably just as well. They would have had to re-name the show!
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